Bruised Angel (River of Lies #2) (12 page)

“Is that so? Well the feeling is mutual” she said leaning over to kiss him.

Mason ran his hand through her hair and kissed Chelsea deeply.

“Do you have any more condoms left?” Chelsea asked.

Mason grinned his crooked smile and rummaged through his drawer pulling out a handful.

“How many do we need?” he asked.

Chelsea barked out a laugh.

“Just one Casanova” she said.

He kissed her again. It turned out they needed three and Chelsea felt like she had just got off a horse, but for the first time she went to school with a skip in her step.

As Chelsea and Mason walked hand in hand to school she noticed a group of people mingling around her locker. Her heart began to pound as she feared what was going to be there. As she got closer she felt a little like Moses parting the red sea as the crowds of students moved so she could see Maddison standing beside Chelsea’s locker. On the door was stuck a photo of her lying beside the pond with her breast exposed and Mason’s hand up her skirt. All colour drained from Chelsea’s face as she stared at the picture. It had been Maddison at the pond and Chelsea’s worst fears were coming true, Maddison had her sketch pad. Maddison smiled broadly when she saw Chelsea and waved her hand towards her and then over the picture like a Price is Right model.

“Well here she is, who knew the freak had it in her, the little whore” Maddison announced with a laugh.

Chelsea shook her head and spun on her heel, she felt Mason try to catch her as she brushed past him and down the hall to the front doors. Dylan was coming in the door as she was about to break through. He grabbed her by the shoulders, Chelsea shook her head and tried to wriggle out of his arms, but he held her tighter.

“Chelsea stop. Come with me” he said taking her hand and dragging her outside.

As she ran behind Dylan she heard Mason call her name, but she couldn’t look back at him. Dylan brought her to the art room and locked the door behind them. He stopped in front of Brenda’s office looking to see if she was inside, he sunk to the floor and pulled her down beside him. Chelsea had tears flowing down her cheeks and cascading off her chin. Dylan pulled her into his side and cooed into her hair until her tears began to dry up. He pushed her away a bit and looked down at her.

“Now are you alright to tell me what the tears and running away at break neck speed is about?” Dylan asked his face was filled with concern.

Chelsea sighed and leaned her head on Dylan’s shoulder.

“Dylan I’m sorry, I’m such a shitty friend to you.” she sniffed.

Dylan put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze.

“I wouldn’t go that far. Yeah you’ve got baggage and I wish you had trusted me to hold that for you, but you have always been there for me when I needed you.” he said “I just wish you would let me be there for you”

Chelsea nodded her head as she looked up at Dylan.

“Mason and I, I don’t know how it happened, it just did. Of course I’ve managed to piss Maddison off in the process and she has decided she is going to destroy me as a result” Chelsea said angrily running her hands over her face.

“So what did she do?” Dylan asked as he reached out and took Chelsea’s hands in his.

Chelsea looked at him and frowned.

“Yesterday she put a note in my locker saying she was going to destroy me and I got upset, so Mason took me to the forest and we stopped at the pond. Well we were kissing and stuff and she took a photo” Chelsea said swallowing hard “But the worst part is she stole my sketch pad”

Chelsea felt the tears starting to build again. Dylan nodded his head and set his jaw. A bang on the door made them both jump and they looked up through the window to see Mason looking in. They both stood as Chelsea went and unlocked the door. As soon as the door was unlocked Mason burst in and grabbed Dylan by the scruff of his shirt pushing him against the window of Brenda’s office.

“Mason stop” Chelsea screamed.

Mason raised his fist and Dylan set his jaw firm. Mason’s eyes had darkened to almost black and his anger oozed from him.

“Please stop” Chelsea cried touching Mason on the back.

Her touch seemed to break the trance that Mason was in as he shoved Dylan back against the glass and dropped his fist. Mason turned and pulled Chelsea into his chest and kissed her head. Dylan brushed past them and grabbed his bag from where he dropped it storming out of the room.

“What the devil is going on in here?” Brenda said from behind Chelsea and Mason.

Chelsea turned and shook her head. Brenda stepped toward Chelsea and put her arm around her shoulder.

“You and Dylan aren’t fighting are you?” Brenda asked Mason.

Mason dropped his head and looked down at his shoe.

“Oh honest to God Mason. Dylan isn’t trying to get in her pants,  he is her friend, he is as broken as Chelsea and they relied on each other for a long time, it’s hard for him to see Chelsea relying on someone else” Brenda said calmly as she put her hands on her hips and shook her head.

She looked between Mason and Chelsea and nodded her head to her office before leading Chelsea in to sit on the chair. Mason stood with his back leaning against the small window that looked out her office into the art room. Brenda shut the door to her office and then sat down at her chair.

“Alright you two, what else is going on? This isn’t about Dylan” she said.

Chelsea sighed and rubbed her hand over her face. What started as a beautiful day was quickly dissolving into a disastrous one.

“Maddison” Mason spoke quietly.

Brenda nodded her head.

“I see, she has started a campaign against you has she?” Brenda asked Chelsea.

Chelsea nodded her head.

“It’s worse than that” Chelsea said “she has my sketch pad”

Brenda formed an Oh with her mouth and shook her head.

“I see.” Brenda said with a frown. “How did she get your book?”

Chelsea told Brenda the story of being at the pond and Maddison taking a photo and not being able to find her book. Brenda ran her hands through her long grey hair and rubbed her temples.

“Chelsea before I do anything do you want me to take this up with Mr O’Ryan?” Brenda asked.

Mr O’Ryan was the headmaster and worse still, he was the uncle to Maddison. In his eyes Maddison could do no wrong and she doubted that Brenda taking this issue to him would warrant anything to come of it other than more torture from Maddison. Chelsea shook her head.

“No it won’t do any good. I will work out a way to get it back” Chelsea sighed.

Brenda nodded and stood from her desk. She looked between Mason and Chelsea.

“I’m not an advocate for skipping school and if anyone asks, this didn’t come from me, but I would suggest Mason take you home and let at least this first onslaught calm down” Brenda said.

Chelsea nodded and stood, Mason reached out and gently squeezed her shoulder. This was turning into a bigger mess than Chelsea could handle and she wasn’t sure whether being Mason’s girlfriend was worth the trouble. She liked him a lot, if she was honest with herself she would say that she was quickly falling in love with him. However, she couldn’t stand Maddison’s ongoing torment, she feared where this was going to go. Chelsea had an urge to carve her body to pieces. She desperately wanted her book back, she needed to draw but she had no other book. As if Brenda could read her mind, she reached into her draw and pulled out a clean sketch pad.

“Keep your promise Chelsea” Brenda said eyeing her.

Chelsea forced a smile and nodded sighing with relief at the chance to be able to relieve the pain that was quickly building inside her. Mason tightened his grip on her shoulder before turning to leave the room. As they left the room she noticed that Lincoln was standing waiting for them. He had a look of concern on his face and in his hands was her sketch book. Chelsea frowned and looked him up and down. He held the book out to her and she flicked it open. Inside all the pages were there except for the picture of Mason at the pond, the last picture she had drawn. Chelsea sighed with relief.

“Where did you get this?” she asked accusingly.

Mason looked down at the book and frowned glaring at his friend.

“Yeah Linc where did you get that?” he growled.

Lincoln held his hands up and took a step away from Mason.

“Maddison showed me, she was laughing at the pictures calling Chelsea a freak, she said she was going to post the pictures around the school, but when I saw the pictures I knew this would likely destroy you. So I took it out of her bag and came looking for you both.” Lincoln said looking at Chelsea.

“Are you alright?” Lincoln asked her with a frown of concern.

Chelsea nodded her head, sighing a shaky breath.

“Are any of the picture’s missing?” Mason asked her.

“Only the last picture I drew of you at the pond” she said.

“Was it a bad picture?” Lincoln asked frowning.

Chelsea shook her head.

“No it was Mason skimming rocks, it was alright” she said with relief.

The three of them started to walk towards the gates of the school.

“I have to say man this is low even for Maddison” Lincoln said to Mason.

Mason nodded his head and ran his hand through his hair.

“I know.” he said through gritted teeth.

Chelsea could see that he was seething, she didn’t want Mason to fight her battles and she didn’t want him to get in trouble because of her. However, she knew that Mason wasn’t going to let it go easily.

“What are you going to do now?” Lincoln asked looking between Mason and Chelsea.

“I’m going to take Chels, back to my place and hang out there for a bit, did you want to come?” Mason said.

Lincoln smiled brightly as he nodded his head. The three of them walked in silence back to Mason’s house. Mason was still seething and the dark cloud that surrounded him didn’t look like it was going to dissipate any time soon.

“So is it true that you are staying at Mason’s place?” Lincoln asked.

Mason stopped and folded his hands into fists. Chelsea reached up and touched his back gently.

“Who told you that?” Mason growled.

“Maddison said that she saw Chelsea here the last two nights” Lincoln said raising his hands in surrender again.

Mason growled and swung open the gate of the clubhouse, as Lincoln and Chelsea walked through the gates the fire was burning and Duggar was sitting in his seat. Duggar’s face lit up when he saw Mason.

“Hey Mas” Duggar said cheerfully.

“Fuck off Duggar” Mason spat as he stomped into the house.

Duggar nodded his ferret like head and looked around them with a stupid smile plastered across his face. When Duggar spotted Chelsea he quickly stood and came to her. He stood so close that Chelsea couldn’t help but smell every stink that oozed from him.

“Ah Chelsea I just wanted to say I didn’t mean anything by what happened yesterday” he sneered, spittle flying from his mouth and splashing Chelsea on the face.

Chelsea wanted to vomit at the stench of his breath and had to control her very being not to shudder. Lincoln walked past them and went inside, Duggar watched over his shoulder as Lincoln disappeared. He turned back to Chelsea with an evil glint in his eyes and his sneer turned into a blackened gape across his face as his toothless grin spread. He stepped closer to Chelsea and roughly grabbed at her backside. A mix of anger and panic rose in her throat as she shoved Duggar as hard as she could. She was impressed as he stumbled backwards landing hard on his backside amongst the chairs, he growled and attempted to get up, his eyes growing dark with anger.

“Hey Chels do you want.. Whoa” Lincoln said looking between her and Duggar.

Chelsea looked at Lincoln and walked over to where Duggar sat spluttering derogative names at her between the chairs. She stood over him as he lay between the chairs, looking seemingly shrunken and smaller than he did before. Chelsea bent over Duggar as Mason and Knox came outside to see what the commotion was. Chelsea pointed her finger into Duggar’s face and drew close to him.

“You touch me ever again and I will cut your fucking cock off and turn it into a cunt and then I will fuck you with your own dick.” Chelsea growled spitting in his face before standing and storming inside.

Silence followed her as she went into Mason’s room and shut the door behind her. She was marching around the room seething when there was a gentle knock on the door.

“Chelsea?” Kelly said from the doorway gently opening the door and peeking in. “Can I come in”

Chelsea turned and nodded her head. Kelly came into Mason’s room and shut the door behind her. She stood beside Chelsea and put her hands on Chelsea’s shoulders.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

Chelsea shook her head.

“He grabbed me and I just flipped and now I’ll probably have to leave because Knox is going to hate me” she cried.

Kelly put her arms around Chelsea’s shoulders and pulled her into a hug.

“No Knox isn’t going to hate you. He came and got me, he was worried about you. Duggar is a sleaze. He deserved everything he got. Knox had told him not to touch you or even speak to you. It’s probably lucky for him that you pushed him over and Mason didn’t see it. I think the way Mason is feeling right now, Duggar would be getting buried under the barbecue” she said.