Being the Bad Boy's Victim (10 page)

I scowled and looked away.

“You’re putting Liam in danger by flirting with him.”

This got my attention. I looked back at her, confusion all over my face.

“W-what do you mean?”

“Connor has never failed before. And if he finds out that his girl is flirting with another guy, he will kill him,” Jess said this in all seriousness.

“So he’s allowed to flirt with other girls, but I can’t,” I said slowly.

“Exactly!”

I turned around, accidently bumping into him. Connor’s arms immediately wrapped around me, preventing me from falling back.

“So what were you two ladies talking about?” he asked, his eyes boring into mine.

“I… uh, well, nothing.”

Connor raised an eyebrow in question, obviously not believing me. I was so tempted to just tell him, but I was worried for Liam. Connor is a dangerous guy, and I wasn’t going to risk Liam getting hurt because of me.

“I think you’re lying,” Connor said, burying his face in my neck, his hot breath caressing my skin there, causing me to shiver with delight.

“So why were you pulled out of class?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

Connor pulled away and searched my eyes.

“No reason,” he said with a smirk.

I managed to pull away, grabbing my things from my locker in the process.

“I have to go,” I muttered, heading towards Spanish.

During the entire god-awful class, I was distracted, thinking about Connor. There’s something about him that drew me in. It was like I had to be around him, but at the same time, I needed to get away from him. He, his actions, his personality, they all disgusted me. Whenever he kissed me, I had the biggest urge to push him away. But then, I couldn’t deny that I’m attracted to him, too! It was weird. I couldn’t describe it.

Once Spanish was over, I dragged Jessica to the bathroom and explained everything to her. By the time I was done, she had her head in her hands.

“I just don’t get it. I have this pull towards him, but more than anything, I want him to just leave me alone,” I said, leaning against the wall.

“You push him away so that he will chase after you,” Jessica said after a couple moments of silence.

I froze, replaying her words in my head.

“But I don’t! I want him to just go away!” I shrieked, my face growing red.

Jess pulled me into a hug, holding her arms tightly around me. I then found myself crying.

Twenty minutes later

“I don’t know what’s going on with me,” I sobbed on her shoulder. She rocked me sideways, patting my back comfortingly.

“It’s okay. Shhh,” she said, pulling away and wiping my stray tears.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, blushing, as I fixed myself in the mirror.

“Don’t apologize! You needed a good cry, and I bet you feel better now,” she said, smiling at me.

I cracked a smile before letting out another sob. Looked like my tears weren’t done falling yet.

In my defense, I was still a little sick.

Another twenty minutes later

“Are you done now?” Jess asked, laughing a bit.

I turned, faced her, and laughed.

“You must think I’m crazy,” I said, sniffling as I wiped away the rest of my tears.

She laughed and shook her head.

“Trust me, I’ve been worse, and I’ve seen worse,” she said. Then, she pulled out her phone, checking the time.

“Looks like we missed AP Chem. Let’s just head to the gym,” Jess said, grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the bathroom.

On our way to the gym, we bumped into Anna and Natalya.

“Hey, guys,” I said smiling.

They grinned back at me and we all went to the gym.

“Do I look like I’ve been crying?” I whispered to Jessica as we entered the girls’ locker room.

She looked at my face for nearly a minute.

“Nope, not at all.”

Thank the Lord! That would have been awful.

We all quickly changed as the rest of the girls filed in. I tried stretching out my top so that it wasn’t so tight.

“Give up, hun. It just won’t work” Natalya said, frowning at the mirror.

I sighed and followed Anna out of the gym.

“Alrighty, today we will be playing basketball,” Mr. MacDonald announced, causing Natalya and Anna to high-five each other, while Jess, Lily, Claire, and I groaned in displeasure.

Fifteen minutes later

James let out a frustrated yell as some jock took the ball from me and scored—for the ninth time. Hey! I never said I was athletic. My whole teamed groaned as the teams on the sidelines laughed.
Yeah, yeah, so freaking funny.

James, our captain, had us form a circle. “Listen up, everyone. We are behind by maybe only twenty-four points,” he pointedly glared at me, causing me to look awkwardly at the ground. “But we could catch up, so let’s just…”

“Don’t pass to me and we should be okay,” I said, cutting off James.

Everybody nodded. Some even laughed.

Twenty minutes later

We made an amazing comeback, and we won our next game, all by following my advice. And since we won, we stayed on the court.

“Are you ready for this?”

I whirled around and faced a smirking Connor. I glared at him, looking away.

Another fifteen minutes later

Beads of sweat were running down my hairline. Who knew running back and forth on a court, but never actually touching the ball, could still be so tiring? The teams were deadlocked. And from the looks of it, James was not going to let Connor beat us, and vice versa.

“Let’s do this!” some fat guy yelled and charged at James.

James quickly passed the ball to some guy, who passed it to blondie, who was surprisingly good, who then passed it to some guy named Nick. Nick looked around for an open player, and his eyes settled on me. I was in the middle of shouting, “No, don’t do that!” when the ball flew into my hands.

I quickly turned around, facing Connor, who was ready to rip the ball away from me. Here goes nothing, I thought to myself as I chucked the ball into the general direction of the basket.

I squeezed my eyes shut as I threw it, hoping for the best. I heard a thump and some cursing, but most importantly, cheers. My eyes flew open to see Connor, sitting on the ground and rubbing his head. Suddenly I was lifted up into the air, and James was screaming his head off as he placed me on his shoulders.

“I—I made it?” I asked in disbelief.

A grinning Jessica ran up to me—well, to James, to be more exact. James lowered me to the ground as the bell rang, signaling that it was lunch.

“You…” she paused, laughing. “The ball bounced off of Connor’s head and into the basket.” She clutched her sides, laughing hard.

At that, I burst out laughing, looking at Connor, who glared at me as he disappeared into the boys’ locker room.

“Oh my,” I said, tearing up from laughing so hard. We went into the girls’ locker room, laughing all the while.

Lunchtime

I walked into the lunchroom with the girls, smiling and laughing. We took our usual seats after getting our food.

“So, I heard you and Liam really hit it off,” Claire said casually as she took a sip of water.

I started choking on my apple, causing Lily to pound my back violently. “Who told you that?” I asked, my voice hoarse and my throat burning.

“Jessica,” she said, not noticing my reaction.

I turned to glare at Jessica just as Anna spoke.

“Don’t be mad at her. She was only looking out for you and Liam,” Anna said.

“What do you mean?” I asked. I was getting really confused.

“Connor will kill Liam if you try to get closer to him,” Natalya explained.

I frowned and looked at all the girls. What was this? Some kind of intervention? “Okay, I get it,” I said, looking down. I was not hungry anymore, so I excused myself and left to throw away my food. Just as I was about to leave the lunchroom, I heard my name being called.

“Huh?” I muttered, turning around.

Liam was waving at me from his table. I recognized a couple of people at the table.

“Hey, guys,” I said, standing by Liam.

“How’s Connor?” Harry, the ginger, asked.

I scowled and flipped him off, turning to leave. Somebody grabbed my wrist, causing me to stop moving.

“Wait,” Liam said, standing up. “I, um… I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out sometime.”

I felt myself blushing, nervously tucking my hair behind my ear.

“Uh, yeah… yeah sure,” I said, stammering a little bit.

He exhaled, looking relieved.

“How about tomorrow night?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

I thought for a minute, my heart pounding. What’s going on with me? “Sounds good to me,” I said, laughing a little.

Liam grinned at me, letting go of my wrist.

“Can’t wait,” I blushed and left the lunchroom feeling giddy.
Wait, what about Connor?
I shook my head, smiling.
What he doesn’t know won’t kill him.

I glanced at the clock in the hallway. It was time for Study Hall.

“Bella!” I turned, facing Mr. Henderson. “Can you come to my classroom for a second?”

“What’s going…?”

“Bella, this is your tutor,” Mr. Henderson announced casually, sitting down at his desk.

My jaw dropped and Connor beamed at my reaction.

“Come on, Bells. Let’s get working,” Connor said cheerfully, grabbing my hand as he led me from the room.

I struggled and even tried to hit him, but his grip on my wrist was like steel. He dragged me to the library, where I was promptly scolded for being too loud.