Not that he believed me, of course. All he saw was his delinquent daughter who’d shamed him by getting kicked out of the expensive school he’d shipped me off to at age eleven—most likely so he could brag about paying the ninety-thousand dollar a year tuition while not having to deal with me. Except now, he did have to deal with me. For the last two months of my school year. The horror.
“I’ve set up for your paycheck to be directly deposited into my account since you owe me for the last two months of tuition.”
Annoyance rippled through me. “You know I can just get mom to pay you.”
“I don’t need the money, Drucella.” He huffed, setting the spatula onto the counter. “It’s the principle. It’s about you learning a little bit of responsibility for your disastrous behavior.”
“Yes, yes, I’m such a disappointment, I know.” I was so done with this.
I went upstairs, changed for school, then grabbed my purse. I knew he expected me to refuse to go, and that was exactly why I went, the same reason I suffered through the humiliation of working that drive through. Because I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Like any “spoiled brat” would do, I made sure to slam the front door on my way out. It had been seven months since I’d seen him. He’d been here for two minutes and I already preferred being alone, and I hated being alone.
Orientation through an almost empty school had been one thing. This—this was another thing entirely.
Students poured into the school through an open doorway. Girls wore fishnet tights and crop tops, shorts their asses hung out of. It was a little shocking for someone whose entire life had been spent in a school with rigid uniform rules. And God, did I feel out of place.
A massive guy shifted past me. My gaze went from his spiked hair to the eyeliner caked around his eyes to the studded dog collar around his neck. Yep. I was not in Kansas anymore.
“You stupid fuck!” Shouts boomed down the hall, and I jumped when a guy got slammed against the lockers. “I’ll fucking kill you and your mother.” The one shouting threw a punch, and all hell broke loose. One of them ended up on the dirty tiled floor, the other on top. Students congregated around, pointing and laughing while the smack of fists against cheeks echoed down the hall. And the teachers? They passed by with hardly a second glance.
Blood splattered the tiles, and I turned away. My stomach rolled as I shouldered through the packed hallways to my assigned locker and debated going to the office to see if I would get sent home if I said I pretended to be ill.
I turned the combination to my lock. Just as it popped open, my phone buzzed with a text from Genevieve:
Gen: How’s public school? Is it like TV???
I snapped a picture of the guy out cold in the front of the dented lockers and sent it to Genevieve.
Gen: OMG, that’s deplorable.
Me: Welcome to my new hell. Let’s hope I don’t get stabbed by the end of the day.
Gen: I’ll cry at your funeral and get ‘rent a crowd.’
Me: Thanks
I’d just put my belongings away when the ambassador who’d shown me around last week popped up beside me, all bouncing ponytail and smiles. “Hey, Drew.”
“Uh.” I closed the locker door, trying to recall her name. “Hey…Nora?”
“If you want to sit with me and some of the other girls at lunch, you’re welcome to.” She smiled again, and I questioned how genuine it was.
One, because at Black Mountain, everyone was fake and kindness always came with a catch. And two, because Olivia had put the fear of God in me, and I was half waiting on Nora to start wielding a razor blade like she was a guest star on Orange is the New Black.
The crowded hallway shifted, students scrambling to get out of the way of whoever was coming their way. I glanced in the direction of the chaos, and there he was. Bellamy. Two tattoo-covered guys trailed behind him like loyal subjects. From the reaction of everyone in that corridor, it was obvious he ran this shithole school. And from my five minutes here, I’d already surmised it was absolutely awful, so how bad did that make him?
Nora looked over her shoulder, then back to me with a shake of her head. “Okay. I see the way you’re looking. And just. No.”
My gaze drifted over the tight black shirt that clung to defined muscles, stopping on the delicate script tattoos that circled his wrists. He was absolutely the hottest guy I’d ever seen, and that was annoying.
“And... you’re still looking...” She sighed like I was a lost cause. “Yeah. They’re hot, but Bellamy, Hendrix, and Wolf are no good. Just trust me on this.”
“Oh, I’m aware,” I mumbled as Bellamy’s gaze crashed into mine.
On a smirk, he headed toward me like a shark tracking blood in the water. I backed up to the lockers and instantly regretted that decision when he caged me against them. The now-familiar smell of his cologne wrapped around me as he towered over me.
“I know you’re new, and Daddy must have lost his job or left,” he said, his voice low and deep.
My pulse slowly ticked up when I took a quick glance over his shoulder, noticing the entire hallway staring at us.
“And as much as I know how eager girls with daddy issues are to suck dick—” He shot an arrogant glance at his friends beside him, who laughed like I was the butt of a joke.
“Jesus…” Nora huffed. “You’re seriously an asshole, Bellamy.”
The guy in the letterman jacket snickered. “Rah-rah-shut-the-fuck-up-baa, Nora!”
Bellamy’s unnerving gaze held mine, his teeth raking his bottom lip. “But no matter how much I want to see my dick gliding between those pretty lips of yours…” His attention focused on my mouth. His vulgar words making heat creep into my cheeks. “I can’t let you get away with stealing our business,” he said.
And I frowned. Stealing his business. “What?”
“Come on, Bellamy.” Nora groaned somewhere behind him. “She’s new. Just leave her alone.”
One of the guys mocked Nora. Someone down the hall shouted, “The Barrington slut’s already banging Bellamy.”
I didn’t care what people thought of me for the most part, but I wasn’t blind. Bellamy was undoubtedly the kind of guy that girls got loose with, and I knew exactly how this looked—how it was—like he’d already seen me naked. I also had no doubt that was exactly why he was doing this right here in the hallway.
I pressed my palm against his chest, digging my nails into him as my temper spiked. “Would you stop?”
He slapped my hand away. “I know you’re dealing weed at Frank’s.”
Of all the things he could have said, that was the last one I saw coming. “Weed? Are you serious right now?” I laughed, but the expression on his face said he absolutely was not joking. Honestly, I was offended.
His brow lifted. His fingers tapped the locker beside my head. I could have easily denied it; after all, I wasn’t dealing weed, but something about the arrogance that oozed from him made the defiant part of me rise like a Phoenix from the ashes.
Bellamy evidently wanted a show in the hallway. I’d give him one, and since I refused to play the submissive little rich girl here...
I leaned in and brushed my lips to his jaw. The air between us thickened with an unrivaled tension. “What if I don’t care about your warning?” I said loud enough for people close by to hear. I was playing with fire, but then again, so was he. “What are you going to do, Bellamy?”
The amusement that flickered in his eyes was quickly snuffed out by obvious annoyance. His hand wound around my throat, fingers squeezing over delicate skin as he pressed the hard length of his dick against me. “I’m gonna fuck up your life,” he breathed the words against my lips, his hold growing tighter. “And then, I’m gonna fuck you.”
And I shouldn’t have wanted any part of that, or this right here... But as his fingers threatened to cut off my air, I found a thrill in the danger of it all. My life had been nothing but safe, and this guy, he was about as safe as an atomic bomb.
“You can try.” Then I ducked underneath his arm, meeting the stares of what must have been half the school.
“You better stop, Drew.” The boom of his deep voice echoed down the hall. “I’m not even fucking playing with you.”
I’d spent my whole life around rich guys who would get daddy to pull some strings if someone pissed them off. Maybe spread a rumor that a girl had screwed the Lacrosse team. But Bellamy was an entirely different animal, and I’d just petted the lion. Worse, I think I liked it.
Nora fell into step beside me, her eyes wide. “What the hell. Was. That?”
“I don’t know,” I said, stopping to hold up a finger. “But I did not fuck him. And I didn’t suck his dick.” God, I really wasn’t helping myself here. She probably thought I was a slut, regardless.
The look on her face said she didn’t believe me for a second.
My day only got worse from there. As expected, Nikki was a bitch. I’d received at least six notes calling me a whore. A guy grabbed my ass, so I maced him and got sent to the principal's office. And from the amount of catty female glares I’d received, I was pretty certain the girls here were plotting my death—well, except Nora and her friends… To top it all off, Bellamy was in my AP biology class. He spent the entire class, glaring at me, and by the time the dismissal bell rang, I felt like I’d been in this hell hole for a week rather than a day.
I gathered my books. When I pushed up from my desk, a guy in a letterman jacket blocked my path.
“Hey. If you need help catching up in class, we can totally study together after school.” Catching up? Pretty sure I learned this stuff two years ago, but the way his eyes tracked over me said he wasn’t planning on studying any books. Still, at least he wasn’t glaring at me like I was a piece of Barrington shit on his shoe.
“Uh…”
A hand brushed my hip, and the guy shrunk back.
“Never mind,” he said before darting around me.
“Just so you know,” Bellamy’s deep voice rumbled in my ear, “I can make your life here an absolute hell if I want.” Fingers trailed along my side as he brushed past me. “And I think that’s exactly what I want to do.” Then he walked off while I fought the smile that should absolutely not have been there.
5
Bellamy
I watched Drew’s Armani-clad ass weave between the beaters in the parking lot, waiting to see what kind of luxury car she’d sink behind the wheel of. Her face had been Satan’s-asshole red this morning in the hallway, and I’d enjoyed it way too much. Not only did I let it be known that not even hot rich girls could get away with stupid shit, but I had also staked my claim on her before any other prick had a chance to smell her coming.
Nora passed behind Wolf’s truck, glaring like she wanted to strangle me. Cute. She’d taken Drew under her wing like that broken little bird we all knew she was.
“Hey, Nora.” Hendrix stood up in the bed, motioning toward his crotch. “You wanna suck on my spirit stick?”
She flipped him off before disappearing between a set of pickups. And my attention went straight back to Drew as she opened the door of a shiny, black Audi TT. The adjustment to life in the drive-thru and a school of drive-bys must be tough on Little Miss Entitled. Unfortunately for her, her family's recent financial downfall wasn’t my problem, but her attitude sure as hell was.
“Man.” Hendrix sat on the edge of the tailgate, passing a joint to Wolf with narrowed eyes. “What the hell? She’s got a TT. We should set that shit on fire.”
Smoke billowed from Wolf’s lips; his stare aimed at the ridiculous car like he was contemplating it.
“We’re not setting fire to her car,” I said. “Yet.”
Hendrix frowned. “I vote, we do it now.” He pulled a lighter from his pocket, flicking the lint. “We need retribution, Bell.”
The engine to Drew’s car revved before she peeled off, swerving around a stalled-out Toyota. Wolf leaned over the bed’s edge. “Think she got the message?”
Hell no, she didn’t. Instead of backing down, all I saw was a challenge rising in her eyes. This girl was not the type to go down without a fight, and if a fight were what she wanted, well then...I guess that’s what she’d get. But I wasn’t entirely unreasonable, payback didn’t have to start with fires, which was why, later that afternoon, I left a message for Eddie at Frank’s Famous Chicken, then I laid on my bed and beat one out to the thought of how pissed she would be. Twice.
I’d just cleaned myself up, when Wolf texted that he was pulling onto the street. Grabbing my backpack, I went into the hall, stopping in the kitchen to kiss my mom on the cheek. “Love you, Momma. I’ll be back before you leave for work.” I had to be home to make sure my piece of shit dad didn’t try to take a swing at my little brother Arlo.
“Love you, too.” She leaned back from the stove to peek through the window. “It sure is sweet of you boys to take those foster kids to ride Go-Karts.”
I forced a smile before ducking through the door. I hated lying to her, because Wolf and me sure as hell weren’t taking underprivileged kids to ride Go-Karts. We were the underprivileged kids for Christ’s sake. But her and Arlo were the most important people in my life, and the last thing I wanted to do was break her heart by letting her know her oldest son was a car stealing, drug dealing piece of shit.
I had to be. It was Dayton. And all of us had already tried to scrape by with some part-time job. It didn’t work, and we had no other choices.
I passed by Arlo, sitting on the couch and watching SpongeBob, scrubbing a hand over his messy head. “See you later, buddy.”
“K.”
The kid couldn’t be bothered when he was watching that stupid cartoon. I closed the door behind me and headed toward Wolf’s pick-up idling at the end of my drive. I slung my backpack into the back and climbed in. “I gotta be back before midnight.”
“No problem.” The truck backfired when he pulled off, headlights cutting over the neighbor’s overgrown grass. “We taking that old Volvo over at the Pig?”
“That’s what Tony said he wanted.”
And that Volvo would get us a grand to split between us. Enough for Wolf to help his dad with rent. Enough for me to try and catch up on the mortgage before the bank tried to foreclose. Zepp getting arrested a few months back had fucked us all in the ass.
I stared through the window, thinking how shit Dayton was as we passed by the 7-11 and the hookers standing on the corner by the phone booth. We didn’t have the luxury of few responsibilities. Hell, Hendrix didn’t even have parents. This city was like toxic sludge that ruined anything and everything it touched.
“The new girl’s hot. You gonna bang her?”
I thought about the way Drew moaned in the back of Nash’s van and smirked. “Might as well.” She may be a pain in my ass right now, but I’d gladly be a pain in hers once we got our little disagreement straightened out.
The truck rattled over a speed bump when Wolf kicked it into the Piggly Wiggly lot where the rundown Volvo sat beside the dumpster. Wolf parked beside it, blocking the view from the road, and I climbed out, maneuvering between the truck and the car.
Within a matter of minutes, I had the lock popped and I sat behind the wheel, dismantling the steering column and twisted the wires together. A plume of smoke puffed up before the engine rumbled to life. Wolf gave me a thumbs up and swung his pickup around, speeding out of the parking lot with me behind him.
When I got home, I kissed mom goodbye again, then checked on Arlo on my way to my room. And the second I closed my bedroom door, I shoved the cash I’d made into the envelope I kept tucked away in my top drawer, then crawled into bed. The familiar lullaby of cop sirens blared in the distant, mixing with the angry shouts from the neighbors, made it hard for me to unwind. So, I rolled onto my back, staring at the ceili
ng and imagined sinking my dick between Drew’s thighs. Because I was going to make that girl hate me, and one thing I knew for sure, girls like her couldn’t resist a good hate fuck with the bad boy.
I felt like a smug bastard the next afternoon when I strolled into biology because soon enough, shit was going to blow up.
Drew scribbled in her notebook, too focused to notice me when I started down the aisle. But the guy behind her sure as hell did, hiding his face behind his book as he slumped in his seat.
I touched the corner of his desk, and he jumped. “Get up.”
He shoved out of the chair so fast the thing bumped against the wall, then he stumbled to the back of the class where I usually sat, while I dropped to the seat behind Drew.
That damn perfume of hers seeped into my lungs, possessing my mind with thoughts of her thighs wrapped around my head. Gripping the edge of the desktop, I forced the idea of sex out of my head. “What kinda mood are you in today, baby girl?”
“Until right now—” She turned in her seat and judging from the lack of reaction—nothing had transpired from my little complaint. Yet— “It was just fine,” she said, then with a roll of her eyes, she faced the front again, and I fought a smirk.
That rich girl, look-down-her-nose expression called to the primitive part of me. She may have looked at me like she hated me, but the way her chest rose on uneven swells screamed that she’d still let me bend her over and have a go. Because girls like her wanted nothing more than to be dirtied and tainted by a bad boy. I had every intention of taking that invisible, privileged, princess crown and tarnishing every last gem and fuck if that wasn’t bad news for her.
The tardy bell rang just before the classroom door slammed shut and Mrs. Smith tossed her planner to the desk with an annoyed huff. “You’re gonna need a partner for the lab class you’ll all most likely fail or get high in. So, find another student you can work with, without killing.” She took a swig from her thermos. No one moved. She rolled her eyes, then snapped her fingers. “I said, find a partner.”
No Good: A Standalone Enemies to Lovers Romance Page 3
