Cocky Bully: The Enemies to Lovers Romance Box Set

by Bella King

  As I rushed to the bathroom, I realized that I hadn’t gotten to see Trent today. I wondered if he was avoiding me after the intimate time we had spent together. I was feeling a bit shy after all that too, but I wasn’t going to avoid him because of that.

  Paranoid thinking. Chill out, Samantha.

  Oh yes, the paranoid thoughts were returning because I had too low self-esteem to think that Trent could genuinely want to be with me. He had to be using me in some way for me to feel comfortable with how things were going. I was rationalizing something that didn’t need to be rationalized. Couldn’t I just enjoy that he had stopped bullying me and that he had given in to his feelings?

  Of course not. I had to make this into something more complicated than it was. The kisses, the spontaneous love-making by the lake, and the words he had whispered into my ear where all just a figment of my imagination. They were a façade. They were a trick to get me to trust him when I shouldn’t. That’s how I felt, anyway, but I needed to push those thoughts aside.

  Or did I?

  I walked into the bathroom, relieved to see that Lisa was already there waiting for me. She was in front of a sink, staring into the mirror while biting her nails. Her head snapped to look at me when I walked in. “About time.”

  “It’s not that late,” I said carelessly.

  “I have another client to meet. Let’s make this quick,” Lisa said, pulling a small box of the medication from her pocket. “20 bucks a pop.”

  “Okay,” I said, sticking my hand into my pocket.

  Oh no. It was empty.

  I fished around inside of my pocket, moving to the other one, then both the back ones before remembering that I had left the cash in the interior pocket of my leather jacket. I was stupid enough to have left that at the cabin.

  “Could you take a rain check? I asked, reaching for the box of pills.

  “Nope,” Lisa said, swiping them away from my hand. “Pay up or enjoy getting pregnant.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Really? You’re going to lose a good client if you fuck me other like this,” I said angrily.

  “Tough luck, honey. I have plenty more,” she said coolly, tucking the plan B into her pocket and moving toward the exit.

  “Please,” I yelped, following after her.

  “Get the money to me tomorrow, and I’ll give you one. You still have time,” Lisa said, walking out of the bathroom and leaving me there alone.

  “Fuck!” I shouted, spinning around and kicking one of the toilet stalls. It rattled on its hinges, swinging inward and hitting against the interior wall.

  Calm down. Deep breaths. You’ll get it tomorrow, and you’ll be fine.

  Damn right, I would get it tomorrow, but I needed to hunt down Trent before then so that I could get the key. I charged out of the bathroom, my eyes scanning the hallway before I guessed on a direction and went flying down it. I hoped that he hadn’t already left for the dorms yet.

  I hunted down Trent’s locker, but he wasn’t there. Frustrated, I headed down an adjacent hallway, hoping to run into him. I didn’t.

  I flew through a few more hallways, but it was growing obvious that he had gone back to the dorms already. I squinted up at a clock in the hallway.

  7:28.

  I was about to be in trouble. I was supposed to leave the school by 7:30, or I would get slammed with another day in detention. With my record, it would also mean two days in solitary confinement. That wasn’t time that I could afford to waste right now. Boredom was just the beginning of the consequences of being thrown in there.

  I raced down toward the school exit, panting as I burst through a set of doors to take a shortcut. Unfortunately, that proved to be my biggest mistake as of yet. Standing behind the doors was a security guard, and they looked just as happy as they could that I was still in the school later than I was supposed to be.

  Chapter 16

  Cold steel clicked over my wrists, tight and foreboding to the time I was going to be spending locked up for this mistake. The cuffs were too tight on my wrists, but the guard didn’t seem to care. He seemed to enjoy locking up an innocent woman like me.

  “It’s not even 7:30,” I said, realizing how desperate I sounded.

  He looked at his watch, pushing me roughly against the dirty white wall. “According to my watch, it’s 7:31.”

  “It’s probably early,” I said, but I knew that wouldn’t work. I had screwed up once again, and I was going to have to pay the price.

  The guard chuckled. “You got anything I should know about on you?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “No, sir.” Thank god I had gotten rid of the drugs and knife.

  “We’ll see about that,” the guard said, pressing his large belly against my back. He was uncomfortably close to me, breathing into my ear like he was excited to have caught someone as pretty as me roaming the halls.

  He stuffed his fat hand into my back pocket, feeling around as he pressed my face against the wall. He didn’t have to be this rough with me, but he clearly wanted to. He lingered in my pocket even though it was empty, then moved to the front.

  “I don’t have anything,” I repeated, hoping he would be quick. I didn’t like the way he was touching me. It was creepy and starting to freak me out. Thank go there were cameras in the hallway to stop him from doing worse.

  “I need to check for drugs,” he said, moving his hand around in my pocket like it was a worm squiggling on the sidewalk after heavy rain. “What’s this?” he asked, pulling his hand out of my pocket and holding it up to my face. Pinched in between his chubby fingers was the gunpowder I had stolen from Trent’s package.

  My heart jumped to my throat, and I found it hard to speak.

  Karma was a bitch. Steal from Trent and pay the consequences. I couldn’t believe that I was getting caught over something so stupid. Why hadn’t I changed my pants or emptied the little pinch of gray powder out of them?

  “Dirt, I guess,” I replied to the guard, trying to play it off as nothing.

  To my surprise, the guard flicked the gunpowder onto the floor and jerked me away from the wall, leading me down the hall. I guess luck was on my side in some ways. In others, I was totally screwed. Even if I didn’t get in trouble over the gunpowder, I was going to get two days in a little room all by myself to think about what I had done.

  “I’m going to check you into the detention center, then we’ll send you back to the dormitory if your record is clean,” the guard explained, leading me down the hall.

  My record was far from clear at this point. I was in for a rough couple of nights, and I wondered if Trent would be worried about my sudden disappearance. Maybe he had gotten thrown in solitary confinement as well. Could that be the reason I hadn’t seen him today? There was no telling.

  I dragged my feet as the guard pulled me along toward the detention center. I groaned as we passed through the door, and the woman at the front desk saw me again. I hated that I recognized her so well. I was beginning to feel like detention was my second home.

  “I didn’t want to see you here again so soon, Samantha,” the woman said as the guard walked me in.

  “A troublemaker, huh?” The guard asked as he pushed me toward the desk.

  “Yep. She’s one of the regulars here. You just can’t keep some of them out. I hope a few days without friends is going to help you get back on track,” she replied, addressing the guard and then me.

  I sighed. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Sure, you didn’t,” she said sarcastically. “The last name is Briar, correct?”

  I nodded.

  The woman looked at the guard before filling in my details on her computer. “Take her straight to solitary. She’s getting a double sentence.”

  “What?” I exclaimed. This was crazy. I didn’t want to be locked up for four whole days. I needed to take my plan B and find out what happened to Angela.

  “You have a lot to learn, sweetheart,” the lady at the desk said, her voice high and condes
cending.

  Fuck that bitch. She was on my personal hit list if I ever joined the mafia as my father had done. I wondered if he had hits on anyone. I was going to have a lot of time to wonder about things while I was locked up on my own for four days straight. I genuinely thought that I might lose my mind.

  “You need to change into uniform and leave your clothes outside the cell. I’ll be back in a few minutes to collect them,” the guard said as he opened up a thick metal door that led to the set of solitary confinement cells.

  I counted the cold, artificial lights on the ceiling as I was led down the corridor to the end of the hallway. There was a single room there with a bright orange uniform folded on the simple bed. The guard uncuffed me and pushed me inside, closing the door to allow me the privacy to change. I was surprised he didn’t insist on watching.

  I dropped my pants and pulled off my shirt, leaving them in a messy pile on the floor. I quickly pulled myself into the orange jumper and buttoned it up, looking around the room that would be my home for the next few days.

  Two steps forward. Two steps back. That was the amount of room I had. There was a metal toilet next to the bed, and a small table where I was expected to eat my meals. I single light on the ceiling illuminated the small room, guarded by a scratched-up plastic dome. I had a blanket and a thin pillow, but that was all.

  I was certain that I would go mad. With no window to enjoy natural light out of, and no clock to check the time, I was going to be lost to the world for the next four days. It was horrifying, and only just starting to sink in. Reality wasn’t my friend.

  I heard the slow and heavy footsteps of the guard returning. The door came up once again, and he snatched up my clothes, glancing at my neck once he had stood back up. “I’m going to need the jewelry as well,” he said, pointing to my throat.

  I clutched the heart pendant in my hand. I didn’t want to remove it. It was my mother’s, and I couldn’t trust the guard not to lose it. I shook my head. “It’s important to me,” I argued, trying to gain sympathy.

  “Well, it’s important to me that you listen to what I say, or this is going to get a whole lot harder for you,” he said, an edge of annoyance in his voice.

  “Please,” I said, feeling emotional at the thought of losing something so precious to me.

  The guard frowned and reached for my neck, yanking the chain so that it broke off my neck. I yelped and clawed at it as he pulled the necklace away from me.

  “You’ll get it back when you get out,” he said, slamming the cold metal door in my face.

  “Fuck you,” I shrieked through the grate in the door.

  The guard didn’t respond. His footsteps faded away down the hall, and all was silent once he went through the door at the end of it. I was alone, and I would stay that way for a long time.

  I sat down on the bed as tears began to build behind my eyes. It shouldn’t have been such a dramatic scene, but everything added up to make me more emotional. The guard had broken my mother’s necklace, I had lost Emily, and the revenge hadn’t made me feel better, and on top of all that, I was locked up at risk of becoming pregnant from a man who I didn’t even know if I trusted.

  Well, if I was going to be locked up for so long, I might as well let the sorry out. Nobody would see me cry. I could afford to show my weakness now that I was alone. My throat tightened, and heat rose to my face as I began to sob. I placed my head in my hands and let it all out, tears rolling down my forearms as I cried.

  My nose was sniffly, and my eyes were itchy after a few minutes of bawling my heart out. The only thing I had to wipe them was the skimpy single-ply toilet paper setting on the table and my scratchy sheets. I opted for sheets because I didn’t want to waste the paper. I doubted I would be getting any more during my stint in solitary confinement.

  The fabric was rough against my nose, but the pain felt nice in a way. I had always been a slight masochist, and I found that it took the edge off the emotional pain. It was a fair swap.

  I took a deep breath as the tears slowed down and tried to think about what I was going to be doing for the next four days. I wouldn’t be missing the exam, thank god, but I was going to have to find a way to occupy my mind that didn’t involve bashing my head against the concrete wall until my skull cracked.

  I had a lot to worry about, and plenty of time to do it. I pushed the bad things into the back of my head and looked up at the wall in front of me. There was no mirror to see what I looked like, so I couldn’t position myself in front of it to shame myself into sucking it up. I used to do that a lot after my mother died. It’s a lot harder to cry when you see how ugly you look doing it.

  I went through many emotions before I was given dinner. I was sad, angry, hopeless, and finally, as I had assumed, bored out of my goddamn mind. I just hoped that tomorrow I would be able to find something to do to occupy my tired mind. I couldn’t just sleep for four days straight.

  Dinner came as the same bland food that we were served in the cafeteria, except that it was cold. I suppose carrying to from the detention center was enough to cool it down. I didn’t think it could get much worse than what I was used to, but I was wrong. I had been wrong about a lot of things.

  I didn’t finish my dinner, pushing the half-eaten food out of the thin slot at the bottom of the door after a few minutes of picking at it. I climbed into bed and closed my eyes, trying to wish away everything that had happened to me. I couldn’t stand to be this way. I felt like a failure.

  A year ago, I had been better off. I wasn’t happy back then, but I wasn’t miserable like I was now. Enduring Bayside Academy made me appreciate the struggles that I went through before I was locked up. It all seemed so petty compared to this. I hoped I wouldn’t feel the same way about Bayside when I got out.

  I laid on a bed that was too short and stared at the gray ceiling, counting the cracks and bumps above me. I wished that I could turn out the light so that I could fall asleep, but it wasn’t under my control. I assumed that the light was automatic, like most of the other lights at the school. It shut off during quiet hours and turned back on when the day began.

  It wasn’t cold in the cell, but I wanted to have the blanket to keep me covered. I felt safer with it stretched over my body, as though it could protect me from the world. The truth was, the worst parts were already inside of me, eating away at my mind and soul as I lay in the cell alone. I couldn’t get away from myself.

  I zoned out while staring at the ceiling, and after what seemed like a lifetime, the lights turned off. I could finally sleep. I closed my itchy red eyes and turned over on my side, curling up like a shrimp in the bed so that my feet wouldn’t hang off the end anymore. My restless mind found peace as I drifted into the dream world.

  Chapter 17

  The broken necklace, smelly sneakers, and the clothes that I had been wearing when I got caught in the hallway after school were waiting for me at the end of my final day in solitary confinement. I couldn’t say that I had really learned my lesson because there was little to learn besides doing a better job of avoiding security, but I was determined not to spend another second in detention again. I wasn’t cut out for the lonely life of a criminal. I could leave that to people like Trent and Lisa.

  I was sent out of the detention center before the final bell rang, giving me time to make my way back to the dormitory without getting caught in the hallway after the school had closed again. It was all so cold and clinical like they didn’t care about the rehabilitation of students at Bayside so long as they were getting a paycheck.

  It felt a bit gross to be wearing the same clothes that I come in with, but I was relieved to finally be out. Four days of staring at the wall and thinking about everything that had gone wrong was a good use of my time. The horrible things tucked into the back of my mind were able to creep out during that time and take over my thoughts. No more.

  I wanted to see Trent first because I wasn’t going to be able to see Lisa without the money that I needed for plan
B. I doubted its effectiveness this far along, but it was all I could do to take it and hope for the best. I lingered outside of his classroom, waiting for him to exit so that I could see him again.

  I was nervous about seeing him after what we had done. Even though he had expressed interest in continuing what we had started, I felt doubtful of my own ability to keep him interested. That was no fault of my own, just my mind playing tricks on me. I clenched my jaw and told myself to stay strong.

  The bell rang, and students began to pour out of the classrooms like ants escaping a downpour. My heart jumped to my throat when I saw Trent, swagger magnificent as he left the classroom. I called out his name, waving a hand. Many people turned their heads toward me with varying looks of distaste, but I didn’t care. I wanted Trent’s attention more than anything.

  When he saw me, his eyes lit up, and his face broke out in a look of surprise and happiness. His smile shone through the serious faces of the crowd, and he quickly made his way toward me. I couldn’t help but match his pearly smile as he came upon me in the hallway.

  “Where have you been?” he asked, grabbing my shoulders as though he were going to shake them. He looked into my eyes, a hint of worry in his own.

  “I got caught in the hall after school, and they sent me to solitary,” I said.

  “Thank god,” he said, suddenly jerking me in a tight embrace.

  My head met with his broad chest, squished against his firm muscles as he hugged me tightly. The delicious scent of his cologne infiltrated my lungs and made me feel at home for the first time since I had been sent to Bayside Academy.

  At that moment, I knew that I didn’t want anyone but Trent. The way he reacted to me going missing was pure and couldn’t be faked. He really did care for me. His tough exterior had finally given way to the true man inside. I buried my head into his chest and stayed that way for as long as he would let me.