Page 92 of Hunting Pretty

“Leave her alone.”

My bully, his face silhouetted against the sun behind his head, laughed, a cruel bitter sound.

But his retreating footsteps told me he wouldn’t hurt me anymore.

At least not today.

Hegently pulled me to him, lifting me into his arms like a babe, his arctic blue eyes furrowed in concern. “I got you.”

A tear slipped from my lower lashes as I rested my head against his chest.

I was safe now.

He was here.

The gravel crunched beneath his steady footsteps as he carried me in his arms.

At the school nurse’s station, he sat me down on the small cot covered with a thin paper sheet.

The nurse had silver hair pulled into a tight bun and sharp eyes that seemed to notice everything despite her soft, unassuming demeanor.

She looked between my ripped and bloodied stockings and his quiet but intense gaze on me.

“Ava was playing tag and tripped,” he said, never looking away from me. “It was an accident.”

The nurse looked him over from head to toe.

He was tall for sixteen. With already broad shoulders and strong jaw, he looked like a man, not a boy.

But it was his eyes more than anything that made him seem older. They were eerily steady, assured, unwavering.

The nurse shifted in her white orthopedic sneakers. “Is that true, Ava?”

“Yes,” I said although my voice sounded hollow.

The nurse let out a noise of frustration and turned to him. “Could you leave us for a—”

“I’m not leaving her.”

I chimed in, “I don’t want him to leave.”

“Ava,” the nurse turned to me with a pleading look, “if someone—”

“She’s bleeding,” he snapped. “Stop interrogating her and start helping her.”

She hesitated a moment longer and then with a huff retrieved the appropriate materials from the drawers, moving with a quiet efficiency: tweezers, antiseptic, ointment, and bandages.

“Let’s get you all cleaned up,” she said as she approached.

He stopped her with a hand. “I’ll do it.”

She laughed but it sounded uncomfortable. “I’m the nurse.”

She reached out toward my knee but he grasped her wrist. “Only I get to touch her.”

The air stopped moving. I didn’t dare to breathe.

It was strictly forbidden to use violence against the teachers and staff at the school. He was risking immediate expulsion.

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