“Oh, trust me, I want nothing to do with him. That idiot actually picked me up out of…”
“Oh, my God! That was you?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“Yeah.” I guess word travels quickly around here.
She looked nervous and worried… for me.
“Just try not to upset him again, okay?” she advised.
“Yeah, I promise,” I murmured.
She smiled back at me and we began walking to AP U.S. History.
It bothered me, what she said about Connor. I mean, I get it, he’s dangerous and all, but to let him walk all over you would be another thing. Nonetheless, I promised her I would stay out of his way. But if he gets in mine, bad things will happen.
“Okay. Now, Mrs. O’Connell is the teacher, and she is the best! You will love her!” Jessica gushed, grabbing my hand and dragging me into the room.
I scanned through the faces in the room, recognizing a couple from English.
“You must be Bellatrix!” a gorgeous lady exclaimed, walking up to me with a sweet smile on her face.
“Erm, Bella,” I replied, a smile etched out on my face.
“Bella,” she repeated. “Okay Bella, would you like to say something about yourself?”
Jessica quickly rushed to her seat, giving me an encouraging smile. I looked at all the surprisingly interested faces.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Bellatrix Brown, but I prefer Bella. I just moved here from London, England, and…” I trailed off, not knowing what else to say.
“Alrighty then, why don’t you take a seat next to Liam. Raise your hand, Liam,” Mrs. O’Connell said.
I took my seat by the nerdy-looking guy. Well, I guess I shouldn’t judge. But really, he was wearing suspenders and those large, thick eyeglasses.
“Hey, are you the girl Connor called a skank?” Liam asked in a hushed tone, turning his body to look at me.
I grimaced and took a couple deep breaths. “Yeah.”
Word really gets around fast here.
“Well, I mean, your boobs are popping out,” he muttered, turning back to face the front.
My eyes popped out of my head and my jaw dropped. Rude much? I frowned and looked down.
Oh, shit!
Liam wasn’t lying. The romper was extremely low cut. How could I not have noticed that? I guess that explains all the wolf whistles and looks I was getting from all the guys in the hallway.
I blushed a little and slid down my seat, pulling up the front of my romper as much as I could. This was a horrible way for my reputation to start out.
AP U.S. History was actually really interesting. And Jessica was right. By the end of class, I already loved Mrs. O’Connell. She actually kept the class alive. And unlike Mr. Henderson, my English teacher, she never droned on.
I was the last one out of the class, and was relieved when I saw Jessica waiting for me.
“So now we have… Spanish.” Jessica’s eyes narrowed and she frowned. Guess someone doesn’t like Spanish.
“Come on, I will be there. It can’t be that bad,” I reassured her, grabbing her hand and giving it a little squeeze.
“You’re right! For once, I might actually enjoy Spanish!” she cheered, leading me down the hallway and towards the room.
Fifty minutes later
“Freedom!” Jessica yelled, dragging me out of the room as the bell rang. I laughed and ran with her towards our lockers.
“That…” I gasped for air between laughs. “That was awful!”
“I told you!” Jessica exclaimed, leaning against her locker for support.
Surprisingly, I was actually having fun at school. Granted, it was only my first day, and I had already been slightly bullied. But Jessica had a way of lightening up the mood.
“If it isn’t the skank and the crazy bitch.”
I looked at Jessica, who was now staring hard at the ground, near tears. What the hell was that? Connor can’t call Jessica, of all people, a crazy bitch.
“Fuck off, Connor,” I spat out. Ignoring Jessica’s sharp intake of breath and warning look, I glared at Connor who was leaning against the lockers across the hallway.
“Oh my, was I mistaken? Aren’t you a skank and she, a crazy bitch?” he snarled, moving closer to me.
I watched as the last of the kids fled the hallway, leaving Connor, Jessica, and me. Well, this could get interesting.
“Just leave us alone, Connor.”
Fear filled me as he narrowed his eyes and got up in my face, causing Jessica to whimper a bit.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” he hissed, moving in closer so that we were only an inch apart.
Jessica let out another whimper, which caused Connor to turn his attention to her.
“Get lost.”
She threw me an apologetic look before running off to the gym. I guess I couldn’t be mad at her, though. She did warn me. But really? Leaving me with the most dangerous guy in school?
“You’re in way over your head,” he snapped. “You don’t know the things I have done, so you better back off unless you have a death wish.” At the last part, he slammed his fist onto the locker, right by my head, causing me to flinch.
He noticed that, and he smirked. God, he was sick! He pulled away and walked off, leaving me alone in the hallway. After I was sure he was gone, I let out the huge breath I had been holding. That was actually really scary. But being the stubborn person that I am, I made a promise to myself—I wasn’t going to let Connor control me. He wouldn’t be able to walk all over me like he does to the rest of the student population.
Connor Michaels, I believe you just met your match.
I showed up to Gym class twenty minutes late, which I guessed was why I was forced to run laps for the rest of the period. On my 11th lap, I felt a presence behind me. Weird. All the students had gone to the field where they were playing soccer. Ignoring the feeling, I continued to run.
Then, I was flying.
Uh-huh, really. Well, that was until I finally hit the ground. Pain engulfed my body as I struggled to sit up. What the hell happened?
I looked up to see Connor jogging past me, acting as if he hadn’t tripped me. What an asshole! I stood up, using the wall for support. For a split second there, I blacked out, falling back into the wall. Groaning, I made my way to the exit just as the side doors opened, and in flooded the rest of the class.
“Brown! Where ya think yer goin’?” the Gym teacher hollered at me.
“I-I… nurse,” I muttered, pushing myself through the door and into a tunnel of darkness.
“Are you sure she’s going to be okay?”
Was that Jessica?
I slowly opened my eyes, and I saw Jessica talking to a lady in a white uniform. Curious, I looked around the room, recognizing it as what would typically be the nurse’s office.
“Bella? Oh, thank God, you’re awake!” Jessica exclaimed, rushing to the side of the bed.
“What happened?” I mumbled, pain shooting through my head.
“You passed out, and Harry carried you here,” Jessica explained, helping me sit up.
Harry?
“Who’s Harry?”
“The ginger you called Ron Weasley,” Jessica said with a smile.
I winced as I stood up, and with Jessica’s help, hobbled out of the room. The nurse had given me two Advils to take during lunch, which we thankfully hadn’t missed.
“So what happened? Connor said you fell and you wouldn’t let him help you, which Mr. Rowley believed. But we students thought otherwise.”
I gritted my teeth in annoyance. I couldn’t believe that Connor would lie like that and make himself sound like the good guy.
“That douchebag!” I snapped.
Jessica let out a short, bitter laugh. “Yeah, well, Connor is definitely one.”
We entered the loud lunchroom, heading towards the line. After taking some pasta with Jessica, we headed towards the table where all the girls were waving enthusiastically.
; “Hi! You’re Bellatrix, right?” one of the girls asked.
“Bella,” I corrected her with a small smile, as I sat in between Jessica and a girl with blue hair.
“Well, Bella, my name is Claire,” the girl introduced herself.
“Anna.”
“Lilly.”
“Natalya,” the girl with blue hair finished.
All the girls seemed very friendly and all unique in their own way.
“Sooo,” Anna said casually, “you’re the girl who screwed with Connor?”
“What? We didn’t…” I started, shocked.
“She means, messed with,” Lilly explained.
Ohhh! Well, in that case… I nodded my head at her.
“Now, I’m not one to tell people what to do, but watch out for him. I’m sure Jess has told you everything.”
“Well…” Jess cut in, looking down.
“Wait, what?” I asked, confused.
All the girls shared a look. But in the end, it was Natalya who finally turned back to me and spoke.
“Connor is the school delinquent. He transferred here during sophomore year. And in that year, he took the virginity of every single girl in the grade. And yes, that’s a lot of girls,” she said, noticing my wide eyes.
I was completely shocked.
“You may be wondering how he did it. Well, every girl had hope. They all wanted to be the one, you know? The one that would change him, make him commit, for once. He played every girl here,” Natalya said grimly.
I looked around the table, noticing the embarrassed expression on all their faces. I couldn’t help but feel bad. It wasn’t hard to believe, really.
“He has been arrested twelve times already. But his dad is one of those upper-class billionaires, so he is never gone for long,” Claire spat out, obviously pissed at that.
“Oh, and he has a temper,” Claire stated, the rest of the girls nodding their heads in agreement.
“Has he ever hurt anyone?” I asked in a whisper.
Anna scoffed. “He hurt every girl he used. But yeah, people stay away from him for a reason.”
I looked around, searching for Connor. Immediately, I noticed him with two other guys at a booth near the back of the lunchroom.
“Who are the two guys with him?” I asked curiously, watching them.
“Matt and James. Bad and dangerous, but Connor… he’s much worse,” Jessica informed me.
As I continued to stare, James turned his head, locking eyes with me. Instantly, I turned away, blushing furiously. After waiting a bit, I turned again, only to have my heart stop beating. Matt and James were now staring in my direction. Oh God, please no. I couldn’t help but watch in fear as James nudged Connor, making him look, too.
Well, I best be going then.
The second Connor’s eyes narrowed, I murmured a quick excuse about not feeling well, and I quickly stood up, grabbing my tray of untouched pasta. As I was making my way to the trash, I made the mistake of turning to look back at them.
But the thing is, Connor wasn’t there anymore. Instead, James and Matt sat there smirking mischievously at me.
Confused, I scanned the area near their booth. But Connor wasn’t anywhere to be found.
I turned to leave, bumping into someone.
Well, I found Connor.
“Excuse me,” I said politely, waiting patiently for him to move. He gave me a disgusted look and smacked my tray upwards, throwing the pasta to my face. Just my luck, the pasta was still very hot. I let out a scream as the sauce burned my face, making me fall hard on my ass.
“This happens to those creative bitches who think they can mess with me,” Connor announced.
James and Matt now flanked him. With that, the three exited the room, while Jessica helped me up, and the rest of the girls went with us into the bathroom.
Fifteen minutes later
My face was red and blotchy, and tears leaked from my eyes. The girls moved around me, helping me clean off the mess and put cool paper towels on the minor burns on my face and neck.
“Shhh, hun, don’t cry,” Claire murmured, rubbing my back soothingly.
I leaned over the sink, sobs racking my body. I know. Pathetic, right? It’s just that Connor, he reminded me of this guy.
In London, I was in a year-long relationship with this guy. What people couldn’t see past my plastered fake smile was that he was beating me. A lot. But concealer can only hide so much.
Basically, the guy was carted off to some special boarding school. And as my life started to turn around, we were forced to move here. That’s the reason I was so pissed about coming here for my senior year. Just as I thought everything was getting better, it didn’t.
When I finally stopped crying, the bell rang, signaling sixth period. Here goes nothing, I thought, plastering that same fake smile on my face.
“Aw, you’re all better!” Jessica cooed, giving me a small hug.
That’s what you think. Hell, that’s probably what everyone thinks!
Connor
What the hell is going on with me?
Ever since I put that girl in her place, this feeling has been growing inside me. It was almost as if I felt bad. I shook my head roughly, fighting to ignore the sickening sensation within myself as I headed to AP Psych, taking my usual seat next to Matt. Suddenly the room was filled with gasps and whispers, making me look up, only to lock eyes with her.
Then, that feeling hit me again when I saw the red marks on her face and neck. It grew from the bottom of my stomach, and spread throughout me.
Holy shit! Why do I feel guilty?
Bella
AP Psych, a class that would normally be really easy for me, but was now too distracting instead. When I walked in, I locked eyes with him. And shockingly, he looked guilty. But I brushed it off. I mean, seriously! Connor Michaels? Guilty? Ha! That would never happen.
I sped out of the room as soon as the bell rang, desperate to remove myself from that godforsaken place. But it’s hard to concentrate when the guy you now hate so much, was burning holes in your back. Seriously, I could feel his stare the entire fifty minutes, making the class time very uncomfortable for me.
I had study hall next. But because Jessica missed the English lesson, she had some work to make up for, leaving me with no one during the entire period.
And although I had left the room early, it took me forever to get to my locker. Sure, being tiny had its benefits, but when you’re fighting against giant masses of human beings, it’s pretty much an epic fail.
I was forced to wait by the door until the hallway cleared up a bit, and I was able to make it to my locker, unharmed. As I reached my locker, I noticed a group of girls standing a few feet away, whispering and looking at me.
“Look at her face,” one of the girls said, and immediately, all the girls turned and stared. Before I could think of a smart-ass reply, their eyes all widened, and they seemed frozen.
“Why don’t you all fuck off?” a voice asked from behind me. On command, all the girls scattered.
Which left me alone once more in the hallway, but this time with the bloody bastard who started this mess. I decided to not acknowledge him, grabbing some of my homework from my locker and making my way to the library, which was thankfully in the opposite direction from where Connor is.
“Wait, Bella.”
I picked up the pace and was sort of speed walking to the door, moving even faster when I heard footsteps behind me. Almost there, I encouraged myself. But just as I opened the door, it was slammed shut, a body close behind me.
“I told you to wait.”
I took a deep breath and gathered my remaining confidence before turning around to face him. As soon as I turned around, I tried to back away, which didn’t exactly work because of the door behind me. I held my breath as Connor studied my face.
“Are…” he paused, looking at the ground, “are you okay?”
Yes, I admit, I was beyond shocked by his question. But it was soon replace
d with anger, and I shoved him away and entered the library. I went to the back and sat at an empty table, one that was isolated from everything else. Halfway through my English homework, someone sat next to me, pulling out his stuff. I ignored him and continued to work, until he started tapping his pencil.
Okay, calm down, Bella, I thought to myself.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
“Could you please?”
I started to stand, only to be pushed back down.
“Listen, I’ll stop tapping my pencil. But please, don’t go.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, analyzing the situation. Connor didn’t seem like he was going to attack, and possibly assault, and then kill me. So I decided to stay and continue working, which didn’t exactly work out because he was staring at me the whole time.
“What?” I asked, irritated.
“I… uh, er…” he spluttered, looking embarrassed.
I smirked at him during his rare moment of humiliation, which caused him to narrow his eyes at me. Then, his eyes lit up, and he lifted up his hand and gently brushed away the hair on my face, causing a slight amount of fear to leak from me.
“I know what I did was wrong. Hell, it was downright awful. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry,” he said, sincerity clear in his voice.
My heart stopped beating, and my eyes widened completely.
“I… Uh, well… I…”
“Just got played,” Connor announced, a smug grin etched across his features.
Oh no, he didn’t!
My mouth was hanging open in surprise as Connor gathered his stuff. He leaned in a little closer, still with his signature smirk.
“Really, Bella, if you keep this up, I’m going to have to take you up on your offer,” he said with a wink, shutting my mouth close with his hand. He laughed as he fully stood up. “Oh, and Bella, you may want to pull up your top, unless you want me to take your virginity right here.”
I blushed and pulled up my romper, my face burning with embarrassment.
“What? You’re not going to deny you’re a virgin?” he asked, surprised.
Being the Bad Boy's Victim Page 2