Page 15 of Bullied By The Bad Boy

“Living together isn’t the solution either.”

Olivia gets off the bike but stands beside it with the helmet close to her chest. She follows me to park the bike at my usual spot behind. The evening breeze whistles through her hair, and she puts it in a knot. We retrace our steps to the entrance of the house, but none of us attempts to go in.

I sit down first. Olivia drops down on the curb and rests her head on my shoulder. Seconds roll by without a word from us. I watch the houses on the other side and try to picture the owners’ lives. Do they also have a weird family dynamic like Olivia’s and put on a smile for outsiders?

Olivia straightens up. “Have you figured out what college you will be attending?”

“Nope,” I reply. “You?”

“Still thinking about it.” A pause, and then she asks, “Why did you threaten her?”

My brows crease. “Threaten who? Oh, Mother Theresa? I didn’t threaten her. Why do you keep saying that?”

“Zoey said you did.”

I click my tongue at the mention of a member of her clique. “Well, I didn’t.”

Olivia pulls her legs over the curb and crosses them under her. “Why were you talking to her?”

That girl is infuriating. And she cried that day in class. The fuck? I didn’t mean to make her cry, but she took the money, and I had to ask Olivia. She cheated,orshe mainly took advantage of my weakness. Either way, she sucks. She is a loser. Dumb too. Who wears a necklace to a fight?

“We have a few classes together,” I reply. “Liv, you are the one who’s mean to her.”

“I’m mean to everybody.”

“Except me.” I wink, and Olivia blushes.

“Are you defending her?” I throw my hands up in resignation. Olivia is the reason I was able to purchase the glasses for Asher after losing to that slime. I’ll always be on her side. “Don’t be fooled by her outward appearance, Ben. Tessa is not an angel. She took something from me.”

Same here. My foot taps a sharp tattoo onto the floor. I wait five seconds before I utter a reply. “What did she take?” I ask her, but she shrugs. I’m not one to gossip, but there is something she isn’t saying. To get her to talk, I whisper, “She also took something from me. It’s nothing important anyway.”

“What did she take?”

I shrug. Olivia rolls her eyes.

“You should get back at her,” she adds.

I have enough problems already, and I don’t intend to make Tessa one of them. “No need.”

“I’ll do it on your behalf then. I don’t like her.”

That piques my interest. I prop a foot on the curb and rest my jaw on my knee. Tessa is quiet with a predictable routine. So I thought until that match ended. I even followed her to her house and checked back on Sunday. She is the kind of student you brush past in the hallway without knowing because she mostly keeps to herself, except she has her loud, lying best friend with her.

Tessa seems okay, and I know Olivia to be a bit troublesome. “What exactly did she do?”

“I told you she took something from me,” Olivia snaps.

We glare at each other. I break eye contact first. “Don’t do anything stupid, Olivia.”

“Of course I won’t, Benjamin. Give me some credit.”

I rake a hand through my hair. If Tessa fights underground like me, I need not worry about her. The crybaby can handle herself. Besides, Olivia can’t fight beyond a few insults thrown around.

In the silence that follows Olivia’s snarky reply, tension thickens the air. I glance at her, and her scowl deepens. Guilt stabs me in different places. I brought her out here to make her forget the drama at home, not give her a reason to be unhappy. My foot slips off the curb, and I place both hands on my knees. This companionship shit can be so complicated sometimes. Do I apologize?

“I made pasta,” I whisper.

“Good for you.”

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