The Execution: A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance (Breakbattle Academy Book 3)

by Ruby Vincent

  “How in the hell does that happen?!”

  I toed off my shoes and climbed onto his bed. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Derek’s sheets welcomed me like an old friend as I slipped beneath them.

  “I’ll tell you how it happens,” he went on. “You’re killing yourself with all these battles and it’s finally caught up to you. Have you seen yourself, Zela? Even without the splint you look like microwaved death.”

  “You say the sweetest things to me.”

  “Well, it’s enough.” Derek marched up to me, and instead of shoving me out of his bed like I expected, he grabbed the covers and brought it up to my chin. “You’re going to get some sleep.”

  “It’s five o’clock in the afternoon.”

  “Shut up.” He sat down on his side and reached for the book he abandoned on the nightstand. “Go to sleep.”

  “Why are you letting me sleep here?”

  “Because your stubborn ass won’t do it unless I’m watching you.”

  I rolled my eyes, but stopped fighting it. At least we were finally spending time together. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. There was something I needed to do before I obeyed orders.

  Me: I broke my nose and ended up with bandages covering most of my face. I hope it wasn’t my looks that you liked about me.

  His reply came back in seconds.

  Landon: Stop texting me.

  Me: If you wanted it to stop, you would have blocked me by now.

  Yes, I had been texting Landon. The guy had given me no choice after opting to give me the silent treatment since that day on the food line. I still had his number from when we were friends and I sent him random, cute messages throughout the day. Most of the time he didn’t answer. The other times he told me to stop. What he didn’t do was block me.

  Me: I won my wrestling match because of what you taught me. I never got a chance to properly thank you for training me. Can you think of any ways you want me to show my gratitude?

  Landon: I can think of a few...

  My brows shot up to my fake hairline. Oh my goodness. Was he flirting back? What do I say?! I’ve never done this before.

  Me: Tell me. Spare no details.

  I bit down hard on my lip as I sent it. My eyes flicked up to Derek as though he could read my mind. The boy carried on reading his book.

  Landon: I want you...

  Landon: ...more than anything...

  Landon: ... to...

  I held my breath as I waited for the final text to buzz my phone. Want me to what? What, Landon?!

  It buzzed again and I rushed to open the message.

  Landon: Leave me the fuck alone.

  My phone buzzed again as annoyance welled up in me. Landon was going to make me work for this.

  I pulled up the message and saw it wasn’t from him.

  Melody: I promised you guys I would come up with a way to stop the expansion. As I see it, the board of education could never approve this system if they knew the truth about it. So we tell them.

  Meet me tonight in front of the cafeteria. Midnight.

  “What are you doing? I told you to go to sleep.”

  I sighed. “I am. My face hurts despite the painkillers and being unconscious would give me blessed relief from this headache. I just need to set an alarm.”

  “For what?”

  “Melody wants to meet up tonight,” I said as I set the clock for eleven forty-five. “She needs my help with something.”

  “Fine.”

  I finished and set my phone on the nightstand. Then I snuggled into Derek’s pillow, warm and comfortable for the first time in days, maybe weeks. Despite the sun still peeking through the windows, I fell asleep moments after I closed my eyes.

  BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

  Shifting, I cracked an eye open. The covers ended up over my head during the night. Derek stirred and his pajama-clad leg poked over to my side.

  What was going on? Is that my alarm?

  I shoved back the covers and morning light beat down on me.

  “What the—?”

  The noisy clock read seven a.m. What happened to my phone?

  A groan sounded to my right.

  “Derek?” I grabbed his shoulder and shook. “Derek, where is my phone?”

  “It’s in the drawer,” he croaked.

  “Why is it there? Why didn’t my alarm go off?”

  “I turned off the alarm when it went off at fucking midnight. You needed to sleep.”

  I gaped at the lump that was him. “But Melody was expecting me!”

  “She’ll get over it.” He didn’t sound even close to repentant.

  “I was supposed to get some studying done for the battle today.”

  “You can stop complaining now and say thank you.”

  I huffed and flipped over. So what? My headache was gone and I felt a million times better than I did twenty-four hours ago, but still. I had a lot to do and no time to do it. I couldn’t afford fourteen-hour semi-comas.

  “Thank you,” I muttered under my breath, barely above a whisper.

  “You’re welcome.” The bed dipped as Derek climbed out. I heard him pad to the bathroom and then the shower turned on.

  I didn’t bother to wait until he came out. I got up and went downstairs to my dorm. Adam was awake and messing with his phone when I walked in.

  “Hey,” he said. “Where did you— What the hell happened to your face?!”

  I winced. The bandage was an eyesore by itself but I was sure my face was purpling to go with it. “I was hit in the face with a basketball. It looks worse than it feels.”

  “You see why I hate that game?” he replied. “Wow. Is that why you were gone? Did you sleep in the nurse’s office last night?”

  “No, I slept in Derek’s room,” I said as I crossed to my trunk and took out fresh clothes.

  “Oh.”

  Something about that “oh” made me look up. “What?”

  “Zela... are we the kind of friends that I can ask if you two are hooking up?”

  I laughed. “We’re definitely those kinds of friends, dummy, and no. Derek and I are not hooking up.”

  “Are you sure?”

  My giggles were louder and higher than they needed to be, but I was riding a wave of well-restedness. “I think I would know.”

  “Okay. I guess I believe you,” he said, grinning. Adam glanced at his phone. “I have another question about the levels of our friendship.”

  “What is it?”

  “Can I stay at your place this weekend?”

  The chest snapped shut and almost caught my fingers. “What?”

  He waved his phone. “Jordan says you guys are going to this fall festival thing and asked if I wanted to come. Your moms already said yes and my mom is cool with it too.”

  I blinked at him. “My mother? Andronika Manning? She said it was okay for you to sleep over at our house.”

  Adam shrugged. “Yeah. Why not? You stay over all the time.”

  “But when were you making these plans?” I asked. “How long have you had Jordan’s number? Why am I the last to know?”

  Adam hopped out of bed, dressed only in a pair of boxers. “Because you’re always busy, my friend. So is that a yes?”

  I shook my head. “I feel like for your sake I should say no. You’ve never dealt with all four of the Manning women for prolonged periods of time. There’s a good chance you won’t come out on the other side of this weekend.”

  He doubled over laughing.

  “But I really want you to come,” I continued, “so I’ll be selfish and say yes.”

  “Cool, Zee.” Adam swooped down and grabbed me around the middle. I shrieked as he lifted me up. “There’s something else I need to know. Are you ticklish?”

  “Adam, no! Don’t you dare! Don’t you—”

  He attacked my sides until I was breathless from laughter. Eventually, I got free and we dressed and left for breakfast, messing around the whole way.

  “A
re we staying at your place or Jordan’s?” Adam asked.

  We passed through the doors of the dining room and the smell of sizzling bacon and cooked spices hit our nose. I about knocked a kid out of the way rushing up to the line. I hadn’t swallowed a single bite of food in over fourteen hours. My stomach was pretty much eating itself at this point.

  “It depends on my mom,” I replied as Martha piled my plate high with scrambled eggs. “She may kick us out halfway through and we’ll end up at Jordan’s. She’s got a hot tub so that’ll be fun.”

  “Hot tub?”

  His voice stopped me cold. I froze with my tray held above my head.

  “What’s this about a hot tub? You can’t go in one of those. Isn’t exposing your body against your... beliefs?”

  The hint of amusement in his tone made my skin crawl.

  “You need to walk away, Zach,” Adam growled. “Now.”

  “I just want to know—”

  Adam disappeared from my side. “You don’t want to piss me off,” he said in a tone I never heard before. “Walk away. Now.”

  “The fuck is wrong with you?” Zach yelled. “I was only joking!”

  Despite that, I heard him storm off. When he was gone, I lowered my tray and kept going. Our mood was more subdued as we found our table. I felt Adam’s eyes on me and thought of a change of subject.

  “I missed it last night,” I said. “Did you meet with Melody?”

  “Oh, yeah.” His expression morphed from concerned to furtive in a blink. “About ten of us met up and Melody had us”—he glanced around—“I can’t talk about it here, but you’ll see. The board is going to see a whole new side of Breakbattle.”

  I leaned in, lowering my voice. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. Derek sabotaged me and I slipped into a coma.”

  “You say the strangest things like they’re normal.”

  “But I’m all in. I’m using the battle system to my advantage right now, but I want it dismantled as much as anyone. I’ve seen firsthand how it’s used to bully students and make lives harder. It should have been done away with after Becca Taylor.”

  My thigh vibrated with a text. I pulled back to answer it.

  Landon: You and Moon look cozy.

  I frowned. I read it once, then twice, then a third time. What is this? Code?

  Looking up, I scanned the cafeteria and found their table near the front. Landon’s light-colored eyes bore into me through the sea of bodies.

  Me: What are you talking about?

  His reply came milliseconds after I hit send.

  Landon: If you’re with him, just tell me.

  My jaw dropped.

  Landon: I don’t care if you are.

  Landon: But it’s not cool for you to keep flirting with me.

  Landon: You can’t keep texting me, Zela.

  Landon: Just tell me if you’re with him!

  I was genuinely too stunned to respond to the avalanche of texts. How in the world did this guy get it into his head I was dating Adam?

  “Adam,” I whispered.

  “What’s up?”

  “I think Landon... is jealous.”

  “Jealous of what?”

  “Of us.” My lips barely moved as I met Landon’s furious eyes again. So that was what the look he had been giving me for weeks meant. He was jealous.

  “Us?”

  “He thinks we’re dating.”

  Adam snorted. “And here I was thinking my feelings for Melody were blindingly obvious.” I saw him look in Landon’s direction out of the corner of my eye. “Are you going to put him out of his misery?”

  A smirk tried to appear on my lips, but I bit it back. Landon was still watching.

  “No, I’m not.” I put my phone on silent and set it on my lap. “I can work with this.”

  “You want to make him jealous?” Adam flicked from Landon to me. “And... you want me to help,” he said slowly.

  I reached for my fork and speared a bit of egg. “If you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t but how far are you going to take this?”

  I gazed into Landon’s angry eyes and smiled. “As far as it takes. I told you, Adam. He made me think he liked me, stole my first kiss, and then watched as I was beaten. I’m going to win him back... and then I will to blend his heart like a smoothie.”

  “A disturbing image.”

  My eyes traveled to Cole next. He had a fork in one hand and a textbook in the other. “Then there’s Reed,” I whispered. “So obsessed with being on top. Everything he wants, everything he works for, I’m going to take it from him. Top G.P.A., captain of Archimedean Club, president of the Future leaders. He will spend the next three years of his life as second best. And then, Michael.”

  The tawny Adonis sat next to his best friend, eating his yogurt like he had no worries. “For him, I’m going to take away the only thing he cares about.”

  “And Zach and Cameron?” Adam asked. “You never told me what you were going to do to those two.”

  My eyes narrowed into slits when they found Zach and Shannon making out at the Elite table. “I have something very special planned for Zach... but it’ll have to wait until I can stomach the sight of him.”

  “What about Cameron?”

  “Cameron is tricky,” I said after a pause. “Everything I thought of didn’t feel like nearly enough after what he did to me. I know sure yet what I’ll do to Cameron Dupre, but this is like math. Solutions can’t be rushed. When time is right, I’ll know.”

  “And I’ll back you up.”

  “You’re a good friend, Adam.” I reached under the table and squeezed his arm. “Thank you.”

  We finally tore into our breakfast. Melody showed up at our table partway through me inhaling my scrambled eggs.

  “Guys, they’re here,” she said without preamble. “Whittaker, Argyle, Dupre and Macy are giving them the tour right now.” The intensity in her gaze told me better than anything that something was up. “They’re starting with the boys’ side first. You should get there before them.”

  “They’re going to freak,” said Adam.

  “That’s the plan.” Melody moved off to another table before I could get any questioning in.

  “Will I find out what’s going on soon?” I asked Adam.

  “Very soon.”

  I accepted that and finished my food. Twenty minutes later, the warning bell rang and we picked up our trays and made for the F Wing.

  “Hey, Manning. Manning!”

  “You guys go ahead,” I said to Tanner, Nico, and Adam. I turned around as a guy I never spoke to before ran up to me. “Yes?”

  “You’re Manning, right? You’re the guy?”

  “Yeah. I’m Zeke Manning.”

  He broke into a huge smile that compounded my confusion. “Awesome. I’m Noah Prentiss. Look, I don’t know how it works but I can pay. I’m seeing this girl in the C Class and I want to take her to the dance.”

  I stared at him as a string of words I didn’t understand poured out of his mouth.

  “But I’m in D so I can’t go,” he continued. “I was going to battle every guy in the C Class if that’s what it took, but then I heard about you.”

  “About... me?” I repeated.

  His head bobbed excitedly. “You’ve been training the Fs to get on their teams. You’re good because you use your crazy math skills to figure out how to take the higher classmen down, and that’s why you’ve been dominating in battles.” He thrusted his fist at me. “That’s wicked cool, man.”

  I bumped the outstretched hand because I didn’t know what else to do.

  “They’re calling you the Battle Doctor.”

  “They’re doing what?”

  “And you’re exactly what I need,” he went on. “Tell me which C to pick and how to beat him and I’ll pay you whatever you want.”

  “Okay, wait.” I put up my hands. “Hold on. I don’t—”

  “Don’t what?”

  “I don’t— don’t— I don’t d
o what you’re saying,” I burst out. “I battle a few people to get more studying and practice time, and yes, I helped a few friends with their soccer game, but I don’t go around picking the weakest member of the herd and offering them up for sale.”

  His face fell. “Are you serious? Manning, come on.”

  “I have to get to class.” I gave him my back and made to walk off. A hand on my arm stopped me.

  “Please. I really like her and we never get to do anything together. Her parents won’t let her date and there’s this stupid separate campus stuff. I just want to take her to the dance.”

  I chewed my lip, willing myself to keep walking. It didn’t work. “Ugh! Fine.”

  “Yeah?” The excitement crept back into his voice. “Thanks, Manning. I’ll do whatever—”

  “Listen up.” I turned back to face him. “I won’t pick someone out for you to target but I will help you improve your game if I can. What are your best subjects?”

  “English and wrestling.”

  “Alright. I can work with that. Meet me in the gym next Thursday.”

  “Thank you. Thank you.” He backed away, pelting me with gratitude as he melted into the crowd going upstairs to the D Wing. “Thank you!”

  “—can recognize a few faces of the alumni.” A smooth voice echoed through the hall. “Our students have gone on to build companies, create new innovations, and give back to their communities in extraordinary ways.”

  Whittaker rounded the corner trailed by Argyle, three respectable-looking people, Cameron and Macy.

  “My father was an alumnus of this school,” Cameron said. He wore his standard uniform, but today his hair was slicked back and wrangled into submission with gel. His polished leather shoes gleamed in the artificial lights. He was working overtime to make a good impression. “If you ask him, he’ll say he owes his success to Breakbattle Academy.”

  Whittaker’s laughter boomed off the walls. “He honors us.”

  The board members nodded and smiled, clearly taken in by these two. I turned to leave when one of them spotted me.

  “Hello, young man.”

  I waved. “Hi.”

  Whittaker’s smile twitched. “Mr. Manning, shouldn’t you be in class?”

  “On my way now, Principal Whittaker.”