by Peitho
Bad Intentions
By
Peitho
© 2019 Peitho
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author's imagination.
Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.
About Bad Intentions
I met his smirk and said, “Let the games begin.”
My words to Trent, one of the Kings of Hawk Academy.
I was offered the chance to be part of their ritual.
Old rules.
Old traditions.
Old building.
Old money.
But all of this was new to me. I wasn’t one of them. I wasn’t rich or privileged, and I was far from arrogant.
The Kings, both Trent and James, were the most gorgeous but dangerously cruelest guys that I’d ever met. They expected me to fall in line and fade away as if their sky blue eyes would brainwash me as they continued to torture me.
I was the new girl, but I was no princess.
They may be the Kings of Hawk Academy, but when I find out their secrets, I’m going to bring them and these old walls tumbling down.
Author's Note:
This is book ONE in a THREE book series. Each part of the series is told from a different viewpoint. Please be advised this series contains material not suitable for all readers. There are dark scenes which could be disturbing to some readers.
Chapter One
I took a deep breath as I thought about the warm, brightly lit memories of summer and how they’d become the multi-colored golden shades of fall. It was almost time to get back to reality. Yep, I was back in Utah and more importantly soon, I’d be back in high school. The mere thought of it made it seem even closer. But it was inevitable, I was going back to school as a senior and I was so close to the finish line I could see it.
Thank God!
I would be free and no longer would I have to sneak out. I could come in and out of my room as I pleased when I graduated. I would be a college girl, something that I’d dreamed of being forever. I just had to start, and finish, this final year of high school, then real life would begin. Maybe I’d even get a chance with Abe, the boy next door that made my heart jump out of fucking control. It was as if I lost all sense when I was with him. But, I had to get through those first days, before I could think about anything else.
I blew air out of pursed lips as I thought about those first days and how they’d go down. The problem with going back to school after summer vacation was that everyone who didn’t see you during summer wanted to know what you did while you were on vacation. Even the teachers made a big deal out of asking you about your summer escapades.
That was fine, normally, but this year, my summer vacation was hell, it wasn’t a vacation at all. Those weeks of ‘freedom’ had been all about spending my time with my dying Gran. Sure, she’d lived with her cancer for a long time and we knew that she’d come to a horrible end. But knowing about it was one thing, it was whole other thing to actually see it, to watch as someone slowly succumbed with pain and sickness marring every moment of their awareness.
“Vicki!”
I heard a pebble as it landed and bounced off my window followed by my name being called out. Not once, but twice and I knew that whoever was outside was not going to give up any time soon. I sighed as I thought about it and wondered who it was.
I’d only just got back home and hadn’t even told my best friends that I’d arrived yet. I was exhausted from the journey, the funeral and spending some quality time with my grieving mom. We hadn’t spent that much time together in a long time.
“What?” I shouted out as I opened the window to see Abe.
Fuck, it was him.
He’d texted me a couple of times during vacation, but I wasn’t a fool. Number one: there was no way that the hot baseball player next door was interested in me, well not in that way. Number two: there was no way that he wanted to be anything but friends.
I had enough friends; I didn’t need one more.
He was outside my window throwing stones like a lovesick teenager. It was kind of cute, but I didn’t want to appear too eager. I flushed because I’d been thinking about him earlier, before I realized that he was outside my window.
Well, not exactly thinking about him. It was more like spying as I watched his window. I’d wondered if he’d hooked up with anyone during the summer. His light had gone out in his room and so had my curiosity until now.
He was standing by the tree next to my window. One that had grown to the perfect height, with big, fat limbs long enough that I could use them to sneak out of my room from my window. Something that I’d become accustomed to doing this year.
“You could text me?” I whispered loudly to him, which made no sense, because he had done that and I hadn’t bothered replying. I didn’t know what to say, besides my head wasn’t really in the right place when he did it. I was either at the hospital or talking to mom. Something that we hadn’t done in what felt like forever.
Automatically, he had a look of annoyance on that perfect face of his.
I was thinking about what his texts meant and that was driving me insane. I had made up my mind that all he wanted was for us to be friends and I didn’t want that. My besties would tell me that I was putting myself down too much, that a guy as hot as Abe could actually be into me. I could tell myself whatever I wanted to, but actions were louder than words. Apart from asking me to tutor him a couple of times, there had been no signs from Abe that he wanted anything more from me. Well, no apparent signs until now.
Anyway, I wasn’t ready to welcome him up to my room right now. Not when I was in bad need of a shower and mouthwash. I hadn’t eaten in the last few hours, something that I wasn’t used to doing. Usually, I would eat regularly like a newborn baby, but today my emotions were so mixed up my stomach had been in knots. Part of me was glad to be back and back to reality. The other part of me was sad about what had happened during the summer and even sadder about the idea of being back in this house.
Ugh!
“So, I shouldn’t come up?”
“Okay, come up!”
I called down my face scrunched up in a way that was probably ugly but I couldn’t control my face. It did whatever it wanted. Abe had caught me by surprise and I couldn’t help it, I said the first thing that came into my mind.
It was kind of old-fashion, Abe being down there throwing rocks at my window. Something that they did in Romeo & Juliet and I used to wish that I’d been born in a different era to experience something like that. Now, I was and the only thing that I could think about was mouthwash and shower gel. I wasn’t feeling particularly romantic, especially after the last time that I was in this house. The place I used to think of as home, was now just a place to crash until I could get out of here and go to college. Less than one full year and nearly one academic year and I’d be counting every single day until it finally arrived.
“Sorry about not replying to your texts or even calling.” I said and winced trying to make up for him trying to be sweet and me acting like a bitch.
Please! No one calls anymore. It’s all about messaging. Only old people make phone calls.
<
br /> “Yeah…I should have called you maybe, but I didn’t think it through. There was too much going on…” He looked like he really wished I’d called him and my heart skipped a beat, again.
I wondered through a split second if he’d really wanted me to call him for a particular reason or just to talk? I became mesmerized by his eyes. Those incredibly hypnotic eyes of his put me in a trance whenever he was near. The kind of hypnotizing green eyes that sparkled whenever he was smiling, like he was right now.
He motioned back at his house, “I think everyone’s asleep. Calling you might have woken everyone up.”
He was right, and at the same time, texting seemed kind of weird when our rooms faced each other. Usually, I would wave to him from my window every once in a while, to let him know that I was home and to see if he was interested in coming over. But he never was, unless it was to be tutored, which had never made any sense to me. His grades were better than mine, even after I tutored him. It made me wonder if maybe he wanted more from me, silly thing that I am.
Abe was half-way up the tree outside my window when I glanced down again. I didn’t know what to do, was there something wrong with me that he thought he could just come up to my window like this?
The last night that I’d spent in this room before going to Gran’s had started to make me paranoid once more. The idea of another man being in a room, and what he might to do me entered my mind. Then I remembered that Abe and I had spent many nights in my room. Studying. Or more like I was supposed to be tutoring him. Even if he didn’t need it. No, nothing happened back then. Nothing bad. It wasn’t about to happen right now either. Abe wasn’t like that. He wasn’t like him. I shook the idea out of my head. What happened that night was over as soon as it began. I was happy, I told myself, to be back home, not only to see my friends but to see Abe too.
“You know…”
Before I even finished my sentence, we were standing face-to-face. Well, sort of, Abe was awkwardly hanging from the branch and my ledge and I was facing him, wondering if it was a good idea to invite him into my room.
“If you don’t want me to come in…,” he started but trailed off, obviously unsure of what to do now that he was this far up.
“No, it’s fine, you just surprised me, that’s all.” I said in my defense, thinking that I needed to hide my emotions better. I’d studied with Abe many times in my room. The crazy baseball player said that he needed help tutoring and I knew it was a lie, but I played along with it. After all, he could easily be Liam Hemsworth’s identical twin brother. How could I resist?
I was thinking about hitting the shower, brushing my teeth and putting on a hot dress but I realized that I was too late. Any form of grooming to make my overgrown bangs behave or doing my nails was out of the question. I was too late, and I hated myself for it.
Why did I open up my window?
I should have turned off the lights. I was eighteen and in the last few days I’d become too scared to sleep with the lights off. Just because as mom started to count down the days until we came back here, I started reliving the night before we left. My emotions would eat at me in the dark and now I had to wonder if I should have come clean and told my mom about what had happened.
It was like the Cosby case. Everyone said, hey why did those women wait so long to talk. Sure, in my case, it wasn’t years but there was this impression that if women are attacked then they should come clean on the night or not say anything at all. I wasn’t sure who made up this rule, but that seemed to be it. So, I did what women had done before me, like the Cosby women, and just kept quiet. Now, I had to live with my silence and part of me felt guilty for it. This was the reason that I couldn’t sleep as mom counted the days down until we left. I couldn’t even begin to think about sleeping tonight, even if it was pretty early.
“Sure. Sorry, I wasn’t sleeping. It’s not that late even if I do feel a little sleepy.” I said and brushed my hands through my hair as if to straighten it. Now, I didn’t know who was more nervous? Him or I?
I tried to figure out what to say, but I decided to just step back from the window and smile. As I did, he hesitated for a second as if he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea or not.
“Come in. Before you wake mom and Stuart.” I didn’t know if they were sleeping, neither did I really care. I just didn’t want him hanging outside the window in case my nosey neighbor was watching. If she was, I would be in trouble, because gossip was her forte ever since she retired from being a teacher and decided that she would take up a new job. Sometimes mom knew that I was up late, not because she heard me in my room, but because the neighbor told her, “She looks tired. Maybe if she had more sleep, she wouldn’t be so tired. I mean sometimes she’s up till the early hours of the morning.”
Really?
Mom would look at me as if she was shocked about my late, night hours or rather early hours, and I would look at my neighbor with a definite what the fuck expression. She couldn’t have mistaken the tone of my glare at all.
Abe slipped through the window and he lifted his legs with ease as he came into my room and stood there, waiting. I backed away from him, unsure whether it was out of fear that a male was in my room after dark or if I was happy that he was there. I was sending mixed signals and I knew it but between the brown bird’s nest that was my hair and my blue eyes that had turned a dull shade of blue, something that I noticed as my reflection caught the light of the window, I wondered if letting in him was really a good idea. If, and there was a big fucking if, he was interested in me before then he sure the hell wouldn’t be right now.
Hell, I wouldn’t be interested in me right now.
I looked messed up and I smelled it as I lifted my arm up slightly and came to the realization that if I lifted it any higher then Abe would be back down that tree a lot faster than he came up. And if my neighbor was up, hell she could probably smell the stench from across the road. Well, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but I wasn’t about to find out by lifting my arm any higher and letting the odor escape. It needed to stay nicely tucked away under there.
“Why didn’t you just text me, Abe? Why go to all this trouble?” I really wanted him to just go back home, give me time to shower and dress, then come back. I sighed with frustrations as I looked up at him from beneath uncurled eyelashes.
“Ah, I was worried that you would say no if I text you that I wanted to come up and talk. You didn’t act as if you wanted to open the window and I haven’t heard from you in over three weeks.”
Four. It had been four weeks. But it was sweet that he was counting.
“I was going to call,” he said catching his breath and trying to come nearer.
Don’t come any closer, or you may regret it. No, make that you will fucking regret it.
The words were rolling off his tongue so fast as his eyes dashed across my room and then it froze on my door. The chair bolting the lock gave him a concerned look and he raised an eyebrow while his finger moved to point at it.
I avoided the thought that was on his mind and tried to distract him as I moved in front of the chair.
“Sorry, I came back last night, and it’s just been crazy. School starts so soon and I need to get ready, you know. And as you can see my hair’s a mess.” I needed a shower, but, I wasn’t going to say that to him, some things I needed to keep to myself.
“And Mom’s exhausted from the trip and you know Stuart was home alone for those weeks.”
Thank God!
“And I think that they’re just catching up. You know. Newlyweds.”
And now, I was just talking shit. Them being newlyweds stopped the minute that he put that ring on her finger. He drank and started to hit her while she tried to hide it. But she was bad at lying and I wondered for a split second if I was bad at it too.
The realization made me even more nervous and I started to shift my weight from one-leg to the next, all the time avoiding his stare. He wasn’t thinking about the chair, but probably wondering why he wanted
to come up and see this craziness when he could have just texted me. A part of me was wishing that I told him that I was tired and kept him down there on the ground before he could climb up to my window.
“You ok?” He asked as he stepped closer to me. There was so much fucking anger and frustration growing inside of me as I tried to think happy thoughts - him, and my best friends Ava and Teresa-while I tried to push away those bad thoughts that made me feel frustrated and angry, helpless as I thought about that other him.
I shook my head. “No.”
Nodded. “Yes.”
Then shook it again, “No.” I didn’t know if I was ready to confess the pain inside of me to anyone yet, let alone him. I didn’t even know if Abe and I were friends or potentially something else, or maybe simply next-door neighbors. It was all so up in the air, and the one thing I needed right then was a lifeline of any kind.
He took my hand and motioned for me to sit on the bed next to him. My bed, the thing that I’d avoided since I’d been home. So much so that last night I’d slept on the floor. It was the only way that I found peace long enough to go to sleep.
“I …” I started again but stopped with a glance at the chair. I couldn’t tell him, I couldn’t tell anyone, could I?
“Stuart, right?”
I nodded, I wanted to hide the fact, but I wondered if it was written all over my face.
“You and him don’t get along, I know that. Is he the reason for the chair?” I saw the way his eyes narrowed as he glanced at the chair and then back at me. He was suspicious, maybe even a little angry.
I quickly shook my head in the negative, maybe a little too quick, but Abe didn’t know me well enough to know if I was lying, or so I hoped.
“It’s just that Mom and I don’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things when we’re here…”
I wanted to tell him. Maybe as a man he would be able to tell me, what I already knew. It wasn’t really about men, just the man that she’d married.
