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“Sure, and then when I’m done with that, the lion can open his mouth and bite both my arms off.”
Nera clears her throat. “I think we’re letting the metaphor take us away from the central point here.” She rolls over onto her stomach and faces me. “Which is that, maybe strength responds to strength like we saw in the cafeteria and standing up to him is a good idea. And showing up to his party is the ultimate chess move. He won’t see it coming.”
I turn towards Thayer. “This is by far the worst idea you’ve ever had, and I was there when you microwaved a cucumber with cheese on it as a drunk midnight snack.”
“Ew.” Sixtine says, making a disgusted face.
“In my defense, I thought it was zucchini. I was trying to eat healthy.” She says with a ‘what can you do’ shrug. “It’s not a bad idea and we were kidding anyway. Six says he lives in a mansion with wings and servant’s quarters and shit. You probably won’t see him anyway.”
“She’s right.” Nera says. “I’ve been to a few of his parties and I’ve never seen him there.”
“Come on.” Thayer pleads. “It’s our first weekend here, we deserve to have fun.”
I could use the break. She wasn’t lying when she told my mom I’d had a terrible week. After Monday’s encounters, I thought maybe he’d pull back, let me settle in a bit. I don’t know why I’d expected anything good from him.
As promised, his efforts and those of his cronies had only intensified in both occurrence and viciousness. On Tuesday, I’d been formally introduced to Lyra. She’d yanked me down to the floor by my ponytail as I’d walked past her, and crouched above me.
I’d tried to get up but she’d pushed a hand onto my chest. “Stay down, bitch.” She’d spat, inches from my face. “Stay away from Rogue or I’ll fucking ruin your life.”
“Gladly.” I responded, flippantly. “I don’t want anything to do with him. Tell your boyfriend to stay away fromme.”
She’d gone to hit me, but Nera grabbed her arm in the air before she could.
“Leave her alone, Lyra.”
She stood up and faced her. “You don’t want to make an enemy of me.”
Nera stepped up to her. “Trust me, you’re the one who should be worried about making an enemy of me.” She’d said with a thinly veiled warning that I didn’t understand, but that Lyra clearly did.
With a flip of her hair and an angry huff, she walked away. Nera helped me to my feet as I adjusted my sore ponytail. “Six wasn’t kidding when she said she was vicious.” I winced at the dull pain at the base of my skull. “Why did she listen to you?”
“My family could destroy hers.” She’d answered with a casual shrug.
“Of course it could.”
The next day, my clothes had disappeared after gym. Imaginative.
Thursday, Devlin and two other members of the football team had hurled insults and crumpled up pieces of paper at me between classes until Rhys had told them to stop.
I’d had a couple minor run ins with Rogue earlier in the week, but they’d been weirdly subdued. If the entire school wasn’t still harassing me, I’d think our feud was behind us.
The bullying didn’t need to be imaginative to be effective. While I hadn’t had any other violent encounters since my last one with Rogue, the taunts and cruel games of the other students were demoralizing and isolating.
I was thankful I had the girls, especially Nera and Six who’d effectively had to cut off previous friendships to stand by me. While every day at school was rough, every night spent with them was a healer. We often went up to the roof, where we’d installed a few chairs and drank beers, laughing and chatting as the sun fell.
Today, my luck with Rogue had run out. I’d had a brutal run in with him in Calc. He’d grabbed my bag and turned it over out the open window, sending all of my things hurtling three floors to the concrete. Then, he’d bent me in half, so that my feet were on the ground but the top half of my body was hanging out the window, his hand pressed threateningly on my lower back.
“Don’t move. My hold on you might accidentally slip.” He’d threatened.
I’d run out of there the moment he’d let me go. There were tears in my eyes that I didn’t want anybody to see.
As I’d made my way blindly down the stairs, I’d run into a hard body. Strong hands gripped my arms and steadied me so I didn’t fall.
“Are you alright?” He’d asked.
I’d looked up at him through my watery eyes.
Jeremy.
