Page 9 of PET

“Ms. Lucas,” the teacher says to get my attention.

As I turn to her, I see the scowl set on her face and know this isn’t going to make me feel any better. I’ve clearly done something wrongagain.

“Yes, Mrs. Slye?”

“I think you’d do well by reading the school’s uniform policy again.” Her hard gaze drops to my shoulders before she scowls at me.

When I look down, I see my jacket buttons have disappeared, and my shoulder seam is torn wide open. I knew that bitch in the hall hit me really hard, but I didn’t realize just how much.

“Go change, Ms. Lucas. I’ll mark you tardy for the day.” She points to the exit, clearly not giving me the opportunity to explain what happened.

“Sorry, ma’am,” I whisper as I turn and leave her class.

But as I enter the hallway again, all of my peers are still here and it almost looks like they’ve been waiting for me. They all point and laugh, and even a few throw things at me—wadded up notebook paper, pens, half-empty water bottles, basically anything they had in their hands. I keep my head down and push through all of them, finding the back exit.

Once I’m outside, away from those assholes, I let my sobs free. But my moment to purge is cut short when I turn the corner and interrupt a shocked-looking Lauren Fairfax and Henley Anderson. She looks like a deer in headlights and he looks like he’s glad I have finally caught them. Because they definitely have, and they were making out like their lives depended on it.

“Keep your mouth shut, Billie. Or this will go bad—”

“I won’t say a word,” I tell her, lying through my teeth. I’m not sure who I’m going to tell yet, but I’m going to tell someone! Seeing Lauren with a guy like Henley might take some of the shade off of me for a bit.

For now, I continue on to my old dorm room—the one my uncle won’t let me stay at anymore. Luckily for me, I have a few extra uniforms hanging in my closet. But as I cross campus and head into the dorm building, I’m slammed against the wall by one of the burly Lacrosse girls.

“Thought you weren’t staying here anymore,” she snaps, holding me against the wall with her forearm in my fucking throat.

I swallow hard and try to take a breath before I say, “Didn’t think it was any of your business.”

Grinning, she pushes her arm into my neck harder and makes me cough out. I don’t recall ever having anything to do with this bitchorany of the other bitches on the Lacrosse team, so what gives?

“Now that you’re a nobody and Van isn’t here to protect you, I’d watch your back.”

“I’m not sure why. I’ve done nothing wrong,” I reply as loudly as I can.

She grins and shakes her head. “Haven’t you heard? We all think you knew what your mom did, and you hid it because Van was showing you attention. The girl who was Van’s booty call longer than any girl before her. Until Everlee, anyway.”

I know what she’s doing, but it won’t work. These jerks can think what they want, but at the end of the day, I know the truth.

“You done?” I ask in a rush.

Holding me against the wall longer, she finally releases me and steps back, but not enough to give me the space to move around her. “I’d watch your back, slut. We wouldn’t want you to have a nasty accident and hurt yourself… Ya know, now that you don’t have anyone to defend you.”

As I massage my sore throat and take in several gasping breaths, I glare at her retreating back. What the hell has gotten into these fuckers?! Don’t they know what they’re doing is illegal? But who am I kidding? Every single cocksucker who attends this school comes from a rich mommy or daddy. Even if I were to press charges or get a restraining order, their parents would buy their way out of trouble.

Turning, I rush up the stairs to my old room as fast as I can. I want to cry and scream out my frustrations, but I know it won’t help right now. My mind immediately thinks of Zeke sitting in his car, and I can’t help but wonder if he’d have helped me if he had witnessed either incident. From what’s happened until now, I’d say no. He hasn’t done or said a single thing to stop the bullying I’ve been dealing with. And Christian hasn’t been to school for obvious reasons, but I have a feeling he wouldn’t have helped either.

I’m changing into a jacket that isn’t torn when my phone buzzes on the dresser beside me. At first, I think it’s Zeke wondering where the hell I am, but it’s the guy from the valley instead. Weird.

ValleyBoy: What’s up, cutie?

Frowning, I reply with a simplenothing. What’s up with you?In which I get an immediate reply.

ValleyBoy: Bored. I ditched out on school today - math test I didn’t want to take. You wanna hang out?

I think about all the kids here who hate my fucking guts and how a day off—well, the rest of the day off—from getting my ass kicked sounds nice.

ME: Sure, why not? I’ll sneak out. You pick me up at the end of the road?

ValleyBoy: See you in ten. ;)

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