Just Drop Out (A High School Bully Romance): Hannaford Prep Year One

by J Bree

  “I'm sure you found an adequate replacement.”

  Ooo burn. I smile down at my equations so the girl doesn't notice. Ash’s eyes flick to my face before he zeros back in on the girl.

  She tosses her hair over her shoulder and pouts at him. “That's a bit harsh. I was forced to when you didn't show. What, am I supposed to just wait around at your beck and call? Your dick isn't that great.”

  The smile he gives her is dangerous. It’s the type he would give me not a potential fuck.

  “We both know that isn't true. You're gagging for it.”

  Sweet lord. He doesn't sound like he's flirting but maybe I'm just bad at reading the signs. I have no experience to fall back on so it's entirely possible. “If you two are going to fuck right here at my study table please tell me so I can make other arrangements.” I say as I tap formulas into my calculator. I don’t look up because I don’t want to see if Ash is into her and they’re just gearing up for a hate-fuck.

  “Fuck off then Mounty.” She says and I sigh as I go to grab my books. Ash puts his hand over mine and stops me. It’s the first time he’s ever touched me and I feel flutters in my stomach.

  “Allow me to paraphrase you, Mounty, I wouldn't fuck Harlow if she were the last piece of pussy left at this school. Stay. I need help with my equations when you've finished yours.”

  The girl, Harlow, glares down at us both. She snaps, “I thought you and Avery hate the Mounty bitch.”

  “I hate my brother more. Tell me, how did his dick feel up your ass last night?”

  “Sweet lord.” I murmur and try not to laugh. This just gets worse and worse. Maybe I should just leave and study in my room?

  “At least he isn't a frigid little bitch like you. It's your own fault you lost me to him.” she hisses back at him.

  Ash throws his head back and laughs. The chair next to me pulls back and I look up to see Blaise fucking Morrison slinging his bag down. He drapes himself into the chair so casually and gracefully, like the god he is. Ugh, one look at him and I’m a dripping mess.

  “Is this seat taken?” Lord help me, his voice even sounds amazing when he's just talking.

  How the hell do I get out of this?

  I've been preparing myself for weeks for this moment.

  I knew at some point I'd be faced with Blaise and I'd have to speak to him. We share a class, I'm kind of on speaking terms with two of his best friends, and, from what I'd observed from a safe distance, he's a pretty social guy. Too social for my liking.

  I gesture vaguely in his general direction and then start to move my textbooks so he has somewhere to put his stuff. He grins at me, oh god, and then opens up his bag.

  Ash and Harlow are still hissing jabs at each other but I can't find it in myself to care now that Blaise is here. It's taking all my energy not to pass out.

  “I've signed up for your tutoring. I haven't been given a time slot yet but I'm hoping to just tag into Ash’s. Do you think you could do us both at once?”

  I nearly faint.

  He must be doing this on purpose.

  “That's fine. I can- I can do that. What do you need help with?”

  He grins and I decide that the only way to get through this is to just avoid looking at him until I'm desensitized, like I did with Harley. I barely notice he's the epitome of panty-dropping gorgeousness anymore. Ok, I do notice but I can look past it.

  “Great! Are you guys working on Math right now? Because I may fail Math and if I do my old man will have a stroke.”

  I try to smile reassuringly but I'm sure it looks like I’m having a stroke. He gets out his worksheets and I see he's in the lower Math class so I learnt this stuff two years ago. I focus on the sums and walk him through the first set. Harlow finally stomps off and Ash now looks like he wants to bathe in her blood.

  “I need a drink.” he says as he loosens his tie with a sharp yank.

  “Oh, have you two finished arguing over which brother has the biggest dick?” Blaise grins at Ash wickedly and I keep my eyes firmly on the page in front of me.

  “We both know I win that one. She's a lousy backstabbing whore. She sold herself to him in the hopes it'll give her a leg up in the social hierarchy.”

  I move back to my own worksheet while they gossip. It's not like I can tell them to get back to work, the tutoring session has ended and I can’t even look Blaise in the eye yet.

  “What were you expecting, loyalty and devotion? She's a Roqueford. They're widely known to be double dealing sluts. Her father has more bastards than legitimate children and he has six of those.”

  “I wasn't expecting her to be so open about it. Floss woke me up this morning with the picture so forgive me if I’m not in the greatest mood.”

  So Avery was sharing around more than just my photo? Great. What a kind girl, I think with no small amount of sarcasm. Ash glances over at me like he's forgotten I was here. His face is flushed and he looks less like the perfect Grecian statue than I've ever seen him. He looks approachable and hot. Why did I hate him so much?

  “Are you enjoying your infamy?” There it is. He always knows just what to say to make me feel like an insignificant fleck of dirt. I clench my teeth.

  “Fuck you, Beaumont.” There's no heat behind my words but I still mean them. I snatch his worksheet up and start marking it. He's gotten most of the equations right but I enjoy the small amount of red ink I get to use. When I shove the page back at him he's still watching me, his eyes unreadable.

  “I told you not to trust Joey.” He shrugs at me like this is all justified.

  I snort at him. Blaise watches us both with captive interest, twirling his pen between his long fingers. I wonder how they became friends?

  “Your sister did this to me. Now the entire fucking school has photos of me naked and I get to enjoy the privilege of being looked at by you lot like I'm a piece of meat. Like I actually want your rich dicks when really I'd rather fucking die.”

  Ash rolls his eyes at me. “Avery doesn't use naked photos against people. She does have a line, you know.”

  “Sure. Piss on all of my belongings but she draws the line at naked photos. I definitely believe you.”

  Blaise’s nose wrinkles and it's goddamn adorable. I turn away from him so I don't humiliate myself by blushing at him or drooling.

  I am in real danger of drooling.

  “You don't mean actual piss do you? I cannot image Floss ever handling piss.”

  “Yeah, actual urine. It took me hours to fucking clean, all because I'm a scholarship student and I pissed Harley off by accident.”

  Ash groans and runs his hands through his hair. He shares a look with Blaise and then turns to me again. “Avery is very protective and you managed to get on the bad side of one of the three humans she gives a shit about. She won't let that go and sometimes she goes to great lengths to keep us safe.”

  “Right. Which is why I don't believe you about the photos. Doesn't matter anyway, a few pictures of my tits aren't going to break me.”

  Ash’s eyes dip down to my chest and then back to my face. It doesn’t feel lecherous at all, nothing like Joey’s looks. More curious. “There isn't a whole lot to see though, right? I've been sent the photos eight times and deleted them without looking.”

  I raise my eyebrow at him. Blaise knocks my elbow gently with his and I flinch away from him hard. “Woah, sorry! I was just going to say that we are pretty anti-revenge porn is our group. There was… an incident. No one has looked at it. I'm not saying we're friends, Avery still wants you taken out, but you have at least four people who haven't seen your nudes.”

  “Three. Avery was there when the photos were taken.” I grumble and start to pack my bag. I'm so done with this for the night. I don't want to think about the weird twisted triangle that is the Beaumont siblings and their friends.

  Blaise scratches the back of his neck and grabs his papers.

  “So, tomorrow we can meet up right? I really do need help with my math.”

>   I sigh and sling my bag over my shoulder. I brace myself and then look right at his gorgeous and alluring face. Damn, his eyes were such a beautiful, clear green that I could just lose myself in.

  “Sure. I meet with Ash during the study period. If you're here I'll help you too.”

  Chapter Seven

  The one free study hall I have for the week without tutoring the boys is my haven.

  Seeing Joey sitting at my desk is enough to piss me off. Seeing him sitting there with his boots on the table makes my blood boil. Of all the pompous, dickhead things to do, this guy just takes the cake.

  His uniform is hanging on his frame a little loosely, like he's lost some weight in the last few months. His eyes are as manic and calculating as ever.

  He smirks and waves an arm at me, like a king entertaining the petty whims of a peasant. I want to punch him. In the dick.

  I manage to contain myself but it's a close call.

  “Mounty! I thought I'd find you here. I'm starting to think you're a bit of a nerd.” His smile would be called flirty by lesser folk. I saw it for what it was, a baring of teeth like a lion would do to its prey.

  “What can I do for you, Beaumont? I have homework to get to.”

  He drops his feet back to the floor and then leans forward towards me as I empty out my bag. He doesn't have any of his own class work with him so I'm hoping he'll disappear once he has what he wants. “What's your poison? I'm having some supplies sent in and I don't know what you like to drink. Any party favors you like? I can get whatever you’d like, on me as my guest.”

  Party favors.

  He’s asking me if I want him to buy me drugs. I give him what I hope is a bored look. His smile doesn’t falter.

  “I don’t need anything. I’ll drink whatever, I’m not a rich dick with fussy taste.” I say in an airy tone. Joey grabs one of my pens and twirls it in his fingers. I wonder how many girls he’s done this with, this casual dance to lure in a victim. He’s attractive but all I see when I look at him is the evil look in his eyes when he looks at his siblings. All I can see is the guy who talks down to everyone around him, the guy who calls girls he’s slept with sluts.

  He’s waiting me out. He wants to see if I’ll tell him to leave or try to get him to talk to me. I choose to ignore him instead. I’ve spent years learning to study no matter where I am or who is around me. I focus of the Lit assignment in front of me and I’m jolted out of my study by another voice.

  “Chatting up the Mounty? I thought she was off limits.” I look up and see a familiar senior. It takes me a minute and then I realize it's the dickhead I punched in the throat, the one who told me he would schedule me in for a fuck. Guys like this are the type to rape a woman and then tell his friends she was gagging for it. The type of guy who thinks he's a gift to the world and everyone should get on their knees for him.

  I fucking hate him.

  Joey is watching me with this sly look on his face like he knows what I'm thinking. The other guy doesn’t notice at all. “I don't really think that's fair-”

  “Fuck fair. If you don't leave now I'll have to make an example of you, Devon.”

  A single bead of sweat appears on Devon’s brow and rolls down his face. It's not that warm in the library. I can see the tremble on his lip. The tiny flick of the muscle in his cheek.

  Joseph Beaumont Jr doesn't have friends.

  He has victims, plebs, and pawns.

  Better to be a pleb, out of his eye line and safe, than to be a pawn in his game. I don’t think I have that option anymore. I think he’s toying with me, testing me, until he knows whether I will have any use to him.

  I fucking hate him too.

  Devon leaves without another word and I get back to my studying, intent on just blocking him out. I can study under any circumstances so it’s nothing for me to shut him out and get back to work. “What if I want to buy you something? I’ve invited you there as my guest, it would be rude not to.”

  I grit my teeth. I don’t want him to think I owe him anything. “I’m not interested, thanks. If there’s not going to be some sort of drinks table I’ll just go and dance. Not a big deal.”

  He blows out a breath like he’s frustrated. I don’t think he’s ever really known that emotion. “Suit yourself. You sure do make it hard to impress you, Mounty. I’ve had girls start Fight Clubs over who got to have me for the night. I’m a little put out.”

  “No, you’re not. You’ll forget I exist the second you leave this room.”

  He laughs and then finally he does leave. I try to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach. I don’t like the way Joey speaks about me, like I’m a thing to possess. It takes me a minute to realize why it feels so wrong but so familiar.

  That’s exactly how Matteo talks about me.

  One of the perks, or drawbacks depending on how you look at it, of sitting next to Harley in the majority of my classes is that we are always paired up for assignments.

  Hannaford is big on joint assignments as they like to foster working relationships. I know this is because the other students all come from their own dynasties and they’ll all be dealing with one another once they take over the family businesses. I’ll never have to worry about that shit, the best I can hope for is to be accepted into a pre-med college course.

  Harley is an exemplary student, we are neck and neck for the top of every class, but working with him can be a major pain in my ass. He likes things done his way, to the point that compromise is a dirty word to him. He will look at the syllabus and just cut the assessment down the middle, the exact middle and in the same way every time. I'll be handed one half and he will do the other half.

  After my first experience with him I'd made the decision to just roll with his shitty attitude but that means that it is difficult to get ahead in my classes without knowing how he is going to split the assignment up. So I do what only an insane person would do.

  I do the entire assignment and then give him whichever half he deems to be mine.

  This has become a truly joyful experience for me.

  The highlight of my week, even.

  Every time he tells me what I need to do, I open my bag and hand him the half I am required to do. The first time he had scoffed at me but taken the papers anyway. After reading my work he was incredulous and pissed off. After I've done this to him in five different classes he is now used to lagging behind me, eating my academic dust.

  “How far ahead are you really?” He’s holding my half of our French Revolution assignment. I am particularly proud of this one and tempted to give Harley the other half. If I thought he would take it I totally would just to know how highly the teacher would mark it.

  We're sitting in our History class and we're supposed to be plotting out how we plan to do the assignment. Harley is reading through my half with raised eyebrows and a little frown of his face. I’m reveling in that look. I’m gloating. I’m feeling fan-fucking-tastic.

  “I could catch a plague and be out for three months and still be the top of the class.” I'm so damn smug. I can't help but be.

  He shakes his head at me but he drops my work into his binder and snaps it shut. Avery is whispering furiously at the girl she's partnered with and I feel sorry for the poor soul. Dealing with the devil is never pleasant.

  “I heard you're going to Joey’s party tomorrow night.” A statement not a question. I give him a look.

  “I promised I would, so I am. If I say I'm going to do something I always follow through.”

  He blows out a breath and then leans forward on his elbows towards me. I can see his brain working, the cogs moving and mice running on the wheel, he's not happy about something.

  “Look, I get that I've been a dick to you. I get that Avery has been full-on and you have no reason to trust me but you should not go tonight. Joey is up to something and when he's scheming it never turns out good. Things have gone really bad in the past before, like permanent-damage-and-death bad. You should just pretend you've gott
en sick.”

  How do I explain to this gorgeous, infuriating rich prick that there is no way Joey Beaumont could break me? That I'm friends with the Jackal and I survived becoming the Wolf? He wouldn’t even understand what any of that means, that I’d been put to the test by the most dangerous underground criminal organization and I hadn’t just survived. I’d won.

  There is no way to say it without risking more questions so I shrug at him vaguely.

  “Seriously. What do you hope to gain by going to the party with him? He’s not going to date you.”

  I snort and give Harley an incredulous look. “You think I want to date anyone at this pompous school? None of you lot know a damn thing about real life. None of you will ever have to live in it! You’ll all graduate and then live in the perfect little worlds your parents have already carved out for you and then you’ll go on to have kids and set them up into your billion dollar empires while I scrape to make sure I can afford to eat and keep the lights on each month. Fuck you and fuck your assumptions. I’m just here to graduate and get scholarships for college.”

  He looks at me like I’m a piece of shit which is so damn confusing.

  “Yeah, well, fuck you and your assumptions about me.”

  Because my week hasn’t been bad enough I have to sit through another choir class watching Ms. Umber fawn over Blaise.

  Choir and voice development is the only class I hate going to and I sometimes fantasize about faking a recurring head cold to get out of it. I tell myself I hate it so much because she’s a teacher and at least thirty years older than him but I think I might be a little jealous that he smiles at her and jokes along with her. It’s fucking pathetic of me. We break up into our groups to run through our warm ups and Avery slips into the class. Her lips look pouty and bruised, like she’s been making out for hours and only just come up for breath, and she smirks at Blaise. He gives her a look in return and if I had to guess I’d say he was pissed off. Ugh, he is probably in love with her and I’ll have to deal with them getting together and running off into the sunset and having beautiful, talented, rich babies.