Chapter 11

After the wreck, I had called Armand, who had told me not to bother calling the police. He said he would take care of the car when he had a chance to. I explained to him that it hadn’t been my fault, but he didn’t seem interested, and rushed me off the phone.

I was late to class, but didn’t care. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. The mood I had started the day with was back, and desolation had taken over again.

All throughout the day I heard the murmurs and felt the people in class and hallways watching me, talking behind my back. Bitch, slut, whore, look at her clothes, her hair is weird, she doesn’t belong here… All around me, the insults swirled.

I even caught the teachers talking about me at one point, “Yeah, that’s Beryl. I heard Anna say that she had slept with the entire football team at her old school.”

I heard it all, but I tried my best to not listen. I kept my head down and thought about my old home, the human world, and my mom and dad. I missed them more than ever today. I just have to make it to graduation, I kept repeating in my mind. I could handle anything for a little while.

Miraculously, I made it through the day without crying. Thankfully, the damage to my car didn’t make effect the driving. On the way home I could even pretend that nothing bad had happened to it.

I parked my car in the garage, where Armand had made a place for it. I got out and trudged towards the house. As I approached the house, I had to pass the pool and the pool house. There was a crowd of students around the pool with the brothers.

Nicholas was in the pool with a few of his friends. He was swimming toward the side, about to get out. I could see the sun glisten of the water on his chest. Wynter stirred inside of me, but I pushed her desire to the back of my mind.

Cheney had a concert coming up, so he was there with his band mates, and their groupies, all dressed in next to nothing, edgy outfits. None of them were playing yet, but I could hear them laughing and cutting up.

I could feel when the brothers realized I was there, and the weight of their eyes roving my body. Their reaction to me was so confusing. They talked to me like I was nothing, but they watched me like I was the most desirable thing they’d ever seen, or maybe it was more like I was food.

Either way, I had been through enough trauma for one day, and I didn’t want to have to deal with anything else. I had reached my limit, and was ready to collapse.

I knew if I walked by them without acknowledging them that they wouldn’t like that, but I had no desire to talk to anyone, let alone any of the brothers. If I could fly past all of them I would, I wanted nothing more than to run to my room.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cheney watching me, but ignored him, not wanting to start trouble. Apparently that made him angry. I heard him chuckle angrily, “Watch this.” He nudged one of his band mates, leaned back and stuck his foot out, just as I was rushing passed him.

It all happened so quickly, but it felt like everything was suddenly in slow motion. I could see Cheney and his friends double over laughing as I lunged forward. My backpack and books went flying in all directions, and I threw my hands out in front to catch myself.

As I fell forwards, Nicholas just happened to walk out in front of me, having just emerged from the pool. I could see it happen before it actually did, but had no way of stopping my momentum.

I crashed into Nicholas, sending us both down to the concrete. I landed solidly on his chest, my nails accidentally digging into his chest and drawing blood. We came down hard, and I knew that if I hadn’t landed on Nicholas that I would have been seriously injured, possibly breaking one of my wrists.

The sound of laughter filled my ears, and the embarrassment was nearly overwhelming. I laid there for a moment before the feel of Nicholas under me over ruled my shock. He was firm, but soft at the same time.

Wynter purred like a kitten inside of me, and I felt my cheeks redden more with desire than embarrassment . “I, I, I’m sorry.” I stuttered, trying to remove myself from on top of him.

He gripped my shoulders for a moment, but then he pushed me off of him. Conflicting emotions crossed his face, as we both got up off the ground. It looked like he felt bad for me for a moment, but then the moment passed, and annoyance took its place.

“Whoa, Beryl, easy there Bessie!” Cheney and his friends were still laughing as Nicholas and I stood up. Nicholas glanced at him for a moment, his annoyance spreading from me to Cheney for a brief minute.

“What the hell is your problem?” Nicholas growled at me. “You’re lucky I’m as strong as I am, or you would have flattened me!” I had seen his concern for me for just a moment, but apparently he was hiding it with vindictiveness.

He’s trying to save face in front of his brother. Wynter spoke to me. She had been quiet all day, allowing me to process my raging emotions.

He’s awful, and I hate this. I wish I could just disappear. I told her, wanting nothing more than to melt into the concrete below me. The humiliation and frustration was nearly overwhelming.

“I’m really sorry, I, I, I don’t know what happened.” I was shaking, all of my emotions coming out through my voice. I knew what happened, but also knew it didn’t matter if I said anything. No one cared that Chaney had caused this.

“Let me cleaned that up for you. I’ll get some bandages…” I started, watching the blood on his chest wind its way downward. It was slightly mesmerizing to watch, and I became keenly aware of the rise and fall of the muscular chest in front of me.

It took effort to move my eyes from his glistening muscles, but I looked up into his eyes. A look of confusion crossed his face before he regained control and anger took over.

“You’re pathetic, Beryl. If you wanted to touch me, you just had to ask, you didn’t have to assault me.” His words were filled with acid, but his tone didn’t match his eyes. I could tell he was putting on a show for the audience that surrounded us.

“You know what you should do? Since you brought blood,” He sneered now, glancing around him to add affect. “You have to clean it with you tongue. Lick my chest clean, Beryl.”

I could feel the shock and hear the snickers run through the crowd around me. What? Was he serious? What do I do now?