by Bella King
I didn’t know what he had meant by that, but he was surprisingly noncombative about my insults. He just took them in stride and remained as cocky as ever as I tried to tear him down. I dug in, determined to make him crack. “I bet the real reason you haven’t dated anyone is that your dick is tiny. Teeny tiny micropenis,” I taunted.
Troy laughed. “You want to see it?” He asked.
“God no,” I said, but I still watched as he unbuckled his belt with one hand on the wheel. “What are you doing?”
Troy yanked down his jeans in the car, now displaying a rather large bulge in his underwear. “Showing you proof.”
I laughed nervously. “Put that thing away. I’m not going to look if you take it out,” I said, but my eyes were glued to his crotch. I was fascinated by his boldness. I wondered if he would actually show me his penis in the car.
Troy pulled down his underwear with one hand, a thick manhood flopping out in the open. I gasped, covering my mouth while my eyes grew big at the sight of Troy’s dick. “Put it away,” I nearly yelled.
Troy raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you want to touch it.”
“No, put that thing away,” I demanded, tearing my eyes away from it. It was difficult not to look at his exposed parts. I had never actually seen a man’s dick in person before. I was an 18-year-old virgin, something rare at places like Greywood Academy. A lot of shit went on behind the teachers’ backs.
Troy pulled his pants back into place and chuckled. “That’s enough of a show for you. I wouldn’t want you to get too excited.”
“I’m not,” I said, folding my arms together, but that wasn’t entirely true. I had felt a little hot and bothered, and more than a little curious when I had seen his dick flop out beside me. It definitely wasn’t a micropenis, that much was for certain.
I had to take a step back and figure out why I had even looked at the thing. It wasn’t like I was into Troy. Sure, he was a good student and conventionally attractive, but that wasn’t enough to make a bully into a lover. It was gross and I needed to get ahold of myself.
“We’re here,” Troy said in his deep voice as we pulled up to the school parking lot.
It looked like all the cheerleaders were long gone. I guess they weren’t waiting up on me, but why would they? They had left me alone with a group of violent jocks. They probably thought I was a goner.
“Thank you for driving me,” I said to Troy politely.
“Are you going to be alright?” Troy asked as I reached for the car door handle. “You took a good beating back there.”
I could feel the soreness already permeating my body, but I stayed strong. “Yeah. No worries,” I replied.
Troy seemed reluctant to let me leave. He looked at me, his face is a scowl as I opened the car door.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, hoping out onto the pavement and heading back to my car.
Chapter 12
“Oh my god, Faith. Are you okay?” Morgan shrieked, rushing up to me when I came to school the next day.
I rolled my eyes. “Oh yes, I only got beaten nearly to death when you left me at Troy’s house instead of waiting for me.”
Morgan frowned. “Troy hurt you?”
“Actually, he’s the one that stopped my skull from getting stomped in. What a hero,” I replied sarcastically.
Morgan looked relieved. “I didn’t think Troy would attack you, but the other players… Yeah, I’m not surprised.”
“You have some real nerve acting like you actually care about me after abandoning me like that,” I said angrily. “Troy was more helpful to me than any of the cheerleaders were.”
Morgan crossed her arms. “You know that we can’t risk them following us. Like it or not, if they would have gotten us, the whole cheer team would have been arrested or beat down.”
“Better me than you guys?” I asked, not believing what she was saying.
“Better you than all of us including you,” Morgan argued. “You knew the risks when you agreed to this.”
“I just expected a little more loyalty,” I replied.
Morgan shrugged. “We did what we could, Faith. You don’t have to be happy about it, but if you want to stay on the squad, you’re in. You completed initiation, after all.”
“I’ll consider it,” I replied, turning around.
“You’ll do well to watch out,” Morgan called after me. “The rugby team doesn’t forget shit like that easily.”
I ignored her, but I knew she was right. They would probably be looking for more confrontation now that they knew I was willing to break a window for the cheer squad. I had started a war, and this was only the beginning. I would have to be careful not to get caught alone again.
I decided to keep quiet about the incident with Troy showing me his dick. I knew that the cheer team would probably have a good laugh at it, and maybe even feel a little jealousy, but I didn’t want to make waves. It was a private thing between Troy and me, and it didn’t mean anything special. He was just a cocky asshole. There was no telling how many women he had done that to.
I hugged my books close to my chest as I rushed to my first class. I spotted Troy at the front of the classroom, already deep in his books before the lesson had begun. I walked over to him and sat down at the desk beside him.
He looked up at me and smiled. “I see that you’re still in one piece. Good.”
“I’m a tough girl,” I said, flexing a thin arm at him.
Troy laughed. “Yeah, I can see that. Why are you talking to me, again?”
I shrugged. “You’re not as scary as I thought you were. Kind of a softie is you ask me,” I teased.
Troy frowned. “You need to watch it, Faith. I’m not the kind of guy you want to flirt with. Go find some loser that’s going to treat you right.”
“Ugh, I’m not flirting,” I countered. “I just wanted you to know that I’m not scared of you.”
“I never said you had to be,” Troy said coolly.
My antics weren’t working on him at all. I let out a huff and faced forward as Mrs. Snow entered the classroom. As she walked up to the front of the class, I could have sworn she winked at one of the students. I looked back to see Daniel, one of the rugby players, sitting smugly at his desk.
Okay, what was going on? I leaned over to Troy. “Does Mrs. Snow have a thing for Daniel?”
“Shut up, Faith,” Troy replied, pulled out a pen and scribbling the date into his notebook. He looked up at Mrs. Snow intently as she began the lecture.
I wasn’t going to be shut down like that, but I understood that Troy actually paid attention in class. I still wondered if there was something going on between Daniel and Mrs. Snow. I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised considering how much she favored the entire rugby team.
I couldn’t get the image of the jocks fucking Mrs. Snow in the locker room out of my head until I realized that she was married. Holy shit, this would make the perfect case against the rugby team. I had to report this back to Morgan. Fuck laying low, I wasn’t going to let this one go to waste.
I had never been much of a drama queen, but I was beginning to realize that it was either kill or be killed at Greywood academy. If I couldn’t beat the bullies, I would be joining their ranks, or at least getting back at them for the beating I had received last night.
Mrs. Snow, you better watch out. This bitch is coming for you.
Chapter 13
I didn’t want to bring my suspicions up to Morgan until I knew more about what was going on between Daniel and Mrs. Snow. I would have to do some investigating by myself for a while until I could prove that there was a connection between the wink in class and something more sinister.
I kept a close eye on Daniel and Mrs. Snow for the entire class, looking back and forth between them whilst trying not to arouse suspicion. They didn’t make any more eyes at each other, but I wasn’t going to let it go that easily. Once the bell rang and class was over, I followed Daniel out of the classroom cautiously, watching him as he we
nt back to his locker and pulled out his phone.
I leaned over a few students to see what he was doing on his phone, but he was too far away for me to get a good view. It looked like he was texting someone. That was nothing special, but if I watched him for long enough, there was a chance that I would catch him doing something he shouldn’t have been doing with Mrs. Snow.
Daniel headed to his next class, and I let him slide past me down the hall without following him. I wasn’t going to skip class over this, but I would be watching him every chance that I got. I knew that if there was something going on between him and Mrs. Snow that they would both want to keep it secret. It would be a huge scandal for one of the jocks to be shaking up with a teacher, especially a married one. It would give me a world of leverage to know exactly what was up between those two.
I went to my locker, unlocked it, and pulled out my books, thinking about everything that had happened in the past few days. I had gone from prey to the hunter, seeking revenge at every turn. I was obsessed with the cruelty that hung between the walls of Greywood Academy like a thick smog. I reveled in participating in it now.
It was funny how things had changed. Just last year I had been cutting myself and crying in the bathrooms at school, afraid to leave and expose myself to the cruel people that walked the halls of the school. Now, what was I doing? Becoming one of them? It could be, but I had to carry myself differently now if I wanted to change. I wouldn’t be the victim again if I became the hunter.
I didn’t want to be a bully, per se, but I was sick of being weak. Every time I looked at the cuts on my thighs or thought back to how vulnerable I had felt as people ridiculed me, I grew angrier at the way the world had treated me. I was not the same Faith that I had been a year ago. No, this time was different.
“Hey, Faith,” I heard Cindy’s voice from behind me.
I turned around to see her standing in the hall with his books propped up on one hip, chewing bubblegum and smiling. “What’s up Cindy?” I asked.
“I want to show you something,” she said, flashing me a smile.
“What?” I asked.
“Come with me. You’ll like it, I promise,” Cindy replied, motioning with her head for me to follow her.
I closed my locker and walked toward her. There was something in her face that I didn’t trust. Her smile didn’t seem genuine. “What do you want to show me?” I asked, frowning.
Cindy laughed. “Don’t be such a scaredy-cat. You’ll like it.”
I didn’t like being called scared, so I followed her as she walked down the hallway toward the back of the school. “Where are we going?” I asked, trying to keep up with Cindy’s quickening pace.
“Just outside,” Cindy said, pushing the fire exit door open and stepping outside into the back of the building.
I went there with her, but still felt uneasy about this whole situation. She didn’t actually seem happy to be showing me something. In fact, she seemed to be rather upset and was trying to hide it without much luck.
Once we were outside, Cindy turned to me. “Alright, tell me about what happened last night.”
I pulled back. “What?” I asked, playing stupid. I knew that she was talking about me smashing a window at Troy’s house.
“God, Faith. I’m not an idiot. I know the rugby team well enough to know that something happened last night at Troy’s house. They didn’t tell me what, though.”
I shrugged. “It wasn’t anything major,” I lied. If the jocks were unwilling to tell Cindy the full story, then there was no way in hell that I was going to either. It was none of her business.
Cindy got angry. I could see it in her face. “Listen, I don’t care about you messing around with the team, but keep your hands away from Troy, okay?”
“Troy?” I asked, surprised. “Do you have a crush on him or something? I thought you were shaking up with Jeremy.”
Cindy sighed. “We’re all adults here, Faith. I’m allowed to like however many people I want. It’s not a crush either. I’m not a child.”
I rolled my eyes. “I wouldn’t touch Troy with a twelve-foot pole. He’s a dick.”
Cindy squinted her eyes. “Are you sure? Jeremy said you were with Troy last night.”
She knew more than she was letting on. I didn’t want her to think that Troy and I were getting involved or something. For one, she would be pissed, and secondly, I wasn’t into him like that. “Doesn’t Jeremy huff cleaning chemicals in class? Can you really trust what he says?”
Cindy stomped her foot into the ground. “Tell me the truth. Were you with Troy last night or not?”
“I was,” I said. “But it wasn’t like anything happened.”
Cindy didn’t seem terribly convinced. This was probably because I was a bad liar, especially when I was under pressure. She crossed her arms and glared at me. “What did you two do?”
I groaned. “Come on, Cindy. I’m not trying to steal Troy from you. If you really want to know, the jocks beat the shit out of me after I threw a rock through Troy’s window. Troy made them stop. They’re all a bunch of douchebags and I could’ve gotten seriously hurt because of them.”
“Maybe you deserved it,” Cindy spat. “Why would Troy defend you?”
Her attitude surprised me, but I suppose that someone who hung out with the rugby team all day and excused their crude behavior wouldn’t be the type of person to sympathize with an actual victim. Did she actually think that Troy preventing me from getting killed was an act of romance?
“You’re out of your mind,” I told Cindy. “Like I said, Troy only made sure that the jocks didn’t give me brain damage. He’s an asshole, but not that big of an asshole, I guess.”
Cindy shoved me. She did it so fast that I didn’t have time to brace myself. I felt to the ground, scraping my hands on the small rocks that littered the back of the building. Cindy towered over me with her hands on her hips. “Stay away from him,” she demanded.
“I’m totally not buying you cigs anymore,” I replied. It was the only thing I had on her. She held a lot more power than me with both the cheerleaders and the jocks on her side.
Cindy groaned, turned around, and walked back into the school building. I got up and dusted myself off, examining the new cuts on the palms of my hands. Great, more to add to my growing collection. All I need to do now was have Daniel give me a beating for spying on him and my hands would be nothing but cuts to match my thighs. Some things you just can't avoid.
I went back into the school and finished all my classes without much event. I kept a close eye on Daniel as I went from class to class, but he didn’t behave out of the ordinary. I would probably have to watch him for a while if I was to discover anything about what was going on between him and Mrs. Snow.
I had so many things to think about that I was having trouble concentrating in class. My body ached and my mind was racing as I soaked in everything that had happened to me. Cheer practice was later that day, but I didn’t especially feel like going until I remembered that the rugby team would be practicing alongside us.
I didn’t want to appear weak. I may have gotten beaten up, but I wasn’t going to act like it made me more scared of them. That’s what they wanted from me – fear. That’s what every bully wanted to feel like they had power over me. I wasn’t going to let this happen again. I owned my fear, not them.
Plus, Troy would be there, and because of Cindy’s little outburst I had the urge to flirt with danger and talk to Troy again. It wasn’t because I liked him. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself. I felt more comfortable around him, but also excited by the danger that came with it. Was that why Cindy was so in love with him?
I couldn’t let myself get pulled into that mess, but I still had the urge to dance in front of the fire. I couldn’t avoid getting myself into trouble, so I now found myself seeking it out. I felt stronger than ever when it was my choice to get into confrontations. At least people would have a reason to be aggressive toward me, as they would rega
rdless of what I did.
Chapter 14
It was starting to get chillier outside now that fall was on its way in. I always looked forward to it because it meant that we would have fall break and I would get to spend time with my family and forget about the horrors of high school for a little while. For now, I would just have to deal with it.
Standing outside in our short skirts, the rest of the cheerleaders and I began our practice. We watched as the rugby team came out on the field to do their own practice. I kept my eyes of Troy the entire time, watching his powerful body mow down his teammates playfully. I began to understand the appeal of the game, if not only for watching men with big thighs running around the field.
Guys are always talking about women’s legs and asses, but to be honest, men don’t get enough recognition. I hated that the same men that threw punches at me were now objects of my sexual desire. Now, I wasn’t going to jump into bed with any of them, but I was practically drooling over Troy as I watched him jog back and forth across the field.
Troy hadn’t been especially aggressive toward me. He had been pretty angry initially, but he showed me mercy when things went too far. Maybe he was trying to protect me from the very beginning. If he had been, then I appreciated it. Troy couldn’t be that bad.
I wondered what this woman had been like that he told me about. He didn’t date anymore because of a broken heart. That was kind of lame actually, because hearts heal. He just needed the right woman to get him there. I doubted that would be me though, because I was enough of a mess myself, and he would have to turn on the rugby team to date someone who they hated. Yeah, not going to happen.
“Faith, eyes away from Troy,” Morgan shouted, interrupting my daydreams.
I turned to her. “Hey, I was just practicing.”
“You’re practicing cheerleading now, not ogling the rugby boys,” Morgan countered. “And that goes for you too, Jennifer,” she snapped.
Jennifer rolled her eyes.
Morgan paced back in forth in front of us. We were sweating from our practice and it was nearly time to leave. I would be happy to get back home and take a shower, but Morgan had other ideas.