4. Drew

FOUR

drew

Jesus, I could not get away from the guy. Each time I saw him, he was more of a dick, and each time I remembered that night in the back of that van and exactly what that arrogant mouth was capable of. I absolutely was not getting involved with a guy like that, but the public school playboy might just make my time in this shithole more interesting.

Someone squeezed between me and the fryer, giving me a little shove as they did. Cheap perfume cut through the scent of the grease. Of course, I was on shift with Nikki. The two of them could both screw off and leave me out of whatever shit they had going.

"If you seriously think he wants you," she said, full of attitude, "you're stupid."

"Okay, I'll indulge this for a second." I let out a sigh, then turned to face her. "Not that I give a shit, but for the sake of your dignity, maybe you should stop." I almost pitied the girl. That scene in the school parking lot—he had been awful to her, and yet here she was, still chasing the guy.

"Whatever." She scooped ice into a Styrofoam cup, then shoved it under one of the dispensers with an acidic smile. "Think you're something special if you want. I have no problem making your life hell, rich bitch, because, in Dayton, you're nothing."

I forced my expression to remain impassive. "Thanks for that imaginative, mean-girl warning."

The muscles in her jaw tightened. "Seriously, Barrington. I will cut you."? And that might have been the most uncivilized thing I'd ever heard.

I grabbed the headset off the cash register and shoved it over my head. "Clucka-Clucka. Welcome to Frank's Famous Chicken. Home of the Bucka-Bucka."

"Hey, can I, uh..." A guy's voice crackled through the speaker. "Can I get a Big Mac?"

I fidgeted with the microphone while jabbing my employee number over the register's screen. "Did you read the sign on the way in? This isn't McDonald's."

"Jesus. I want some weed, lady."

Weed? Really? This is what I got for living in a place like this. I inhaled a cleansing breath, trying to find patience. "Does it look like a dispensary? Order fried chicken or move along."

The speaker cut off, and a car zoomed around the corner of the building. When I went back to the fryer, Nikki smirked at me like she knew something I didn't. I flipped her off, even though she probably would make good on her promise to cut me, but whatever.

I already anticipated that between her and Bellamy, tomorrow would be absolute hell.

At this point, my life was becoming a joke.?After my shift, I didn't even bother going home. What was the point? I was just going to sit in that house alone, watching TV, eating Push-Pops, and feeling sorry for myself. Because after my afternoon at Rockbottom High, I was definitely throwing a pity party.

I pulled up in Olivia Bennett's drive, then knocked on her front door. She was one of the few girls I'd befriended in my brief stays here during holidays. Without Genevieve here to console me, she was the next best thing. It was kind of shitty of me that I hadn't contacted her until now, but I'd been wallowing, mourning.

A huge smile shaped her face when she opened the door. "Drew? What are you doing in town?" Her gaze dropped to my Frank's Famous Chicken shirt. "And why are you in that shirt?"

"I'm back for the rest of the school year. And dad made me get a job." I left out the part about him making me get a job to pay him back. It was too depressing. I'd done the math, and with the eight dollars I made per hour, it would take me three years to pay back the twenty thousand in tuition that Dad said I owed him.

"Ew." She snarled her lip at the shirt as I stepped inside. "So, wait, are you coming to Barrington?"

I let out a sigh. "Do you have wine?"

Two glasses of pinot later, I was sprawled on Olivia's plush bed, surrounded by a mountain of throw pillows while she stared at me like I'd grown two heads.

"Dayton?" She looked repulsed. "Your dad is sending you to Dayton?"

"Yep." I sat up and took another swig of wine, but there wasn't enough wine in the world to drown out the shit show that was my life.

"I…" Her mouth opened, then closed. "You're going from Black Mountain to Dayton?"

I nodded.

And the look on her face told me I was in for a horror show. "Just don't go."

"That's what he wants, Olivia. He wants me to be a brat about it, so he's justified in his bullshit."

"It's your funeral." She sat up, pulling her long, blond hair into a ponytail. "Just stay away from the gangs and the girls. And don't use the bathrooms."

"Gangs? They have gangs?" Dear God, was I going to leave with a teardrop tattoo on my cheek?

"Yeah. It's inner-city, babe. There are drug dealers, and if you piss off the wrong girl, they will absolutely, one hundred percent, come at you with a razor blade. Like, they are going to hate you." Shaking her head, she took the wine bottle and brought it to her lips. "Like hate ."

I fell back onto the bed, staring at the sparkling chandelier. "Great. Just great." And I wasn't even going to tell her about my slutty little rendezvous with the token bad guy.

"Last semester, there was a rumor that they found a dead body behind some of the lockers at Dayton. And I wouldn't doubt it."

"That's going to be me," I said, fighting back tears. "Killed and shoved into a locker." I needed more wine. "And then I'm going to come back and haunt my dad's ass."

I could have dealt with Barrington for two months, where I at least knew Olivia and her brother, Jackson—I could at least blend in. I knew Dayton was bad, but by the sounds of it, I might not survive two months there. There had to be a way out of this.

The next morning I woke to the distinct smell of bacon cooking. I found my father in the kitchen, a frying pan in hand. My gaze trailed from his graying hair to the ridiculous-looking apron covering his dress shirt and slacks.

"Oh, hey. Good of you to show up," I mumbled, then went to the coffee machine and started it. "So, have you actually seen that school you decided to send me to? Do you care if I get shanked in a hallway?" It wasn't even a stretch.

He flipped a piece of meat. "Have you always been this dramatic?"

"Only when my wonderful father sends me to what is basically one step up from reform school."

"As far as I'm concerned, Dayton is a reform school for you before you go to college."

A flash of anger jolted through me. I'd been kicked out of Black Mountain for "cheating" on a test. Which was bullshit. I'd never cheated on anything in my life.

"I already told you I didn't cheat on that test," I snapped.

Not that he believed me, of course. All he saw was his delinquent daughter who'd shamed him by getting kicked out of the expensive school he'd shipped her off to at age eleven—most likely so he could brag about paying the ninety-thousand dollar a year tuition while not having to deal with me. Except now, he did have to deal with me. For the last two months of my school year. The horror.

"I've set up for your paycheck to be directly deposited into my account since you owe me for the last two months of tuition."

Annoyance rippled through me. "You know I can just get mom to pay you."

"I don't need the money, Drucella." He huffed, setting the spatula onto the counter. "It's the principle. It's about you learning a little bit of responsibility for your disastrous behavior."

"Yes, yes, I'm such a disappointment, I know." I was so done with this.

I went upstairs, changed for school, then grabbed my purse. He expected me to refuse to go, and that was exactly why I went, the same reason I suffered through the humiliation of working that drive-through. Because I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Like any "spoiled brat" would do, I made sure to slam the front door on my way out. It had been seven months since I'd seen him. He'd been here for two minutes and I already preferred being alone, and I hated being alone.

Orientation through an almost empty school had been one thing. This—this was another thing entirely.

Students poured into the hallway through an open doorway. Girls wore fishnet tights, crop tops, and shorts their asses hung out of. It was a little shocking for someone whose entire life had been spent in a school with rigid uniform rules. And God, did I feel out of place.

A massive guy shifted past me. My gaze went from his spiked hair to the eyeliner caked around his lashes to the studded dog collar circling his neck. Yep. I was not in Kansas anymore.

"You stupid fuck!" Shouts boomed down the hall, and I jumped when a guy got slammed against the lockers. "I'll kill you and your mother." The one shouting threw a punch, and all hell broke loose. One of them ended up on the dirty tiled floor, the other on top. Students congregated around, pointing and laughing while the smack of fists against cheeks echoed down the hall. And the teachers? They passed by with hardly a second glance.

Blood splattered the tiles, and I turned away. My stomach rolled as I shouldered through the packed hallways to my assigned locker and debated going to the office to see if I would get sent home if I pretended to be ill.

I turned the combination to my lock. Just as it popped open, my phone buzzed with a text from Genevieve:

Gen: How's public school? Is it like TV???

I snapped a picture of the guy out cold in the front of the dented lockers and sent it to Genevieve.

Gen: OMG, that's deplorable.

Me: Welcome to my new hell. Let's hope I don't get stabbed by the end of the day.

Gen: I'll cry at your funeral and get ‘rent a crowd.'

Me: Thanks.

I'd just put away my belongings when the ambassador who'd shown me around last week popped up beside me, all bouncing ponytail and smiles. "Hey, Drew."

"Uh." I closed the locker door, trying to recall her name. "Hey…Nora?"

"If you want to sit with me and some of the other girls at lunch, you're welcome to." She smiled again, and I questioned how genuine it was.

One, because at Black Mountain, everyone was fake and kindness always came with a catch. And two, because Olivia had put the fear of God in me, and I was half waiting on Nora to start wielding a razor blade like she was a guest star on Orange is the New Black .

The crowded hallway shifted, students scrambling to get out of the way of whoever was coming their way. I glanced in the direction of the chaos, and there he was. Bellamy. Two tattoo-covered guys trailed behind him like loyal subjects. From the reaction of everyone in that corridor, it was obvious he ran this shithole school.? And from my five minutes here, I'd already surmised it was absolutely awful, so how bad did that make him?

Nora looked over her shoulder, then back to me with a shake of her head. "Okay. I see the way you're looking. And just. No ."

My gaze drifted over the tight black shirt that clung to defined muscles, stopping on the delicate script tattoos that circled his wrists. He was absolutely the hottest guy I'd ever seen, and that was annoying.

"And... you're still looking..." She sighed like I was a lost cause. "Yeah. They're hot, but Bellamy, Hendrix, and Wolf are no good. Just trust me on this."

"Oh, I'm aware," I mumbled as Bellamy's gaze crashed into mine.

On a smirk, he headed toward me like a shark tracking blood in the water. I backed up to the lockers and instantly regretted that decision when he caged me against them. The now-familiar smell of his cologne wrapped around me as he towered over me.

"I know you're new, and Daddy must have lost his job or left," he said, his voice low and deep.

My pulse slowly ticked up when I took a quick glance over his shoulder, noticing the entire hallway staring at us.

"And as much as I know how eager girls with daddy issues are to suck dick—" He shot an arrogant glance at his friends beside him, who laughed like I was the butt of a joke.

"Jesus…" Nora huffed. "You're seriously an asshole, Bellamy."

The guy in the letterman jacket snickered. "Rah-rah-shut-the-fuck-up-baa, Nora!"

Bellamy's unnerving gaze held mine, his teeth raking his bottom lip. "But no matter how much I want to see my dick gliding between those pretty lips of yours…" His attention focused on my mouth, his vulgar words making heat creep into my cheeks. "I can't let you get away with stealing our business," he said.

And I frowned. Stealing his business. "What?"

"Come on, Bellamy." Nora groaned somewhere behind him. "She's new. Just leave her alone."

One of the guys mocked Nora. Someone down the hall shouted, "The Barrington slut's already banging Bellamy."

I didn't care what people thought of me for the most part, but I wasn't blind. Bellamy was undoubtedly the kind of guy who girls got loose with, and I knew exactly how this looked—how it was—like he'd already seen me naked. I also had no doubt that was exactly why he was doing this right here in the hallway.

I pressed my palm against his chest, digging my nails into him as my temper spiked. "Would you stop?"

He slapped my hand away. "I know you're dealing weed at Frank's."

Of all the things he could have said, that was the last one I saw coming. "Weed? Are you serious right now?" I laughed, but the expression on his face said he absolutely was not joking. Honestly, I was offended.

His brow lifted. His fingers tapped the locker beside my head. I could have easily denied it; after all, I wasn't dealing weed, but something about the arrogance that oozed from him made the defiant part of me rise like a Phoenix from the ashes.

Bellamy evidently wanted a show in the hallway. I'd give him one, and since I refused to play the submissive little rich girl here...

I leaned in and brushed my lips to his jaw. The air between us thickened with an unrivaled tension. "What if I don't care about your warning?" I said loud enough for people close by to hear. I was playing with fire, but then again, so was he. "What are you going to do, Bellamy?"

The amusement that flickered in his eyes was quickly snuffed out by obvious annoyance. His hand wound around my throat, fingers squeezing over delicate skin as he pressed the hard length of his dick against me. "I'm gonna fuck up your life," he breathed the words against my lips, his hold growing tighter. "And then, I'm gonna fuck you."

And I shouldn't have wanted any part of that, or this right here...? But as his fingers threatened to cut off my air, I found a thrill in the danger of it all. My life had been nothing but safe, and this guy, he was about as safe as an atomic bomb.

I trailed a hand down his hard stomach, over his belt, and palmed the substantial bulge in his jeans. His jaw clenched, fingers trailing from my throat to my chest.

"You can try." Then I ducked underneath his arm, meeting the stares of what must have been half the school.

"You better stop, Drew." The boom of his deep voice echoed down the hall. "I'm not even fucking playing with you."

I'd spent my whole life around rich guys who would get daddy to pull some strings if someone pissed them off. Maybe spread a rumor that a girl had screwed the Lacrosse team. But Bellamy was an entirely different animal, and I'd just petted the lion.?Worse, I think I liked it.

Nora fell into step beside me, her eyes wide. "What the hell. Was. That?"

"I don't know," I said, stopping to hold up a finger. "But I did not screw him. And I didn't suck his dick." God, I really wasn't helping myself here. She probably thought I was a slut, regardless.

The look on her face said she didn't believe me for a second.

My day only got worse from there. As expected, Nikki was a bitch. I'd received at least six notes calling me a whore. A guy grabbed my ass, so I maced him and got sent to the principal's office. And from the amount of catty female glares I'd received, I was pretty certain the girls here were plotting my death—well, except Nora and her friends… To top it all off, Bellamy was in my AP biology class. He spent the entire class glaring at me, and by the time the dismissal bell rang, I felt like I'd been in this hell hole for a week rather than a day.

I gathered my books. When I pushed up from my desk, a guy in a letterman jacket blocked my path.

"Hey. If you need help catching up in class, we can totally study together after school." Catching up? Pretty sure I learned this stuff two years ago, but the way his eyes tracked over me said he wasn't planning on studying any books. Still, at least he wasn't glaring at me like I was a piece of Barrington shit on his shoe.

"Uh…"

A hand brushed my hip, and the guy shrunk back.

"Never mind," he said before darting around me.

"Just so you know," Bellamy's deep voice rumbled in my ear, "I can make your life here an absolute hell if I want." Fingers trailed along my side as he brushed past me. "And I think that's exactly what I want to do." Then he walked off while I fought the smile that should absolutely not have been there.