Hate Me Like You Do, page 9
The pure hatred in her eyes is hard to look at. Light hair hangs in strands around her face. She doesn’t even look like the sweet girl who showed up on our doorstep.
The monster we’re creating isn’t Mournmount Academy.
It’s Violet Demure.
Ten
Dee
The winding paved road that leads to the Reyes’s estate is littered with many wealthy businesses. On occasion I stop to look through the glass. One store has this stupid piece of jewelry that if I had the money I might actually purchase.
It’s a simple piece really. A little gold bumble bee charm on a delicate gold chain. It reminds me of my summer. That small moment where I thought I might finally fit in, the first chance I had when I arrived and I felt that overwhelming feeling of happiness.
Moments where you are so consumed by the purest form of joy that you look around and you know you’re living in the present and it will one day be the sweetest memory. You’re aware of it so you try to soak in every ounce of love that this particular instant can offer.
I had that with Reed, Landon, and Knox.
My mother’s trial keeps getting delayed but it’s constant reminder is looming. Her calls come daily but she never really asks about my life.
These boys, they did.
And I was stupid enough to let myself become attached to something I knew wasn’t permanent. It’s just two semesters of my life.
The summer we shared is gone now but it was perfect then.
The sun warmed our skin with a searing kiss as the wind gently cooled the day’s heat away with each blustery gust. My face turned up to the pure blue sky. I was hoping for tan, though I knew I’d likely burn, blister, then return to the same fair skin color.
The peach one piece swimsuit clung to my breasts too tightly but I’d have rather drowned in their drifting blue pool than ask Knox for money for a new one.
A football whizzed by me with its own form of wind. I don’t flinch or crack an eye. It’s just the boys playing out in the yard again. Today was a particularly nice day outside. Hot enough to wish for a swim but cool enough to ignite a hunger for fun under the sun.
Footsteps approached steadily, a shadow blocking my light. The towel that is underneath me jostled as someone tugged on it, dragging me forward.
I open up my eyes with a playful shriek, reaching at anything, at nothing all at once, to stop myself from continuing forward. Reed was at the end of the towel barely breaking a sweat when he chuckled and finally let go of the towel.
Landon grabbed the worn football, plopping himself in the grass next to me. Spinning the ball in his hand, he watched me with amusement before tossing the football to Knox who strode over quietly. The muscles in his arms rippled as he caught it with one hand.
Things came easy for Knox but I can tell his life has been anything but.
He was always a surprise like that. Doing something out of the ordinary you wouldn’t expect from him. Like being absolutely fantastic at football though he would never try out for the team. He gave Reed a run for his money which only bettered Reed for the up and coming season.
Reed was going to be the star of the show. He always was, couldn’t not be. His loud mouth made him a beacon for anyone wanting a laugh or to marvel at his boy next door charm. Even if his filthy mouth was anything but charming when he got down to it.
“You three are bullies.” I joked, kicking Reed away from the towel.
“Bullies,” Knox scoffed.
“Yeah, bullies who need a fourth person for a quick game.” Landon nudged me with his elbow, his warm skin lingering against mine.
The three of them smirked almost cruelly at the suggestion.
I wasn’t graceful. Not particularly good at running. Taking more than one flight of stairs got me out of breath. And I’ve never played a sport in my life.
“Relax,” Reed said, crouching down. “We’ll give you a couple practice rounds. It’s shirts versus skins though so, I think you’ll have to strip down fully, Dee.”
He winked.
Knox glared.
Somewhere inside of me, I was melting like a popsicle on a hot day… a day like today. These boys were charming. Handsome boys that liked to poke, play, and tease at me.
I wanted to play too.
“Isn’t football a full contact sport?”
Landon and Reed’s gleaming eyes shifted to Knox. Knox wasn’t fazed by much, didn’t show basically any emotion, yet he looks pale despite the time he’d spent outside this summer.
“I’ll get the belts out of the shed. We will play flag football. No touch.”
No touch. Right. Because if someone accidentally brushed my boob our entire friendship would have gone up like the fiery flames of hell.
He turned away, heading for the shed. He tossed the football and another sentence over his shoulder as he went. “Wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”
Landon caught the thing and tried to hand it to me. “Show us what you’ve got.”
“I’m not going to be any good. Plus, how am I supposed to play in this?” I motioned to my suit.
Reed stood with a smirk, extending his hand to help me up. His fingers tensed around mine, pulling me right up against him in the slowest way that blazed searing energy all through me.
“I’ve done much more… full contact sports with much less clothing on. You’ll be fine.” His tongue slid across his lips as his deep steely eyes raked across the curves of my breasts peeking out of the swimsuit.
And now I was on fucking fire.
Landon walked up behind me. I glanced back just enough to realize I was sandwiched right between their hard chests. No touching, of course. That was against the rules of our existence. But they were so near I could feel the heat radiating off of them and the smell of their salty sweat was all around me.
Strong arms reached around my hips, hovering far enough away they didn’t actually rest against my skin, the football held between Landon’s large palms.
All three of them were giants compared to my small frame. Knox was leanest.
But also the scariest.
Landon’s voice was low and husky as his chest skimmed my back, his hips brushing into my curves in the most teasing way. “I dare you to toss this football at Knox. Call it practice,” he whispered.
“That will piss him off and you know it.” I leaned back into his chest fully and it only made Reed tilt even closer to me. Landon’s spine stiffened but he slowly pushed one palm along my ribs, steadying me with that claiming touch while he offered the ball up between us. “I don’t want to deal with broody moody over there.”
Reed gripped the football before I could decide. He took my hand slowly, his knuckles brushing against my breast as he held it up.
“Humor us. I’ll handle the mood swing,” he said with the cockiest smirk.
I smiled back at him and he took his time placing my fingers perfectly between the white laces. Reed stepped back, the intoxicating heat of his body leaving me as he bent his elbow and showed me how to toss it.
“Push the ball straight forward. Make sure to let your arm follow through with the movement even after you let go. Bring your arm across your body. You want a good spiral on the ball.”
“You want the ball to spin,” Landon offered for clarification.
Right.
Reed physically practiced the motion again for me to see the perfect way his completely perfect body flexed with his every move. I exhaled slowly.
I might have been slightly distracted.
“Just try it. Without throwing it.” Reed finally hands me the rough ball.
I motioned to throw it but don’t let it leave my hands as I repeated what Reed showed me. I did it three times, feeling just as awkward and uncoordinated as I always had with things like this.
“Well, I’ll throw this ball at Knox on one condition.”
“That is?” Landon hummed.
“No sex in the house for three days.” I lifted my chin rather smugly and Reed audibly groaned at the simple suggestion.
“Three?” Reed echoed astoundedly as if that was the largest number he’d ever heard.
“Deal,” Landon agreed before anyone could object further.
“Alright then.” I pulled my arm back ready to toss the ball with every ounce of strength I had. We clearly wasted too much time because Knox had made it pretty far across the yard now. The shed is back by the tree line on the other side of the house and he’s almost there.
“Wait.” Reed came closer.
Then he ran his index finger all the way up my bare thigh. “Stand with your legs apart, you need a strong base.”
Whatever preparation I had had before washed right out of my mind the moment his skin met mine.
“No touching, remember?” My smile was mocking enough it earned an eye roll from both boys. The taunting words almost made up for how breathless I felt.
I was completely unaffected by him. Or at least I pretended to be.
Until Reed took a calculated step closer, and pushed his big palm across my stomach, digging his nails into my side as he pulled me right up against him. “You mean like this?”
Pressure filled my chest and my bare thighs shifted but he never moved back.
“Or like this?” he whispered against my skin before pressing his lips slowly to my shoulder, his tongue flicking out to taste the heat of the sun against my flesh.
A big hand gripped his shoulder and Reed was shoved away from me in an instant. And I’d never seen how much anger lived in Landon’s amber eyes until that moment.
“Don’t fucking touch her like that,” Landon growled out, his jaw flexing so hard it made his eyes flash with deadly promise.
Reed held his friend’s gaze for several seconds before nodding as if he remembered their rule very clearly now.
“You got it,” he said with a tense smile. “Throw the ball, Dee.”
I arched a brow at them, but when I looked to Landon, everything seemed fine.
They had a strange, strange friendship sometimes.
I counted it down in my head, repeating the motion one last time, the ball finally leaving my hand as it arched in the air.
I did it! I did it! It spiralled.
Landon whistled as he watched it.
Reed crossed his arms. “You missed,” he said arrogantly before the ball even landed.
The asshole.
He wasn’t wrong though. The ball came crashing down, smacking a tree limb and bouncing off the ground near Knox’s feet.
Knox’s shoulders tensed and he turned back to face us. His eyes searched us for answers of who threw the ball. Without missing a beat, Landon and I both pointed at Reed, innocently.
“Reed wouldn’t have missed m–” Knox stopped talking suddenly, his hand smacking against his neck as he hissed.
Then we saw it. Not really an it more of a them, many, many of them. Bees began to scatter the air, angrily buzzing toward Knox.
“Shit,” I whispered at the same time as Knox yelled it.
Knox began sprinting toward us, bees following his every step. Every couple of seconds he shouted as another bee stings him.
“Oh, my god.” Reed laughed under his breath.
Landon and I bit back a smirk until we realized not only is Knox heading toward us, but his parade of offended insects are as well.
“Go, go, go.” Landon pushed me toward the door twenty feet away.
Both Landon and Reed were faster but they kept themselves between me and the bees. Knox was already on our heels. I could hear the three of them let out small yelps as they swatted at the air around them. I was sure I was next. I was already tensing in anticipation of my first sting.
Hope surged in me, my hand meeting the sun warmed handle of the door. I opened it and threw myself inside. But the boys never followed... I turned in time to see Landon slam the door shut between us, keeping them and the attacking bees outside.
There was ten minutes of the three of them dancing across the yard, swatting, smashing, smacking, and cursing at the bugs before it finally died down. It was a comical and terrible sight.
When they stumbled inside, red bumps had formed across their skin. Reed had a swollen lip, Landon’s arms had repeated stings all up and down them, and Knox looked like he might actually be the murderer the neighbor girl had accused him of being.
Then all at once, the three of them stripped down, shirts tossed to the floor, pants dropping to the tile as I stood there, the smile on my face long gone. Three heated but exhausted gazes looked to me and my parted, confused lips.
“Next time you want three days without Reed getting laid, tell me first and I’ll cut his cock off before things go this far,” Knox leveled me with a stare but the smallest smile pulled at his full lips. “Get the baking soda, Vi, you’re playing nurse tonight.”
The animalistic groan the other two boys let out hummed through me, but the laughter that filled the house that night was intoxicating.
It was perfect.
That memory is tainted now. I don’t want to share any more memories with them. They truly have become my bullies. It seems my protection ends where my want for some sort of relationship or loving caress begins.
That’s all I wanted. I wanted someone to love me like they never would.
And this is where it got me.
Today I wander pass the store with the little bumble bee pendant without a single bitter glance. I’ve already seen my pathetic reflection in enough windows and in the eyes of other passengers of the bus that just dropped me off.
Reed left me in the locker room alone just as he said he would. Just as I wanted him to. Did I really want him too? That’s another question I don’t want to answer.
I had to get home somehow and this school had taken so much from me so I took from it. I broke into locker after locker with a strong pair of wire cutters I found in a janitor's closet. I cut lock after lock away until I found a worn Mournmount t-shirt that was two sizes too big, a pair of shorts a size too small that were hidden by my large shirt, and disgusting tennis shoes no one wanted to claim from the gym’s lost and found.
I probably went through at least fifteen lockers before I found enough clothing to cover me up for my hike home.
I look like a joke.
I feel like a fucking joke.
Some days I enjoy the walk to school and back. It was the only way I got to know the neighborhood on this side of town. The wealthy side.
Roads here were taken care of, clean, no potholes in sight. People were a bit nicer, less wary that they might get mugged. But my attire on the walk home today only earns me disgusted glances and unpleasant comments.
It’s like I’m back home again.
I trudge on though, ignoring it all. The thing about the road leading to the Reyes estate is that one second it’s businesses and bustling shoppers and then it stops. Dense trees line the street, blocking the houses just beyond them, giving them a false sense of privacy.
Just beyond Knox’s drive way, playing at the fence, Delores waves to me. I wave back in an attempt to hide my own personal cloud of gloom that hovers around me. Birds chirp loudly in the trees that scatter the yard, unknowing of the girl who had the worst day ever that walks below them.
“Hi, Violet!” Delores wipes her hands against her blue babydoll dress, the fabric smearing with red clay.
Balancing on my toes, I squat down on the opposite side as her. “Are you supposed to be out here Delores?”
“I’m grounded but my Dad can’t keep track of me anyways.”
She shrugs but that same feeling resonates with me too. Though it’s not that my mom couldn’t keep track of me it’s that she didn’t care to. With a crinkle of my nose I take in the salty smell of sweat and raise a single eyebrow in question.
“You should listen to your dad.” The smooth metal of the fence runs against my arm as I reach through to pat the only clean part of her dress, the frilly lace along the square collar next to her shoulder.
“You know...” She chews her lip. “My brother says that you live in that house with a bunch of assholes.”
He isn’t wrong.
Maybe I have more in common with Damon than I thought.
“Assholes huh? That’s a pretty bad word for someone your age to be throwing around.”
“Yeah, but my brother’s a dick so I can’t always trust what he says. You could come live with us if you want, if those boys really are that mean.” Muddy fingers wrap around the fence, her face pushing forward till her nose almost brushes mine. “You could share my room! Do you like pink? I don’t really like pink but my mom says it’s the perfect color for a little girl’s room. Maybe if you don’t like pink either we can talk them into painting it green like I want.”
At least I know I’ll always have a home with Delores Sienna.
I glance up to the enormous picturesque house and a part of me wants to chuck a rock through their fucking window and remind them that they have a daughter. That she needs love and attention and maybe if they remembered she existed she wouldn’t be clinging to a neighbor who isn’t that great of a person to want as a roommate.
Just ask my own roommates.
“I’ll think on that. Also, maybe you shouldn’t say dick around anyone else either. Asshole and dick, those aren’t nice words.”
Even if they are accurate descriptions.
Her innocent face falls just slightly, brown strands of hair shifting over her cheeks. “Why do you look so weird today?” Her short fingers point at my mismatching garb.
If you want to know if you look completely awful, just ask a kid. They’ll be brutally honest.
Just like Delores.
“Well, let’s just say, I do indeed live in a house with assholes.” I give her the best smile I can muster. As I turn to walk back toward the house I hear her whisper her confirmation.
“Assholes.” She says it just loud enough I can hear it but quiet enough it feels like she is getting away with something.
It almost makes me smile.
