Evan's Addiction (27 page)

     During the second week I paid zero attention to Evan. He would try
to draw me into conversations but I wouldn’t bite. I would have to bite my
tongue sometimes to stop myself, but I was able to refrain. Skipping the
lunches I knew he would be at was an option but his coward comment hit me in my
pride. He wasn’t going to know that I cared enough to want to avoid him…even
though being in his presence was exceedingly painful. His concentrated stares
weren’t helping either.   

    I didn’t understand his persistence, he’d already bagged me. Was
his ego so big that he wanted to be the one to walk away?

     Carrie hadn’t given up trying to get me to go out with her on the
weekends to spend time with her friends, and now that Sam was here I had the
two of them to contend with, but I was back to declining and using work as an
excuse. They hadn’t been the ones playing me, but my defenses were up again and
it was hard to lower them for anyone right now when I felt like an open wound.

     We were now in our third week of the term and I was sitting at one
of the outside cafeteria tables fortifying myself for another encounter with
Evan. I was getting out of my Monday and Wednesday classes sooner than the others
so I was always here ahead of everyone.

     “Well, if it isn’t Suck you dry Shaw.”

     Stiffening, I blew out a tired and annoyed sighed. Hot Damn…Ford
was here to put the cherry on top of my suckable life. He was like a snake,
ready to strike with malicious pleasure. Turning my head I saw that he wasn’t
alone either. Five wastes of space were with him; two guys who’d harassed me
before, and another guy and two girls I’d never seen before, but if they were
with ford then they weren’t anyone I wanted to know.

     I yawned. “I bet it took you all summer to come up with that new
moniker, and from the red in your eyes you popped a few blood vessels in the
process. You should really treat your brain cells better, Ford; you only have
so many.”

     “Always the smart-mouthed bitch.” He jeered.

     I forced out a laugh I wasn’t feeling. On the whole, I could swap
insults with Ford and it didn’t overly bother me, but I wasn’t in the mood. “If
I got smart with you, you wouldn’t even know it.”

     Ford’s jaw tightened. Normally, he sent his lackey’s after me
because he knew I would decimate him verbally and he didn’t like that. I wonder
what had him pulling his brave panties on today?

     “Ford, who is this…person?”

     My gaze flickered to the blonde female who’d stepped up next to
Ford and was looking me up and down with distaste.

     “Just a girl that used to come around to scratch an itch. The
house takes care of her now.” Ford gave me a mocking look.

     I shook my head at his banality; same old-same old. “That’s all
I’d get from you…an itch that would take penicillin to cure. If this girls been
with you I’m sure she can attest to that.” She brought herself in play so she
had to suffer the consequences.

     The blonde gaped and then glared, sticking her nose up in the air.
“Oh…she’s one of those girls.”

     I showed my teeth so it resembled a grin. “If you mean smart with
ten times the intellect as all five of you put together…then yes, I’m one of
those girls. The smartest thing to come out of your mouth was probably some
guy’s dick.”

     She gasped. “You’re the slut, not me.”

     I rolled my eyes and looked back at Ford. “This is tedious, Ford;
why are you boring me with your presence? Please tell me you’ve discovered
something significant.” I was so ready to end this…thing going on between us.

     Ford’s face was red with rising fury. He always started this
thinking he could get to me, but when he realized he couldn’t he got pissed.
I’d always been snappy on the comebacks and give off a veneer of impassiveness,
but it had taken me awhile to truly not care what he and others said about
me.    

     He took a step toward me and it had me stiffening instinctively
because I didn’t want the asshole anywhere near me.

     He jeered down into my face. “I heard some rumors that you were
getting around again and proclaiming it loudly at a party.” My gut rolled
knowing he was referring to my screaming breakdown with Evan at David’s party.
My expression must have revealed something of what I was feeling because Ford’s
sneer got smug. “So I thought I’d come over and introduce the new guy to you
incase you wanted to record him into your Big book of Fucks.”

     Why this guy felt the consuming need to make my life hell I’ll
never know, but he took it seriously.    

     “Hey, fuckhead.” All our heads turned towards the person…Evan…who
was storming our way with a ferocious frown. “What the hell are you saying to
her?”

      My eyebrows rose at his fierceness, and I didn’t want to
acknowledge the warmth spreading through me at the sight of him.

     Ford gave Evan a nod like they were old friends and the warmth
spreading through me went cold. “Hey, I remember you from last year. You must
have taken my advice and tagged Shaw. I told you she was wild.” His beady snake
eyes met mine as he smirked. “Don’t tell me you’re still banging her with how
used her pussy is, but she probably makes up for it with her mouth. She does
give a good blow job.”

     The cold went glacial. It made me sick whenever I thought about
what I’d done with Ford. How had I ever fallen for this guys shit…for either of
their shit? God, I was so stupid.

     My self-condemnation was interrupted when Evan’s fist met Ford’s
face sending him flying backwards into his posse. Screams were let loose; some
by the two girls with them and some by others in the vicinity. I was stunned
into immobility.

     Evan took a stance right in front of me, and I stared at the back
of his head in shock as he barked threateningly. “I remember telling you that
you needed to watch what you say about Shaw, Shit-for-Brains.”

CHAPTER
TWELVE

EVAN

     My blood was hot and racing furiously through my veins. This was
one of the sons of bitches that had been lying about Shaw making her life hell.
Not only had she had to deal with that bullshit in high school but they were
still hounding her in college. This cocksucker had pissed me off last time
saying what he had about Shaw, and I’d barely known her then. Now he was going
to be lucky if I let him keep his teeth.

     “What the fuck, dude.” One of the assbags who’d gone down with
Shit-for-Brains yelled.

     The two who hadn’t gone down came at me and I welcomed it. My
frustration from when Shaw had walked out on me, and not getting anywhere with
her in the past weeks, had reached its peak at finding these fuckers harassing
her. Walking up I’d recognized the one guy straight away and the scene was
something I’d witnesses many time in high school; the popular kids surrounding
an outcast just for the purpose of ripping them apart.

     I swung my leg out and kicked the first dickhead coming at me in
the nuts…no one ever accused me of being a clean fighter…sending him to the
ground instantaneously, and then I blocked the second dipshits right hook and
followed up with one of my own. He went down as well; nose bleeding and dazed.

     My knuckles felt the impact, but the pain felt good and made me
want to keep hitting, so when assbags came at me after untangling himself from
the ground I stepped forward to meet him. He was average weight and height,
with no real muscle. All of them were. And although I’d had to quit lacrosse
and was working behind a desk for months I’d continued exorcising regularly. 

     “Give me what you got, assbags.” I bared my teeth and waved him
forward.

     He went for a head charge…not a fighter this one unfortunately. I
could have grabbed his head and kneed him in the face, but then I wouldn’t have
been able to use my fists. So instead, I braced myself for his charge, put him
in a headlock, and began pummeling him in the kidneys.

     “Don’t.”
Punch
. “Ever.”
Punch
. “Bother.”
Punch
.
“Her.”
Punch
. “Again.”

     Suddenly Nic was standing in front of me. “Okay, Vin Diesel. Time
to let him go before security gets here.”

     I let go and assbags dropped to the ground moaning…the pansy ass.
Breathing heavily, mostly from anger and adrenaline, I turned looking for Shaw
and saw her standing a few feet away staring at me in flushed astonishment.
Carrie, Samantha and David stood on either side of her with similar
expressions.

     Striding over I scrutinized her in concern. “Are you okay?”

     She blinked. “Uh…Peachy.”

     I blew out deep exhale at her utterly Shaw response.

     “I’m going to kick your ass, asshole.”

     I spun to discover that Shit for Brains had finally made it to his
feet. Good, because I wanted to send him right back to the ground. His friends
were getting slowly to their feet as well.

     Nic’s hand on my shoulder stopped me from wading in. “Wrong time
and place, brother.”

     But then Shit for Brains made the mistake of turning his attention
to Shaw. “And you, trailer slut, I’m going to make you regret you where ever
born.”

     I slung off Nic’s hand ready to rearrange his face when Shaw’s
laugh halted me. “Oh my, god. You must have been born ass first.” She was
gazing at the dude with a TSTL sneer and cold, slash-your-throat eyes. “Ford,
when you came up to me today I had high hopes that you’d finally figured it
out, but it’s like teaching a horse to pick his nose; it can’t be done.”

    
This
was the fuck David said gave Shaw the hardest time in
school? I wanted so badly to continue my fists meets face. She took a step
closer but I flung out my arm halting any further progress. There was no way I
was letting her near the fucktard. Her mouth tightened, and while she gave me a
brief narrow-eyed glance…that had my blood running even hotter…she heeded me.
Good thing, because I would have taken physical measures and things might have
gotten dicey.

     “Do you have any idea what my major is?” Not waiting for a reply
Shaw continued sarcastically. “No, of course you don’t, and it probably
wouldn’t matter to your pea-sized brain.”

     The guys face darkened in further anger, and the punch I’d
delivered to his left cheekbone was swelling causing the small cut to bleed
more. “Bitch, I’ve always said your mouth…”

     “Don’t say another fucking word to her.” I surged toward him in
fury.

     Shaw’s hand on my arm stopped me this time, but she didn’t look at
me. “While I would love to watch you all beat the shit out of each other, I
have business I want finished here, but it looks like I’m going to have to go
another route.” Keeping her hold on me Shaw pointed her other hand to dickhead
standing to Shit for Brains right. “You…you’re in the fraternity with this
numbnuts, right?”

     Holding his balls, the guy glared and nodded. It was all he could
do with his nads swelling like watermelons.

     “I hear you’ve been having a lot of problems with your cable and
utilities being shut off, losing your internet connections, oodles of spam
bombs, and the cops and campus security stopping by randomly? I also heard
something about Facebook information being altered and painting quite an
unflattering picture of quite a few of you. Thinking about all this crap you’ve
been dealing with I can understand why all of you are so damn ill-tempered. I
think I heard that it’s been going on for a little over a year, is that right?”

     My eyebrows were part of my hairline as I processed Shaw’s words.
Holy shit! Was she implying what I thought she was implying? What she was hinting
at was seriously illegal.  

     The four guys just stared at her in anger, not catching on at all.
Shaw exhaled an aggravated breath. “Seriously…no light bulbs?” She rolled her
eyes and I felt my first spark of amusement in what seemed like forever. I
loved seeing her like this. David and Nic chuckled softly from behind us.

     “What’s any of this to you, bitch?” Assbags grunted crossly.

     I growled, “Watch your fucking mouth,” and tried to move forward
again, but Shaw’s grip on my arm tightened. She flashed me a look and even
though her voice was bland the green of her eyes was a different book
altogether. I’d had barely any eye contact with Shaw in the last month, and
glimpsing all that fire and energy inside her was like a flame to my blown out
wick.

     Fuck, she made me burn, and all it took was a look. Regrettably,
she turned away all too soon.

     Shaw heaved a sighed. “Listen to me closely, brainiacs, because I
don’t have time to draw you pictures.”

     There were more snickers from behind us, and while I could see the
humor this wasn’t funny to me. These guys, and many more, had been making her
life hell for years, and she’d taken action, illegal actions that could get her
years in prison. I was furious, impressed, and sincerely alarmed.

     “How would you like to have all those problems disappear, and all
it would take is for you to pretend I don’t exist?” She raised her one brow in hopeful
expectation, her green eyes frosty cold.

     But Ford had literal shit for brains. “The only thing that you
exist for is to stick a dick into, Bitch.”

     I had allowed Shaw to hold me back up to this point. But not
anymore; flashing forward I swung a hard left to give him matching cheeks, and
he went staggering backwards onto the ground again.