by Bella King
“I’m with you on that one,” she said. “And I know just the place.”
“Fantastic,” I replied.
The place, as it turned out, was a popular spot for the senior at Windsor Elite to gather on the weekend. Emma was never that popular when we were younger, but it seemed that she had risen to popularity in adulthood. I was impressed.
“Naomi is here,” she said, pointing to her as we pulled up on the crowded establishment.
I looked through the window to see Naomi holding hands with a man in his mid-twenties. That had to be her boyfriend. I wondered what it was like to date a guy who was that much older than you, but I hoped I’d never find out. I was still very much stuck on Mason.
Emma pulled the car up to the shop, parking it as far up as she could with all the cars already there. We found a good spot and got out to join the buzz. I tried to hide my face as I walked through the crowd of people from Mrs. Roadsworth’s class, but they recognized me.
“Hey Jasmine,” a guy called out.
I turned to see my classmate, a tall guy with a little more skin than seemed necessary on his body, waving a hand at me as though we were friends.
“You’re popular after what you did in class,” Emma whispered, giving me a wink.
I didn’t want to be popular. I just wanted my life to be normal, but if people liked me more now, I couldn’t complain. I waved back at the tall guy, but kept moving forward with Emma. I wanted some ice cream.
“They have this amazing chocolate syrup here. I don’t know what they put in it, but it tastes like pure sex,” Emma said, his face bright with excitement as we pushed through the people to get into the shop.
I thought back to the taste of me on Mason’s soft lips. I wasn’t sure I wanted my ice cream to taste like that, but I understood the point Emma was trying to make. I’m sure it was good stuff. I felt like I had been to this place in the past and that I had enjoyed.
Right when we were about to enter the shop, I saw none other than Mason standing outside the door, smoking a cigarette. He was leaned up against the floor to ceiling glass window, examining the crowd like he was on the lookout for someone. When he saw me, his eyes widened temporarily before returning to the calm and collected stare that he usually had.
He stepped forward as Emma entered the shop, cutting me off from her. “Look at you. Having a good time, huh?”
“Yes,” I said, a bit defensive as he stood in front of me.
He flicked his cigarette directly into a trash bin beside the building. “I want to talk to you.”
“I thought we just got finished talking,” I replied.
“I have more to say,” he said.
“Then say it. I want to get my ice cream,” I said impatiently, looking over his shoulder into the shop. Emma hadn’t seemed to notice that I was no longer with her yet.
He saw my glance and responded to it. “She’ll still be there when I get done with you. I just want to tell you something.”
“What is it?” I asked, crossing my arms.
“I think you’re right about my work, and I want to change that. You just need to give me some time to find something else. I don’t want to throw what we have away over something so trivial.”
I was shocked by his words, so much so that I had to take a step back to process what he had said. “You’re going to leave that place?”
“I’m giving it my best shot, yes,” he replied, giving me a look that told me he was telling the truth. I could see it in his beautiful eyes.
“What about your mom?” I asked.
“I think I can still get both of us out of there. I need to talk with her about leaving this clown and getting both of our lives together. We can keep living this way. I’m sick and tired of it,” he said.
“Maybe start with the cigarettes then,” I suggested. It was the only thing that I saw myself having an issue with if he managed to leave the boxing club.
He chuckled. “Already working on that. I bought some nicotine patches, but I haven’t started on them yet.”
He was way ahead of me. I was proud of him, but confused about how he had done a turnaround so quickly. “But why?” I asked him, feeling lost.
“Because of you,” he said. “I didn’t realize how fucked up my life had become until you can back into my life and showed me. I need to thank you for that, but I also want to do a lot more than that, for us.”
I was seriously impressed. “So you want to give this a shot.”
“Absolutely,” he replied.
I rushed toward him, wrapping my arms around his waist and hugging him so tight that he made a small wheezing sound. I didn’t care if it hurt a little. I needed this. I had never wanted to give up on him. I had waited on him before, and I would again if I had to.
“Remember what I told you when you left,” he said, looking down at me with glittering happiness in his eyes.
I nodded vigorously.
“Well, there was something else I forgot to add, but I want to say it now.”
“What is it?” I asked, looking up at him.
He leaned back, getting a good look at my face. I saw something new behind his eyes that I hadn’t ever seen before. I didn’t know how to explain it, but I liked it.
Mason took a slow breath in, then spoke. “I love you, Jasmine.”
My heart skipped a beat and I immediately grew red in the face. I was scared, excited, and embarrassed all at once. I wasn’t prepared to be presented with information like this, but are we ever?
I looked into his eyes, seeing nothing but love in them. I smiled. “I love you too, Mason. Now, let’s make this work the right way, okay?”
He gave me a firm nod. “Yes, we’ll do that.”
“Great,” I said, looking over his shoulder again. “Do you want to get some ice cream with me and Emma?”
His smile widened. “That sounds perfect.”
I took his hand, slipping into his comforting grasp, and we walked into the ice cream shop together.
Chapter 24
Change is never easy, and it especially wasn’t when it came to Mason. He struggled a lot with coming to terms with a new life with me, despite how badly he wanted it. The nicotine addiction, dealing with his father’s abuse, and throwing punches for money at a sleazy club were all hard to get away from. Doing them all at once was even harder.
He managed to convince his mother to ditch his step-father, which actually ended up working out for the better because his mother went back to work. With their combined income, and Mason working somewhere a bit tamer, they had enough to support themselves just fine. It turned out that he had been afraid to express his true feelings to his mother about how his step-father was destroying the family, and once she understood, she began to change the way she was thinking as well.
I was surprised by how quickly Mason managed to do all this. I knew that there was good in him all along, but the fact that I was the one who brought out all of it gave me great power. I was a little afraid of that at first, but I realized that love really does conquer all. That’s not just a cute little saying.
Mason taught me how to be stronger, and he even gave me fighting lessons in case some potbellied creep every tried to touch me again. I could kick his jaw off his face in a single blow. Mason knew a lot of fighting dirty, but that’s what keeps you safe in the streets. He taught me well so that I never had to feel unsafe again.
Emma was a little resistant to me accept Mason so openly after she had warned me about him, but she managed to get distracted by another tall guy in one of her classes and nearly disappeared for two months when she started dating him. She couldn’t complain after that because she barely ever saw Mason, although I didn’t see what the big deal was because he had changed into a much better person after we started officially dating.
Emma and I remained friends, but Naomi was a serious ‘no’ for me. I thought I would like her at first, and I really wanted to play tennis with someone on my level, but she ended up being a bit of
a prick after Mason left the boxing club. Apparently, her boyfriend used to bet on Mason and was pissed that he left. Somehow, that equated to anger toward me for taking him out of the place, but I didn’t need the drama. I cut her off easily, and Emma had no issues with it. Neither of us needed that kind of negativity in our lives.
Because I knew everything at school already, my mother eventually agreed to me taking the test early so that I could go ahead and get my diploma. After bringing home straight A’s without studying at all, she couldn’t justify making me go to that school anymore. I gave Mrs. Roadsworth a piece of my mind before I left and went down as a legend for it.
High school was overrated. I was excited to move on to college with Mason, but first we had to get through the year together. By the time we got everything settled in our respective lives, it was already halfway through the year, and there was snow on the ground. I got to enjoy the last six months of the year with him before we had to start preparing for college.
He was still going to school and working, so he was very busy, but I had a lot of free time. I spent most of that at work, but the time I got that I didn’t spend with Mason, I chose to spend with my mother. We had been through the death of my father together, and I wanted us to have a better relationship. Family is important.
On one particular afternoon after Mason finished school and had the day off work, he wanted to take me somewhere. I didn’t know where, but he wanted it to be a surprise. I got bundled up in a nice, warm sweater that he had gotten me for Christmas, and we hopped into his car to go to this mystery location.
Mason climbed in beside me, his eyes alight with mischief. “I’ve been wanting to take you here for a while. I used to think about it when you were gone, how I would bring you here to tell you how much you meant to me. I want to do that this evening.”
“Where is this place?” I asked as he started the car.
“Not far. You’ll see,” he said, pulling out of the driveway and onto the frozen roads. He drove carefully, taking precautions not to let the car slide on the patches of ice that decorated our streets. No amount of salt seemed to get rid of them, so the city just left them as they were.
I turned the heat on in the car when the engine had warmed up enough to enjoy it. Autumn was gone too quickly, and it left me feeling chilled to the bone. It was a good thing I had Mason in my bed most nights, otherwise, I would be a human popsicle by now.
Mason drove us up a hill, and at first, I thought we were going to the hill that I had gotten high on and first started accepting his advances. This wasn’t the case, however, and Mason kept driving when we passed the exit to go to the popular senior hangout spot.
We drove up the hill so high that I was surprised that we hadn’t reached the top yet. Just as I was thinking that, we did reach the top, coming around the corner to the most beautiful scenery that I had seen in this town.
It was a small area, not enough to fit more than one or two cars, but the view was perfect. We could see the entire city and then some from here, and we had come at just the right time to watch the sunset. The rays of pink and orange streamed through the sky over us, showering the car in a delightful array of colors. My mouth dropped open at the beauty before us.
“This is spectacular,” I managed to say in a whisper.
“I thought so too, and that’s why I wanted to show it to you,” Mason said proudly.
“You’re the best,” I said, turning to him quickly and taking his face into my hands. I planted a kiss on his lips, then several more. I couldn’t believe that just six months prior, I had considered giving up on him.
Mason looked at me, his soul connecting with mine as the bright evening sun painted our faces golden orange. I knew that we could make this work from the moment we had started trying, but this was the moment when it all came together for me. We were meant to be together, and there could be no denying it now.
Mason looked left and right, as though he were checking for people on this deserted hill, then he leaned in close to me, a mischievous smirk slowly spreading across his face. “Hey, you know what we should do?”
I shook my head. “No, but tell me.”
“We should make love up here.”
I laughed. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, totally. Come outside and let’s fuck in the sunset. It’s amazing outside.”
“It’s freezing,” I yelped as he threw open the door.
“I’ll warm you up. Come on,” he said, motioning for me to join him outside of the car.
“Fine,” I said, shaking my head at him. If we got caught or his dick froze off, he wouldn’t be in such a chipper mood.
I got out of the car and followed him around to the front of it. The hood was still hot from the engine, steam rising off of it into the cold air. I bent over, placing my hands on the hood as he yanked down my pants. The crisp air felt surprisingly good against my bare ass as he got into position.
“This is like riding off into the sunset together, only sexier,” he said as he touched my pussy with his nimble fingers. I was already wet for him.
“So that makes you my cowboy, then?” I asked as he placed his cock against my entrance.
“Something like that,” he replied, and pushed himself inside.
The End.
Edge of Hate
A Dark High School Bully Romance
Introduction
The scars on my wrists told a story he could never understand.
Yet, he pushed me further.
And I fell.
They say that the bullying stops when you stand up for yourself.
But that’s a lie.
He didn’t stop. It only got worse.
That was until I gave him something I never should have.
Now, he has a piece of me that I can never get back, and he’s coming for more.
Chapter 1
Guilt drives the weak mind.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but it comes down to mail sorting or dropping out. The choice is on your shoulders,” my father said at the dinner table as he set my plate down in front of me.
I groaned. “I don’t want to work there. There has to be another option.”
He shook his head of salt and pepper hair, circling around to the other end of the table and sitting down across from me. “Nobody else is going to pay you enough to keep going to Granite Hills Academy.”
I clenched my teeth and picked at hardened skin where the sides of my fingernails met my fingers. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down.
My father tilted his head, his brown eyes taking on the same sympathetic shape as mine did when he spoke. “It won’t be forever, but I know you’re trying to get that scholarship. They just don’t pay me what they used to. You know how things have been.”
Damn right, I knew, and I hated my father’s employer for screwing him over. Instead of a promotion last year, he received a hefty pay cut. It wasn’t because they couldn’t pay him more or that he was a poor employee. It was because they chose to bring on a bunch of underqualified workers and load them full of tasks that were better suited for professionals. They started cutting salaries to afford the switch.
I was convinced that was a surefire way to tank a business, but my father didn’t have many options in this town. It was a wealthy place, but it was small. The community was tiny, and the job opportunities were tinier. You took what you could get, or you left.
I regretted ever going to Granite Hills in the first place. My father had been so excited that he could finally send me to a better school, moving away from my hometown, where my mother had passed a few years before.
I had mixed feelings about leaving home, under the impression that we were leaving my mother behind, but she was already gone. My therapist had made it clear that we weren’t doing the wrong thing, and that it would help us heal, but I wasn’t entirely convinced. Those people are always telling you shit, but who have they lost? How would they know? I have trouble trusting anyone who hadn’t
walked in my shoes, and my shoes were awfully rare.
Leaving the spirit of my mother behind helped my father. I could see it in his eyes, but that didn’t make it easier for me. I coped differently, and I felt lonely without her. I used to visit her grave after school every day, rain or shine, and sit there to tell her about my day. Now, I had nobody to tell. My father wasn’t exactly the best listener, and he also wasn’t a woman. There are some things that you can’t explain to a man.
You can’t tell a man about Atlas Montgomery, for example. Everyone thinks that Atlas is a charming young man with a bright future ahead of him playing football. He’s the team captain for the Granite Boulders, but I couldn’t give two fucks if he picked flowers after school and gave them to old ladies in the retirement home. He was a toxic person, and as two-faced as they come.
I had dealt with Atlas plenty of times in the past, but I never let him get the better of me. I took after my mother, always fighting hard and drawing hard lines in the sand that nobody dared cross. The problem was, Atlas enjoyed crossing lines. Fuck, he lived for it. Whenever he saw the opportunity to test his power, he took it. That’s how we crossed paths the first time.
When I first came to Granite Hills, I had high hopes that leaving everything behind and starting fresh would be the best thing I could do, but as I settled into my new life, I found that things weren’t as they seemed on the surface. Granite Hills wasn’t the nice wealthy neighborhood that it was depicted as, and the boys that went to the private academy weren’t the prim and proper young men they were supposed to be. They were snakes, and Atlas was the king cobra.
I took a bite of my food, barely tasting the well-seasoned vegetables that my father had prepared. He was a good cook, but I wasn’t in the mood for food tonight. I didn’t like to eat when I was upset, but I didn’t want my father to think his food was bad, so I shoveled it down to my knotted stomach’s dismay.
