Tempting the Bully: The High School Bully Collection

by Bella King

  Mason shook his head, as though I were ridiculous for not accepting his gesture.

  I ignored him, following Emma closely as she went into the store. I was afraid that if I let him have these small victories, that it would lead to something I didn’t intend on happening. I could come back to this when I was in the right mind, but I needed to stick close to Emma this evening to make sure I didn’t do anything I would regret.

  Chapter 15

  Emma drove us back to her place once we returned to the hill. The trip back was better, because I insisted that Emma sit beside me, with Mason upfront. She protested at first, wanting to be closer to James, but I insisted until she understood my point. No more funny business with Mason.

  I had a good time with her that evening, and I found that Mason’s friends seemed like normal people. I wondered why, then, had he turned out so wrong. I had no explanation, but I didn’t need one. Excuses weren’t going to make me look at him differently. He was still a bully, and I still didn’t like him, despite the obvious physical attraction.

  I was sure that I still smelled a little funky when I came home, but my mother was already asleep in her room by the time I got back. Time went by a lot faster than I had realized, and when I got home I had to go straight to bed if I was to be up on time the next morning. We still had classes the next day.

  I fell asleep instantly when my head hit the pillow, and I slept like I hadn’t in years, my body and mind totally relaxed and at peace. I could get used to this.

  The next morning I had to hurry to school because I had slept in. I felt a bit groggy having to rush out the door and race through traffic so soon after waking up, but by the time I arrived at school, I was starting to feel like a human being again.

  Mason, as was typical now, was waiting at his locker, pretending like he had something to do there, when we both knew he had just been waiting for me.

  “Rise and shine, sweetheart,” he said, smirking at me as I dragged my tired body toward the locker.

  “Don’t call me that,” I said, shooting him an annoyed look before fidgeting with my lock.

  “You seemed to like the attention last night. I thought maybe we could have a little repeat, but just you and me this time.”

  “No way in hell I’m going there alone with you,” I said, dialing in the wrong number to my lock and pausing to mentally berate myself for not knowing how to open a simple combination lock on the first try.

  Mason pouted. “You don’t think we had fun together?”

  I groaned. “Mason, please. I already told you that I wasn’t going to hang out with you anymore because you’re an asshole. What more do you want from me?”

  “Your pussy, maybe,” he said, leaning in toward me and sweeping my body with his eyes.

  “Wow, please never say that again,” I said, holding up a hand while I put the right combination into my lock with the other.

  “Say what?” Mason asked, his large frame blocking out the light that allowed me to see what I was doing.

  “I’m not repeating what you said,” I replied, squinting at my lock to try to make out the numbers. “Can you move?”

  “You know, your friend Emma asked me out on a date,” Mason said.

  “What?” I looked back at him, giving up on the lock.

  “I see that got your attention,” he said with a smirk.

  “You’re lying,” I said, studying his face to see if he really was.

  “I’m for real. She even told me I was sexy,” he said, flexing a bicep at me.

  If my eyes could roll any further back in my head they would connect with my brain and dissolved into the grey matter. “You’re fucking ridiculous,” I said dismissively.

  “It’s the truth. Of course, that was before you came back. Now, she wants to prance around acting like nothing ever happened. It’s cute, but I thought you ought to know.”

  “So what? You two dated for a while and it’s over? That doesn’t bother me,” I said.

  “Actually, I refused her offer. She was ready to get on her knees for me and I said no. Do you want to know why?” He said leaning in so close that the chest hair that was popping out of his deep neckline nearly grazed my nose.

  “No,” I replied, placing a hand on him to push him away.

  He didn’t budge. “I said no because I was still waiting for you. As it turns out, I should have taken her up on her offer. Maybe she’ll suck my cock after class.”

  “You’re nasty,” I said, feeling a pang of jealousy at his words even though I didn’t want to. I hated that he had that kind of emotional control over me. It was obvious that he was trying to make me jealous, so why was it working?

  “I might be nasty, but I bet Emma is even nastier,” he said, crinkling his nose in delight as he spoke the words.

  “I’m seriously going to punch you if you don’t shut the fuck up about Emma,” I said, balling up a fist.

  “You want to fight with a boxer?” He asked with a cruel chuckle.

  “You want to fight with a girl?” I asked, pointing fingers at myself.

  “Some girls are into that. They want you to hold them down while you-”

  I slammed a fist into his stomach, cutting him off. I don’t know what happened in my head, but something shorted and I lost control. I was tired of hearing him brag about the things he could do to other women. I was tired of his cruel laugh that contorted his handsome face. I was tired of Mason, and with that punch, I intended to set him straight.

  Mason hadn’t expected such a hard blow from me. He probably hadn’t expected a blow at all. He keeled over, wheezing for air as tears leaked from the sides of his eyes. It had been a hard enough hit to take him down. Perhaps I should have been the one boxing for money.

  I walked away, leaving him bent over in the hall while other students looked at me with wide eyes. It was probably the most entertainment they had in a long time, but for me, it was just sweet justice.

  I went to class without bringing the required books from my locker. Who needed them anyway?

  Mrs. Roadsworth’s thin, veiny hand shot out the second I stepped into her classroom. I stopped in front of her, my heart sinking when I realized what she wanted. The pink note that I was supposed to get my mother to sign was still crumpled up in the small pocket of my bookbag. Shit.

  She looked at her empty hand, then up at me expectantly. “The note,” she barked.

  I was sure she could see by my guilty expression that I hadn’t gotten it signed. I shook my head. “I forgot.”

  “That’s not how we do things here. You were supposed to get it signed and you didn’t. What do you think should be your punishment for that?” She said, her eyes wide with an intensity that should have been reserved for more pressing situations. Though, I suppose when you were power tripping over mundane conflicts, this qualified as pressing.

  “I’ll get it to you tomorrow,” I said, hoping she would give me some leeway in the matter.

  “That’s not a punishment,” she snapped.

  “I don’t know then,” I said.

  The entire class was looking at me in silence, probably excited to see what happened next. The seniors lived for drama, and I had been dishing it out regularly by fucking up all the time.

  “If you don’t think of something, then I will,” she said.

  I thought it was cruel to make the victim choose their punishment. It was archaic, like prisoners having to choose between a beheading or hanging. Either way, they were going to die. I suspected that Mrs. Roadsworth wouldn’t accept my punishment suggestion anyway, so it didn’t matter what I said, as long as I gave her an answer.

  I was still hyped up from the punch I threw. It would have been nice to throw another one squarely into Mrs. Roadsworth’s withered face, but that would get me arrested on top of being expelled.

  “Maybe detention,” I said.

  “Every day this week. Wonderful suggestion. You may sit down now,” she said, a sick smile spreading too wide across her face.
r />   “What?” I exclaimed. “That’s not fair!”

  “It was your suggestion,” she replied calmly.

  “I didn’t ask for a week of detention, you wrinkly bitch,” I spat, unable to control myself. That was the second time today I had lost control, and this time, it was going to cost me.

  There were gasps from around the room as Mrs. Roadsworth picked up an old cellphone from her desk. “I’m going to have to call the principal down here for that one, Jasmine.”

  “Go ahead,” I said, throwing up my arms. “You think any of this matters? You think this school matters, my grades, my education? It’s a fucking sham. I already know all this shit,” I said, taking a swipe at the nearest student’s desk and knocking their notebooks onto the floor.

  “Jasmine,” Mrs. Roadsworth shouted in a shrill voice. “Calm down before I call security.”

  “Oh please. Take your security and shove it up your ass,” I said, flipping her the bird and walking out of the room. Windsor Elite be damned. I was going my own way. If they expelled me for this show, then fine. I didn’t want to be here anyway.

  The fury that I felt was dangerous, yet at the same time refreshing. I no longer felt the fear of losing my chance of graduating from Windsor Elite and disappointing my mother. It was my business, after all, where I graduated from and if I even graduated at all. I could go get my diploma elsewhere and never have to see that stupid Mason ever again. I could leave it all behind and start again. The year had just begun.

  I stormed down the empty hallway while everyone else was settled into class. I wasn’t going to be returning until tomorrow. They could call my mother, but she wouldn’t be home until after I was. By then, I would have already explained to her the situation. I just hope she sympathized with me.

  Chapter 16

  “I heard you cussed out Mrs. Roadsworth at school today,” Emma said excitedly over the phone.

  I chuckled bitterly. “Yes, she had it coming.”

  “You’re totally going to get suspended for that. They’ll have you out for a week, at least.”

  “I don’t mind,” I said, popping a shelled pistachio into my mouth while reclining on the sofa at home.

  “I wish I were as nonchalant as you are, Jasmine. My parents would wring my next if I did something like that,” she said, sounding absolutely smitten at the fantasy of rebellion.

  “I didn’t want to, but she pushed me. I just got done dealing with Mason before I went to her class,” I said, getting angry again at the thought of him.

  “Oh yeah, Naomi told me that you punched him or something.”

  “Why does Naomi know everything?” I asked, distancing my ear from the phone and making a face.

  “She’s just like that. She’s always finding out the latest scoop. It’s good for me, because I don’t have the energy to chase everyone down to listen find out who did what all the time. All I have to do is listen to Naomi for my daily news.”

  “Sounds nice,” I said dryly.

  “It totally is, but tell me about this punch. Did he cry?”

  I laughed. “I think I spotted some tears in his eyes, yeah.”

  She laughed with me. “That’s golden. Shit, I wish I had been there to see it. Why did you punch him?”

  I paused, considering whether I should tell her about what he had told me. I didn’t want to keep secrets from friends, but this involved her directly, and it made me uncomfortable to think about. I settled on giving her a condensed version. “He was saying crude things about you. I stand up for my friends.”

  “Crude things? Like what?” She asked, sounding even more interested now.

  I regretted saying anything. “Like sexual stuff. I don’t know,” I said, trying to push it under the rug.

  Emma didn’t let me. “What kind of sexual stuff? This is really juicy. You have to tell me.”

  “Ugh, he said that you had asked him out, and if he wanted to, he could get you to suck his dick. Except he didn’t say dick, he said cock,” I replied, remembered the way the word had rolled off his tongue. I always felt like cock was a much dirtier word, and hearing it from him felt like I needed to take a shower afterward.

  “Oh boy,” she said, getting quiet. “That’s not true. I mean, the sucking his dick part isn’t true. I did ask him out before, but that was before I knew you were coming back.”

  “It’s fine. I’m not going to hold that against you. It’s been like three years,” I said, feeling relieved that she didn’t try to deny it or cover it up. It had been weighing on my chest since Mason had mentioned it.

  “I’m over that clown. Plus, I didn’t tell you what James said to me today,” Emma said, excitement traveling through the phone line into my living room.

  I was gracious about the change of subject. “What did he say?”

  “He said he wanted to smoke with me sometime. Pretty neat, huh?”

  “That’s good. I’m pretty sure he’s into you,” I replied.

  “Mason is definitely into you though, and you kind of let him touch up on you at the hill the other day.”

  “Fuck, can we forget about that?” I asked, not wanting to get my brain all confused again. I had enough of these wild daydreams popping into my head about him getting even more touchy-feely with me. I didn’t need to encourage them.

  “Whatever you say. You’re the boss. I just thought you were getting along with him again, but clearly not.”

  “It’s like a love-hate thing,” I replied, letting the words slip out before I could catch myself.

  “Love and hate? That means you have feelings for him then,” she said, sounding suspicious.

  “I don’t. That was a poor choice of words,” I replied.

  “Indeed,” she said, sounding thoroughly unconvinced.

  “I still need to sort things out with him. Maybe he’ll stop talking to me after I punched him in the stomach, but then again, maybe not.”

  “Probably not. He’s a pretty ambition guy,” Emma said.

  “Ambitious? How is that?” I asked, getting curious.

  “He’s making money fighting people in some sketchy club at night, building up his image there, and he’s still going to school. He didn’t let the boxing team make him quit, that was for sure. He found that gig the second he got kicked from the club. Say what you will about his attitude, but he does have drive.”

  “True,” I said, unable to argue with that.

  “We have some time to hang out then, if you’re suspended,” Emma said, changing the subject much to my relief.

  “Yes, that’s if they don’t expel me.”

  “Then you have a lot of time,” she said.

  I could hear her smile through the phone. Emma was always such a cheerful person. I regretted the time that I hadn’t kept up with her. She would have made losing my father so much more bearable.

  “If I get expelled, I’m going to graffiti that cunt’s house,” I said, referring to Mrs. Roadsworth.

  “She’s going to know it was you.”

  “I don’t care at this point,” I said.

  “Do it. I totally support you,” she replied, sounding excited.

  “I haven’t been expelled yet. Calm down,” I said, shaking my head and smiling at her eagerness to trash that bitch’s house. I think everyone has fantasized about doing it at one time or another. She got to everyone. Not a single soul at that school was safe from her wrath. I think she had a bone to pick with high schoolers in general.

  “Well, if you do, be sure to make it really grand. You’d go down as a legend at the school,” she said dreamily.

  “You have my word,” I said.

  Just then, the house phone rang. I said goodbye to Emma quickly and jumped off the couch to see who it was. The glowing caller ID on the front of the phone told me it was the principal. Hmm, was it time for a little mischief?

  I picked up that phone. “This is the Glenshire residence, Mrs. Glenshire speaking.”

  Chapter 17

  “Hello Mrs. Glensh
ire, this is Mr. Windsor, the school principal at your daughter’s school. I’m calling about Jasmine.”

  “Oh dear,” I said, trying my best to imitate my mother. “What seems to be the matter?”

  “There was an incident at the school today where Jasmine directed profanity at one of our senior teachers, and then walked out of the school.”

  I gasped, smiling through the phone as I did it.

  “I know that this pains you to hear, but she will be receiving a five-day suspension, effective immediately for her behavior.”

  “She’s in a load of trouble here for that. I’ll see to it that she is punished accordingly,” I said, trying to sound authoritative.

  “The disciplinary action you choose to take is up to you, but the school will have to stick to this punishment to make sure none of the other students are encouraged by her behavior.”

  “Of course, as it should be.”

  “I’m sorry to have to be the bearer of bad news, but I hope that when she returns that she will be able to participate in a way that is appropriate.”

  “Absolutely. No need to apologize,” I insisted.

  “Alright, I hope you’re doing well. Enjoy the weekend,” he said.

  “You too, goodbye,” I replied, then hung up the phone.

  I laughed aloud when I was finished with the call. I wasn’t surprised that had worked because I sounded quite a bit like my mother, but I did feel a rush from getting away with my actions so easily. Now, all I had to do was pretend to go to school every day for the next week, and I wouldn’t have any issues. I could think of this as a little vacation.

  I returned to the living room and turned the TV on, sinking into the couch and trying to tune out. I couldn’t stop my heart from beating so fast in my chest. I enjoyed the rush of rebellion a little too much, and if I kept going like this, I was bound to get into more serious trouble.

  I doubted that anything would come of the punch I threw at Mason, at least not as disciplinary action from the school. He wouldn’t report me, but he might have something to say to me the next time he saw me. I knew that things weren’t over between us.