After the Fall: Human Underground (Taboo Erotica) (Eden Harem Book 3)

by Anya Merchant

  Rachel was in the kitchen, still wearing her nightgown, except now she had a white apron with ”Kiss the Cook” printed in pink across the front draped over it.

  “I can fix you lunch too if you don’t want to have to buy it at school…” Rachel looked at him hopefully, as if him eating her food would be the ultimate coup. Ben shook his head. He’d always paid for his own lunch, even when it meant volunteering for odd jobs in the neighbor’s yard and doing whatever else it took to scrape together money.

  “I’m fine, thanks though.” He reached for the toast off his plate and picked up a couple of strips of bacon in his fingers, dropping them on top of it.

  “You should really use a fork.” Rachel’s tone of voice was that of a woman who wanted to chastise, but almost didn’t know how. Ben shrugged his shoulders and took a bite.

  “Sorry, I have to rush out of here,” he said. “I’m meeting Danny at his place on the way to school, and his parents make him leave by the time they leave for work.”

  “Alright,” she said softly. “Have a nice day.”

  Ben turned to leave but stopped as he reached the door. It felt as though Rachel still had something she wanted to say.

  Why has it been like this, so tense, between the two of us, lately?

  “And Ben?” She looked at him, furrowing her brow ever so slightly and biting her luscious bottom lip.

  “Yeah, Rachel?”

  “…I uh…” She stopped and glanced up at the ceiling. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Yeah,” said Ben. “I’ll see you then.”

  His head hurt slightly as he walked out the front door and shut it behind him. It had been the same the day before, and almost the same the day before that. The two of them had grown close, bonding throughout Ben’s recovery and sharing in the tragedy of his lost memories. And now he was a senior in high school, on the other side of his confusing teenage hormones. Now he could move and think and act for himself, without necessarily needing her there for support.

  I don’t want to feel like that. I still need her, and I still want to be with her, but…

  Things were changing for Ben in ways that didn’t make sense. He could never say it to her face, just as she could never say it to his, but he loved Rachel. He loved her as more than just a caretaker, and even just acknowledging it at a glance made his stomach twist and ache with illicit desire.

  When he’d first woken up in the hospital, she had been there. Ben had panicked, completely unable to even answer the doctor’s questions about who he was, and how he’d ended up in the water. Rachel had been there to calm him down, and make him feel at ease.

  He wasn’t even sure if his name was really Ben. The “B” of it, he was sure about, but that was essentially all. His name, his original name, had started with a “B”. Whether it was Ben, Bruce, or Barry, he had no idea.

  Nobody had ever come looking for him. That was what had hurt Ben the most, or would have hurt him the most, if he’d ever thought that he’d actually had a family.

  Rachel’s the closest thing that I have to that, the closest thing I’ll ever have.

  CHAPTER 2

  “Ben!” A familiar voice pulled Ben out of his dour mood. His friend Danny was on his way out the front door of his house. Without realizing it, Ben had made the fifteen minute trip there in a walking daze.

  “Oh, Danny,” he said. “Hey…”

  “You sound almost surprised to see me,” said Danny. “Come on, we should get moving. If we get to school early enough we won’t have to deal with Cliff.”

  I’d almost forgotten about that. Damn it, that’s not something I’m in the mood for today.

  Cliff was the captain of Emerald High School’s wrestling team and the type of teenager who didn’t understand how to leave his aggression in the ring. Ever since Ben had been a freshman, the abuse that Cliff had thrown his way had been a constant, demoralizing force in his life.

  It was embarrassing for him, especially given that Ben had the strangest feeling that he’d just been letting it happen. When Cliff would make a move to bully him, Ben didn’t usually resist or object. There was something deep within him that made him feel as though he needed to stay calm and not overreact.

  Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter if I care or not. Everyone else at the school does, and they can see for themselves what’s going on.

  “Why the hell is it that Cliff has such a special hatred for the two of us?” asked Ben. “I mean, there are over a thousand students at our high school.”

  “I don’t know Ben,” said Danny. “Maybe it’s because we’re too good looking?”

  Ben laughed, and Danny playfully pushed his shoulder. Danny had always been there for him, and he’d had his back essentially since day one, right after Ben had first arrived in Emerald Hills.

  The first few weeks of his life in the town had not been especially fun. He’d been staying with Rachel after he’d left the hospital, but back then, she had been just as much of a stranger to him as anyone else.

  Nobody had known what to do with him. The foster system had fought for custody, and Rachel had worked overtime to ensure that he stayed with her. Ben was grateful for it and had told her as much many times over.

  “Why are you so quiet today, bro?” asked Danny. “Look, it’s still the beginning of the year. There’s no use getting depressed now, think of homecoming, and think of all the cheerleaders we’ll get to watch at the football games.”

  Ben forced a smile and nodded. Danny had been sitting next to him on his first day as a freshman at the school. He’d talked Ben’s ear off incessantly about his worries, the bullying, passing tests, and, of course, girls. The two of them had become close primarily because of how good Ben seemed to be at listening. The reality was, having no memory left him with very little to say, especially for the first year or so after the accident.

  “Yeah, I know,” said Ben. “I’m just thinking about my life. Asking questions that don’t have answers. Come on, you’re right, we don’t want to get to school too late.”

  Emerald High was, in actuality, a rather drab looking building made of brick and concrete. It was overenrolled this year, which meant that the hallways were usually packed with people in between classes. It also meant that lunch was a very long, drawn-out affair for those who ate the school’s food.

  “Catch you later man!” Danny’s locker was on the second floor, and he waved to Ben as he split off towards it. There were more people than he’d been expecting, given that there was still another twenty minutes until first bell, but Ben brushed it off and headed up the stairs.

  “Look who’s here!” Cliff’s voice, unmistakable in how unusually high pitched it was for someone of his size, cut through the air like a blunt knife. “You’re such a good boy, Ben, always getting to school with plenty of time left over to spare.”

  The wrestling jock was leaned up against his own locker, which was only a couple down from Ben’s. Ben sighed. He’d grown used to the abuse, but he could never accustom himself to the tempered restraint he had to hold over his tongue. Responding would only tempt Cliff into causing pain, and more importantly, causing a scene.

  Cliff had several of his wrestling friends with him, and even though Ben’s adrenaline was pumping, he knew better.

  “Hey Cliff,” said Ben. “I’m just getting my stuff out of my locker, don’t mind me.”

  He began to twirl the combination lock and watched out of his peripheral vision as Cliff walked over to him and leaned against the locker next to his.

  “Oh I don’t mind at all,” said Cliff. “As long as you don’t mind, either.”

  Ben opened his locker and pulled one of the books he needed for his first class out of it. Cliff slapped it down with an almost accidental looking cuff, and his friends broke into high pitched hooting.

  “Whoops! My bad!” Cliff reached into Ben’s locker and pulled out some loose papers from the top compartment, tossing them into the hallway. “We’re still friends though, right, B
en?”

  Strange, powerful emotions surged through Ben’s chest. Every fiber of his being was telling him that he should do something, anything, but somehow, he managed to keep himself under control.

  Why am I so good at enduring abuse? I would almost prefer a fight against the group of them over this constant humiliation.

  But Ben knew that even if he did throw a punch, it wouldn’t be enough to stop it. In the juvenile, immature fashion of high school bullies everywhere, it would only embolden Cliff, and convince him of the righteous nature of his tormenting. Ben sighed and began picking up his stuff from the floor of the hallway.

  “Oh man, look, everybody,” Cliff called out to the students walking past. “Forgetful Ben has dropped all of his homework. Let’s help him out, we don’t want him to forget anything he needs for class.”

  Cliff leaned down next to Ben as though he was going to help, and then drove one of his hands towards Ben’s back. The push came from Ben’s blind spot, but he never felt it make contact.

  He rolled to the side out of habit, his muscle memory acting before his mind even had time to think. Cliff was carried forward by his momentum and tripped over his own feet, falling flat on his stomach.

  I should have just let him push me. How did I even know to dodge that?

  “Wrong move, fuck face.” Cliff sounded slightly winded as he pulled himself to his feet. “I was trying to help you pick up your stuff, right guys?”

  The rest of the jocks picked up on cue and grabbed Ben’s arms, pinning him to the lockers as Cliff cracked his knuckles. Ben pushed all of the air out of his lungs and tensed his muscles up as the blows began to rain down.

  It was only a minute or two later when the wrestling captain grew tired of him. Ben slid down the locker to the hallway floor, his chest and stomach aching but his face, thankfully, having been spared.

  “Let’s get out of here,” said Cliff. “Forgetful Ben has probably already forgotten what he did to deserve it.”

  Ben just stared ahead blankly at the wall. The beating had been obnoxious, but only in a physical sense. It was easy for him to put it out of his mind and go back to what he was doing. He scooped up the rest of his papers, placed them back where they belonged, and then got out the books he needed for Ms. Thatcher’s AP History class just as first bell was beginning to ring.

  And it’s all the way on the other side of the building. Looks like I’ll have one more late arrival on my attendance record.

  By the time Ben had made it to the classroom, Ms. Thatcher was already lecturing to the rest of the students and putting the agenda up on the chalkboard. Ben waited by the door until she turned around and then tried to slip into the room unnoticed.

  “Mr. Faye, you’re six minutes late.” Ms. Thatcher’s strict voice reprimanded him sharply, and she didn’t break from the diagram she was drawing on the board. “That’s the third time you’ve been late for my class, and we’re not even a month into the start of the year.”

  “I know, I’m sorry, Ms. Thatcher.” Ben winced as he sat down at his desk. Several of the other students in the class were whispering and chuckling to each other.

  Just one more thing for them to talk about, I suppose.

  “I hope that your cavalier attitude does not extend to your studies,” she said. “We have a quiz today. No notes and no questions.”

  Ben tried to not let his frustration show on his face. He remembered her mentioning the quiz the week before, but he had lost his study guide in the hallway after a recent locker raid by Cliff.

  “Yes, Ms. Thatcher, I remember,” he said. “I’ve been studying all-“

  He paused as another girl, one that he had never seen before, appeared in the doorway. Ms. Thatcher’s attention was torn as well, to Ben’s relief.

  The girl was short, but she carried herself with confident, relaxed body language. She had gorgeous blond hair that hung down to her shoulders and a face that was beautiful in a very cute, elfishly feminine way. She was wearing a white blouse that outlined her nicely sized breasts and a tight pair of jeans that clung to her trim waist and curvy butt.

  “Sorry, am I late?” Her voice was soft and musical, almost like a tiny bell. “It’s my first day. I had a little bit of trouble finding the… classroom.”

  For a brief moment, she trailed off, and her eyes locked onto Ben, shining with something that looked a lot like like elation.

  Why is she looking at me like that? Did she see that I came in late, too?

  “You must be Emma Slate,” said Ms. Thatcher. “Yes, have a seat. You’re on my attendance list, but I wasn’t expecting you until the beginning of next week.”

  “Yeah, sorry, I ended up arriving in town a little early.” The girl, Emma, looked around the room with a smile on her face. Her eyes passed by Ben several times, and he found that it was strangely easy for him to meet her gaze, intense as it was.

  “Have a seat,” said Ms. Thatcher. “We have a quiz on the War of 1812. You’re welcome to take it, though it will count against your grade if you decide to.”

  “I would love to,” said Emma, with more cheer in her voice than Ben had ever heard a person use to talk about an assignment. She was still looking at him, and he wasn’t all that surprised when she walked over and sat down at the empty desk to the left of his.

  “Alright, if that’s the last interruption for the morning, how about we get started?” Ms. Thatcher cleared her throat and moved back to the front of the room. “You’ll have twenty minutes to finish your quiz. No talking and absolutely no phones. Clear your desks off and I’ll pass them out.”

  The classroom filled with the sound of chairs sliding and books dropping to the floor. Ben glanced back over at Emma and saw that she was still looking at him.

  What is her deal, anyway?

  “Hi,” she whispered to him, smiling and reaching out her hand. “I’m Emma.”

  “Uh, hey,” said Ben, with a nod. “Ben.”

  He took her hand into his and slowly shook it, surprised by the way she almost seemed to shiver at his touch.

  “Ben,” she said. “That’s your name? Ben?”

  This is so weird…

  “Yeah, that’s my name,” said Ben. “Ben Faye. Is there some reason why”

  “Shhhhhhh.” Ms. Thatcher looked at him sternly and held a finger up to her lips. “The quiz is being passed out. No talking.”

  Ben watched Emma watch him for a moment longer and then turned to receive a copy of the quiz from the teacher. He glanced over the questions and felt his heart sink a little. It would have been hard enough for him to pass without being distracted, but with the strangeness of the new girl, he could barely even think about his answers.

  A couple of silent minutes went past. Ben managed to get a decent start, but his awareness was not on his desk. The room felt tense, and he couldn’t stop himself from being aware of Emma, so beautiful and so nearby. He wondered if she was still looking at him, and also why it was the she was acting so odd.

  Something landed next to his foot. Ben glanced down and saw a tiny piece of folded paper on the ground. He looked back up at Ms. Thatcher, who was flipping through a book on her desk. Slowly, he bent down, acting like he was tying his shoe as he picked up the note. A single word had been scribbled in neat, feminine handwriting.

  Lunch?

  Ben flattened the note out and started to write out his response on it.

  “Mr. Faye, you are not putting yourself in a good spot for the rest of the year with your behavior.” Ms. Thatcher’s high heels clacked against the tile floor as she walked over to his desk. She picked up the note, took one look at it, and then groaned.

  “Plan your lunch dates outside of my class from now on,” she said. “If I catch you passing notes again, you’ll be in detention for the rest of the day. That goes for you too, Ms. Slate. I don’t know how they did things at your old school, but that kind of behavior is not tolerated here.”

  The entire class looked over at him and Emma. Ben tried
not to look too confused or embarrassed as he turned his head back over to her and slowly nodded his head.

  Why not? She’s cute, and it beats eating lunch alone.

  CHAPTER 3

  The rest of history class went by relatively uneventfully. Ben wanted to leave at the same time as Emma, but Ms. Thatcher ended up holding him for a few minutes after to talk to him about his behavior. All he could do was meet the new girls beautifully intense blue eyes as she walked by him on her way out.

  Ms. Thatcher’s life lecture went on for a couple of minutes, and somewhat ironically, made him late for his next class after that, which was Math. Ben did his best to focus on taking good notes and listening to the teacher, but there was something that kept pulling his attention back to his thoughts.

  Why did she look at me so strangely? She barely looked at anyone else for the entire period.

  “Ben Faye.” Mr. Draper was his calculus teacher, and his words always sounded deep and authoritative. “Why don’t you come up to the board and show us how this problem is done?”

  The algebraic equation on the wall was intimidating, but math was a subject that Ben understood better than history. He made his way up to the board and silently worked out the problem, circling his answer at the end.

  “Hmmm… not bad,” said Mr. Draper. “I almost thought you weren’t paying attention.”

  She wants to have lunch with me. Has anyone other than Danny ever wanted to have lunch with me before?

  “You can go back to your seat now, Mr. Faye,” said the teacher. A low hum of laughter buzzed through the classroom as Ben made his way back to his desk.

  The next hour or so went by in a blur of thoughts and note taking. Ben felt more than a little out of it, but somehow, he also felt more like a normal high school student than he’d ever felt before.

  Once the lunch bell had sounded for the seniors, Ben walked to the cafeteria alone. His heart was racing before he’d made it inside. It took him a moment to calm down as he stood in the lunch line, and he began to scan the cafeteria for any sign of Emma.