Because of that dude? I’ve been through worse. “I didn’t ask for your help.”
He grabs my finger. “You don’t have to ask. Not with me.”
The looks we exchange are so electric the air fills with static lightning.
“Whatever you want, Cole …” I jerk free of his grip. “I don’t like this party anyway.”
“Good. Leave,” he hisses a little too easily.
Fuck. Does he want me out of here so badly? What’s his problem? Why does he want to fuck me one second, but then hate me the next? I can’t get a grip on him, and that’s what’s so infuriating.
“Wow, what a friendly conversation.”
Ariane suddenly bumps into me, breaking the spell between us.
“Oh, excuse me … Am I interrupting something?” she asks sarcastically, gazing at both him and me.
His face darkens. “Stay out of this.”
“No, I don’t think I will,” Ariane says, defiantly folding her arms.
“What are you even doing here?” he growls at her. “Who invited you?”
She pulls Michael from the crowd and shows him off like he’s some kind of prize. “He did.”
“Hey, Cole,” Michael says, but he’s barely walking straight. “Want some?” He shoves a red cup into Cole’s hand, but Cole completely ignores him.
“No fucking wonder … So you invited all these people?” Cole directs all his anger toward Michael.
“What? You asked everyone over, remember?” Michael shrugs.
But it’s a big deal. A very big deal.
Because if Cole asked everyone over … that means this is his house.
“Whatever.” Cole shakes his head.
“What were you two talking about anyway?” Michael asked.
“Nothing,” we both reply.
“Awesome,” Michael jokes.
“Fuck no,” Ariane replies.
I frown and look at her. Why is she so upset at me having a conversation with Cole?
“You were trying something on her again, weren’t you?” Ariane asks Cole.
“Stay out of this,” Cole spits back.
“No, I fucking won’t. Whatever it is you had to say to her, you can say to me.” Ariane steps between us. “She’s my fucking cousin, and you’ve messed with enough girls already. You don’t need to ruin another one.”
“Oh, I ruin things?” Cole spits back at Ariane, making a scene.
“Okay, I’m out of here.” Michael scoffs, rolling his eyes, and he disappears back into the crowd.
Cole isn’t done yet, though. “Fuck you, Ariane. You play the fucking victim in front of everyone!”
The victim? What is he talking about?
“Shut up!” she yells, her face turning red. “I told you to stay away from her, and you wouldn’t listen!”
“Wait, hold up,” I say, completely confused by what the hell is going down here. “Back up… You did what now?”
“Oh, you hadn’t heard?” Cole snaps. “She’s been threatening me to stay away from you.”
My eyes widen, and I lean away from Ariane, who doesn’t seem remotely surprised by this statement.
“Is that true?” I ask Ariane.
She turns to me and grabs my hand. “Mo, I was just trying to protect you.”
Cole snorts and laughs while shaking his head. “Oh, this is rich.”
I’m so damn confused by this revelation that I don’t know what to do. Even if she was only trying to do good, it doesn’t feel right. None of it does.
So I pull my hand away from hers and shake my head. “I didn’t ask you to do that.”
“I know, and I’m sorry, okay? But you were vulnerable.”
“Vulnerable?” I repeat, tears welling up in my eyes. I can’t believe she’d say that to my face in front of everyone.
“Yeah, with what happened to you at Falcon Elite Prep, I figured—”
“Stop,” I interject, swallowing my tears. “Just stop.”
“I …” she mutters.
“You heard her.” Cole scoffs.
“Shut the fuck up,” Ariane snarls at him.
“I can’t deal with this,” I say, and I turn around and walk away before I do something I’ll regret. Because right now, I want nothing more than to slap the ever-living shit out of both of them, but I am not stooping to that level. Not in front of everyone at this party.
So I find the nearest exit into the backyard and sneak out. Away from the noise, away from the people, away from everything until I can finally fucking breathe again.
But no matter how hard I try, I can’t catch my breath.
Not as I stumble into the woods beyond the house or as I sit down on a stump and wait for a moment while I stare at the moon above.
CRACK!
A twig snaps in half, but it makes me jolt up and down.
“Who’s there?” I ask.
No one replies.
Two seconds later, three boys pop out from the bushes. They’re drunk and walking like idiots. One of them falls over a rock while the other two laugh and drink more booze. And when they look up, they spot me.
I sit there and stare at them.
It’s only then that I realize … Michael is one of the boys.
He clutches his red cup closer to his chest the moment he spots me, a flicker shimmering in his eyes. My nails dig into the wood.
“Hey, isn’t that …?” he murmurs.
I get up from the stump and bite my lip. “Leave me alone.”
He tilts his head, wearing a dirty smile on his face. “Yeah, it is. It’s you. You’re that girl. Cole’s.”
That girl. Cole’s.
Is that how I’m known now?
My stomach twists into knots as the three boys walk closer and closer.
“Hey, why aren’t you in there with him?” Michael asks. “Don’t you like him?”
“That’s none of your business,” I say, my hands forming fists.
“Aww … you’re pretty,” one of the other ones says. “Wanna dance?”
“No, thanks. I’d rather be left alone,” I say, and I walk off away from them toward the trees.
“C’mon! Don’t walk away now. We’re just trying to have fun!” the other one says. I recognize him now as the guy I just danced with back at the house. Shit.
“Don’t leave now,” Michael taunts.
“Go back to Ariane,” I yell at him.
He laughs. “Why would I? She doesn’t care about me. She only came because of Cole.”
That makes me stop in my tracks.
“How do they know each other?” I ask as I turn my head to him.
He raises a brow, and a filthy smirk appears on his face. “Yeah … you’d like to know that, wouldn’t you?” He licks his lips and then ogles me in a way that reminds me of the night I try so desperately to forget. “What are you willing to do to find out?”
“Never mind,” I say, and I quickly turn around and keep walking.
“Hold on, where are you going now?” one of the others says. He catches up with me and grabs my arm.
“Let go!” I hiss, jerking free.
He’s momentarily taken aback by my aggressive move, but I’ve learned not to get close. Especially not to drunk boys … or ones who have done drugs. Because I can definitely smell them on his breath.
“You’re too pretty. Hasn’t anyone told you that?” he murmurs, making me want to vomit with the way he’s breathing in my face. “What’s a pretty girl like you doing out here all by yourself?”
“Trying to get away from you,” I spit.
The look on his face changes. Monstrous.
Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
“Fuck you,” he retorts, his voice threatening, vile.
I quickly move away and start walking in the opposite direction again.
“You know, I think you’re a catch,” Michael says. “Cole doesn’t know what he’s got.”
I don’t reply. I keep walking and ignore them because saying anything is just baiting
them to act.
“And I think you know that,” Michael adds. “Why else would you show up at our cabin?”
They keep stalking me, and I’m getting more and more anxious as my adrenaline starts to spike.
“You wanted a taste, didn’t you?” he asks. “You were practically begging for it.”
The other boys laugh and grunt. “Maybe she’s still asking for it,” one of them says.
I wish they’d just shut up and go, but they won’t leave me alone … and they keep chasing me farther into the woods.
Suddenly, one of them grabs my arm. “C’mon. Give me a kiss. Lemme see what’s made Cole this horny.”
I slap him. Hard.
Fuck.
He touches his cheek and releases my arm. When I start walking again, he growls, “Grab her.”
Panic seeps in, and I run as hard as I can.
When I look over my shoulder, my face scrunches up at the sight of them chasing after me like goddamn hunting dogs, and I scream.
I run even faster than before, my heart racing in my throat.
Their footsteps crackle behind me as they run across the fallen leaves, a reminder of their nearby presence.
I’m being hunted down by drunk, drugged-out boys who want to do things to me that I can’t and don’t want to think about.
Tears well up in my eyes, but I keep going, so I can get as far away from them as possible. I don’t think. I just run.
But when one of them grabs ahold of my waist and pulls me down, I scream.
He quickly covers my mouth with his hand, wrestling me down onto the dirt. I cry and fight him off, but it’s no use. Another one sits down on top of me. A belt buckle is pulled.
No. No. NO!
This can’t happen again!
“You know you want it,” the boy whispers into my ear.
I squeal, tears flowing freely down my cheeks.
Suddenly, something pushes the boy off me.
WHACK!
Punches fly left and right, but I don’t know what’s going on. I’m still on my belly, my face covered in dirt and leaves. Then the other boy flies off me too.
I quickly crawl up to my feet and stumble away, barely able to stand. My body is shaking vigorously as I turn cold to the bone, and my muscles freeze from terror. Right in front of me is a tree, split in half by lightning, with a small hollow alcove in its trunk. I hide inside, shivering like a straw.
I can’t look. Can’t watch. Can’t do anything but turn away my eyes from the world, just like I did once before … the night I was ruined forever.
But this time, someone’s out there fighting for me.
Fighting against my demons.
Destroying all who dare cross his path.
Cole.
Chapter 27
Cole
The moment her scream echoed through the woods, I knew it was her.
Monica.
Not one second did I hesitate before I rushed outside. I didn’t care who was in my way. I shoved them aside.
Not even Ariane could stop me, and fuck knows she tried her hardest.
But no filth that spills from her mouth can stop me from going to find my fucking girl.
Something … or someone … made her scream, and it wasn’t me.
Whoever it was, they’re gonna pay.
“Cole! Where are you going?” Ariane calls out after me, but I ignore her.
I’ve only got one mission, and that’s to find Monica.
The sounds came from the woods just beyond the house, my father’s personal pine forest where he goes to clear his guilty conscience. With clenched fists, I run past the trees, following the sound of voices.
Three of them to be exact, coaxing her to stay and do something fun.
Fun? I’ll give them some fucking fun.
Right then, another squeal follows. All my senses perk up.
Rage overcomes me as I storm toward her and find her lying there, on the ground, with two guys on top of her, one of them pulling down his jeans while the other holds her down. And Michael is right there, sipping at his cup while he watches them do it.
Traitor.
Without thinking, I pounce down on the guy who’s on top of her and sucker punch him right in the face. He falls to the ground while I tackle the other one. From the corner of my eye, I spot Monica crawl away.
“Cole!” Michael yells, briefly distracting me.
I’m fighting with two assholes, punching them the second they get off the ground, so I can’t fucking take a second to look. Both of them attack me back with lackluster punches and dead-weight kicks. They’re completely intoxicated and loaded up on drugs too, judging from the smell.
Still, two versus one is hard to take on, and I have trouble winning the fight. Every punch they manage to land hurts like a motherfucker, and I quickly have a bloody nose and mouth. But I don’t stop. I won’t stop. Not until they’re punished … not until she’s safe.
“What the fuck are you doing?” one of them growls at me.
“YOU DARE TO FUCKING TOUCH HER?!” I scream. “You think I’m gonna let you get away with that?” I punch the one who asked me that so hard blood pours from his nose. “WRONG!”
“COLE!” Michael yells. “They were just messing with her.”
I kick the other one in the face so hard it knocks him out flat onto the ground. I spit onto his body for good measure and then punch the other one with the bleeding nose again until he’s on his knees, begging for mercy.
“Okay, okay! I got it!” he says, almost falling down completely. “I’m sorry!”
“SORRY DOESN’T FUCKING CUT IT!” I scream.
Adrenaline rushes through my veins, pushing me to act, almost forcing me to push myself to my limits. To theirs. Because I want nothing more than to kill them right here on the spot.
Maybe I should. They fucking deserve it for what they tried to do to her.
No one, and I mean no one, touches her.
“She’s yours. We got it,” Michael says.
“You fucking know that’s not what this is about,” I hiss, sweat dripping from my face as I point at him. “You and your fucking buddies chased her out here. You knew damn well what the fuck you were doing.”
“They’re drunk and stupid,” he tries to explain.
“I DON’T FUCKING CARE!” I’m fuming to the point of turning red.
“Calm the fuck down, bro,” he says. “Nothing happened.”
“It almost did. Did you hear her screams?” I snarl back. “Fuck you, Michael. Fuck you.” I spit on the ground in front of him. “You’re a fucking disgrace.”
“You’re one to talk,” he retorts. “You fucking teased her to begin with. And I’m not supposed to enjoy it too?”
“What I do is none of your fucking business,” I say, getting all up in his face now.
“Look at what you did to them,” he says, pointing at his buddies as they can barely get off the ground, but I don’t fucking care. Not anymore.
“They had it coming. Shouldn’t have done what they did.”
His nostrils flare. “What now? What are you gonna do then? Punch me too?”
“I’m thinking about it,” I growl, but I’ve lost a lot of energy fighting those bastards.
“Do it then. Show me what kind of a man you are,” he says through gritted teeth.
He’d never call me out like that if I hadn’t wasted all my punches on those guys.
I’d win a fair fight, and he knows that. That’s why he chooses to taunt me now.
But I won’t fucking fall for it.
“At least I’m not the kind who chases screaming girls into the forest and lets his buddies have their way with her,” I bark.
We stare at each other for a moment, and I can almost feel the tension crackling.
He’s daring me … daring me to act.
But I won’t stoop to his level and let him destroy me.
“I should call the cops on you for beating them up,” he growls.
&n
bsp; “Fuck you,” I hiss. “Call the cops, then. Do it. You can’t, can you?”
His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t respond.
Instead, he turns around and walks off into the woods, taking a sip of his drink as if none of this meant anything to him.
“Thought so.” I wipe the sweat off my forehead. “You know what? You’re out!” I yell after him. “Out of the fucking band. You hear me? I don’t wanna see your fuck face ever again!”
He doesn’t say another word, but I know he heard me. Everyone on the goddamn grounds could probably hear me, so there will be gossip going around, and within minutes literally, everyone who follows our band online will know.
But I don’t care.
All I care about right now is protecting her.
Monica.
But where is she?
I spin on my heels and look around, but she’s nowhere to be found.
I take a step in the direction she crawled toward, but my knee caves underneath me, and I go to the ground. My muscles feel tight, and only now do I realize those punches hurt quite a bit. So much that I find it hard to get up. And I stay here with my knees buried in the soil so I can catch my breath. When I look up, I finally spot her, hiding in a tiny alcove of a tree split in half.
My lungs suck in the biggest breath they have ever taken.
I force myself to get up and brush away the pain. When I walk to her, every noise makes her jolt up and down. Every step I take causes her to turn inward toward the tree, into herself, and I realize I gotta take it slow.
She’s shivering, not from the cold, but from the suffering she’s endured.
Suffering I took part in.
Guilt floods my bones as I kneel in front of her and wait. I wish I could say what was on my heart right now, but it feels so heavy. She’s unraveling before me, and there’s nothing I can do to stop the bleeding in her heart.
I try to reach out, but the moment my hand touches her arm, she freezes completely.
“They tried to … to …” she mutters, tears swelling in her eyes. “It almost happened again, just like before.”
Before?
“Did they try to do that to you before?” I ask, frowning, getting angry again from the mere thought of their filthy hands on her body.
She shakes her head, but the tears keep rolling down her cheeks even though she’s barely breathing.
Rowdy Boy (A High School Bully Romance): Black Mountain Academy Page 20