by Haley Parker
“Thank God,” she groaned. “This is the closest thing to foreplay a girl like me could ever get.” She grinned when she saw the blush creep into the edges of my cheeks. “I can’t believe how prude you are, Baywatch,” she declared, using her self-inflicted nickname for me. “Especially since you’ve got a pretty hot bod hiding underneath those baggy clothes.”
I shuttered at her words in shock. I had been described as plenty of things before but the girl with a ‘hot bod’ had never been one of them. I knew I wasn’t horrible to look at but I wasn’t memorable either. I had always had the ability to slip through the cracks, like the invisible tape you never knew was there in the first place. My dark brown locks hung in long strands across my narrow nose and square jaw, hiding my pale skin from the rest of the world. My eyes were a dull brown; specs of mercury trailed along the edges but only came to life when I was angry enough to curse, which was a rarity. The so-called bod Alyssa referred to was hardly a bod at all but rather a square that had my boobs and ass looking more and more like dirty mops by the second. They might have been a little bigger than average but there was nothing toned about them. I used my books to shield more of myself and turned to look at her. “And I can’t believe how much of a prude you aren’t considering you’ve never even kissed a boy.”
Alyssa grinned, revealing brilliant white teeth. “Oh, I’m totally ready. It’s just tough to find a guy willing to look past the whole nerd status I have going on. Don’t get it twisted, I might be ready to discover my kinky side but I refuse to change for anyone.” She shrugged. “Besides I have a completely normal relationship with my body, I masturbate like three times a week.”
“Too much information,” I grumbled but she only grinned at my mortification. The truth was that I would have loved to be more like Alyssa. She may have been what people considered a loser at our school but she was confident enough in who she was to not let any of those voices get to her. I should have taken a cue from her but it was easier said than done. I couldn’t help the part of me that felt like I would always be soft no matter how hard I tried to appear hard. My self-esteem had been destroyed a long time ago and getting it back was a battle I hadn’t yet mastered.
As if God wanted to solidify my thoughts a girly snarl clipped into my eardrum. “Oh, God, you know it’s bad when even the losers wait to catch a glimpse.” Rogan Holland and her posse of perfectly tweaked clones passed Alyssa and me with authority. “I say let them drool if they want to. Hell, I would let them watch me lick the sweat off Hunter’s massive cock if it was what they were into.”
I looked away, pretending not to hear her.
“Give it a rest, would you, Rogan?”
Rogan swung around with icy blue eyes until she saw who the owner of the husky voice belonged to. Jeremy Collins was one of the few guys in our class that the Woods brothers let get close to them. He was their neighbor and on the football team with the three of them. Rogan knew that crossing him would be crossing all four of them. “Oh,” she said dropping her tone and shooting him the same smile that had half the student body eating out of the palm of her hand. “Hi, Jeremy. What’s up?” She pushed forward on the heels of her white wedge sandals. “Do you know anything about what’s going down for the weakened?”
Jeremy tilted his head to the side and looked back at her thoughtfully. “The only thing I know for sure, Rogan, is that if anyone’s likely to watch anything having to do with Hunter’s cock from a distance then it’s you since I know for a fact you’ve been trying to close the deal for months now only to come up short handed every single time.”
Rogan’s mouth dropped open and I stifled back a laugh.
“I’ll see you guys around.” Jeremy turned his handsome face to lock eyes with me and shot me a wink before taking off down the hall, no doubt to find the very group of brothers that had turned the conversation into something so ugly in the first place.
I watched his large body retreat in shock before turning back to Rogan and locking my eyes onto the ground. The last thing I wanted was to attract unwanted attention to myself now that the protection of Jeremy had vanished from the perimeter.
“Careful,” Alyssa whispered, elbowing me in the side of the stomach when the rest of the hallway went silent. “Blink and you’ll miss it.” The doors on the other side of the building flew open with a rapid bang.
I snapped my head around to watch the breeze of beautifulness that would erupt around us within seconds. And, just like every day, I wasn’t let down. Hunter led the pact the same way he always did, brooding dark eyes trained straight ahead as if none of us existed to him. His toned chest and tight abs were covered in a black t-shirt that barely fit the largeness of his arm muscles into the fabric that existed as sleeves and faded dark blue jeans rested easily on the arch of his hips. There was nothing memorable about what he was wearing, it was the kind of thing you would see every day, but somehow on Hunter Woods, leader of our small town and everyone’s favorite bad boy, it was unforgettable. I gulped as he got closer to me, pressing my legs into one another in an attempt to hide the heat that had started to rise in the center of my body. I felt as if my body was going through an awakening, understanding what Alyssa talked so freely about. It was something I would never admit out loud but sometimes when I was in the safety of my own room late at night I would do the dirty things she accused me of being so tight-lipped about. And the image of Hunter’s hands all over my body was what pushed me over the edge every single time.
Lex Collins, Jeremy's little sister, strode past me and down the hall with power, knocking me out of my own daydreams as her long blonde hair swung behind her body in a scent of sweetness. She was the envy of every girl within a twenty-mile radius and not just because she was gorgeous with her models like body and long tan legs that practically reached her bright blue eyes and flawless skin. But also because she was the only girl to ever lock one of the Woods brothers into boyfriend material. She grinned widely at the figures coming toward her, nudging Jeremy with her shoulder before throwing herself into Aron’s arms and crushing her lips on top of his.
Aron didn’t waste any time kissing his girl back, pushing his hands down her back and cupping her ass for the rest of the hallway to openly see. Hunter glared over at his little brother and scowled at the two of them. It didn’t take much to see he didn’t approve of his little brother’s love life. After a second he snapped his jaw forward again and pretended Lex didn’t exist to him.
I took the opportunity to study the rest of his pact. Hunter was the oldest and most powerful but Aron was a close second. He looked almost identical to his older brother only with green eyes and a less defined body. He was what our town referred to as the one with the sarcastic humor. He had a nag for delivering the best one-liners with a drop-dead serious look on his face. Most of the time you didn’t know if he was joking or not until he started cracking up a few beats later. I had thought he was just misunderstood at first but I was starting to think that it was just his way of making people uncomfortable and then getting off on their anxiety. He also had a killer arm that had delivered us two state football championships and was well on his way to producing a third. His athletic skills and signature smile had coined him our town golden boy instantly. Only a few months younger than Hunter, rumor had it their father had gotten two women pregnant at the same time before ditching them both and taking his sons with him. Of course, there were a lot of rumors where the Woods boys were concerned; knowing what was real and what wasn’t was a never-ending game.
Carter Woods was the youngest and the one closest to me in age. He was easily the most sought after boy in our grade with the same dead eyes as the rest of his brothers but a cunning charm the rest of his blood didn’t seem to possess. Don’t misunderstand, he definitely knew how hot he was, but he wasn’t unapproachable. Just the opposite, if you were nice to Carter he was nice to you… until he wasn’t. He had a way of making you feel secure and then dropping you out in the cold in a very harsh and very public m
anner. I had made sure to always stay away from him for that very reason. He was also insanely intelligent, like genius status, not that he would ever tell anyone. I only knew because my stepfather was the lawyer who represented his family in multiple legal proceedings and when Carter had gotten himself into some breaking and entering trouble a few months back his personal file had been like an open book on the desk of my stepfather’s office. It had been wrong to look but hard to regret once it was over. They were so closed off to the rest of the world, it felt special to know things about them that no one else ever would.
And then there was Jeremy. As I said, Jeremy Collins was the Wood's neighbor and best friend. Close to Hunter and Aron’s age and his father best friends with theirs, it wasn’t hard to figure out why they were so close. They had grown up together. He seemed nice enough but that day had been the first time he had ever glanced my way. Sometimes I wondered if it was more complicated than it seemed, living in the shadow of the most sought after boys in town. It was fun to envy him but a different thing altogether to actually understand what it was like to be him.
Because the Woods brothers might have looked pretty but their souls were anything but. They ruled everyone with fear and hate. Everyone wanted to be close to them but everyone was equally terrified of them. I held my breath tighter the closer they got, afraid if I blew out the air I had started to accumulate in my lungs then I would blow away. The adrenalin combined with the fear that took over my veins was more intense than usual when I glazed my eyes down the front of Hunter’s body and ended up resting on the bulge that rested below his waist. God, if he was that big soft I could only imagine what he must look like hard.
I felt myself flush instantly at the thought and my body shivered heavily before the book that had been safely collapsed against my chest slipped from my grip and flew through the hallway, landing right at the feet of Hunter Woods himself. The already silent hallway seemed to inhale their breath, just as nervous as I was about how he would react. You just never knew the version of Hunter you would get.
I stepped forward, desperate to move it out of his way before he had to compose any kind of response. His dark and intense eyes narrowing in on me stopped me in my tracks. He halted, looking me up and down slowly before a soft snarl came out of the side of his mouth, dismissing me as not worth his time. He turned back to the book, clearly unimpressed by me, and for a short second, I thought he might bend over and pick it up for me like any gentleman would. But after a few more empty beats Hunter lifted his foot over the book and brushed past me, knocking roughly into my shoulder as he passed through me like I didn't exist.
Hunter Woods didn’t do chivalry.
3 - Now
I pulled the hood of my jacket over my head in shame, absolutely mortified by what had just transpired inside of that grocery store. My fingers pushed through the ends of my new botched hair and I cringed. My hair had been one of the few things I had actually liked about myself and now it was a mess just like the rest of me.
“Nice haircut, trailer trash,” Rogan Holland’s voice vibrated loudly across the parking lot from where she leaned against her shiny new black range rover. “If you ask me Hunter did you a favor.”
I froze and closed my eyes, determined not to get caught up in her crap today. God, didn’t anyone have anything better to do? Jobs to get back to? It was in the middle of the day during a weekday. I was beginning to wonder if Hunter and the rest of his posse paid people to make it their full-time job to torture me. At the rate my life had been going, nothing would have surprised me.
“You realize I live in a million dollar house, right, Rogan?” It was a far reach from a trailer park and she knew it, she just liked reminding me how little I belonged in a place as extravagant as her rich ass town. Funny everyone wanted to tell me that every fucking day but nobody wanted to let me leave.
She puckered her pink lips out and looked me up and down as if I had just crawled out of a dumpster. “Could have fooled me, Bailey bitch.” She smiled at the use of another one of her lovely nicknames for me.
I shook my head and continued across the parking lot. I didn’t have the time to get into a back and forth with her today. Thanks to Hunter, Carter, and Lex I was already way past the point of late. I could just picture my stepfather waiting by the door with disdain written across his face. He had expected me to be late, counted on it, so he could remind me what a failure I was to him and the rest of our family.
“See you later, trailer park,” Bailey called after me.
Her harsh words were lost on my ears when I spotted the tall figure waiting next to my car. My stepfather had his blue eyes narrowed in on me, his hands tucked into the pocket of his dark blue suit as he waited impatiently for me. Fuck, I had been so late that he had come down here to check on me himself. Not good, not good at all. I swallowed down my fear and started to close the distance between our bodies. “I had an accident inside of the store and got held up,” I said right away, already beginning to shoot off excuses.
I knew him well enough to know that it wouldn’t matter but I also knew him well enough to know that it would be much worse if I said nothing at all. “I’ll just put these in the car and get right home to put them away,” I said in a rush, failing to step around him when he moved with my body and blocked my path. I finally looked up from the ground and met his eyes. They looked the same way they always did right before he was about to pounce on me.
Thrilled.
He let out a low snort and tucked his prune-like lips into one another the way he always did when he was displeased with me. “You can’t do anything right, can you?” He reached out and took me by the edge of my elbow roughly. “You’ll always be the stupid…”
My body was pulled backward instantly, a shot of hot air blasting into the back of my neck as Hunter through his arm over the side of my shoulder. “What’s up, daddy-o?” he asked my stepfather sarcastically while pulling me closer to the side of his body. “Is the town’s favorite toy acting up again?” He pushed his head onto the top of my own. To an outsider, it might have looked almost intimate but I knew better. “Maybe she needs to learn a lesson.”
If there was anyone who hated the Woods as much as I did, it was my stepfather. Even before everything that had happened that night with Aron, he thought they were spoiled brats who had way too much power for their age. He had to be nice to their faces, though. After all, their family was responsible for half of his yearly salary with various business adventures and countless amount of trouble none of them could seem to stay out of.
My stepfather brushed off the daddy-o sarcasm and plastered a fake smile on his face, the same way he always did whenever Hunter or one of his family members came around. “Hunter, my boy,” he said before holding his hand out to him. “So good to see you.”
Hunter glanced down at his hand before ignoring the gesture and releasing my body so roughly that I barely managed to stay upright. “Do me a favor and keep her out of my grocery store, would you? I can’t stand having to fucking look at her.”
I looked back at my stepfather, silently cursing him. Exactly why I hadn’t wanted to go out today. Hunter had already banned me from too many locations in town to count and the grocery store we were in the current parking lot of was the only one within a fifty-mile radius. Something I was sure he was all too aware of. Not only had I been humiliated again in front of the town but now there was another place I wasn’t allowed to set foot inside of.
My stepfather just sighed the same way he always did, always polite in public. “I understand, Hunter, I try to do my best to keep her in line but… you know, how she is. I’m still trying to get her to see someone. You know, professionally.” He talked about me as if I wasn’t right next to him.
My fists twisted into small balls next to my body, desperate to flip out on both of them and scream at the top of my lungs. Desperate to fight the fuck back. Just once. It was the only thing that had been on my vision board for over a year. Fight back.
Hunter scoffed loudly before starting to back away from us. “No amount of therapy in the world could fix that fucking mess,” he quipped back at the two of us. “Keep her away from me, Rick, I mean it.”
Ironic since he was the one who kept seeking me out.
My stepfather turned to me once he was out of sight and the wide grin turned into a deep scowl. “Get the fuck inside of the car, Bailey, now.”
I put my head down and did what I was told.
Just like I always did.
4 - Now
I could feel his eyes on me the entire walk into the house. His heat burning off of his body as he watched me put the groceries away slowly, every move sending him more and more toward the edge. When I was finished he crossed the kitchen in a few easy strides, grabbing me by the wrist and dragging me up the stairs so fast that my feet could barely keep up. “Look what you did now,” he informed me. “You can’t even go to the fucking grocery store because you’re such an idiot.” He dragged me down the long hallway and opened the closet at the end of the hall. “I’ll deal with you later,” he informed me before slamming the door shut and locking it behind him. “I want you to think about what a disappointment you are while you’re in there.”
I pulled my knees into my chest and pushed back into the blanket I had hidden in there for situations just like the horrific one I had been thrown into. And then I waited because I knew it would come the same way it always did. A soft knock on the other side of the wood followed by a scared tremble. “Bailey.” A long pause. “Bailey? Are you okay?”
And there it was. The reason I hadn’t run a long time ago.