Page 72 of Obsession

He just smiled.

“No, I don’t want that.” He squeezed my hips tighter. “Because now it’s my turn.”

He leaned forward and I felt the full force of his lips on my neck as he hungrily sucked my skin into his mouth. It probably only lasted a few seconds, but my brain was going to be scrambled all day. Just as quickly, he stepped back, let go of me and disappeared into the busy hallway.

I stood there, perplexed, and watched him leave. Now I understood why they called him a demon. That type of guy was impossibly unreal, but I had found myself one who was about to darken my mind. I shook my head trying to regain my composure. His kiss was still fresh on my skin, and the way he only kissed my neck felt more and more bizarre. But he’d told me that lips were the final straw, and he didn’t seem ready to pull it. I clearly wasn’t. Enough had happened already.

I tried to lose myself in the crowd and find my class, even though I was the center of everyone’s attention. In their eyes, I was no better than Amber, and I tried not to let it get to me. My life and my choices were no one else’s business.

***

Mr. Moris, our math teacher, was an old man, short and chubby, who talked about things I no longer understood. I focused on him obsessively so as not to notice the looks I was getting, especially Kristen’s. She came in after the teacher and didn’t have time to question me, but she was obviously up to date on the latest episode of the show “Katherine and the Demon”.

I could feel the drug blossoming inside me, a euphoric, frenzied energy taking over.

Kristen turned around in her seat, tore a page out of her notebook and wrote something on it. She crumpled it up and then tossed it to me. She couldn’t wait until the end of class. Had she never heard of this thing called ‘texting’? She and Candice were throwing notes like first graders.

“Are you insane?”

It was written in hasty cursive on the note. It could have been worse. I wasn’t going to reply via the same way, so I pulled out my phone and texted her under the table.

Me:

What do you mean?

I heard the buzz of her phone before she scowled at me. Yeah, sure, the teacher would hear that short vibrating sound from three feet away, but he couldn’t see her throwing paper balls around.

I watched as she quickly typed her answer while the teacher was giving out an assignment I didn’t bother to write down. My phone buzzed.

Kristen:

You fell into his trap.

I locked my phone and shoved it angrily into my pocket. I ignored her for the rest of the hour, but as soon as the bell rang, she was standing next to my desk.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

The whole thing was starting to bug me. Even if I accepted Harris, it was none of their business.

“You know what! This whole thing is starting to piss me off. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to explain my personal life to anyone,” I spoke a little too loudly and made an angry face.

“Fine! But leave us out of it,” she countered just as angrily.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Oh, and by the way, it would be nice if you gave me a heads up when you decide not to give me a ride.”

“Oh, that wasn’t our idea,” she interjected.

“What…” but I couldn’t finish my sentence.

Startled, I stopped as I saw the rest of my friends enter the classroom. Especially Zac.

My jaw dropped to the floor when he reached me, and I got a better look at the bruises on his face. His left brow bone seemed broken, his right one swollen, and purple marks stained his skin, even though he had tried to cover them up with concealer.

He looked down, seemingly embarrassed.

“Zac, what happened?” My words were shocked.

“Your boyfriend gave him a thrashing for daring to interfere yesterday.”

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