Page 55 of Bullied By The Bad Boy

He tilts his head slightly for me to catch his smug smile. “You are so annoying.”

“Yep,” he replies.

My eyes find my feet when his head jerks toward me. What is it this time?

“Is this your handwriting?” Ben asks. He flips pages and takes more pictures. “Juliet? Miss?”

“Yeah.”

I save my best handwriting for class because I don’t want to spend half the time later figuring out the notes instead of reading. The curvy, more calligraphic handwriting is reserved for Lett.

Ben must have realized I won’t fight him for my note because he doesn’t try to hide it from me. I twiddle my fingers when his eyes rest on my face for the umpteenth time. The idiot is well aware of the effect he has on most girls. As much as I hate to admit it, I am on the list of girls smitten by his looks. His arrogance is stifling but attractive.

There I go again, thinking about him in a good light. I hate this. Ben gives me mixed feelings.

“Almost done.” I try to ignore him while he clicks away, but it’s hard. He’s sexy. Plus, he was nice to me today. I steal more glances at him, doing my hardest to be subtle. “Like what you see, honey?” A cough catches in my throat. Cheeks staining red, I stare straight ahead. He called me by a new pet name. I think he hates my name. “Keep staring, and I will have to charge you for it.”

See, his ego is larger than this entire room, and where is Ms. Jota?

Speaking of the devil, she walks into the room with puffy eyes, and I forget about Ben. She looks like she has been crying. I don’t like that. Ms. Jota claps to garner everyone’s attention, and the noise ceases. I am not the only one who notices her eyes. Ben snuggles close to me. Too close for comfort.

“What happened to her?” he whispers.

Chills race down my body at his proximity. His arm rubs against mine, and I scoot back. He’s touchy today. “I’m so sorry for keeping you all waiting, but there will be no practice today.” A gasp echoes through the room. Ben frowns at me, and I realize I am the one who made the sound. Ms. Jota forces a smile to her face and waves her phone in the air. “I, uh, have received some…devastating news, and I need to attend to it immediately. Practice will resume next week.”

I slide down my seat. I love Ms. Jota, but come on, that’s a week from today.

“Keep practicing,” she adds.

The hall is silent after Ms. Jota leaves. None of us expected today to turn out this way. Students begin to file out of the hall. I snatch my note from Ben’s hand, and he doesn’t give me issues.

“You registered for the All-Rounder yet?”

I pause. My ears must be playing tricks on me if he is talking about the illegal ring in school. If I admit to knowing what the All-Rounder is, I can’t deny being a part of it. “Are you asking me?” Ben looks behind me and shrugs. We are alone. “I don’t know what you are talking about, Ben.”

Laughter trickles from his lips, he eyes me, and I almost blurt out the truth. “Okay, Tee,” he says. He doesn’t have to call me by my stage name to make his point. I get it. He knows it’s me, but I will still deny it. In school, I am Tessa. A corner of his lips twitches. “Good luck fighting Pablo.”

The hall grows hotter, and so does my cheek as I grab my backpack from the floor. I fight Pablo on Thursday. It’s impromptu. Coach begged me to stand in for one of his guys. Ben’s smile makes me jittery.

I hear myself say, “I am going to go now. Bye.”

Thirty-Three

By 4 am on Friday,I am awake and mixing cake ingredients in the kitchen for a jackass who confuses the hell out of me. My movements are slow as I hop from one corner to another to prepare the pan and other items. I might have won last night’s match, but Pablo did a good one on me. The bastard managed a kick to my cheek before I knocked him out. I will need an extra layer of foundation to hide the marks. If he had gotten a headshot, that would have been my end.

“Sweetheart, what are you doing?”

If I wasn’t so sleepy, I might have jumped out of my skin in shock, but my body delays my reaction to my mom’s presence. I blink sleepily at Mom as she stalks to the sink to fill her empty glass.

“Baking, Mom.”

She rubs the back of her hands against her eyes and rests her weight on the fridge. Her gaze runs over me. I must look a sight with flour on my face and fingers buried in dough. “What time is it?”

“Um, I don’t know.”Liar, liar, pants on fire.I know it’s too early for me to be awake. “I’m not sure.”

Her smile falls. She doesn’t believe me but leaves me to finish mixing. In less than one hour, I’m done mixing. With the cake in the oven, I ready everything for the icing. Per my agreement with Ben’s brother, it must be in his locker. Ben is punctual, so he should see the cake before the icing melts. I’ll be using fondant icing anyway. The main trick is putting it into his locker without getting caught. I would employ Maria’s help, but she’s convinced I am crushing on the poor guy.

What was all that about in drama club and the ring? After my fight with Pablo, Ben showed up in my dressing room, wanting to know if I needed a ride. The cancer sticks must be affecting him.

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