by Bella King
I shook my head at my reflection and began removing my clothes. I was an attractive woman, and I knew that well enough, but I didn’t always portray myself as such. It was a defense mechanism that I needed to lose fast if I was going to survive four years at an elite private university. That scholarship wasn’t going to waste — not today, and not ever.
Chapter 7
I read through the dress code requirements carefully as I sat on my bed naked after my shower. My hair was still dripping wet down my back as I looked over the booklet that had been given to me when I was at the main office.
I leaned back on the plush mattress, propped up with a tall stack of feather pillows, and held the paper up, rereading everything several times to commit it to memory. I had an excellent memory, but I often doubted my own ability to recall information. It had never failed me yet, but I still felt the need to overread documents so I wouldn’t forget them. I was pretty sure I could recite every one of my high school textbooks by heart.
The dress code provided was easy to follow but strange. I wasn’t permitted to wear sneakers. I had to wear a dress or skirt, and pants were not an option. This was underlined and in bold on the page so that I couldn’t miss it. The only issue I had with that was that the only thing I ever wore was pants. I didn’t have a single skirt or dress in my luggage.
I tossed the paper onto my new bed, thinking about how difficult this was all turning out to be. Once school started, I was sure that I would get into the swing of things, but right now, it felt awkward and uncomfortable like I was trying to polish a rock into a gemstone. It was very nearly impossible to look like the other people here.
I got off my bed and walked to my suitcase, passing myself in the body-length mirror that hung on the wall near the door. I looked better naked than in any of the clothes that I had brought with me. I wondered if someone like Austin would feel the same, or if he favored rich girls over women like me, regardless of looks.
I had to remind myself that I wasn’t here for the guys. I was here because I had shown how I could excel in high school, and East Bridge expected me to do the same for college. I wouldn’t let people distract me. I was an introvert, so that was an easy enough task for me. Shutting myself off from the outside world was just another normal day for me.
I pulled a pair of black jeans and a blue shirt from my suitcase. It was decent enough not to draw stares from people, so I got dressed in it and pulled my hair back in an uncharacteristically tight ponytail. I had seen some of the other women wear their hair like that here, so I wanted to give it a try.
I immediately felt like there was an alien creature attached to the back of my skull, sucking my scalp back as it tried to consume my brain. I would have a headache within the hour if I continued to wear my hair like this, but I could take it down once I got off-campus. I didn’t need to keep it up all day.
I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the way that I looked when I left my dorm room, but that wasn’t anything new. I had gotten used to trying to hide my beauty, and now that I was encouraged to do the opposite, I found that I didn’t know how to. It was an unexpected challenge.
I glanced at the door to Austin’s room beside mine. I hoped that he would turn out to be a little less rude once school got started, but there were no guarantees of that. He seemed set in his ways, as people often are. I didn’t believe that people could change. I had never seen it happen before.
Even I never changed. I had always been an introvert and a bookworm for as long as I could remember. As the years passed, I only grew into that personality more. It was who I was. I knew that would never change. I couldn’t expect Austin to change either. I didn’t believe in that.
I shuffled down the hall and stepped into the elevator, riding it down to the first floor, where I spotted a few other students entering the building with their luggage in hand. I wasn’t the only person arriving today, but the bulk of the students would arrive the weekend before classes began.
I stepped out into the evening sun, not knowing exactly where I was going. I knew there had to be a thrift store somewhere around here, but I didn’t know where it would be. I doubted it would be located close to the school since it was such an expensive neighborhood. Come to think of it, they might not even have one at all until I was far off-campus where the middle-class people lived.
I checked my phone, scrolling through the apps until I found the map. I pressed it with my finger and typed in my search, praying that something would come up that was close. No luck. The nearest thrift store was twenty miles away.
I sighed, shoving my phone back into my pocket. I doubted anything local would have something cheap enough for me to afford, but it was worth a shot. I could hit up the nearest shopping center and grab an outfit that wouldn’t look odd if I wore it every day to school for a while. Black worked well for that. I would only need to wear it every day until I started working somewhere, and I could afford something better.
“You’re still not up to dress code,” a calm voice said from beside me.
I turned my head to see Austin leaning with his arms crossed against a railing that separated the sidewalk from a flowerbed. I held up my phone. “I was just about to do some shopping for a dress or something. I don’t have any clothes that conform to the code.”
He uncrossed his arms and walked toward me. “The shops close in an hour, so if you’re planning on walking, you better be quick,” he cautioned.
“Yeah, I don’t have a car,” I said, feeling small next to his large frame.
He looked down at me, his eyes sparkling like melting ice in the sun. “I could drive you.”
“Really? That would be great,” I said, surprised by his change of tone. Maybe I was wrong about him before.
“If you suck me off later, I’ll drive you anywhere,” he said with a wink.
I recoiled, shocked by his words. “No thank you,” I said, stepping back.
He chuckled. “Relax, babe. It’ s a joke.”
It didn’t sound much like a joke, but I still needed a ride. “Are you going to drive me or not?” I asked, growing irritated at his antics.
He shrugged. “I guess so. You really can't run around campus dressed like you are now. It’s disgusting,” he said.
Damn, at least talk behind my back like everyone else does.
“I’m not disgusting,” I said, offended that he would openly say that.
He shrugged. “You need to step it up if you don’t want to get kicked out. I’m really not sure why you’re here in the first place.”
“I got a scholarship,” I said, hoping that my achievements would appease him in some way.
They didn’t. Austin shook his head like I was a foolish child. “They must really be hurting for students these days. They never used to do that. You had to be rich to get in.”
“I don’t think that’s true. Both my parents went here.”
“They must have been nerds or something,” Austin replied, waving a hand of dismissal.
“They were good people,” I replied.
“Sure,” he sarcastically agreed, “But we can talk about how great your parents are later. Let’s go before it gets dark.”
I followed him as he began walking. For someone who looked down on me for being poor, he was awfully willing to help me out. Maybe he thought I would suck his dick if he gave me a ride, but he would have to have his head way in the clouds to think that I would ever do something like that. I was just poor, not without self-respect. There were plenty of things I would never do for money.
If I had a car, I would have turned him away for his crude comment, or joke, as he put it. I got the feeling he hadn’t been joking. He was testing his luck with a girl like me, but I wasn’t so stupid. Maybe the other women here were, but I had a good head on my shoulders.
Since I wasn’t capable of transporting myself on my own, and the sun was starting to go down, I accepted Austin’s help. I figured that someone like him ought to be inconvenienced every once in a while,
without a reward. It would bring him down to earth.
As we approached the student parking lot, I tried to make conversation with Austin. I wasn’t a fan of small talk, so I jumped right into real substance. “What are you majoring in?” I asked.
“Business,” he replied simply, pulling a key fob from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He clicked it twice, and a black sports car flashed its lights in the parking lot.
“Good major. I’m not really sure about what I’m going to do, but I was thinking chemistry,” I replied.
Austin chuckled and shook his head. “So that you can make potions? This isn’t Hogwarts sweetheart,” he mocked.
“Listen,” I said, placing my hand on the hood of his car as he circled around to open the passenger’s side door for me. “I’m happy that you’re doing this for me, but could you tone down the rudeness a bit?”
Austin opened the door and motioned for me to get in, but he didn’t respond.
I did budge. “Did you hear me? I asked you to tone down the rudeness. I belong here just like everyone else who was accepted.”
“Do you want me to drive you or not?” Austin asked sharply, cocking his head to the side and pressing his pink lips together.
I sighed. “Yes,” I replied through gritted teeth.
“Then get in and shut your mouth,” he said.
I gave in, walking around the front of his car and accepting my place in the passenger’s seat of his sports car. The interior smelled like fresh leather and his cologne, which was dark and masculine. He smelled like I would imagine those models in fashion magazines would smell like if you could walk into a photoshoot with them. It was intoxicating as much as it was seductive. I didn’t like him, but he smelled like a dream.
“Don’t touch anything,” Austin said as he fell into the seat beside me.
I kept my hands on my lap, but I shook my head at him. I didn’t understand why he was being so rude if he was trying to help me. Those two things contradicted each other.
“Where do you want to go?” Austin asked as he flew backward out of his parking spot, twisting the car around dramatically before squealing off onto the road.
I had to brace myself on the side of the seat to keep my body from being flung over into his lap as he recklessly left the school campus. I didn’t answer him until we were on a straight stretch of road. “Wherever is cheapest,” I said. “I just need a skirt and maybe some nice blouses.”
“Cheap?” he asked with a laugh. “You really are plain Jane.”
“Don’t call me that, please,” I replied.
“Or what?” he challenged.
“Just don’t. I really don’t like that you’re treating me like this. I haven’t done anything to you,” I said, throwing up my hands in frustration.
He glanced over at me, seemingly amused by my irritation. For him, this was a game. For me, it was my future, and I didn’t like that he wasn’t taking me seriously.
“Is there a mall or something around here?” I asked.
“Yeah, we have two,” he said.
“So, take me to one of them,” I said. “Please.”
“You have pretty good manners for a poor girl,” he noted.
“And you have pretty bad manners for a rich boy,” I shot back.
“True, but I don’t need manners when I have money,” he said as he drove.
“It wouldn’t hurt.”
“It might,” he said with a cocky grin.
I had the urge to slap him, but not while we were driving. School hadn’t even started yet, and I wasn’t trying to die before I had the chance to take my first class. That wasn’t how I imagined my freshman year.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. It must have been my aunt, so I ignored it. I was tired of her calling me and begging for me to come back home. I wasn’t going to spend my life caring for that old woman. I had my own life to look after now.
“Your phone is ringing,” Austin said, stating the obvious.
“I know,” I replied, making no move to answer it. “It’s probably my aunt.”
“And here I was, thinking you had good manners,” Austin mused.
“I do, but she won’t stop bothering me,” I replied. “She doesn’t want me to go to East Bridge.”
“That makes two of us,” he said, turning the wheel and bringing us down an adjacent road. He may have been a prick, but at least he was honest.
“Why do you have such a big problem with me? You barely even know me,” I inquired.
“Every year, the school gets worse because of people like you,” Austin said, tapping his fingers on the leather-bound steering wheel in irritation. “But hey, who cares what I think, right? Let’s just keep shoveling in the riff-raff and hope that it doesn’t ruin the school. Bullshit.”
Riff-raff. That sounded like the way I considered the other people at the bus station. He probably viewed me as one of them, but I wasn’t. I was different, and I had already proved it by getting accepted into East Bridge. Austin didn’t seem to think so, however.
“I’m not some sort of delinquent. Maybe you should get to know me before you pass judgment,” I said, hoping that he would see sense in that.
“The only thing I want to get to know about you is that little whore mouth,” he said, reaching a hand over and grabbing my thigh.
I jerked it away, horrified that he would say something like that. He hadn’t been joking the first time. He really thought I was going to do that for a ride. “Don’t fucking touch me,” he said, trying to scoot myself as far away from him as I could.
Austin looked at me, keeping one hand on the steering wheel while he teased me with his hand, slowly moving it closer with a stupid grin on his face. He must have thought this was funny, but I wasn’t laughing. I just wanted him to leave me alone.
“If you touch me, I’m calling the police,” I warned.
“Oh no,” he said in a mocking tone, pouting his lips. “I’m so scared.”
“You should be,” I said, trying to sound like I meant it. It was hard to sound confident when he was paying more attention to me than to the road we were flying down. “Could you please watch the road?” I asked.
Austin rolled his eyes but returned to his regular position behind the wheel. “I already know enough about you to know you’re not any fun. I like girls who are more adventurous.”
No, you like girls that are sluts.
I thought it, but I kept my mouth shut. I was fuming quietly in my seat, waiting for us to arrive in a public place so he would stop trying to get me to do stuff with him that I clearly didn’t want. He could have easily gotten me into his bed if he had approached me with some class and took me out to dinner first. Being rich didn’t mean he could skip the pleasantries and take what he wanted from me.
The sun was nearly set as we drove down a dark road, but Austin showed no sign of stopping, and I was beginning to wonder how far away this shopping mall was. It couldn’t be all that far, and we had been driving for twenty minutes already.
“Hey, isn’t the place going to close soon?” I asked.
Austin shrugged. “You’ll have time to shop.”
“So, we’re close,” I said.
“Sure,” he replied.
I was starting to grow suspicious. He didn’t look like he knew where he was going, only that he was driving. Come to think of it, he hadn’t changed his route when I told him where I wanted to go. I had kept driving in the same direction almost the entire time I was in the car with him.
I looked out the window. There were trees on either side of the road, and there were almost no streetlights. If we were close to a shopping center, I would have expected there to be some sign of life or even other cars on the road. There was neither.
“What’s the deal, Austin?” I asked as the car began to slow. “We’re not going to the mall, are we?”
“Nope,” he said, his expression cold and careless.
My heart began to beat faster, and my palms felt moist with sweat. He had
taken me somewhere that there were no other people, and he kept making comments about me sucking him off. If he had something sinister in mind, then I was in a load of trouble. I didn’t have any way to defend myself, and he looked like he could clearly overpower me with little to no effort. I was royally screwed.
“Can you take me back to school?” I asked, my hands beginning to shake.
“No,” he said, the car slowing to a stop in the middle of the road.
Calm down, Jane. You can always run. He won’t follow you into the woods.
I wasn’t convinced. This had been a setup. How could I have been so stupid as to trust someone who I didn’t know, and who clearly hated me? This was probably the stupidest thing that I had done, and boy, I had done a lot of stupid shit in my life.
If I had listened to my aunt, none of this would have happened. I could be back at home, washing dishes and listening to my aunt drone on about politics like I gave a fuck. I didn’t, but I never argued with her about it.
“Whatever you’re thinking of doing, it’s not worth it,” I said as Austin looked over at me.
“What do you think I’m going to do?” he asked, his face still filled with a dead expression.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s right, plain Jane. There’s a lot of things you just don’t know. You don’t know what it takes to be part of East Bridge. This school isn’t for people like you. It never was. I don’t give two fucks if your parents went here. You’re not welcome here,” he said, his voice growing loud with anger. There was something seriously wrong with him for him to be acting this way. I was surprised that such a handsome face could be hiding such cruelty.
I shut down. I didn’t know what to say. We were sitting in his car in the middle of nowhere while he shamed me for trying to get a proper education. I had no idea what he wanted to do to me, but whatever it was, I knew it wouldn’t be nice.
“Get out of my car,” Austin said, glaring at me like he wanted to murder me in cold blood. His eyes were as gray as slate.
