The Trouble With Bullies: A High School Bully Romance (A Meadow Creek High Book)

by Ruby Vincent

  “Not today. We have somewhere to be after school.”

  I raised a brow. “We have somewhere to be?” My locker swung open.

  “That’s right. Nicky wanted you to come to dinner with us after the show, but there wasn’t room in the car. He wants to go out with you today.”

  “I see, so I’m supposed to drop my plans on the orders of you and a ten-year-old?” My reply sounded harsh, but I was smiling. I knew now what a big deal it was for Christian to let people into his world. Having dinner with him and Nicky was a lot more than just dinner.

  “Yep.” Christian leaned against the locker next to mine. “Especially since your plans are ice cream and shorts in front of the television.”

  I gaped at him. “How did you know that?” I asked as I stuck my hand inside for my chemistry textbook.

  His grin was a tinge wicked. “You may not have me figured out, but I know you.”

  “Oh, you think—”

  I felt the gentle pressure of something crawling over my fingers. I didn’t have time to think of pulling away before a sharp pain exploded in my hand.

  I screamed.

  “Rachel!” Christian grabbed me and pulled me away. Something came flying out of the locker and landed at our feet.

  I screamed again when I saw the scorpion.

  “Fuck!” Christian shouted.

  The critter made a run for it, scurrying through our legs and sending the students that came running to see what happened jumping out of the way.

  Christian let me go and chased after it. He crushed it with one vicious stomp. I clutched my hand to my chest as I collapsed against my locker.

  “Rachel, are you okay?!” Christian rushed back to me. His touch was gentle as he took my hand. “Did it sting you?”

  I bobbed my head. My breaths came in rapid pants. “Y-yes, but... I’m okay.”

  “No, you’re not. Let’s go.” Christian bent down and scooped me up before I could stop him. He pressed me to his chest, carrying me securely through the halls as though I weighed nothing.

  I looked at him. I had seen him angry before, but never like this, and never mixed with concern.

  “I’m sorry, Rachel.”

  “You are?”

  He cursed. “I should have seen it.”

  “It’s not your fault, Christian.”

  He tossed his head. “You’re going to be okay.”

  Despite the stinging pain in my hand, I smiled. “I know.”

  Christian brought me to the nurse and gave her a filthy look when she told him to go back to class. The poor woman snapped her mouth shut and ran to get me an ice pack.

  Christian sat down next to my cot. “You’re going to be okay,” he repeated.

  I smiled. “It’s okay, Christian. Scorpion stings won’t kill you. There’ll probably be some numbness and pain for a few hours, but it’ll go away.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “My dad’s a doctor, remember. Sometimes I listen when he talks.”

  “Oh.” Christian gave me a funny look. “Why are you smiling? You’re being pretty chill about this.”

  My grin widened. “Because you’re being so cute right now. Carrying me in your arms. Scaring nurses. Chasing down scorpions. You’re like my knight in shining armor.”

  He looked away. “Shut up.”

  Giggles escaped my lips. “It’s sweet of you to worry about me.”

  “You should be worried too. How does a freaking scorpion get in your locker, Rachel? You really think it got in there by accident?”

  My giggles dried up immediately. “You think that someone put it in there.”

  He nodded.

  “It’s possible,” I admitted as the weight of that hit me. “It’s obvious people have no trouble getting into my locker, but this isn’t diapers. Putting a scorpion in there is just...”

  I couldn’t find the words to describe it.

  “Do you think it was Madison?” There was a hard edge to his voice.

  “I don’t know. This isn’t really her style.”

  “I’m going to find out who it was,” he growled, “and what I do to them will make Derek Chang look like mercy.”

  “No, Christian.” I put my unhurt hand on his arm. “You’ll get expelled.”

  “I don’t care!”

  “I do.” Wow. Was that true? Did I really care if Christian wasn’t here?

  Yes.

  “I’ll take care of this,” I said. “It’ll be fine.”

  “Rachel, if anything happens to you...”

  I bit my lip to hide another smile. I knew this was a serious situation, but Christian sitting there with that wrinkle in his brow and the concern in his eyes was making something stir inside of me.

  “Alright, dear.” I snatched my hand off Christian. “I’ve brought you an ice pack and called your parents,” said the nurse. “Your mom is coming to pick you up.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  Christian stood. “I’ll go.” He looked down at me and I saw something else fill his eyes. It made me shiver. “You better hope you find them before me.”

  After Christian left, I settled in with my ice pack and waited for Mom. Here I thought my senior year was getting better.

  MY BEDROOM DOOR FLEW open. “Rachel!”

  “Hey, Estelle, I— Oomph!”

  Estelle landed on me, squeezing out my stuffing. “Are you okay, Rae-Rae? I’m late for school one day and you get yourself stung by a scorpion.”

  I patted her back. “I’m fine. My hand went numb hours ago. Dad said I’ll feel better soon.”

  She pulled back and settled on the bed next to me. “The whole school is talking about what happened. No one thinks it was an accident.”

  “I don’t think it was either.”

  She gave me a grave look. “Madison. I can’t believe that jealous bitch—”

  “Estelle, wait. Do you really think she would do something like this? Putting venomous creatures in my locker is a whole other level.”

  “Madison has Tracy to pass along your locker combos. She’s put stuff in there before. And she hates you. She’s always hated you and you know why. After showing her up in front of the school, she got back at you and went too far. We have to do something about this before you find something even worse in your locker.”

  It took me a minute, but I nodded. “You’re right.”

  Estelle slipped her hand around my shoulder and pulled me in. “Can I get you anything? You deserve the biggest bowl of chocolate fudge ice cream.”

  I smiled. “I’ve had three bowls already.”

  “Damn, girl.”

  “Mom’s been letting me have whatever I want. Not to mention Christian.” I ducked my head. “He came home, did all of my chores, then brought me two of those bowls of ice cream.”

  “What’s that I hear in your voice?” She leaned back to peer into my face. “You’re not... starting to like him, are you?” I hesitated and her eyes widened. “Rachel, are you for real?”

  “Is that crazy? It’s just the last few days have been different. He’s opening up to me, Estelle, letting me in like... he used to.”

  “What about what Ryan said? He told you Christian was trying to get into your pants. He could be playing you.”

  “That’s what I thought at first,” I admitted. “But a guy like Christian doesn’t have to work that hard to get laid, and he wouldn’t go this far to do it. He invited me out to dinner tonight with his foster brother. That’s not happening now, but still. He doesn’t even talk to his friends about his foster family, let alone let them hang out. And even though he’s still a jerk, the edge is gone. It feels like he’s teasing me, not trying to hurt me. What do you think?”

  “I think that guy has been awful to you. He’s hurt you worse than Madison and a scorpion ever did, and more than once I’ve wanted to smash his pretty face in.”

  I nudged her shoulder. “But...”

  She sighed. “But you backed me up when I got involved with my assho
le. I trust you, Rachel. If you believe he’s changed, then I do too.”

  We hugged.

  “Alright,” Estelle said when we broke apart. “Now that that’s settled, we need to figure out how we’re going to deal with Madison.”

  “I’ve been thinking about nothing but, and no matter how I look at it, this doesn’t feel like Madison. Or at least, not just her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I remember overhearing her and Xenia talking about me in the locker room. Xenia said the only way to make sure things don’t end up like before was for Madison to put me down... permanently.”

  She reeled back. “Permanently? What the hell does that mean? See, I said that chick had a creepy, dead-eyed stare.”

  I couldn’t disagree with that. “And you saw the way she snapped at Tracy for trying to make peace. She hates me as much as Madison does and, to be fair, I gave her plenty of reasons.”

  “That was a long time ago, Rachel. You’re not that person anymore and she doesn’t get to just go around putting scorpions in lockers because she’s still mad about it. If Xenia ‘Shark Eyes’ Watson put Madison up to this, she’s going to regret it.”

  “Just don’t tell Christian, okay. He’s pissed as hell over what happened.”

  “He’s not the only one. No one messes with you and gets away with it.”

  I didn’t want her—or both of them—to get away with it either. So the question was how was I going to handle it?

  “SWEETIE, ARE YOU SURE you feel up to going to school today? Maybe you should stay home. Jack, tell Rachel she should stay home.”

  Dad lifted his head from his eggs. “What?”

  “Tell her she should stay home, Jack. Her hand is still numb.”

  I spoke up. “That’s all it is, Mom, and it’s not so bad. I’ve already missed two days of school and it’s the second week. I don’t want to stay home.”

  “Jack, I feel you need to tell your daughter—”

  “Therapy doesn’t come into this, Margaret,” Dad cut in. “I’m a doctor. I’m telling you she’s fine. There’s no reason for her to miss school.”

  “But, Jack—”

  “Margaret, I know what I’m talking about. Stop telling me how to do my job.”

  I roughly pushed my chair back and left the room.

  “Rachel, wait,” Mom shouted, but I didn’t pause or look back. I walked out the door and up to Christian’s car. He was right behind me.

  He didn’t speak as he unlocked the door and we climbed in.

  “I hate it when they fight,” I said out of nowhere. Christian looked over at me as he started the car. “I hate it even more when they use me to fight.”

  Christian didn’t say anything. He just reached over, took my hand, and kissed my palm. Goose bumps erupted on my skin. He held my hand the whole ride to school.

  Something had definitely changed between us, and when we got out of his car, he confirmed it by pulling me in and draping his arm around my shoulder. That’s how we walked into school and every eye turned to us as we went through the halls.

  “Hope you’re feeling better, Rachel,” said a girl from my English class.

  “Thanks.”

  That kept up as we headed for my locker. People had nice things to say about me, but not for Madison. I heard the word psycho more than once.

  I stopped in front of my locker and went to put in my combination. Christian grabbed my hand. “What is it? I’ll put it in.”

  Christian opened it up and checked it over. “Okay.”

  I grinned. “What’s this? Are you my bodyguard now?”

  “You should be happy. It’ll make stalking me easier.”

  I swatted his shoulder. “Jerk.”

  We laughed as I took out my textbooks.

  Christian stuck by me all morning. He walked me to and from my classes and even kicked people out of their assigned seats so he could sit next to me. I thought about telling him he didn’t have to do this, but it was too nice spending real time with him again. It reminded me of when we used to be friends.

  Then, of course, there was the way he looked at me while we talked. The times he would take my hand and kiss my palm. His putting his arms around me and drowning me in his green apple goodness. There was nothing friendly about all of that, and I didn’t want it to stop.

  My last morning class let out and Christian was waiting for me when I stepped out.

  “Hey. I’ll meet you in the cafeteria. I have to go to the bathroom.”

  He took a step forward. “I’ll wait.”

  I shook my head. “I’ll be fine. It’ll take a few minutes.”

  I hurried off before he could agree. I darted into the bathroom, did my business, and went over to the sink to wash up. I looked over my hand as I bent over the sink. It still felt numb around the sting but it wasn’t so bad.

  A stall swung open and someone came out. I raised my head and Madison and I looked at each other in the mirror.

  She blinked. She looked just as surprised to see me as I was to see her.

  Madison looked around. She didn’t have her friends to back her up this time.

  “Rachel.”

  I straightened and turned to face her. “Madison.”

  She opened her mouth.

  “—going to be awesome.” A group of girls came in. I recognized them from my history class. Stacy, Paige, and Nina. “We have to go to Milton’s party. We—”

  Stacy cut herself off when she caught sight of us. “What’s going on? Rachel, are you okay?”

  “Oh, um, yeah.”

  Stacy’s eyes narrowed on Madison. “What, you’re trying to corner her in the bathroom?”

  “No,” Madison protested. “I was here first.”

  “Yeah, right, psycho,” Paige piped up. “Everyone knows it was you who put that scorpion in her locker. What kind of crazy bitch would do that? It could have killed her!”

  If I wasn’t so shocked at seeing three girls who used to whisper slut at me in the hallways rising to my defense, I might have corrected them about the scorpion killing me.

  “That wasn’t me!”

  Nina scoffed. “Like it wasn’t you behind the diapers, or stealing her gyms clothes, or breaking her camera?”

  Madison gaped at them, jaw working. “But that— I was— I didn’t—”

  “It was funny at first, Madison, and we all felt bad for you after what Rachel did, but she’s been totally chill since then.”

  Paige nodded. “She stopped messing with you, but you’ve been obsessed with her. You went too far.”

  “I’m not obsessed! It wasn’t me!”

  Stacy closed the distance between them, getting in her face. “You’re a psychotic bitch and now everyone knows. Get out of here.”

  Madison looked at me and something flashed across her face. I got the feeling she wanted to say something. Instead, she turned and walked out.

  Stacy and her friends nodded at me. I just stared at them until they disappeared into the stalls.

  Eventually, I shook myself and left for the cafeteria. I sat down next to Christian with my tray.

  “What took you so long?” he asked.

  “I ran into Madison in the bathroom.”

  “What?” half the table cried.

  Estelle leaned around Christian. “Are you okay? Did she try something?”

  “No. All she did was stand there and say it wasn’t her who put the scorpion in my locker.”

  “If it wasn’t her, then she got Xenia or one of her clones to do it.”

  Ryan agreed. “She’s only saying that so she doesn’t get expelled. Everyone knows she has your combination and how she got it.” He cut eyes to Geo. “Sorry, man, but your girlfriend works as the office aid. It must be Tracy.”

  Geo gave him a hard look. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  “What? Since when?”

  Geo’s response was to shove his chair back and storm off. His twin got up and went after him.

  “Damn,�
� remarked Ryan. “What’s up with him?”

  Crash!

  “We told you to get out of here!”

  We jerked our heads up. At the front of the cafeteria, Madison’s mouth hung open as she looked at her lunch strewn on the floor. She had her pack with her now, but that hadn’t stopped Stacy, Paige, and Nina.

  “Psycho. Psycho. Psycho.”

  Stacy started the chant and before I knew it the whole cafeteria was joining in.

  “Psycho! Psycho!”

  Madison turned bright red. She held out for all of thirty seconds before her face twisted.

  “Shut up!”

  The roar brought on a stunned silence. Madison’s furious eyes swept the cafeteria until they found me. She stalked toward me.

  I rose to meet her, shaking off Christian’s hand. If she wanted to do this, then let’s do it. We stopped in the middle of the cafeteria, inches away from each other. All eyes were on us.

  “I had nothing to do with that scorpion!” She twisted around. “But what do you all care if I did?! You hated Rachel like five seconds ago!”

  “Madison!” I snapped. “You need to stop.”

  She laughed—a harsh, mirthless sound that made me cringe. “Don’t tell me what to do, bitch! I’m not going to stop. Actually, I’m going to keep going because everyone seems to have forgotten who you are.

  “They forgot you’re the girl who sleeps around with other people’s boyfriends! You’re the slut who’s too stupid to use a condom!”

  My nails dug half-moons into my palms. “Madison, stop it! That’s enough!”

  Madison didn’t stop. Instead, a mocking smile stretched across her lips, throwing me off.

  “And you, Rachel, are the girl with the crazy mommy in and out of the shrink almost every fucking day.”

  I reeled back like I had been slapped. “What did you say?”

  “You heard me. My aunt works right next door to her shrink’s office and she says how nice it is to see your mom so often.” She planted her hands on her hips as she cocked her head. You could hear a pin drop in the cafeteria, our audience hung on to every word. “But why does Mommy need so much help? Is it because she can’t take the embarrassment—”

  I trembled, my body swirling with fury that made my ears roar. “Stop!” I heard myself shout.