Thin Skin: A High School Bully Romance (Vestamont High Series Book 1)

by Indi Bluehart

  At my old school, the teachers were all old or overweight… or both. Some of them smelled like cheese and they definitely didn’t care to talk to the students any more than they had to.

  “I should go,” I said when Mr. Rivers didn’t move. “I don’t want to be late.”

  “Right,” he said, grinning as his eyes widened. He looked like he’d been a bit embarrassed. “Have a good day, Alyssa.”

  “I’ll try. Thank you,” I said finally finding a tiny smile to offer.

  By the time I got back to my locker to switch my books, the jerk and the tall girl were gone. Or maybe they hadn’t even bothered to go back to their lockers.

  I hadn’t seen either of them again until lunch hour. And that was far too soon. Thankfully they ignored my existence.

  I found an empty table and sat at the end, crossing my legs and keeping my head down as I opened the brown paperback my mom had packed for me. There was a peanut butter and jam sandwich, a small bag of chips, an apple and a pickle wrapped in plastic.

  My stomach was so twisted that I didn’t think I’d be able to eat any of it but if I didn’t put something in my stomach, I was going to pass out. I unwrapped the sandwich and took a small bite as I checked my phone for messages.

  Bailey hadn’t bothered to ask how my day was going. I probably should have messaged her to tell her I was in hell but it was probably better for both of us if we just cut ties. Hell, if she gave a shit, she would have messaged. She hadn’t even bothered to wish me luck on my first day.

  “Hello,” a slightly overweight girl said as she set her tray on the table. She didn’t sit and instead stared at me as if she were waiting for an invitation.

  “Hi,” I said almost choking on the small bite I’d taken. I was tempted to look behind me to make sure she wasn’t talking to someone else.

  “Can I sit? This is where I usually sit and I’m really kind of OCD,” the girl said.

  I swallowed the bite down. “Oh,” I said starting to pack up my things. “I’m sorry I didn’t know.”

  “No,” she said her face scrunching up. “You don’t have to go. It’s not like I own the table.”

  “Oh,” I said unable to hide my surprise. “Yeah, um, please sit.”

  “Thanks,” she said as she lowered herself down and unfolded her napkin. She placed it on her lap and picked up her fork as she looked back up at me. “I know there are a lot of people in this school that think they own everything. They don’t. They just think that.”

  I clicked my phone off and stared at her as if she were the most fascinating person I’d ever met. The truth was, I was shocked anyone was talking to me.

  “My dad basically owns the town,” the girl said. “No one bothers me, so you’ll be fine as long as you stick with me.”

  “Why would you want that?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “Is there a reason I shouldn’t want to be friends with you? You look kind of lonely and quite sad being here all alone.”

  “Um, I don’t know everyone seems to hate me so I guess I thought maybe they had a reason. I just haven’t figured out what it is yet.”

  “They’re just idiots. A school full of immature teenagers that like to bully one another for shits and giggles,” she said. “Oh!” she said setting down her fork and wiping her hands on her napkin before sticking out her right hand. “I’m so rude. I’m Lacey McGuire.”

  I shook her hand even though it felt awkward. “Alyssa—”

  “Alyssa Hill, I know. We all know,” she said raising a brow. “Word travels fast around here.”

  “That is fast.”

  “Well, and I know because my dad told me. Your dad works for mine,” she said with a smile so big her eyes nearly closed.

  I smiled back but with nowhere near the same energy.

  “I guess you have my dad to blame for having to move here from… where was it again? It’s on the tip of my tongue. Oh, yes, Chicago,” Lacey said. “You know, Spring Meadow isn’t really that bad. It’s a very pretty town. The river. The shopping. I guess none of that probably compares to Chicago though, huh?”

  Lacey might be my new favorite person. She was good at talking and distracting me from all the eyes that were probably on us.

  “Um, I’m sure it’s nice here too. It’s just all so new and—”

  “Unwelcoming. Ignore them,” Lacey said.

  “Wish I could,” I muttered.

  She picked her fork up and looked around the room as she ate. “They just don’t like the fact that you’re sitting in his desk and that they gave you his locker.”

  “Who’s locker?” I said squinting at her.

  “Piers Howard,” Lacey said cocking her head to the side. “You don’t know, do you?”

  I shook my head. “I guess not because I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Piers was the captain of the swim team. He was involved in nearly ever sport. Anyway, about five weeks ago, he was found dead.”

  “What?” I said with a gasp so sharp I had to cough. “No, one said anything. What happened?”

  Lacey shook her head and made the sign of the cross as she looked up at the ceiling. I followed her gaze, spotting what looked like a chocolate milk stain above her.

  “At first they thought it was an accident but then they changed it to suicide but a lot of people don’t agree with either,” Lacey said leaning closer. “A lot of people think a student did it.”

  “Shut up!” I said almost completely certain she was messing with me and they were all going to have a good laugh at my expense.

  She held up her hand. “Swear to God.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and looked at each face around us. It was hard to believe it could have been someone in the room.

  “Some people think it was Silas Drake,” Lacey said.

  I shook my head as my brows squeezed together. “Who’s Silas Drake?”

  “Your locker neighbor.”

  “Oh,” I said swallow down the sour taste that was filling the back of my throat.

  “You’ve bumped into him I see,” she said with a giggle.

  I huffed. “Literally.”

  “He’s someone you’ll want to avoid completely. Most students do,” Lacey said scraping her tray clean before setting her fork down and dabbing at the corners of her mouth.

  “I’ll do my best but might be hard with his locker positioned where it is and all,” I said.

  Lacey leaned across the table. “If I were you, I’d go to your locker before he comes in and at the end of the day, wait for him to leave first.”

  “Do you think he did it?” I asked figuring she must have had her suspicions considering she was giving me a warning.

  “He’s the most likely candidate. He’d been questioned multiple times by the police. But now the police think it was a suicide so they stopped looking into it.” Lacey stood and jerked her head for me to follow her. “Rumor is her parents have hired a private investigator though.”

  I hugged myself as I followed her to the trash bin and tray drop off. She looked at me and shook her head.

  “Don’t look so worried. You didn’t do it,” she said with a snort.

  “Obviously, I didn’t do it but there could be a killer in this town.”

  Lacey shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe it was an accident.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me along. “Let me tell you all about this place. You need to be prepared.”

  Chapter Three

  I followed Lacey around the school as she talked about everyone and everything that happened over the last several years. She told me about all the cliques and about the people that had been friends but were now enemies. It was far too much to keep up with but I tried.

  Silas and his buddies were the ones to stay away from. Lacey said they drank and smoked. She said they were frequently in some kind of trouble but that their parents always managed to get them out of it. Lacey said the police department was happy about all the money coming in from their parents.

&nbs
p; There were the cheerleaders who mostly kept to themselves. They stuck together like a sorority and believed they were above everyone else at the school.

  The jocks… well, they were the jocks and they wouldn’t look at me even if I were holding a basketball. They were practically harmless and the worst they’d do was snicker and make inappropriate comments.

  Everyone in the school was in a clique there really weren’t any loners. She said the only time the groups mixed was at parties. When there was alcohol involved, it didn’t matter who you were, well, until the next morning rolled around again and then suddenly you no longer existed.

  “What about her?” I asked jerking my chin toward the girl with the short plaid skirt. The one that had been attached to Silas earlier in the day. Now she was leaning toward someone else and frequently touching his chest. “I thought the groups don’t mix?”

  “Okay, sometimes they do, depending on where you rank,” Lacey groaned as if I wasn’t getting it. “But most of the time you need to keep to your own group to play it safe. Everything here is like clay… it morphs and changes and sometimes they blend together but for the most part, you want to keep your colors separated because otherwise, you end up with gray or brown. It’s all to keep the peace. Understand?”

  I chewed my lip. “Sort of.”

  “Anyway,” Lacey said flapping her hand at me. “That’s Aria Lewis. She’s just always a bitch.”

  “There’s a bitch group?” I asked trying to be funny.

  “They’re all bitch groups.” Lacey smiled back at me. “Except for me and the ladies.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “You have a group?”

  “Well, they’re not mine exactly,” she said gesturing for me to follow her. “Follow, please.”

  We walked down the hall stopping at the library. Lacey pushed the door open and I noticed a group of four other girls gathered at a round table. Each of them had their head in a book.

  “These are my friends,” she said proudly. “We all get straight A’s.”

  She didn’t have to tell me. I already knew they were the smart ones. The ones that would be going to the best colleges.

  What Lacey didn’t know was that I didn’t belong in her group. I was smart but not the kind of smart that would get me into Harvard or Yale. My parents would be thrilled if I got into a nearby out of state college, of course, the best in their state though.

  “Ladies,” Lacey said pulling me up to the table. They all looked up from their books, resting their eyes on me but each one keeping all expression from their faces. “This is Alyssa Hill, the new girl. Alyssa, this is Morgan, Callie, Phoebe and Nadia.”

  “Hello,” the four of them said nearly simultaneously.

  “Hi,” I said suddenly not sure what to do with my hands.

  “The ladies usually eat their lunch in here but I go to the cafeteria because I prefer hot lunch,” Lacey explained.

  Morgan spoke first. Her voice was as tiny as she was. “You’re welcome to join us tomorrow if you want.”

  “Yeah,” Callie said looking back down at her book. Her strawberry blonde hair was twirled into beautiful ringlets that I was almost sure were completely natural. It looked like it had taken her hours to tame it. “We just work though, so maybe you’d be bored.”

  “Well, it’s not all studying,” Phoebe said as she twisted one of her many necklaces between her fingers. “What Callie is trying to say is that you’re totally welcome but everyone else finds us utterly boring. She’s trying to save you from us.”

  “Fuck that noise,” Lacey said raising a brow. “We’re cool. Ladies, I got invited to a house party and we’re all going.”

  Nadia shook her head. “I can’t. Vacation with my parents. My presence is required.”

  “Thought you weren’t leaving for a few days?” Lacey asked.

  Nadia shrugged. “I need to pack.”

  “You’re going,” Lacey said with a hand on her hip.

  Nadia was gorgeous. She had an exotic accent I couldn’t place but she looked like she could have been a supermodel. I couldn’t figure out why she was hiding in the library instead of hanging out, not eating, with the rest of the popular girls.

  “I was new once too,” Nadia said looking at me as she folded her hands on the table in front of her. Her posture was absolutely perfect but it felt like I was suddenly transported to a very important business meeting and Nadia was about to give me a review to determine how much my raise would be.

  “That was freshman year,” Callie interrupted. “Can you even imagine coming to this school for just your senior year? After everything that’s happened? God, I feel so bad for you, Alyssa. This school is filled with dicks.”

  “Dicks that want revenge,” Morgan chimed in.

  Nadia ignored them. “Just be yourself and ignore everyone in this school, well, except for us. It didn’t take that long before everyone forgot all about me.”

  “Eventually you can be invisible too,” Morgan chirped.

  “I doubt Spencer has forgotten about you,” Phoebe teased.

  “He forgets about me all week long. Spencer only remembers who I am on the weekend or at parties,” Nadia said wearing a small frown as she shook her head. “I don’t want to go to any party he’ll be at.”

  “Well, we’re going,” Lacey said. “And you’re going to ignore him. Or, oh wait, this is a much better idea,” she said shaking her hands with excitement. “You’re going to hook up with his friend… the one with the muscles.”

  Nadia narrowed her eyes. “The whole football team has muscles.”

  “Yeah, I know, but I mean his best friend, Damon.” Lacey crossed her arms as if everything was settled. “Oh, and Alyssa, you’re coming with us too.”

  “Ooooh, no I’m not,” I said taking a step back. I felt like I needed to exit the room and fast. “I have plans.”

  Lacey scowled. “You do not. You’re new to town, you don’t have any plans.”

  “Yeah, she doesn’t,” Phoebe said with closed eyes and a finger at her temple. “I can sense it.”

  “Sense it?” I asked.

  Phoebe raised a brow. “I’m very in tune with everyone and everything. The entire universe actually.”

  “My parents aren’t going to let me go to a party,” I said hoping that would somehow get me out of the mess I’d managed to get into.

  Lacey rolled her eyes. “I’ll talk to them. Your parents will meet me and they’ll be so happy you have such a good friend. And the boss’s daughter on top of it.”

  The ladies, as Lacey had called them, all laughed and giggled. Lacey flicked her brows up quickly as if challenging the ladies to verbally disagree with her. Her confidence made her even more pretty than she already was. It was hard to believe that with her attitude, she wasn’t the queen of the school but I guessed that had something to do with the few extra pounds she carried at her middle.

  “Parties aren’t really that bad,” Nadia said. “It might help people get more comfortable around you. I remember my first.”

  “That’s when you met Spencer,” Callie said her eyes on her book.

  “I don’t know,” I said biting my lip. “Everyone already hates me. It seems like a really bad idea. Maybe next time.”

  The bell rang and Lacey rolled her eyes. “You’re coming and that’s final. See you after school.”

  Chapter Four

  I had to wait until Silas finished at his locker before I could go to mine. He took his jacket out and looked over his shoulder as he slipped it on. I ducked behind the corner of a wall so he wouldn’t see me watching him… err waiting for him to leave.

  It didn’t take him long. He left all of his books in his locker, slammed it, and walked off, meeting up with several of his buddies.

  I sucked in a full breath, filling my lungs with oxygen. My shoulders rounded forward as I tried to make myself invisible as I walked down the hall.

  I stepped up to my locker and twirled the dial. Again, struggling to open it.
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  “Here,” a guy with black hair and black, thick-framed glasses said leaning against Silas’s locker. “Can I help?”

  I remembered him. He was the one who’d been at his locker when I first arrived at school. He’d been here even before the first bell. Maybe he’d been avoiding everyone too.

  “You don’t want to give me your combination, do you?” he said narrowing his dark eyes as he grinned.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  “That’s okay. I don’t blame you,” he said. “I wouldn’t trust anyone at this school either.”

  I hugged my books to my chest tighter. “Did you just tell me not to trust you?”

  “Not at all,” he said. “I told you not to trust anyone else. I’m completely trustworthy. There isn’t anyone better at keeping a secret than me.”

  He stared at me a moment before looking down at his feet. His face was all angles but his eyes were soft.

  “You’re Alyssa, correct?” he asked.

  “There is one new girl in this school. You know all about me,” I said looking down to try my combination again. My fingers were slightly shaking but I wasn’t quite sure why. I guessed it was because he was standing so close to me. Watching me. “I have no idea who you are though.”

  He cocked his head to the side. “Maybe we should keep it that way. Keep the mystery alive.”

  My locker opened and it took everything I had not to cheer at my success. I should probably stop at the office and ask for a different locker but there probably wasn’t any that would be any better.

  “If that’s what you want,” I said with a shrug but the truth was I was even more curious.

  “All right then,” he said pushing himself away from the locker. He started to walk away, waving at me over his shoulder. “See you tomorrow.”

  I frowned as I took my things out of my locker and closed it roughly. I apprehensively started to follow him.

  “You’re really not going to tell me?” I asked with a curious smile.

  He turned and looked into my eyes as he walked backward. “Nope.”