2. Burn In Hell

2

Burn In Hell

Teal

Declan Pierce has been the bane of my existence for as long as I can remember. While every other girl on campus seems to be blind to his demonic ways, I see him for who he is. A sadist. A bully. The biggest fucking asshole to grace the Briar Academy campus.

He’s made my life hell since my first day of elementary school. While I got one year off from his torture when he graduated high school a year ahead of me, the second I stepped foot on the Briar campus, he picked up where he left off. And this past year and a half, he’s been even more unbearable, like he’s trying to make up for the one he missed.

“Scared, Tealene?” he whispers in my ear.

I grab his wrists and shove him off me. “Fuck you, Declan. ”

He laughs as he stumbles back a step, circling the bench until he drops down beside me, giving me no space when his arm wraps around the back of it. “In your dreams, Teal.”

Tonight, he’s wearing his signature uniform—a black T-shirt and jeans. It’s fitting, given they match his midnight hair and morally black soul. And I hate how the dark clothes make his eyes stand out even more, piercing through the night. Cool-gray orbs that scream louder than stars when they look at me.

He brushes his knuckles over the side of my cheek, and I swat at him. While an outsider at a distance might think he’s playing nice, I know him. He isn’t nice when it comes to me.

Over the years, he’s taunted me, spread rumors about my stint in a psychiatric ward, and stalked me to collect every bit of dirt he could to help fuel his father’s war against mine. It’s cruel and exhausting, and I hate him.

We aren’t friends. We don’t hang out. I’ve never spent more than five minutes in Declan’s presence without him making me regret my existence, so I can’t wrap my head around why he’s sitting beside me right now.

“Whatcha listening to?” Declan snatches one of my earbuds out of my ear and pops it into his own.

“Give me my earbud back.” I hold out my hand.

“Interesting song choice.” He ignores my demand, positioning his body to face the couple across the courtyard from us. “What is it? Mood music while you enjoy the show? ”

The girl from my calculus class is now giving her boyfriend a sloppy blowjob against the side of the building, moaning like she’s actually enjoying herself. While her boyfriend is tipping his head back and probably picturing whoever he’s fucking behind her back.

The scene fades from the twisted manifestation of my imagination to reality. A lame, public display of sex in the middle of an empty campus when my version of the scenario had the potential to be so much more interesting.

Albeit sick, given my fascination doesn’t reconcile how I should feel about the need for consent. Especially when I use it to try and bury the trauma from my childhood.

I’ve tried to understand it.

One time, I snuck a couple of Violet’s psychology books out of her room to see if there was anything in there that could explain why I’d be drawn to the very things that haunt me when I close my eyes. My therapist calls it a coping mechanism, but I think it’s because I’m broken.

“What do you want?” I grit my teeth, refusing to face Declan.

I watch him from the corner of my eye. He’s focused on the couple fucking in front of us, and his eyebrows pinch when the guy pulls his cock out of her mouth and spins her around to fuck her from behind.

Declan breathes out a chuckle, shaking his head.

“Unimpressed?” I narrow my eyes, knowing better than to engage him. “Or are you jealous it’s not you?”

Declan’s gaze snaps in my direction, and a grin lights the corner of his mouth. “Are you really asking me if I wish I were fucking that girl, Teal? Didn’t know you cared. ”

“I don’t.”

“Sure you don’t.” His face splits with his wicked smile, and I hate that the intensity of his attention is so magnetic.

“Don’t you have better things to do tonight than bother me?” I change the subject. “A party to grace with your presence? The minions of hell to command? Souls to feed on?”

“That’ll have to wait until tomorrow, I guess.”

I roll my eyes.

“You should save the judgment, Tealene.” Declan leans closer, toying with a piece of my hair and flooding my senses with the smell of the spearmint gum he’s chewing. “You’re the one watching people fuck from the shadows like a pervert.”

“Says the guy who hosts orgies at his frat house.” I glare at him. “Besides, I was here first. If they want privacy, they can go somewhere less public.”

There’s no way the couple doesn’t know we’re here at this point. Declan wasn’t discreet when he snuck up on me, and our voices aren’t lowered anymore.

Clearly, the couple isn’t bothered by being watched. The guy continues to fuck his girlfriend like he’s starring in his own pornographic fantasy, and she’s screaming like it’s her life’s mission to put on a show, even if she’s clearly faking her building orgasm.

“How does he not notice?”

“Notice what?” Declan asks, and I realize I asked my question out loud .

I roll my shoulders back. “That she isn’t even enjoying herself.”

“Because he’s a fucking idiot.” Declan chuckles. “But if you’d like to show them how it’s done…”

He bites his lower lip, dropping his gaze to my chest.

“Gross. Like I’d ever touch you.” I shake my head, pulling out my phone to change the song.

The music is all wrong now that the mood has changed.

The air is warmer.

Thicker.

Harder to breathe.

Across the courtyard, the guy pistons his hips faster, and when he comes, it’s clear from the disappointment on his girlfriend’s face that she didn’t.

“Well, that’s just rude.” Declan frowns. “He left her hanging.”

“Didn’t take you as someone who cared about orgasm equality in the bedroom.”

“You’d be surprised by what I care about behind closed doors.”

“I doubt you could shock me with anything, Declan. You forget your reputation precedes you.”

He shrugs, not bothered by my insult because why would he be? Declan’s the most popular guy on campus. President of Sigma House. Untouchable. People fear him as much as they worship him, and he bathes in their admiration.

While I’m a girl who barely leaves her studio and avoids socializing as much as I can. My opinion doesn’t matter. It never has .

The couple adjusts their clothes, and the boyfriend wraps his arm around her shoulders as they leave the courtyard. Then it’s just me, Declan, and words to a song I wish I couldn’t relate to ringing in my ear.

“On that note…” I stand up and pull my bag up my shoulder. “I have anywhere else to be right now.”

But as I start to take a step, Declan jumps up and grabs my arm, stopping me.

“What?” I snap, turning to face him.

It’s never a good idea to look the devil in the face, but that’s what I do.

“NF?” Declan asks, and it takes me a moment to piece together he’s talking about the music I’m listening to.

“Give me back my earbud.” I hold out my hand.

“I like this song.”

I do too, but I don’t give him the satisfaction of saying that.

“ You like this song ?” I roll my eyes. “Why are you even here, Declan? I’m too tired for this.”

I’m not tired at all. My medication is kicking in, and I’m starting to buzz. But I can’t let him know that.

“I was looking for you.”

“Well, you found me.” I scowl.

“That I did.” He grins. “Doing exactly what I’d expect.”

I narrow my eyes. “Meaning what, exactly? I already told you that I was just sitting here thinking and listening to music. It’s not my fault they showed up.”

Declan steps toward me, forcing me to tilt my head back to look up at him. “We both know why you were really out here, Teal. What you imagine in your dirty mind while you sit in the shadows. What actually gets your pussy dripping when the vanilla shit just won’t cut it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do.” He leans in, brushing his fingers over my temple. “You’re playing make-believe in that dirty little mind. Imagining the filthy things you know you shouldn’t be drawn to. Telling yourself it’s a way to cope—a way to fight back. When we both know you’re just scared to admit you do it because you enjoy suffering. You need the pain to feel alive.”

“How—” I shake my head, panic swelling in my chest. “How do you know any of that?”

Declan grins. “Dr. Parish should learn how to secure his records.”

My eyes widen as I shove him back a step. “You listened to my therapy sessions?”

It’s the only way Declan could know the things he’s repeating right now. I don’t keep a journal, and it’s rare I go into any detail with my friends about what I confess in therapy. The only time I’ve admitted anything close to what Declan is insinuating was in a closed-door session with Dr. Parish, and he records those for recordkeeping.

“That’s private,” I whisper.

“Nothing ever really is.” Declan smirks, watching me. “You should be more careful who you trust recording such intimate details of your life, Tealene. You never know who might hack in and learn all your secrets.”

Bile rises in my throat when I think about everything on those tapes. My struggles, my coping mechanisms, the unconventional ways I disassociate from what happened to me when I was a child. Tears sting my eyes, and for the first time, I’m grateful there are holes in my memory because at least the worst of my secrets are deep enough that not even Declan can uncover them.

“You’re sick.” I take a step back. “I hate you.”

“I know.” Declan tucks his hands in his pockets, taking it like a compliment.

“What are you planning on doing with that information, Declan? Releasing it to the school? Hanging it over my head?” I cross my arms over my chest.

It’s not like Declan cares enough to use whatever he uncovered in my therapy sessions to get to know me. We already know we have nothing in common, and he hates me almost as much as I hate him.

Still, he must be planning something with the information. He wouldn’t waste hours of time listening to me reveal every dirty little secret just to annoy me at school when he already has that down to a science.

Declan must have bigger plans, and that thought alone is enough to make me nervous.

“You’re thinking too small, Teal.” He smirks. “I’m doing you a favor.”

“You don’t do favors.”

“Not usually, no. But let’s just say you’re not the only one who will benefit from this.”

“Because God forbid you do something out of the kindness of your heart.”

“It’s sweet you think I have one.”

“I don’t.” I narrow my eyes. “I wouldn’t make that mistake again. ”

There was a time when I thought there was a sliver of good inside Declan Pierce. I was too young to know better, and I learned my lesson. He spent two hours being nice to me, and I thought it changed something. It didn’t.

The next day, he went back to his insufferable self. The product of his father, carrying on the family tradition of hating anyone with the last name Donovan.

“So why did you do it then?” I ask him again, getting anxious the longer he circles the question.

“Research.”

“On me?”

“More or less.” He shrugs. “Besides, it’ll come in handy when you realize you need me.”

“Need you?” I laugh because it’s ridiculous for him to even think that. “The only thing I could ever need from you is for karma to finally catch up. Then yes, I’d like a front-row seat to the universe kicking your ass.”

Declan steps closer, tipping my chin up with his thumb. “Laugh it off all you want. You’re going to need something from me soon, whether you like it or not. And no matter how much you hate me, you’ll accept that I’m the only one who will be able to give it to you.”

“What could I possibly need from you?”

“You’ll see.” He drags his teeth over his lower lip as he scans me over; a tendril of his dark hair falls just over his eyebrow. “Let me know when you’ve had a chance to talk to your father. Because next time we have this conversation, you’ll thank me for doing my research before walking into this. ”

I don’t know what Declan is talking about, and I don’t care. I’ve never wanted anything from him in my life, and I’m not starting now.

“Screw you, Declan.” I glare. “I’d trust Satan himself before I’d ever ask you for a favor.”

“We’ll see about that.” He taps my lower lip with his thumb. “Hate me if that’s easier. It might even make it more fun when you submit.”

I shove him off me. “And here I thought I was the one who was losing my mind. Goodnight, Declan. Burn in hell.”

“See you there.”