Page 454 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

Which makes me wonder…Had she seen the video already? Was that why Eliza was being so nice?

Bitch.

I give another rueful laugh and take a sip of Bailey’s next.

As I turn to put down the bottle, four guys slink out of the shadows beneath a nearby birch tree.

My heart gives a solid thump inside my chest. How long were they standing there for? Did they hear me cackling like a lunatic? I changed out of my school clothes at the bus stop—didn’t want any nosy bystanders contacting the school to say one of their pupils was ditching. I’m wearing the clothes I arrived at Cinderhart in—a faded hoody, torn jeans, and five-year-old sneakers with a small hole in the front right toe. I probably look like a fucking hobo.

“Hey,” one of the guys calls out. He has dark hair and light-colored eyes but they stop too far away for me to make out much more. At first I think they’re from my high school but their blazers have a different cut and the silver trim seems to sparkle a lot more. Two of them aren’t wearing their blazers, but they have the same dress shirts and black slacks.

What is a bunch of academy students doing out here in the middle of the day? It must be at least a three-hour walk back to Cinderhart Academy.

I don’t say anything, willing them to go away and leave me alone. The guy who spoke comes closer, while the rest hang back, talking quietly amongst themselves. Too quietly for me to hear.Too quietly for it not to be suspicious.

“You new in town?” he asks. He stops a few yards away, standing with his hands in his pockets. He’s tall, clean-shaven.

I don’t want to talk to them. I don’t want to talk toanyone. That’s why I left my phone at home. I just need space to process all the shit that’s happened in the past few days. There’s so much I need to come to terms with, I don’t even know where to start.

“Not to be rude, but I just want to be alone.”

The guy makes a point of looking at the bottles of alcohol next to me. “I can see that.” He glances around and then comes a little closer. “But I’d suggest you go do that somewhere else. The sheriff sometimes sends patrols out here. They’ll arrest you for underage drinking.”

I almost bark out “who died and made you king?” but I think better of it.It’s as good a cue as any for me to get the fuck out of here, which I suddenly desperately want to do. It’s not this guy who’s freaking me out, it’s the other three. I don’t like how they’re conspiring out of earshot over there.

And from the looks they keep sending my way, it’s definitelymethey’re discussing.

“Thanks. I’ll do that.” I grab the bottles and shove them into my backpack before rushing to my feet. Which is when I realize that I should have waited for the guys to leave before attempting to get up, because I had no idea how drunk I was until right now.

The black lake, the blue sky, the white-and-brown trees—they all blur around me as I stagger and try to find my balance.

“One too many, huh?” the dark-haired guy says with a laugh.He comes closer, holding out his hands like he wants to catch or grab me if I happen to fall his way.

“I’m fine,” I mutter through gritted teeth as I wheel my arms down to the ground and crouch.

“Let me help you down.”

“I’m good,” I tell him, standing and carefully backing up when he comes closer. And then, because he starts climbing up the rock anyway, I add, “You should go. My boyfriend isn’t going to like me talking to other guys.”

“Your boyfriend, huh?” The guy grins at me like a fucking shark. He’s hot, in a roguish way, but I don’t like his smile one bit. “If you ask me, he shouldn’t let his girlfriend drink alone in such a dangerous place.”

The only thing dangerous around here are these guys.

Shit, what am I going to do? Suddenly, leaving my phone at home doesn’t seem like such a great idea anymore. Neither does coming out here by myself.

I turn and scramble down the rock as fast as I can. I turn tail and run, desperatelytrying to keep my footing on the smooth surface. Thankfully, the gouges in the surface help when my sneakers start slipping. I jump onto the ground and bolt away, going so fast I lose control of my legs a few yards later and end up on my hands and knees. The bottles in my backpack clank together so hard I’ll be shocked if they didn’t break.

I spin around, my heart hammering in my chest. The CA guys watch my frantic escape with expressionless faces. But they don’t come after me.

As soon as I get my legs under me, I’m gone.

Chapter 58

Harper

The bus stop is deserted. According to the schedule, I have three hours to wait for the next one to arrive, and this isn’t exactly the best place to hide.

I lost sight of the guys from the lake a few minutes ago when the path leading up to the main road took me behind a grove of oak trees planted near the verge. There are two trucks and a sedan parked in the nearby lot. The one truck has so much dust on it I doubt it’s been moved in weeks. But one—or both—of the other vehicles could belong to those four guys from Cinderhart Academy.

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