by Mae Doyle
Like they know what’s coming and they can’t wait to see it all play out.
“You asshole!” I run straight up to him, pounding on his chest with my fists. Most people would step backward, but not Quinn. Maybe he really is a god – an untouchable god forged in hell and sent here to torment me. My fists make satisfying sounds as I hit him, but it has no effect.
“What’s got your panties in a twist, little Abigail?” Reaching up, he grabs my wrists seconds before I was going to pound him in the chest again and squeezes them, forcing them down to my sides.
No matter where we are or how the interaction started, he always seems to come out on top. It’s maddening.
“You ruined my painting!” I spit the words at him, yanking back on my arms at the same time, but I can’t get free.
He chuckles and rolls his eyes at his friends, who are still standing and watching us. Rather than looking interested, though, they both suddenly look bored, like they’ve seen this before. The glee has slipped from their faces and they look like they know how it’s going to play out. It pisses me off.
“I also made you come for the first time in your pathetic little virgin life, am I right?” He leans forward and presses his lips against my forehead before continuing. They feel hot and my skin burns when he steps back to look at me. “Is this how you plan on thanking any guy who helps you out in a pinch like that?”
“Fuck. You.” I can’t believe that he’d just talk about that so calmly, like he didn’t care if everyone knew what had happened between the two of us, but when I look at his friends, I can tell that he’d already told them.
And that they didn’t care.
My face flames and I stop fighting him. He pulls me closer, wrapping his arms around my waist so that I’m pressed up against his body.
“Little Abigail,” his whispers, his mouth close enough to my ear to make me shiver, “I don’t think that you understand quite yet what’s going to happen. You’re never going to last here, and even if you do, the internship is mine. Can’t you see that I’m just protecting something that I deserve? I can’t have a little no-talent virgin like you come in and try to take it from me, now can I?”
“I know about you and Mr. Stanfield.” I have to turn my head so that I’m whispering in his ear. I want to bring Quinn down, but on my own terms. I have no idea if his friends know about the deal with his family or not, but telling them isn’t on my to-do list right now. “I know that he’s afraid of what will happen when people find out that I’m a better artist than you.”
I swear, I feel the blood drain from Quinn’s face. When he leans back to look at me, he’s paler than I’ve ever seen before. He looks…ill. It gives me a sick jolt of pleasure to think that I’ve done that to him.
That I’m the reason he looks afraid.
That I actually have the chance to take the one thing from him that he loves so much.
I could ruin Quinn, and I see that written all over his face.
It’s glorious, honestly.
“What the fuck did you do?” He’s not smiling now, not even the twisted little smirk that he gets when he’s going to play with me. There’s no humor in his eyes, and his hands dig into my hips to hold me in place.
The last time he dug his fingers into my hip and held me in place…
I can’t think about that right now.
But just his touch does something to me and I feel the familiar warmth between my legs that I get when I’m around him. Now that I know what he can do to my body, my body seems to have a mind of its own. It wants Quinn, but there’s no way in hell that that’s going to happen again.
I promise myself.
“I didn’t do anything.” Even though I try to pull back a bit, I can’t. He’s holding me too tightly and there’s no wiggle room for me to get away. “It’s not my fault that you two talk so loudly that anyone walking by could hear you.”
“You fucking bitch,” he breathes, staring into my eyes. “You were hiding and listening, weren’t you? You wanted to hear what he was telling me about my painting and you just couldn’t help yourself!”
I shake my head so hard that my hair whips around my face in a halo. “That’s not it,” I tell him, but he keeps talking, raising his voice to drown me out.
“I should have known that you would be a sneaky little cunt.” Suddenly, his voice drops to almost a whisper, and I find myself leaning in to hear what else he is going to say. “A sneaky little cunt deserves to get fucked, you know that?”
Now I grow pale and I shake my head again, this time keeping my eyes locked on him. The night isn’t very cool, but a shiver runs through my body, extinguishing the longing that I was feeling for him a moment ago.
“No,” I tell him, tyring to make him listen. “No, you don’t want to do this, Quinn. Don’t do this, please, don’t do this.”
“And why not, Abigail? If I remember correctly, you were the one rubbing your little cunt all over me a bit ago. Looks like you just couldn’t get enough of what I had to offer, am I right?”
I try to step back, but his holds me tight.
This was a mistake.
Coming out here to talk to him in front of his friends in the abandoned quad was easily one of the stupidest things I’ve done in a while, and now I don’t know how to get out of it. Frantically, I look up for Carter and Trae, but they’ve both disappeared. Quinn and I are alone and there’s nobody here to help me. I brought this on myself.
“Please let me go.” I don’t want to beg, but he thinks that he’s a god. Maybe if I appeal to that side of him he’ll show mercy.
“You want mercy?” The way he reads my mind again makes the hair on my arms stand up. “You want me to forgive you, little cunt? Well, I’m sorry. I’m not in the mood. You came here to fuck up my life, and that’s all you’ve been doing since day one. It’s my turn now. Come on.”
Before he turns to walk away, he switches his grip to my wrist and then pulls me with him. I dig my heels in, but the grass is slippery. I fall on the ground, a throbbing pain in my ass and lower back as I land.
Quinn sighs and turns around, but before I can scoot out of the way, he bends over and lifts me as easily as he would a bag of laundry. He throws me over his shoulder, where I land with an ‘oof’, and then starts walking across the quad.
Not, not walking. Stalking. He’s stalking across the quad, away from the buildings, away from anyone or anything that may end up helping me, and I can’t do anything.
Even though I’m beating my fists against his back, he doesn’t slow.
I’m begging him, not even fully understanding the words that leave my mouth, but it doesn’t matter. No mixture of crying out his name and pleading for him to stop will slow him down, and I know it, but I keep trying. I have to keep trying because I know exactly how this is going to end.
I lost the bet with Quinn. When I came to Trinity Prep I was on the edge of having everything, but instead I lost it all. I didn’t know it then, but now I can’t deny it.
We enter the woods but Quinn doesn’t stop. At first, I don’t know where we’re going, but then I realize that we’re headed for the clearing. It’s a good place for him to take me if he wants to have me all to himself.
And he does.
When he finally drops me on the ground, I land with a thud that knocks the air out of me. I have to gasp and claw at the ground to sit up. Dirt jams under my fingernails and my ass hurts more than it did before, but I don’t care.
I have to get away from Quinn before he can get his hands on me.
He stands over me, blocking out the setting sun, his hands planted on his hips like he’s not sure what he’s going to do to me. The thought gives me a jolt of energy – like I think that I’m going to be able to get away from him.
Never taking my eyes off of him, I slowly back up, sliding along the dirt. There’s a rock behind me, and I have to manuever around it, but I don’t want to look away from Quinn. I don’t want him to be able to move suddenly towards m
e without me being able to see it coming.
I’ve managed to put about ten feet between us before he speaks.
“Where do you think that you’re going?” He hasn’t moved since he put me on the ground, and the fact that he’s standing in place, pinning me to the spot with his eyes makes me even more nervous. “You don’t actually think that I’m going to let you scurry away like that, do you?”
Swallowing hard, I push myself up on my knees. I’m so close to being able to stand, and once I can do that, I can run. I just have to keep him from coming over to me. “I thought that maybe you just brought me out to scare me.”
He laughs, a hollow sound that echoes around the clearing and shakes his head, walking over to me. “Little Abigail, I’ll let you out of here on one condition, okay? Would you like to know what that is?”
He’s towering over me again and I have to tilt my head way back to look at him.
It hasn’t escaped me that I’m on my knees in front of him. Again.
Even though I had promised myself that I would never put myself in this position again.
Even though I told myself that I’d leave school before I had to beg Quinn for anything.
“Yes. Tell me what fucked-up thing you want, Quinn, and let’s get it over with. Let’s see what the hell is going on in that messed up head of yours, shall we?”
He grins and then crouches down by me, looking me in the eyes. We’re almost equals down here, but I can’t believe that that’s what he’s imagining right now. Rather than someone who looks like my equal, he looks like someone who is going to spring and attack at any moment.
“I want you to leave the school. I want you to drop out of the contest for the internship and pack up. Looking at you makes me sick. I can’t stand breathing the same air as you.” He pauses and my eyes dart around the clearing. “Is that clear?”
I nod, even though there are a million questions running through my mind right now. Without looking away from him, I slowly stand up. He rises at the same time as me, just inches from me. My body can practically feel the way it felt grinding up against him.
“So you’ll leave?” There’s a flash of relief on his face, but it’s gone so fast that I think for a moment that I imagined it. “You’ll leave Trinity Prep?”
If I lie to him then he’s going to know it. I have to tell him the truth and just deal with whatever consequences he feels like he needs to dole out. “Not a chance. I’m here, Quinn, and that internship is mine. I don’t know why you think that you can drive me out, but it’s not going to happen.”
For a moment, he doesn’t move, but then he nods and pulls his cell phone from his pocket. I stare, in surprise. None of the students here have cell phones. It’s against the rules at Trinity Prep.
Swiping his thumb across the screen, he opens it and then touches the screen a few times before holding it up to his ear. The person he’s calling must answer almost immediately, because Quinn starts talking right away.
“She says that she’s going to stay.” He’s silent for a moment, listening, but he doesn’t stop staring at me. “You got it.”
When he hangs up and slips the phone back in his pocket I find myself slowly stepping backwards from him. I don’t want to be anywhere near him. I don’t know what he’s about to do, but I have a feeling that it’s not going to be good.
“You want to stay?” He cocks his head a little to the side, like this is all just a game and he’s enjoying himself. “You like Trinity Prep so much that you want to stay?”
I nod but start backing up. The way out of here is to my back. I’ve made the mistake of going down the wrong path once, and I’m not going to make it again. Eventually I’m going to have to turn around and run, and that’s when I’m really and truly fucked.
“I’m staying.” My voice wavers a little and I bite my lower lip, immediately sucking in a breath at the pain that shoots through it. Quinn is an incredible kisser, but he is not…gentle.
“Stay then. See how much you can handle. I’ve always wanted to push someone to their limits.” He’s walking after me now, and he cracks his knuckles, the sound loud in the silence of the clearing.
Nobody is coming for me. There aren’t any birds singing. No matter what he decides to do to me, nobody is going to know about it.
I can’t handle it any longer and I turn, running, trying to avoid roots and rocks so that I don’t trip. Immediately, I hear his footsteps behind me. He’s chasing me – and catching up.
Chapter Seventeen
I don’t make it more than twenty feet down the path before Quinn hits me from behind, his arms wrapped around my waist, his entire weight shoving me off balance and throwing me to the ground.
Instinctively, I throw my arms out in front of me to block my fall, and that’s where I make my mistake. My right hand hits the ground at a bad angle, and I feel my wrist shatter before the pain hits.
The rest of my body follows, and I collapse on the ground with Quinn firmly on top of me, his full weight pushing me into the dirt so that it’s hard for me to breathe. I manage to suck in a breath, though, and that’s when I start screaming.
Immediately, he rolls off of me and flips me over. I grab my right wrist with my left hand, my fingers on fire, my hand feeling like it’s going to fall off.
“You broke it!” I’m sobbing, tears dripping off of my chin, but I choke out the words. “You bastard! You broke my wrist!” The pain is excruciating, but it’s nothing compared to the feeling of dread that sinks through my body when I realize what it means if I can’t paint.
“No.” His voice is low and his face is pale. “You broke it. You fell on it.” Scrambling to his feet, he reaches down and pulls me up by the elbows. Just moving my right arm sends shooting pain from my fingers to my elbow, and I scream again, falling into him.
He catches me, his strong body holding me up and preventing me from ending up on my face in the dirt.
I’m sucking in deep breaths now, trying to keep from passing out. The pain is biting and cold. It’s unrelenting, and I can barely stay on my feet with the way it’s throbbing.
“You shouldn’t have run,” Quinn says, stepping back from me and slowly letting his eyes graze over my body.
I had thought that there was compassion in his voice, and I whip my head up to look at him. There’s nothing in his eyes now. They look as hollow as his laugh earlier. I would have sworn that I saw compassion there earlier, but…I must have been wrong.
The shooting pain in my wrist jerks me back into the moment and I suck in a hiss, trying to fight off the darkness that’s threatening at the edges of my vision. If I pass out now then there’s no way that I’ll be able to get out of here. Quinn will leave me here in the middle of the woods.
“Please help me.” I reach for him, but he takes a step back. My feet suddenly feel glued to the ground. They’re so heavy that lifting them and walking after him is completely out of the question. There’s no way that I can reach him if he won’t meet me halfway. “Quinn. Please.”
“Now you want to beg?” His voice is hard. There’s an edge to it that I haven’t heard before, and it makes me look up at him in surprise. “Now? Not when I could have actually helped you? You really are a stupid little cunt, aren’t you, Abigail? And to think that I thought that there might actually be more to you than that. I was wrong.”
He turns and I’m suddenly afraid that he’s going to walk away and leave me here. “Quinn, wait! Please don’t leave me here.”
I drop to my knees. I’ve never experienced a pain like this before and it’s making it difficult for me to think straight. The aching and throbbing hasn’t died down and I have no idea how I’m going to walk the rest of the way back to the school.
I can’t go to the headmaster. He made it clear that if I show up in his office again that I’m kicked out. I have to get to Madeline.
“Will you please just send Madeline?” If Quinn won’t help me by assisting me out of the woods then maybe he’ll have some pit
y on me and send me my best friend. She’s the only person I can trust any longer. Not that I thought I could trust Quinn, but I never thought that he’d hurt me like this.
“She won’t come.” He hasn’t turned around or slowed his steps, but his voice is clear and bright, like he’s standing right next to me. “Nobody’s going to come, Abigail. You made your choice, and now we have no choice. Remember that, when you’re feeling sorry for yourself. All you had to do was leave and everything would be fine, but you couldn’t even do that right, could you?”
Suddenly he whips around, his hands clenched tightly in fists. “Remember this, Abigail. You did it.” He walks back to me quickly, bending down and grabbing the back of my neck to turn my face to him. Before I can respond he leans forward and kisses me, his mouth hot and hard on mine.
When he lets me go, I fall to the ground.
What does he mean that nobody will come?
Why wouldn’t Madeline come?
Even from flat on the ground I can watch him walk away. I want to call out to him but he’s not going to turn back.
Even someone as naïve as I am could figure that out.
***
I have no idea how long I lay on the ground, feeling the dirt and rocks dig into my skin, before I finally push myself up with my left hand. I kneel for a few minutes then, trying to get my bearings, before I finally stand up.
My head swims and I almost swoon again, but gritting my teeth helps me focus. The pain in my right wrist is still excruciating, but it’s more of a dull throb now than a shooting pain. Clutching my hand up to my chest, I start on the path on the way back to Trinity Prep.
I only know that I’m going the right way because of the tracks that Quinn and I left when he tackled me. It takes me much longer than I think it should to get to the edge of the woods, and by the time the school is in sight, the sun has set. Lights glowing in the windows look incredibly inviting and I stumble across the quad, headed not for my dorm, but for the main building.
