Page 76 of Science Project

“She’s not available now,” Dad said. “Give Yui my best wishes.”

And with that, Dad slammed the door in Akio’s face.

A stray tear slid down my cheek, and I bit back a sob as Pick grabbed a fistful of my hair to pull my head back. I stared into the camera that Dad had set up earlier as a sort of blackmail—to make sure that I didn’t step out of line again or else everyone would see the whore that I was.

After listening to loud footsteps, I lifted my gaze higher to see Dad stopping at the door.

He unbuckled his belt and whipped it off himself, then crouched by my side. “Look at you, so fucking sexy that the nerdy kid comes to say hello to you.”

“I … I didn’t know he was coming over,” I tried to say.

“Let me tell you one thing, my girl,” Dad said to me, cupping my face and pulling my head a few more inches off the ground. “If I see you hanging out with that boy ever again, I will kill him in front of you.”

Tears welled in my eyes, and I nodded, knowing that he would kill him.

There was absolutely no question in my mind that Dad would chop him up into small, tiny pieces for me to find weeks after he murdered Akio. I didn’t know what I would even do. I didn’t know how I would think. I didn’t know how I would live after that.

Truthfully, I wouldn’t.

“Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I understand. I understand!”

CHAPTER

FORTY-TWO

NICOLE

After staring into the car mirror, I dabbed a bit more concealer on my cheek. I hadn’t come to school for almost a week because my entire face had been swollen to basically twice its size.

I stared at my dull eyes for a few more moments, then slammed the visor up and exited the car. Akio had come back to my house a few more times these past few days, only for Dad to give him the excuse that I was sick.

Every time he came over, it only pissed Dad off more. And I braced myself many, many times for another punch to the face after the front door slammed, but it never happened. I wished that boy had just stopped coming over.

He was putting himself in danger, showing Dad that he cared about me … when nobody was supposed to care about me.

As soon as I stepped into Redwood Academy, the second bell rang, signaling that I was late for class. I hurried to my locker to drop off some books and decided that I needed to flirt with the teachers to get out of all the work I’d missed because I didn’t have it in me to do the work.

Why did it matter anyway?

When I turned the corner, I spotted Akio at my locker. He looked up when he saw me, his eyes wide and a stack of papers in his arms. I paused for a moment to gather myself, then strutted to my locker as if his presence didn’t bother me.

“Nicole,” Akio said. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine.”

“Here,” he said, handing me the papers.

“What’s this?” I asked, staring down at the one-inch stack.

“All your work that you missed while you were sick,” Akio said. “I did it for you.”

Be rude to him. Show him how much you don’t want him. Protect this precious boy.

After snatching the papers from his hand, I shoved them angrily into my locker. “I didn’t ask you to do my work for me, nor did I ask for you to get the work from any of my classes. I’ve been sick, not incapable of doing things for myself.”

“I know, but I thought it would be a nice gesture.”

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