“It’s boring,” Henry offered, but his eyes jumped a bit at the thought.
“I want to go.” I insisted. “Can we?” Now that my locker was decorated, I was sort of interested in leaving. Plus, I would get to see Marco, Sai, Atlas, and Croy.
“I’m game,” Anani yawned, stretching. “It’s such a Monday.”
“It’s a Tuesday,” I noted confused as Ledger hummed in agreement.
Anani waved his hand, yawning again like he gave up on what he wanted to say.
Henry was looking between us and he took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes before nodding. “Alright, let’s go then.”
My heart jumped with excitement as I gathered my bag and we all stood up to leave. I mentally groaned as a large frame appeared in front of us. One more reason I wasn’t a huge fan of school since the end of last week. Everyone seemed to have a bit of an issue with me, outside of the possibility of me being a murderer. No, apparently Lorn Matchers and Becky Ash had spread their poisonous opinions so that now the majority of the school disliked me. Well, that was what it felt like at least.
Lorn Matchers, the very first day of school, had started his harassment which Becky Ash soon followed, upset that my mates were...well, my mates.
After Becky had attacked me the other day, she’d been taken away and had yet to return. Her friends, well the individuals I used to see with her, had spent yesterday and most of this morning offering me dark looks.
In a way, Lorn was a bit worse, because he was spreading rumors about me. I’d done my best to ignore them yesterday. However, when I had used the washroom before decorating my locker, I’d heard them fully, unable to escape the truth of how bad they were. No one had known I was in there so the girls had been talking openly. Calling me names that I didn’t think I deserved.
Somehow, overnight, after our confrontation at the lunchroom yesterday, he had managed to start some pretty terrible rumors about me and they’d stuck. I didn’t feel exactly saddened by it because I knew my mates didn’t believe it, but still, it made me anxious to feel so unwelcome. I didn’t want to feel that way anymore.
I had yet to tell the guys any of this...so I probably needed to do that before they found out through others at the school.
“Lorn,” Henry snarled, his entire demeanor shifting, “I don’t think I need to warn you that being around me right now is a terrible idea.”
“Hey,” Lorn grinned, showing off his massive front teeth that didn’t fit his face while he raised his hands in mock defense, “I just came to make amends. I have no idea where all of these rumors are coming from. Didn’t want there to be any issues between us.”
“Rumors?” Anani demanded. Seething. I could almost see him baring his teeth at Lorn.
Well, if they didn’t know before, they would now.
“That’s a lie,” I pointed out frowning, “I heard people saying they’d heard all of it from you. You told them... well, I’m not going to say it, but what I do or don’t do with my mates is none of anyone's business."
Henry let out a warning sound, “Lorn, you better pray I don’t find out you are the one who has spread these rumors.”
“I didn’t say anything,” he offered a gross smile, “but hey! Is it a lie? You’re with all of them aren’t you?”
Anani practically hissed, “If I were you, I’d make sure you fucking hide the minute school is out.”
He paled and I knew that he was thinking about my other mates.
Ledger chuckled, “Marco knows all about your bullshit, Lorn. He also knows we are stopping by. Let’s head out.” The last part was more directed towards us and probably stopping Henry from acting out some of the violence I could see in his stormy eyes. It didn’t scare me though,hedidn’t scare me.
Henry placed a hand on my back, ushering me away from Lorn. Shaking my head I followed the twins. I turned to see Henry saying something quietly to the large shifter as he nearly turned purple with anger, looking around at the humans watching. Then my mate was back at my side.
I wasn’t positive about what exactly bothered me about Lorn’s rumors.I was with all of them. That wasn’t a lie.
The way he talked about it though made me feel almost shameful. Why? I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but the way humans were looking at me, specifically the other girls, made me feel bad about myself. I knew the boys had warned me about all of that, and how humans viewed it, but it was different when I was faced with it right in school.
“Are you okay?” Anani asked, his voice worried as I nodded.
I was. I just really wanted to go home. Still, I needed to be strong about this situation. I wasn’t going to let someone like Lorn put me down. I was better than that.
The minute we left the doors of the building, I breathed in the crisp damp air and put my hood up, jogging with them towards the truck.
Anani intertwined his hand with mine despite the rain, saying he was worried about me falling before helping me into the large truck. I exhaled, shaking out my hair as I shrugged off my jacket.
As Ledger started up the truck and began driving, I looked over to see a truck across the parking lot. My breath halted, panic filling my chest as I saw a flash of what I was positive was my father’s light colored hair. Maybe not?
I shook my head and leaned back, trying to shake the thought from my head. I knew I couldn’t ignore it forever though. If I knew one thing about Pastor Malcolm, it was that the man was never happy unless he got his way.
I had escaped once, I wasn’t willing to take the bet that I could do so again.