Page 144 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

He shoves against my back, and the next thing I know I’m standing on wobbly legs, my underwear tangled around my knees and Knox’s blazer sliding to the ground. I catch it hurriedly, wrapping it around me like a skirt, my cheeks stillblazing like torches when I stagger away to meet Romi at the edge of the cobblestone path.I barely remember in time to keep my cum-soaked hand out of sight behind my back, like a kid hiding a cookie she’d just been caught stealing.

Romi takes one look at me and stops running. “Nim...are you okay?” Her eyes immediately flash to the guys behind me, but I guess they all have their innocent faces on or something, because she just gives me a confused look when her eyes come back to mine. “Nim?”

“I’m fine,” I say, swallowing hard and then jutting out my chin. “What do you want?” Slightly breathless, I have to push out the words, making them harsher than I’d intended.

A flicker of hurt crosses Romi’s eyes, but it quickly clears into cool indifference. “I heard someone say the Serpents were bullying you, but...” She glances past me, sniffs, and steps back. “I guess I heard wrong.”

“I’m fine,” I tell her. “We were just...talking.”

Romi shrugs. “Like I give a fuck,” she says, turns on her heel, and storms off.

I sag, glance over my shoulder.

Knox is sitting forward, his wrists slung casually over his knees. Besides his unruly hair, there’s not a stitch out of place.

Mason is on one elbow, the cocky grin on his mouth the only evidence that he just came in my fucking hand. And Silas? He’s scowling at Romi’s back like he can’t believe she had the audacity to interrupt us.

Slowly, keeping Knox’s blazer wrapped around my legs, I slide my underwear off and use it to wipe Mason’s cum from my hand. Then I toss Knox’s blazer at him.

“You’ll pay for this,” I say as evenly as I can manage with my pounding heart.

Knox watches me calmly, then the side of his mouth moves up. It might have been a smile, but I’m pretty sure it’s more of a smirk. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Nim.”

I turn to stalk away, but when Mason clears his throat in a meaningful way, a tremor of fear paralyzes my legs. Just like that, my heart is in my throat again, and I’m waiting to see what fresh hell they’re going to dole out next.

I hear shoes ringing off the paving. A massive hand slips around my wrist, lifting my arm. Mason forces open my fingers and takes my cum-soaked panties out of my hand. “This belongs to me now,” he rumbles in my ear.

Chapter 22

Nim

I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it doesn’t. There are no repercussions for what the Serpents did to me in the courtyard. When I happen to pass students in the halls, they either stare at me with leers on their faces, or look away as if they can’t stand my embarrassment. I still get the odd jeer about being an illegal immigrant. Sometimes someone calls me a bitch or a stray. Someone tells me in passing that they’re glad the Serpents are taking an interest in my training, because no one likes an unsocialized dog.

My accounting teacher seems unimpressed with my futile attempts at understanding his subject. He sends me out of class with an extra assignment I need to have done by Monday.

At this stage, I’m literally wondering if declaring bankruptcy and sleeping under a bridge somewhere isn’t a far sight better than this torture. I’m close to breaking…fuck knows why it hasn’t happened yet.

Or, maybe, it’s like it was with my parents. It’ll hit me eventually, but not today. Maybe not for a few months.

God, what a mess I’ll be by then.

I’m in my room that night when Romi appears about an hour after dinner. I slipped into the cafeteria during lunch and loaded up on two sandwiches. One is still on my desk—I’ll have it later if I’m feeling hungry, or maybe for breakfast. No fucking way am I going to have dinner in the cafeteria—perhaps ever again. She says nothing when she sees me in bed, and goes straight to the bathroom with her pajamas tucked under one arm.

I expect to hear the shower or the bath running, but she comes out almost immediately again. “What the fuck is your problem?” she demands, staring at me with her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

Swallowing, I sit up and hug my knees. “What?”

“Do think I’m an idiot?” she steps up to the side of my bed, towering over me. “I know they were doing something to you.”

“Do you need me to tell you what happened so you can use it as a masturbation fantasy in there?” I yell back. “Because that’s all this is to you, isn’t it? It’s not like you’ll do anything about it.”

We stare at each other for a beat, and then Romi’s shoulders sag. “Nim, I’m sorry. You’re right. Ican’tdo anything. But you don’t have to suffer through this alone. I can?—”

I turn my back on her. “You can’t do anything, Romi. No one can. Just...just leave me alone.”

She lets out a frustrated sigh and slams the bathroom door behind her.

I twist, smooshing my face in my pillow, and smack it around a little. It doesn’t help. I want to be smashing intheirfaces, not abusing my poor pillow like they abused me.

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