Page 16 of Giving In

My arm is burning under his hand and if I don’t melt from his touch, there’s a chance I won’t be able to play lacrosse if he keeps going like this.

“I haven’t heard the magic word Goody, c’mon, you know you’re not a rude girl.”

My heart picks up and my breaths are coming out sharper. I want to slap the smile off his face and claw at it until he bleeds. I hate him. This is the problem with the people in this town. They think they can get away with anything.

My mind hates him so much it’s in complete contradiction with my body. I take a deep breath before letting out the words I’m pretty sure are going to scrape my throat coming out.

“Let go of my arm,please.”

“Mm…” he thinks, and I can see him moving in his seat. The bastard is still not letting go and the blood drains from my face as I see him adjusting his hard-on under his jeans.

The fucker is getting off on this. Is it hurting me? Is it the begging? What is wrong with him? Actually,what is wrong with me?!Seeing him adjust himself again, I can’t help my mind wandering to places. I want to see what’s under his uniform. My fucked-up thoughts are cut short by Jake’s phone vibrating on his desk. He quickly looks at it and back at me in a smile.

“Saved by the bell, Goody,” he says as he grabs his phone and shows the screen to me. It’s a text from Chris, simple but efficient.

Chris:Let her go.

My head snaps to Chris a few rows behind us. He’s watching us like he wants to annihilate Jake. Chris’s eyes go back to his phone between his lap and his desk and Jake’s screen lights up again.

Chris:Now.

Jake finally lets go of my arm and turns to Chris, flashing him his most innocent smile. I massage my arm trying to get the blood flowing again and Jake turns back to me.

“I don’t know why Chris is busting my balls to leave you alone, but I stand by what I said. You’re going to regret this. Watch your back.”

He goes back to writing some notes and ignores me completely until the end of the class. As soon as the bell rings I jump off my seat and run out of class.

I realize when I burst into the ladies room that I didn’t even wait for Emily. I’m out of breath from running across campus to the furthest bathroom possible from where Jake was. I’m shaking when I look at my arm in the mirror. I’m wearing the summer uniform and my shirt has short sleeves. I have red patches, dots where his fingertips were.Fuck.What the hell just happened? Jake has no limits, he just hurt me in class in front of everyone and only Chris noticed.

Chris.Surely if he came to my defense, he knows how Jake can get, there are no other possibilities. He’s always on the twins’ backs, keeping them in line. What if it’s more than stopping them from playing stupid pranks on people and causing trouble at school? What if it’s to stop them from hurting anyone? No one knows their background. They might as well have been assassins before they joined our school.

They joined at fourteen years old Jamie. Calm down.

I remember how they were covered in bruises when they showed up, in the middle of the school year. I remember wondering what that was about back then. Chris and Luke shut down stupid rumors, Jake got in some fights and life went on without anyone ever knowing what had happened to them. Who were they with before they went to live with the Murrays?

I shake my head trying to stop the thoughts from flowing. I’m overthinking and biting my inside cheek so hard I can taste blood in my mouth. I need to keep Jake off my mind and as far away from me as possible.

???

I spend the rest of the morning sitting far away from Jake and he seems to be back to ignoring me. I hate what I’m doing but I am actually watching my back, exactly like he wanted. Emily catches on that something is wrong by lunchtime. I don’t have the mental strength to explain what happened. I still haven’t decided if I want to tell her about Sam and the dark side of Jake or if I want to keep it to myself. I want to tell her because Jake threatened me not to and I’ve got too much pride to follow threats from overprivileged Stoneview kids.

On the other hand, he was clear this morning and every time I look at my arm I can’t help thinking: do I really want to involve Emily in this?

“‘Me, are you going to answer my question?” she insists. I have no idea what she just asked.

“What?”

“Why are you so out of it today? Did something happen?”

“I…” I’m about to lie but I change my mind at the last second. I look around the cafeteria and notice Jake and his group not far from us. “Hey, can we talk about this later?”

Emily frowns in confusion and nods, “Sure, come home with me tonight? I’ll drive you.”

“I’ve got my bike. I can meet you there.”

She shakes her head at my statement. “When will you drop that old bike and let me drive you to school?”

“My house is out of your way to school and I like biking, especially at this time of year.”

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