Page 70 of Dare To Fall

“Deserve it?” Jace laughs. “She keeps provoking him. You have to be insane to do something like that.”

I push back my chair and stand. “Thanks for lunch, Garrett.”

Ignoring the other two jocks, I walk across the cafeteria for the door. I can’t explain why I’m doing what I’m doing. It’s too exhausting trying to defend myself when everyone sees what my blackmailer wants them to see. They’ve painted me as a girl desperate for the attention of a bully. Someone who will go to any extreme to get what she wants.

Does anyone remember the Arabella Gray who first arrived, or has she been erased in the charade I’m being forced to play?

“Hey, freak!”

I peek over my shoulder at Lacy’s call. She’s sitting at her table surrounded by her friends, a smirk on her lips.

A hand shoves my shoulder. Off balance, my hip smashes into the side of a table, and I cry out. When I swivel my head to see who pushed me, my heart plummets.

“Watch where you’re fucking going,” Eli snarls.

I shrink away from him, backing away to put the table I’d crashed into between us. There’s no flicker of emotion on his expression as he stalks to his table. Kellan follows him, shooting me a troubled look as he passes.

The second they move, I scurry out of the cafeteria. Pain radiates up from my hip, but I ignore it. As soon as I’m locked inside my dorm room, I strip off and check. Touching the dark red bruise forming on my skin, I grimace. Another one to go with all the others I’ve suffered over the last few weeks. How many more will I get before the year ends?

I throw myself down on my bed, and don’t bother trying to fight the negative thoughts that fill my head. My phone rings. I hesitate, then reach for it.

“Hello?”

“Hello, sweetheart.” My mother’s voice is happy.

“Hi, Elena.”

“Can you start calling me Mom?”

I frown. “I thought you didn’t like me calling you that?”

“It’s something Elliot pointed out,” she replies. “I’ve become so used to you calling me by my first name that I never really thought about how wrong it is. I should have done this sooner. So, please, Bella, call me Mom.”

Now she wants to play at being a mom after all the years she’s missed? I’m too tired to argue about it. “Okay.”

“How’s school?”

“Good.”

She takes a breath. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on with you and Eli—”

“Nothing is going on,” I reply robotically, repeating what I’ve told the principal, the counselor, and my teachers.

“We’ve had reports of you fighting.”

“That’s what stepsiblings are supposed to do, right? Like any other family.”

Elena is silent for a beat. “I’m here if you want to talk. If something is going on, you can tell me.”

“It’s nothing. Just stupid stuff.”

And I can’t tell you because if I do, someone will end up getting hurt, and it will be all my fault.

“I know something happened between the two of you at Christmas. Then things changed. I’m not blind, you know.”

Does she know Eli and I had sex?

Closing my eyes, I clench my fingers around the phone in my hand. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

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