by Bella King
When the class was dismissed, Troy straight up ignored me as he walked out of the room. I mean, he didn’t even make eye contact or acknowledge that I existed. I knew that we had to keep things low key, but this was too much for me. I followed him out of the classroom, forgetting about Daniel for the time being, and confronted him near his locker.
“Troy, don’t ignore me,” I said, walking up to him.
Troy turned to me and looked around nervously. “Hey, you know, the rest of the rugby team are starting to suspect that something is up. I don’t know if we can see each other anymore.”
My stomach dropped. So Troy really was the asshole that I had originally assumed he was. He thought that he could just have sex with me and move on without a word. I felt used and I was angry about it. “This isn’t about the rugby team, is it?”
“You don’t understand. I like you, Faith, but the game is more important. I can’t lose respect in the eyes of my teammates.”
I crossed my arms and let out a huff. “They don’t have to know about anything. You’re a loser if you let them rule your life.”
Troy shook his head. “I’m sorry, Faith. I’d be a loser if I gave all this up for a quick thrill.”
A surge of anger ran through my body, and suddenly, I didn’t care who knew about what had happened between Troy and me. Let the cheerleaders find out and turn on me because of it. Let the rugby team boot Troy’s silly ass off the field. I began yelling at Troy in the hallway. “You think that what we did was a quick thrill?!”
Troy looked around, panicked. “Be quiet,” He whispered loudly. “Somebody could hear you.”
I laughed. “No, I’m going to let the whole school know,” I said proudly.
“Shit, okay, it wasn’t a quick thrill. Can we please talk about this somewhere else?” Troy pleaded.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I spotted Mrs. Snow walking toward the front of the building, and Daniel was close behind her, trying to act like he wasn’t following after her. There was so much going on at once, but my little confrontation with Troy could wait. This was a big deal and I didn’t want to miss my chance to finally see what was going on with Daniel and Mrs. Snow.
“We’ll talk later,” I said quickly, leaving Troy hanging. He deserved it anyway.
I sped down the hall, keeping Daniel in my field of view as I weaved through the students. He was so concentrated on following Mrs. Snow that he didn’t notice me creeping behind him, just as I didn’t notice someone creeping behind me.
We got to the front of the building, and Daniel paused at the door, peering through the window into the parking lot for a few moments before leaving the building. I dashed up to the window to watch him walking toward a car in the parking lot. I knew whose car that was. It belonged to Mrs. Snow.
I pulled out my phone, snapping a picture of him entering the car through the dirty window. It wasn’t my finest act of photography, but it would do as evidence to present to the cheer team later. I barged out of the front door of Grey Academy with my phone clenched firmly in my hand as Mrs. Snow’s car pulled out of its parking space and began to drive away.
Should I follow? I wasn’t sure that it was such a good idea to skip class over this, but I wanted to see where Daniel and Mrs. Snow were going. It was obvious now that they were sneaking off together, and I needed to find out where they were going.
I walked quickly to my car, trying to act casual as my heart raced with excitement. This was the moment I had been waiting for. I got to my car and was reaching for the handle when a hand grabbed my wrist firmly, yanking me away from my car.
My phone flew out of my hand and bounced against the pavement hard enough to break the screen. I yelped, pulling at my wrist to try to escape whoever it was that had a hold of me. Their grip was too strong though, and I couldn’t get out of it before they wrapped both arms around me and began carrying me away from my car.
I was pulled away from my car and hoisted into the trunk of another. I caught a glimpse of a face as the trunk slammed shut over me. It was one of the jocks from the rugby team, Jeremy. He had been the one who huffed weird shit in class to get high, and had been among the guys that ganged up on me in the woods before Troy intervened. I was in a world of trouble now that I was locked in his trunk.
I screamed in the trunk, banging on the door and trying to force it open. It was hot in there from sitting in the parking lot in the sun all day, and I immediately broke out in a heavy sweat. I would be roasted alive if I was there for too long.
It was stuffy and smelled like car oil. I noticed that the emergency escape latch that is in most trunks had been tampered with. I yanked at it, but it was soldered stiff, unable to unlatch the trunk. Fuck, I was in trouble now. I had no idea why Jeremy had kidnapped me, and I had no way to call for help now that my phone was out of my hands. This was very bad news.
Chapter 21
The car left the school and drove for several minutes. I frantically searched for a way to open the trunk, but it had been sealed shut so that I wouldn’t escape. This hadn’t been a snap decision by Jeremy. He had planned this.
I was drenched in sweat, panting in the dense stuffy air of the trunk as my mind raced. I wasn’t tied up, so I could spring out and attack Jeremy once he opened the trunk, but that was a poor method of escape. He was much larger than I was and could easily overpower me.
I wondered what Troy would have thought of one of his teammates kidnapping me. Would he care that my life and wellbeing was in danger? He seemed to care, but not enough to prevent shit like this from happening to me. I couldn’t always expect him to save the day when his friends terrorized me.
I doubted that Troy would be able to help me now. I had left him behind at Greywood Academy, and he had no idea that I was in Jeremy’s trunk, speeding off to some mystery location for god knew only what reason.
Did Jeremy have it in himself to kill me? Maybe he wanted to rape me. I didn’t know, but I didn’t want to find out. I wasn’t going to let today be my last day. I would fight with every inch of my being after I was let out of this trunk.
The car rolled to a stop finally, after having driven for around twenty minutes. At least I wasn’t being driven out into the middle of nowhere. I was still in the same town. I couldn’t position myself to spring out of the trunk because I was so cramped up in there, but I pictured to movements I would make once I was let out.
I had to wait a moment for that to happen. A key entered the lock and popped the trunk open a crack, then it was slowly lifted up, and Jeremy peeked inside. “Hello, Faith.”
I frowned at him. “Where are we?”
Jeremy shrugged. “Somewhere that we can talk. I’m not here to hurt you.”
I laughed. “Sure, like I believe that. You were one of the guys that beat me up after I broke Troy’s window, remember?”
Jeremy had a guilty look on his face. “Listen, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know that you and Troy were together.”
I was taken aback. “Together?”
“Yeah, Troy told me that you two were getting involved, but that I had to keep it a secret,” Jeremy said. “Here, let me help you out.” Jeremy reached out a hand and pulled me out of the trunk.
We were in an abandoned parking lot somewhere near to the shopping mall. A lot of the place was overgrown with weeds and stuff. I guess the builders had run out of money and abandoned this part of the project. There were a few places in town that were like that.
I looked around. “I could run,” I said.
Jeremy laughed. “I only wanted to talk to you.”
“You could have done it in a better way than snatching me up and putting me in your trunk,” I said, placing my hands on my hips and glaring at him.
“I didn’t plan it that way, but you were following Daniel. I made a snap decision.”
I didn’t believe him. “Why was the emergency escape latch broken then?” I asked accusingly.
Jeremy looked down at his feet. “Okay, maybe I originally plan
ned on snatching you up before I found out Troy and you were involved. It was a revenge thing, but this time I swear it wasn’t my intention. I was trying to stop you from following Daniel.”
“God, you’re so stupid. All of you jocks are stupid,” I said, growing tired of these games. “Why can’t you just be normal?”
Jeremy shrugged. “I just wanted to talk to you. You can’t go around following Daniel like that. Were you trying to attack him or something?”
I shook my head. “He’s fucking Mrs. Snow, isn’t he?”
Jeremy looked genuinely surprised. “No, at least, not as far as I know.”
I believed him this time. Jeremy was too stupid to lie in a convincing way. All the years of huffing weird shit in class had gotten him to this point. I wondered why Troy would confide in him. “I think Daniel is involved with Mrs. Snow. I’m trying to get evidence.”
“You shouldn’t do that,” Jeremy interjected.
“Why not?” I asked with my arms crossed tight over my breasts.
“Because, he would be pissed,” Jeremy said, as though I didn’t already know that.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know why Troy told you about our involvement. Don’t fucking tell a soul, okay? He’s being confusing about it anyway,” I said.
Jeremy brightened up. “He really likes you. I think more than that other girl that broke his heart. He was really crushed about that for a long time. It’s almost weird seeing him in such a good mood now.”
I squinted at Jeremy. “Tell me more,” I coaxed.
Jeremy shrugged. “He said that he was in love with you. Did he tell you that?”
I was shocked. “What?”
Jeremy’s eyes widened. “Oh shit, I shouldn’t have said that. Of fuck, of shit, Troy is going to kill me,” he said, covering his mouth with one hand.
I laughed. “Too late now glue sniffer. Oh, by the way, are you and Cindy still a thing?”
Jeremy smiled and nodded, instantly changing moods. “She’s really something.”
“No, she isn’t,” I responded, a little irritated. “She snitched on the cheer team.”
“Yeah, that’s why she’s so great,” Jeremy said. “She saved my tummy.”
I had to laugh. I couldn’t help it. Jeremy was as dumb as they came, and his involvement with Cindy was almost comical. They were well suited for each other.
“Hey, what are you laughing at?” Jeremy said, frowning and clenching his fist.
“Calm down, big boy. We’ll be on good terms if you keep Cindy away from me. She would be the first to snitch about Troy and I. You got that?”
Jeremy nodded. “I won’t tell.”
“You better not. Now, take me back to school. I’m done talking with you.”
“Fine, I was just trying to keep you away from Daniel. I got to protect the team, you know?” Jeremy said, opening the passenger’s side door for me politely.
I hopped into y seat and Jeremy came around and got in his to drive up back to school.
“Damn, much nicer in here than the trunk,” I noted.
Jeremy smiled and shook his head. “You’re an interesting woman. Just keep away from the rugby team and everything will be cool.”
“I’ll consider it,” I responded, fully intending on continuing my spying on Daniel. This was too good of a thing to pass up just because Jeremy didn’t approve. He may have been friends with Troy and on our side, but he was still an enemy in my eyes. I didn’t trust him not to do something stupid. He had already proven to me that his resonating skills weren’t up to par with a normal person by choosing to kidnap me just to have a conversation.
“By the way, here’s your phone back,” Jeremy said, handing me a phone with a cracked screen. “You dropped it when I brought you to my car.”
“You mean when you kidnapped me? Also, what the fuck, you broke my phone,” I said angrily.
“Sorry, but you’re the one who dropped it,” Jeremy replied.
“When you kidnapped me!” I was beginning to get pissed at this dolt.
Jeremy shrugged. “I guess I can give you some money for a new one.”
“You better,” I said, examining the intricate web of crack that covered my screen. It was totaled like Morgan’s car.
Jeremy drove us back to school, stopping on the way to order some food from the local fast food joint.
“Really?” I asked as we pulled into the drive-through.
“I’m hungry,” Jeremy whined.
“Fine, get me some fries and I’ll forgive you for kidnapping me,” I responded sharply.
“Okay,” He replied, leaning out of the window to tell the person at the speaker his order.
Chapter 22
I wasn’t terribly happy with Jeremy’s kidnapping stunt, but I had gained valuable information from it. Troy was in love with me, something that I could have suspected but didn’t due to his cold nature. He had an interesting way of showing it so early on, suggesting that we stop seeing each other right after I let him smash.
I was going to have to continue my chat with him. I knew where he lived, so it wouldn’t be so hard to go over there and confront him again. I wasn’t going to be throwing any rocks through his window, so I didn’t think it would be a big issue.
I would have to watch my back now though. I knew that Cindy was watching me, and apparently, not only was she riding Jeremy’s dick, she was also crazy about Troy. That woman didn’t make any sense to me, but I wasn’t going to get mixed up in her business again. I just hoped that Jeremy wouldn’t tell her anything about me and Troy.
I finished the rest of my classes that day and climbed into my car, planning on surprising Troy at his house for part two of our chat. I needed to tie up some loose ends and make sure that we were on the same page about our secret relationship. I could have cut him off, but I felt like I was too emotionally invested in him at this point to do so. I wasn’t going to let the war raging at Greywood Academy get in the way of my happiness. I deserved better.
I drove down to Troy’s house, having little trouble finding it since I had been there so many times. I slowed down as I pulled up to his driveway, scanning the area for any cars that might have belonged to the rugby team. I didn’t see any, but just to be safe, I parked my car further down the road and walked over to the house.
I jumped up the steps onto the porch, and peeked through the window beside the front door to check that there wasn’t a bunch of people in the house. I didn’t see anyone, so I rang the bell, still nervous that someone other than Troy would come to the door.
I wave of relief washed over me as Troy opened the front door and ushered me inside.
“What are you doing here?” Troy asked, a little confused.
“I’ve come to finish our talk from earlier,” I replied.
Troy smiled at me. “Are you sure you’re not here for something else?”
I felt a rush of excitement at his words, remembering how amazing things were the last time I was at his place. Even hungover, the sex had been perfect. I pushed those thoughts out of my head, returning to my original intent. “We need to establish some rules.”
Troy nodded. “How about you come to the kitchen. I can make you a coffee and we’ll talk there.”
I followed him into the kitchen, ditching my shoes at the door.
“Do you usually drink coffee so late in the day?” I asked as Troy turned on the coffee machine.
“It helps me concentrate on my homework,” Troy replied.
“Most of the homework is optional,” I replied, as though he didn’t already know that.
“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. It helps you learn the material,” Troy responded smartly.
Wow, Troy continued to amaze me with how nerdy he was. He would really be the perfect man if he wasn’t coupled with a bunch of losers just so that he would stay on the rugby team. I guess that sport meant a lot more to him than I had realized before. I thought to ask him. “Sorry if I seem so full of questions, but I feel lik
e we should get to know each other if we’re going to be dating. Why do you like rugby so much?”
Troy shrugged. “I feel free when I play. I think people should balance their minds and bodies. You get to kind of shut off your thinking for a while and just be present at the moment. It’s a very physical sport.”
I could understand that. “I would feel the same about cheerleading, but to be honest, I can only think about you when I’m cheering. I can’t get my mind fully into physical activity.”
Troy chuckled as the coffee machine chimed to signal that It was finished. “Sometimes you pop into my head, but it’s hard to think about anything like that when someone is charging head-on at you, trying to break your neck.”
I laughed. “Yeah, I guess that would be pretty distracting.”
Troy smiled at me, grabbing two mugs from hooks above the kitchen counter and pouring hot black coffee into both of them. “Sugar? Milk?”
“A lot of both,” I replied.
Troy took his black, but humored my half-milk half-coffee sugary beverage. I couldn’t stand it any other way, but I wasn’t surprised that someone like Troy would be having it black.
“So, you want to lay out some rules,” Troy said, sitting down across the table from me and handing me a steaming hot cup of coffee.
I took a sip. It tasted wonderful. “Yes, I think we better. Jennifer from the cheer squad told me that they bullied a girl on the team who was involved with one of the rugby players.”
“Ah, that’s right. I remember that. Your little friends are cruel,” He said, sipping his piping hot drink.
I shrugged. “No worse than the rugby team.”
“Hey, I’m not so bad,” He said, flashing me a goofy grin.
“I didn’t mean you in particular, but you could use some improvement,” I teased. “But onto the rules. We obviously shouldn’t let anyone know that we’re dating.”
Troy nodded. “Fair enough.”
I glared at him. “Including Jeremy.”
Troy made a guilty face. “Did he tell you about that?”
I nodded. “Oh yes, he did, but that’s not important. Just don’t tell him anything else and don’t say a word to anybody.”