Page 86 of Bullied By The Bad Boy

Maria drops her cutlery on the table and crosses her arms under her boobs. I wish I wasn’t sitting opposite her because right now, she’s giving me that look her mother gives when she fucks up.

“That doesn’t make you his girlfriend.” It does, doesn’t it? She picks a fry from her plate, and my eyes wander to Olivia’s table again. “Tessa, if you two are not dating, what are you doing?”

I open my mouth to answer and close it wordlessly. “Ben sent you to the clinic,” she reminds me.

Doubts begin to creep in again. “He apologized,” I say. But I don’t sound as confident. He is not the same person who punched me. He won’t repeat it. I can feel it in my guts. I sip my soda until it’s finished. “He is really sorry.”

“He didn’t ask you out, Tessa. Why do you keep kissing him? Look at them. Does it look like he cares?” I guess Ben sitting at Olivia’s table instead of mine sends the wrong message, but we can’t decide based on that. Her worried eyes hold mine, and she sighs. “Do you want to get hurt?”

“No.” I look away from the picture-perfect couple at the other end of the cafeteria. Maria offers me a sad smile, and I swipe a hand across my nose. “I guess I thought Benny really liked me.”

“Benny? You call him Benny? Well, if Benny does, he’s not doing a good job of showing it.”

Forty-Eight

Maria is wrong.

Ben likes me. And he proves it by coming up to our table to slide his tray close to mine. His arm goes around my shoulders, and I’m a blushing mess when he kisses my cheek. Maria shakes her head. That disapproving look is sent in my direction once more, but Ben is here. He showed up.

“Sorry, babe. Olivia kept me waiting,” Ben tells me in an annoyed voice, like he didn’t want to be there with her. He pouts, and my anger dissolves. How can I stay mad at that face? “Had stuff that needed my help. I didn’t know it would take so much of my time. But I’m here now, okay?”

Ben’s gaze roams my face. The pad of his thumb brushes the skin under my eyes, and my lips spread in a shy smile. Maria must have gotten annoyed by our interaction.

“She didn’t,” my best friend snaps.

We turn to her, and a wedge appears between my eyebrows. “Sorry, what?” Ben says.

I slide my hands under the table to take his. Maria doesn’t like him. I know she’s looking out for me, but she needs to give him a chance. I’ve never liked any boy this much since Brian, and that’s so long ago. I like Ben. I want him to be my boyfriend, and I also want my best friend’s blessing.

“Olivia didn’t need help. She just wanted to take you away from Tessa,” Maria says.

Her haughty tone brooks no argument, and my hand slips from Ben. I don’t want to be stuck in the middle if this conversation turns sour, but I agree with Maria. It’s not beneath Olivia. We glance at her table, and she is already glaring at us. A smile lifts her lips once Ben raises his head. She waves, and unfortunately, the idiot called Benjamin Carter returns it with a salute. I imagine strangling her, and the thought calms me down until a ghost of a smile flies across Ben’s face.

Maria clears her throat. “She deliberately kept you waiting to piss off your girlfriend here.”

My best friend did not just say that. Ben doesn’t flinch at her utterance. So, I’m his girlfriend?

“Oh, come on, Maria,” he replies. He looks to me for help. “You don’t know Liv like I do.”

What the fuck does that mean?

Did he lie about not being her boyfriend? I take an involuntary inch away from him, and he sends me a pleading look I ignore. I hate this. Cheers break out in the cafeteria as two people start dancing in the center. I focus on their feet rather than Ben’s hand clenched on his knee.

“Maybe. But I know she’s a manipulative bitch,” Maria retorts. She tilts her head to the side to give him a onceover. Ben lifts a brow. “Something you fail to see, yet you claim to know her.”

The dancing couple exit the cafeteria, and Maria’s smile falls when her gaze returns to me. I try to hide my feelings behind a fake smile, but she sees through it. My best friend shoots to her feet.

“I will leave you lovebirds to catch up.”

The sarcasm in her voice flies over Ben’s head. He covers the distance between us and steals a fry from my plate. I push my tray toward him, my appetite as dead as the smile Maria flashed me before leaving. Ben picks up my empty can, shakes it, and replaces mine with his. It doesn’t make things better, but I take a swig of his chilled Coca-Cola to tame the building jealousy.

“What crawled up her ass and died?” Ben asks once Maria is out of earshot.

Anger flits through me. Red, hot, flaming rage. I slam the Coca-Cola on the tray, and the dark liquid sloshes out of the opening. I like Ben, but Maria is my best friend. She will be there when he decides he has had enough of this skinny girl with vitiligo and insecurities larger than his ego.

“Your attitude.” Ben gasps. The fry sticks out from the corner of his mouth like a cigarette, he takes it out, and a sad expression replaces his shock. “You should have come to our table first.”

Ben juts out his lip, and his eyes shine with contrition. This guy is all mine, but he’s clueless and annoying. I need to know that I can always count on him. “Babe.” My heart clenches, I allow him to lace our fingers, and he kisses my wrist. “I’m sorry, Gracie. It’s hard to say no to Olivia.”

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