I took a seat, perching on the edge as tension set my spine ramrod straight.
“Where were you?” he asked.
“At a friend’s house.”
“A friend’s house. That’s what we call it these days?” His nostrils flared. “You are grounded, Drucella.”
“I was studying late?” Shit, that lie was weak, but what was I going to say? I was at some brothel house in Dayton with Bellamy West.
“Yes. I’m so sure.” He looked at me with the usual, loathed disappointment, laced with a healthy dose of disgust. “Where is your car?”
“Nora borrowed it. Hers broke down.” Another crappy lie.
“Well, when Nora brings it back, you will give the keys to me.”
“What? You’re taking my car away?”
“Yes.”
“How will I get to school?”
“The school bus.”
Oh. My. God. I honestly didn’t think there was anything left for him to do to make my life worse. Turns out rock bottom has a sewer.
“You will go to school. You will come home.” His finger jabbed against the counter. “And you will do nothing else. I’ve evidently not been hard enough on you, and from your behavior, I can see Black Mountain was nothing but a waste. Not even they could manage to instill a sense of decency in you.” He went to move away from the counter. “But I sure as hell will, Drucella. If it kills me.”
Then he left the room.
I didn’t even know what to say. So, I called the one person who could possibly save me from this: my mother.
Irina was nothing if not the typical rich, absent parent, but she tried to act like she cared by way of material things. Like cars.
An hour later, I heard my dad shouting on the phone from my room. With a smile, I put my headphones in and let her work her magic.
I flopped back onto the bed, and though everything was crap, I couldn’t help but think about Bellamy, of waking up wrapped in his arms.
The way he kissed me like I was more than just some girl he wanted to fuck, some girl he’d made a deal with. I could no longer pretend that was the case because we’d slept in a bed together and he hadn’t even tried to touch me.
I couldn’t quite work out when we’d gone from hating each other to this, but I wanted it. And that scared me because the things we really want have the power to break us. And Bellamy West had heartbreak written all over his beautiful body.
30
Bellamy
Nikki’s friends glared at Drew when she climbed out of my car on Monday. I threw my arm around Drew’s shoulder as we started toward the school’s entrance, falling in step with the other grumbling students. “You got a fan club, baby girl.”
“Nikki is totally going to come at me with a razor blade,” she mumbled.
“I seriously doubt that.” I had laid a claim on Drew. Which meant everyone knew not to fuck with her.
We passed by the security guard at the front door, then hooked it to the right. “When is your dad giving you your car back?”
“Pretty sure never. I’m surprised he hasn’t slapped a chastity belt on me at this point. Or acquired a house arrest anklet.” She stopped at her locker, turning the combination lock. “Thanks for giving me a lift.”
“Would’ve been better had you given me road head on the way in, but, whatever…”
She threw a smirk over her shoulder. “You’ll make me choke and ruin my mascara.”
“I like it when you choke on it.”
She shut her locker door, then leaned back against the metal. I stepped closer, bunching the material of her skirt in my hand. “Did you wear this skirt for me, baby girl?”
“What if I did?”
“Then, I’d do this.” I slammed my lips over hers, gripping her hips and pushing her up the locker wall until her legs wrapped around my waist. This was a show. Me staking a final claim. “You make my dick so hard.”
“What are you doing?” she breathed. “Everyone is looking.” But her legs never loosened on my waist, and she made no effort to separate her lips from mine.
“No shit. That’s the point, baby girl.”
A whistle sounded. “Put her down,” Smith blew her whistle again. “This ain’t no fraternity house hot-tub jacuzzi.”
My fingers dug into Drew’s thighs before the whistle sounded again.
“You nasty-ass kids…”
I put Drew down, and when I turned around, Smith had her demerit pad out, scribbling away. She ripped the sheet off and handed it to me.
“Mr. Nasty.” Then she filled out another form and passed it to Drew. “And Miss Nasty.”
When she walked away, Drew waved the paper in my face. “You’re a terrible influence.”
I draped an arm over her shoulder and started toward her classroom. “Be sure to send your father my regards.” I smacked her ass before she ducked through the doorway, then I went back to my locker to put away my stuff.
Wolf peeked out from behind his open locker door, nodding toward Drew’s classroom. “Dude. What the hell was that?” The metal door banged closed, and he leaned a shoulder against it. “You screwed her, didn’t you?”
“No.”
One of his bushy brows lifted. “You jab her more than twice, you’re fucked.”
Hendrix popped around my shoulder, out of nowhere. “Twice? What the fuckity-fuck, Wolf? You don’t go back for seconds.” He punched Wolf’s head, and Wolf socked him in the stomach.
Hendrix doubled over, coughing out, “That’s as good as the Golden Rule. One and done.”
I shoved him away from me. “I haven’t fucked her.”
Drew was so much more than a fuck.
“Because you’re weak.” Hendrix cackled, twisting the combination to his locker. “You’ve had weeks, and you haven’t speared her with your Moby Dick harpoon? I would have already had her gargling my balls, then I’d have hit it and quit it.”
He yanked a book out of his locker, and everything else inside came tumbling out in a cascade of papers and trash. He bent over, grabbed his textbooks, and tossed them back inside before kicking the rest of the shit to the side with his shoe.
With a shake of my head, I pushed past him.
I made it halfway down the hall before Wolf caught up to me. “That crap back in the hall was a statement, dude.”
“I know. It was supposed to be.”
Wolf stopped mid-stride, dropping his chin on a shake of his head. “Fucking hell. Here we go again...”
31
Drew
“Rumor has it, Bellamy West is your boyfriend,” Nora said, falling in step beside me as I cut through the crowded corridor.
“What?”
“And I’ve never known Bellamy to have a girlfriend.”
I shook my head. “We’re not...together.”
Were we? No. We hadn’t even had sex. And if there was one thing a guy like Bellamy would usually qualify for, it was sex with no strings. Somehow, though, I’d gotten tangled in the strings without the sex.
It had been two days since Bellamy had kissed me in the hallway, and I’d noticed a shift in the status quo of Dayton High. Gone were the vicious glares. Instead, people refused to look at me, shifting to get out of my way like one brush with me might be a death sentence.
That could only mean one thing. They thought I was his, even if I didn’t.
“They’re just rumors, Nora.”
“Whatever you want to tell yourself.”
I cut into the bathroom, saying I’d meet her in the cafeteria.
That was a mistake.
When I came out of the stall, my pulse instantly ticked up. Nikki and two of her friends were leaning against the sinks.
Nikki was Dayton through and through, and I really wasn’t.
My hand slipped into my purse, fingers wrapping around the can of mace I always kept in there because...razor blades. “Are you really going to jump me in a bathroom over a guy, Nikki? Bit cliché, don’t you think?” My voice sounded remar
kably strong, considering the internal panic. A hundred different scenarios ran through my head, from a broken nose, right through to getting shanked and bleeding out on a gross, bathroom floor.
“You’re nothing but a Barrington whore.” A sneer pulled at her lips. “Bellamy will get bored of fucking you soon enough.”
“Great. Then why are you in here?”
She took a step toward me, and all my fears were confirmed when she pulled out a small knife. Her friends moved to grab me, and I don’t even know what happened next.
Blind panic. Survival instinct. Something.
I sprayed mace like it was the perfume counter at Macy’s. Somewhere in my flailing around, a sharp sting sliced over my arm. I had no idea if Nikki had actually gone for me or just caught me in the shitshow of my chaos because I had my eyes closed for half of it.
Stumbling out of the bathroom, I dropped the mace back into my bag and noticed the trickle of blood creeping from the small cut left by the blade. I robotically walked to the cafeteria, grabbed a napkin, and pressed it to my bloody arm in a bit of a shock.
Nora looked at me wide-eyed when I fell onto the stool beside her. “What the hell happened?”
“Nikki happened.”
“Wait. She cut you?” Diane looked horrified. It was Dayton. Even I, the girl who two months ago was enrolled in one of the most expensive prep schools in the country, wasn’t really surprised, so why was she?
“Uh, I’m not sure. There were pepper spray and flailing, but she definitely pulled a knife, like before that.”
“You pepper-sprayed her?” Nora snorted. “You carry pepper spray?”
“Well, yeah, it’s Dayton, Nora!”
Diane cleared her throat and nodded across the cafeteria. “Word of advice, you might want to tell Bellamy before he finds out.”
On a glare, I peeled off the foil lid from my crappy, grape Push-Pop. “He’s not my keeper. We aren’t even together. Besides, I already blinded her.”
She and Nora exchanged loaded glances.
“Drew,” Nora inhaled a very deep breath. “Again. He doesn’t date. And he’s dating you, whether you realize it or not. He’s not stable.”
Diane nodded. “I mean, they burned this girl’s car once, simply because she broke up with Hendrix and called him an idiot.”
“Jesus Christ.” What the hell had I gotten myself into? Oh, wait, I decided to lust after the guy who broke into my house and almost got me off with the baseball bat he used to smash the place up. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I actually feared for Nikki a little bit, and I loathed the girl.
Nora took a bite from her apple. “You need to go to Brown before he finds out. Get her kicked out.”
Diane touched my hand. “Bellamy being a psycho aside, what if she’d actually stabbed you, Drew?”
“Fine. If they take my mace away, I’m going to be pissed.”
So I went to Brown, mainly because I was not about getting shanked, but also because I knew, firsthand, the extremes Bellamy would go to for revenge. I didn’t want him getting into trouble because Nikki was a crazy bitch.
That boy wasn’t getting arrested for anyone but me.
By the end of the day, the school was rife with gossip that Nikki had been expelled.
Great. Glad it was that easy for her. Not that I was bitter or anything.
Hendrix glared at me when I walked up to detention with Bellamy.
Mrs. Smith waved me over. “Good afternoon, Miss Nasty.” She passed me a clipboard and made me sign my name. “Go sit down and reflect on why the hell you let that boy stick his tongue down your throat in the middle of the hallway. And you, Mr. Nasty…”
She handed Bellamy the clipboard. “You go sit down and think about why you think it’s okay to disrespect Miss Nasty like that.”
He scribbled his name over the line.
“I wasn’t feeling very disrespected,” I said under my breath. Of course, she heard.
“Oh, you were feeling something all right.” She snatched the clipboard from Bellamy, then chugged her thermos. “His arousal all pressed into your woman parts.”
“Woman parts.” Hendrix shoved past us on his way to the back table. “More like his Arby’s sauce all up in your roast beef sandwich.”
I rolled my eyes. “Do you have to call it a roast beef sandwich? The imagery is just…”
Bellamy stopped at the end of the table and whacked Hendrix in the face with his notebook.
Wolf chuckled and sank to the stool across from Bellamy. “You’re gonna give him a head injury.”
“He is a head injury, Wolf.” Bellamy glanced at Hendrix and threw up his hands. “What do you want me to do? Punch him in the nuts next time he says shit like that?”
Hendrix glared across the table. “Did you just threaten to damage my baby batter mixer?”
“Wow. What Diane sees in you…” I mumbled.
“A nine-inch cock and a tongue that works magic. I know that’s hard to imagine with Bell’s one-inch Vienna sausage…” Hendrix grabbed at his crotch. “But I’m hung like a camel. Pretty sure I have a future in porn.”
“Congratulations?”
“I’d call myself Kamikaze Kummer because there’s no pussy I won’t bomb dive.”
Bellamy grabbed my hand, yanking me up from the table while he snatched his books up. “I can’t deal with this neurotic shit anymore today.”
“How the hell did you even become friends with Hendrix?”
“I blocked it out.” He said before sinking to a stool a few tables over.
“Like a traumatic event?”
“Exactly.”
The late-afternoon sun poured through the cafeteria windows like a greenhouse, and with no air conditioning in here, the air felt stuffy and oppressive. I shrugged out of my jacket before taking a seat beside him.
“What happened to your arm?” He glanced down at the bright-blue Band-Aid across my forearm.
“Um…”
“Holy shit, Bell,” Hendrix shouted.
I glanced across the cafeteria to where one of the cheerleaders was now sitting beside the idiot.
“Psycho Bitch got expelled for trying to shank Psycho Bitch Number Two!”
When I looked back at Bellamy, his jaw was tight. Eyes narrowed.
I flipped Hendrix off. “Shank makes it sound so overdramatic.”
“Seriously?” Bellamy reached for my arm, and I yanked it away. “You thought you’d just not mention that?”
Years of spoiled-brat syndrome kicked in, and I bristled at the idea that I had to tell him anything. “Did I need to?”
“Don’t know, Drew? Do you think you do?” He ripped off the Band-Aid, skimming a finger over the razor-thin cut.
“I handled it,” I said. Not well, but still.
“And Drewbers pepper-sprayed her?” Hendrix cackled. “Sprayed her like a cat, Bell! Ole’ Salami Tits got seasoned with mace.”
I groaned and pointed at Bellamy. “Don’t say a word.”
His gaze held mine prisoner for a beat before he opened his textbook. “Next time someone does shit like that, you better tell me.”
I fought the little spark of indignation that rose in me, and I should have kept my mouth shut. “Or what?”
All he did was smirk.
God, he was annoying. “Fuck you.”
32
Bellamy
That evening, Hendrix and I crept through the dark alleyways running between the trailers until we came to Nikki’s.
I dropped my backpack to the gravel, then rifled through it for the two glass bottles of gasoline and the tattered cloths.
Hendrix snatched one from my hand, immediately cramming the rag into the neck. “I’m doing this because I hate Nikki and I like burning shit, not because I like Drew.”
“Whatever, man.”
Was what we were about to do shit? Absolutely, just like half the crap we did. But Nikki had pulled a knife on Drew, and like hell was she getting away with that.
Hendrix took
a lighter from his pocket. “Why are you doing it, Bell?”
Because I liked Drew. “Because we have a reputation to uphold, asswipe.”
Hendrix struck the flint, the flicker of the flame catching the cock of his brow. “She must suck good dick.”
Sometimes I hated him.
We lit the bombs, hurling them across the trailer park before we took off running. We made it over one chain-link fence before the flash of fire lit up the night sky.
Hendrix cackled as we booked it toward Wolf’s, quickly scaling the ladder that always rested against the side of his house, then rolling ourselves onto the roof.
“Burn, baby, burn.” Wolf laughed from his lawn chair, taking a puff from the joint permanently attached to his lips.
I collapsed into one of the other tattered chairs while Hendrix rummaged through the mini-fridge. “Aw, man. All you have is Natty Lite. That stuff tastes like piss.” He slammed the fridge door and sank to the seat beside me, cracking one open anyway.
We sat there for a moment, basking in the glow of Nikki’s burning car. I could hear her screaming at the top of her lungs from here.
“It’s gonna explode,” Wolf said with a wicked grin. “Any minute.”
Hendrix leaned back in his chair, inhaling a deep breath. “Nothing like the smell of a car bomb to make you feel alive.”
And there was no doubt—never had been—we were a little screwed up.
The red and yellow flames reached over the trailers' tops, sending a spiral of gray smoke up against the dark sky.
I didn’t do this for my reputation. I did it because I was pissed. Few things in life enraged me: my shithouse dad, someone screwing with my family, and evidently, now, someone messing with my girl.
Wolf sat up. His narrowed gaze stared out over the trailer park. “Oh, shit. Here she comes.”
About that time, I noticed a shadow moving down the dirt path.
“Bellamy!” Nikki shouted. “I know that was you!”
She stormed up to Wolf’s trailer and stopped, hands on her hips as she stared up at his roof. “I’m going to send your ass to jail. Just like she did.”
No Good: A Standalone Enemies to Lovers Romance Page 19