Faeted: A Dark Prince New Adult Bully Romance

by Deiri Di

  Better to look things up for yourself than accept ignorance.

  Benjamin moved her arm so that it hovered over Ze.

  "I don't go along with things just for the sake of not standing out," he said. Ze shifted to the side. Benjamin moved Mari's arm to follow. "That'd be boring."

  He dropped her arm.

  Mari didn't let her arm fall on the fairy. She moved it to her side.

  "Ze saw Ze saw!" Ze squealed. The fairy scampered up her torso and jumped onto Mari's face. She grabbed Mari's eyebrows and spread her wings to block Mari's vision. "Human wants to smoosh Ze!"

  Mari sat up.

  Ze didn't let go.

  Oh, she could so do this. She could totally have a conversation with an attractive football player while a fairy glommed onto her face.

  "Is that why you're talking to me?

  "I'm talking to you because you're here," Benjamin said. She couldn't really see him through Ze's wings, but she thought she detected a smile in his voice. "Plus, I'm definitely going insane."

  Ze scrambled up to the top of her head, using her hair as leverage. "ZE SHOW!"

  Ze launched herself straight at Benjamin's face.

  He flinched, ducking to the side as the fairy zoomed by him. Ze landed against the support for the bleacher.

  Benjamin grabbed a textbook from his bag.

  He hauled back, ready to chuck the book like a football.

  "NO!" Mari lunged forward, half landing in his lap as she wrapped herself around his arm. "Don't do that!"

  "Don't throw my book?" He dropped the book and grabbed Mari's arms, holding her with a gentle strength. "Why shouldn't I throw my book?"

  Oh gosh.

  His arms slipped around her back as he held her closer. There was something in his face, something completely and utterly desperate.

  "Please, please tell me why I shouldn't throw my book."

  Mari looked up at this guy who held her. He was someone she'd been sincere with from the start – she couldn't change her tune now.

  "Because you wouldn't want to hit a fairy," she whispered. "It's like hitting a beehive."

  Benjamin's face was completely blank, expressionless.

  Then he looked up over the top of her head.

  "Oh, this is going to be fun," he said.

  Then he kissed her.

  Click.

  Oh no.

  Benjamin let her go.

  Mari sat there half in his lap for a long second, then scuttled backward.

  There she was.

  That same underclassman – braces and frizzy brown hair, glasses, mismatching socks, and an incredibly good sense of timing with her photographs.

  Benjamin giggled.

  The underclassman ran off.

  Giggles turned into full-on chuckles as he fell over backward, wholly consumed by laughter.

  "Benjamin!" Mari jumped up to her feet. "You are a jerk!"

  "No, no, that was funny!" He grinned.

  That was not funny. That was not even close to funny.

  She didn't want to kiss him. She didn't want to kiss any of them.

  She just found out that she killed someone!

  She was a murderer.

  "You are a self-centered pig!" Mari ripped his bandana off her wrist and threw it down on top of him.

  "Hey now," he sat up. "Don't be mad."

  "Don't tell me what to feel!" she snarled.

  "I don't see why you're upset." He crossed his arms. "You know you wanted to kiss me. Every girl does."

  "ZE!"

  Ze landed on her shoulder. "Yes? Yesyesyesyesyes?"

  Mari looked directly at the fairy.

  "Will you please go to Benjamin's house and shred all of his underwear?"

  "YES!" The fairy launched into the air.

  "Wait – what?" Benjamin blinked. "They do what you tell them?"

  Huh. Good point. When had the fairies ever done something she asked?

  Wait – when has she ever asked them to do anything?

  Also, the most popular boy in the school could see fairies.

  She was no longer alone. There was another human that was like her.

  And he was a self-absorbed jerk.

  This was just too much.

  "Screw you!" She shouted. "I'm going home!"

  #

  Home wasn't any better.

  There were four pamphlets on her bed—glossy packages to recruit her to the army, navy, air force, or marines. Mari picked them up and went back down the stairs of the narrow little townhouse.

  "Cathy," Mari said. "What are these? They were on my bed."

  Cathy didn't stir from her position in front of the television. Once upon a time, she had been an energetic woman, but that, and the sharpness of her mind, had faded under the constant glow of the television. "Just thought you should consider your options."

  "I don't want to join the military. I want to go to college."

  Though how she was going to deal with college with a baby dragon balanced on her hip... she would deal with that when she got to it. She couldn't think about that now.

  First, she had to survive high school.

  Literally.

  "We don't always get what we want," Cathy said. "The military has great career paths, guaranteed promotions, and retirement. It's a good option for a girl like you."

  "Like me? Like what?"

  "Honey, you have to think long term." Cathy turned to look over the edge of the couch. "Honey, it's not like you're going to land yourself a billionaire. Look at you. Those military men are desperate for company. You'll have some better choices."

  Waaaaaaaaaaargh!

  "Cathy, I hate boys! I hate them all! They're all jerks!" Mari threw the pamphlets at her step-mother. They fluttered through the air, landing everywhere but where she directed them. "I'm not joining the military just so I can be surrounded by stupid, stupid faces!"

  Cathy blinked. "What happened at school today?"

  "NOTHING HAPPENED!" Mari ran back up the stairs and slammed the door to her bedroom.

  She waited for Cathy to follow.

  She didn't.

  The drone of the television echoed up the stairs.

  #

  SLUT.

  The word was carved into her favorite tree trunk, that poor misused oak.

  Mari didn't realize how much a word could wound.

  It hurt even more that they took a knife to her tree.

  "It's going to get worse," Bob said.

  Mari turned to look at the custodian. She hadn't even heard him walk up. She had been so absorbed in the wound created by childish hatred.

  "What?"

  "It'll get worse before it gets better," Bob sighed and touched the cut with gnarled fingers. "It always does."

  "What do I do?" Mari clutched the straps of her backpack. She had only a few more minutes before the homeroom bell rang, and she had to face an entire room full of people who had seen those pictures.

  "Survive the week," Bob said. "Try not to give them what they want. Thanksgiving break will give you a little space to breathe, and something else will come around. It always does. As long as you don't feed the frenzy, they'll lose interest eventually."

  "Will they really?"

  "You're almost done," Bob shrugged. "It doesn't matter what these dumbbells think. You'll be free soon. Just don't let them drive you to rip out your own feathers."

  The homeroom bell rang to signal the beginning of the school day. Mari took a deep breath.

  Time to face the firing squad.

  "Chica," Bob said. "Sticks and stones can break your bones only if you stand still long enough for them to hit you. Survive and learn how to fly."

  [ 6 ]

  It was worse than Mari could imagine.

  But not as bad as it could be.

  It started with stares, whispers, and giggling.

  She sat in her chair in homeroom, completely isolated in a sea of children. She was the center of the storm. The silent eye of the hurrican
e of gossip and speculation whirled around her but didn't touch her. She breathed deep into the eye of the storm, hunched down into her desk, and held still.

  No one spoke to her.

  Not until the first period.

  When she walked into her statistics class, there was an unprecedented fit of coughing. Just instead of coughs, they implied that she was a sexually unrestricted girl and should feel ashamed because of that.

  Mari stared at her desk and didn't react.

  Reacting would just encourage them.

  The hallways were a gauntlet of vicious words. One girl knocked into her shoulder, bumping her hard, but that was it for physical violence. Her school wasn't known for things getting too rough in the hallways. As much as she would be the target for animosity and bullying, her life wasn't in danger. She wouldn't have to defend herself.

  She didn't want to do that.

  She didn't want to hurt anyone.

  The rock came down over and over...

  But they didn't have to touch her to hurt her.

  Mari stood with her hand on the door of her locker as milk dribbled down to the ground, pooling in a puddle at her feet. Someone had drenched her books and belongings in factory-farmed cow puss.

  The sour milk itself wasn't what hurt.

  There was something much, much worse.

  There was only one person who knew her locker combination.

  This meant Stephanie wasn't her friend.

  She had never been a friend.

  She had just been a person to spend time with.

  Mari watched the milk drip to the ground and realized she was completely alone. She didn't have any friends. The person she thought was her best friend in the whole world was just another fist hiding behind a smile.

  The rock came down over and over and over...

  Maybe I deserve to be alone.

  #

  It was the day before Thanksgiving break.

  The dry heat of California radiated through the unchanging scenery of Autumn. In Los Angeles, the leaves didn't fall. They just wilted under the cloying brown sludge of the smog stricken air.

  Mari didn't speak to a single other student.

  She just stopped talking.

  Nobody took her aside to ask her what had happened in those two pictures. No one reached out to her.

  She reached out to no one.

  There was no point.

  She didn't deserve to have friends.

  She didn't deserve anything.

  She’d killed his brother.

  Let them cut her with weapons made of words.

  Instead of fighting back, she simply stayed silent.

  The bell rang, summoning all of the students from their classes. There was an assembly taking place. Then she would be free. Free to sit on the couch and watch TV with Cathy and let her mind melt away. Free to go to the library and read books about other girls' lives she wished were her own.

  She would be free to leave thought behind.

  Mari filed into the auditorium with the rest of the students and found an empty seat surrounded by empty seats. They wouldn't fill up until every last student was in there.

  A vibration buzzed down her spine.

  Magic nearby.

  She could see Benjamin down the aisle, sitting there in his varsity jersey with all of his mates around him. She couldn't see Chase anywhere.

  Until he sat down next to her.

  Breathe.

  Just breathe.

  Mari took a long deep breath as all the students around them began to turn and whisper, pointing at the two of them sitting together.

  "What are you doing?" she hissed.

  "Don't panic," He said. "Whatever you do, don't panic. I couldn't block what is coming, but I blinded it a little. As long as we stay still and pretend we can't see it like all the rest of them, it won't attack. Don't panic. Don't run."

  Mari placed her palms flat on her thighs and took another long breath.

  He had come to warn her.

  He always tried to warn her.

  He had helped her, even as he helped hurt her.

  The Principal began to drone on about something boring.

  A cold breeze brushed across the back of Mari's neck, sending her hair scattering along her skin like spider legs. The doors to the auditorium were all closed.

  "Don't look," Chase reached over and wove his fingers through hers, his fingertips tracing against the outside of her thigh. "Don't turn and look."

  Something stirred deep inside her with the touch of his fingers.

  Down the aisle, Benjamin shivered and rubbed his biceps.

  Something hissed in the aisle behind her.

  Mari gripped Chase's hand.

  It slipped into the edge of her vision, something large, something strange.

  Another step and she could see.

  Thick black feathers rippled down coarse leather skin, like scales dribbled unevenly, worn away by a life wallowing in carrion. Black glass hooks for claws, glistening with the absence of light. It was a vulture without beak or wings, reptilian and large.

  Tiny little arms.

  It looked like Hollywood's vision of a velociraptor on crack.

  Mari breathed.

  The reptile slipped down the aisle, meaty pads on the feet spread out to catch the weight and silence of the tread.

  It lunged forward.

  Four strides, then a leap.

  It landed on the stage with a thud that rattled the podium. The Principal's metal water canteen wobbled and fell off of the podium, bouncing down on the wood of the stage.

  The students burst into laughter.

  Benjamin jerked upright in his seat, bumping into the football players next to him. A student sitting behind him slapped him on the shoulder, taking his movement for laughter.

  "Now now, settle down, settle down," The Principal leaned down to pick up the canteen. "It's not that funny."

  The dinosaur sniffed the back of his head, rolling its leather lips back to expose rows of jagged teeth. There was a collar around its neck that glowed blue with the iridescent light of magic, but it was protected by links of metal – a chain mail necklace to keep her hands from severing the magic.

  The student body continued to chuckle.

  It was going to be okay. She could just sit here, not panic, and eventually, the Godzilla ravaged dinosaur would wander off. She could deal with the whole holding hands with Chase thing, they would talk, and all the horrible nonsense of the last couple of weeks would fix itself.

  For once, all she had to do was sit there.

  "CAN'T ANY OF YOU SEE IT?!?" Benjamin shouted.

  Everyone looked at him.

  Including the dinosaur.

  Well shit.

  The dinosaur took a step toward the edge of the stage.

  "Benjamin," a teammate tugged on his varsity jacket. "What are you doing?"

  "Young man," the Principal said into the mic. "If you are quite done with your outburst, I suggest you sit down."

  The dinosaur jumped down off the stage, landing in the aisle, eyes fixed on Benjamin as it hissed with a mouth full of sharp and unforgiving death.

  Mari started to rise.

  "Don't," Chase used the hand on her legs to push her back down into her seat. "Don't move. Just stay. That guy doesn't matter. Let him die."

  Benjamin darted out into the aisle.

  The dinosaur roared.

  The star quarterback of the school, a gorgeous hunk of prime college scholarship material, ran screaming out of a school assembly chased by a dinosaur that nobody else could see.

  Mari pushed Chase's hand off of her.

  "Everyone matters," she said before she stood.

  Mari ignored the gasps as she stepped out into the aisle and chased after him. She ran across the campus, following the sound of the predator's hunting cries. Down the steps to the gym. Inside, across the basketball court, then outside again to reach the pool.

  Her feet echoed on the tile.
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  At the deep-end of the pool, Benjamin stood on top of a high diving board, dinosaur circling the bottom, making screeching cries of frustration.

  It stopped screaming when she ran into the room.

  Its head swiveled, looking away from the out of reach protein snack to fix on a smaller repast. It hissed and took a step away from the diving board.

  It took a step towards her.

  "No!" Benjamin ran down the length of the board.

  He jumped.

  The dinosaur staggered as he landed on its back. Its foot caught the edge of the pool and slipped. They teetered for one long moment as the reptile struggled for balance.

  Then they fell into the water.

  Mari ran to the edge.

  How was she going to defeat it with that collar around its neck protecting the magic spell? How was she going to get through and... oh... wait.

  She didn't have to do anything at all.

  Benjamin had wrapped his arm around the dinosaur's maw, holding it closed. The reptile couldn't reach him with its arms. It thrashed and kicked, unable to push it's head plus his weight up out of the water.

  Then it stopped kicking.

  Benjamin sank to the bottom with it.

  He stayed down there so long .

  Then he swam back up to the surface. Mari waited by the edge as he came over to her and hauled himself out of the water, drenched t-shirt clinging to a body hardened by the devotion to exercise.

  He stood in front of her, dripping.

  "WHAT IS GOING ON?" He was breathing hard and fast, hyperventilating. "I can't be going completely mad because you're here with me. You are here with me? Please be here with me in this. THAT WAS A DINOSAUR!"

  Mari put her hand on his chest.

  "Benjamin," She could feel his heart pounding in his chest. "You just drowned a dinosaur in the school's pool."

  He put his hand on top of hers.

  The shock faded into a grin that crinkled the corners of his eyes, sending shock waves of sudden joy across his face. "I just wrestled a dinosaur."

  "And no one else in the school can see it, or any of the other little things that flutter about." That was a pretty important point to make.

  Concern tiptoed back into his face. "I just wrestled an invisible dinosaur."