Pretty Cruel Things: A High School Bully Romance (Edgewood Academy Book 2) Read online

  “I still don’t get what you’re trying to imply.”

  “Take us for example,” I said, folding my arms and trying not to get too carried away with my excitement at this. “I’m attracted to you. And I know you’re attracted to me. When I look at you, at your body, I’m physically aroused.” I dropped my arms and reached across to run a finger over the back of her hand.

  Good God, her skin was soft.

  “But you know what’s stopping us from having what could be half an hour of serious guilt free pleasure?”

  “Indecent exposure laws?” she quipped.

  Funny girl! I pretended to ignore her. “Society.”

  “Society isn’t stopping us from having sex right now,” she argued. “I am.”

  “Because of society.”

  “No, because I personally don’t want to have sex with a boy whose name I don’t even know. Sex, for me, is about more than physical lust.”

  She was getting agitated now. Defensive. It was exactly what I wanted. I let out a sharp breath. “I don’t get that.”

  “How can you not?”

  “Sex is all about physical lust. It’s about arousal and bodies connecting, not minds. When I’m having sex with someone, it’s all about the pleasure. It’s about getting every fibre of your skin alive and thrumming. You’re not supposed to think during sex. Just feel.”

  “You sound like an expert,” she said, glaring at me.

  Oh, I had her. Hook, line, and fucking sinker.

  “I consider myself one,” I said with a casual shrug. “I like to open up the eyes of brainwashed females. But I can see that’s not going to happen with you.”

  “You would finally be correct.”

  I grinned and slipped my sunglasses back on. “Pity.”

  I leaned my head back against the dusty train seats and folded my arms again. And then with my eyes squinted, but not completely, closed, I watched her. Her cheeks were flushed, her chest heaving. Her pretty green eyes were wide with shock and irritation.

  As though she couldn’t quite believe I was real.

  She would be correct, of course. This wasn’t me. Not really. Though I did enjoy messing with people’s minds, I doubted she’d ever get to see the real me.

  Not before Sophie ruined her, anyway.

  For a brief moment, I felt sorry for the girl. She was innocent in all of this. Innocent in life, actually. And just because her dad happened to take the job from my monster father, we were going to ruin what could have been a great year of her life.

  But then I remembered my sister’s face. Her pleading gaze. Her tear soaked cheeks after he’d visited her and the marks he left on her body. My loyalty was to my twin, not to this random girl. She’d get over it. Eventually. But until then, I had to remember she was a bit of fun and possibly a way out for Sophie.

  After a while, I fell into a soft slumber, dreaming of Principal’s innocent daughters and graveyards and roses frozen and then shattering to millions of pieces.

  Chapter 3

  “So?” Sophie demanded as I climbed into the Range Rover outside of the station. “How was it? What was she like? As dull and disgusting as we thought?”

  I whipped my seatbelt on and rested my head back on the cool, leather headrest. Once the train had pulled into the station, I’d woken up and bolted as fast as I could. I didn’t want Isla to think that I was sticking around to – God forbid – help her unload her shit.

  As promised, Sophie was waiting for me in the car park.

  “Just drive,” I snapped, clenching my eyes shut for a few seconds before glaring at my sister. “Let’s go, Soph. You don’t want her to see us.”

  Sophie nodded and started the car. As she pulled out of the car park, one of our science teachers, Miss Carlyle, drove in. She had a nice, sleek car. One I never would have thought to pair her with since she was a living, breathing clusterfuck.

  “So,” my sister said, once we were safely on the dual carriageway.

  “So,” I repeated.

  “How did it go?” she said slowly. “Come on. Don’t leave me hanging.”

  What was I supposed to say? That the girl wasn’t as bad as I’d thought? That she’d actually entertained me in a way that no other girl had done in a long time? Or that I’d had second thoughts about fucking her over?

  “It was fine. Went as planned,” I told Sophie instead. “She was…receptive.”

  She grinned. “I knew I could count on you.”

  ***

  We got back to the school and went our separate ways. Sophie had been enlisted to show the new girl to her room, and I went back to my own dorm and wrote about my first encounter with Isla in my journal.

  Later, I met Sophie in the canteen for dinner. She was, for some reason, dressed in the school uniform and in a wonderful mood, skipping and twirling and grinning like the Cheshire cat. But my own mood was as dark as a stormy sky.

  I couldn’t understand why I felt bad about this. Sophie and I…we weren’t good people. We’d done horrible things to our peers and hadn’t batted an eyelash.

  I’d taken numerous virginities. Broken up relationships. Stood by and watched as my sister schemed and spread vicious rumours and lies.

  And I’d enjoyed it.

  What we were doing to the new principal’s daughter was nothing new. So why did I have a bubble of regret in my stomach? It was something foreign, a feeling I’d never had before. I didn’t fucking like it.

  “Sit, sit,” Sophie said, pushing me down onto a chair at our regular table. Most of our friends – as Sophie called them, I couldn’t really stand the lot of them – were already seated. “I’ll go grab you some food, lovely brother of mine.”

  I rolled my eyes and watched her chatter excitedly to her rabid pet bitch, otherwise known as Grace. Their heads were bent together and while Sophie looked delighted, Grace seemed a little apprehensive. I could tell Sophie was itching to update me on her meeting with Isla because her gaze kept flickering over to me. I was thankful, for once, that we were surrounded by imbeciles.

  I didn’t want to hear it right now.

  “Hey, Lucian,” Tatiana purred at me.

  Back in our first year in Edgewood, she’d been all over me like a rash, so I did the only thing my fourteen-year-old brain could think to do. I’d fucked her, ignored her, fucked her again, ignored her a little more. It went on and on for years. She didn’t seem to mind, and unlike Skylar – who was so much hotter – Tat knew exactly what she was doing in the bedroom.

  I winked at her across the table and rocked back on my chair.

  “How you doing, Tat?”

  She’d done something different to her hair. Most men wouldn’t recognise something as insignificant as highlights, but my photographic memory meant that I remembered even the smallest details. Tat’s blonde hair was a few shades lighter.

  It suited her.

  “Good,” she said, and beside her, her partner in crime, Ginny, rolled her eyes.

  There was definitely no love lost between Ginny and me. She was built like a giraffe and had neither breasts nor ass. Not my type at all, and she hated it.

  “You two should get a room,” Ginny hissed.

  “We don’t always need one,” I said, arching an eyebrow. “Do we, Tat?”

  She blushed. “Not always, no.”

  “Let’s see. There’s been the changing rooms. The gym. The swimming pool. Behind the statue in the main corridor. The stairs in the dorm–”

  Tat kicked me playfully under the table. “Stop, Luc!”

  “Oh, come on, now. You’re not shy. You’re definitely not shy about putting my cock–”

  “Okay!” she announced, cutting me off. “How was everyone’s summer?”

  A shadow loomed over the table, then the worst of the bunch of idiots I was made to associate with sat down on Tat’s other side. Henry’s dark eyes fixed on me and he grinned cockily. I smirked back, when really what I wanted to do was beat the shit out of the guy.

  I hate
d this bastard.

  He and Sophie had dated briefly before she’d caught him in bed with her then best friend, Tillie. I’d been on my last warning, so Sophie had begged me not to hurt him or I’d be suspended, and it wouldn’t benefit either of us if that happened.

  But this year, all bets were off. My record was clean again. And I was just waiting for Henry to give me a reason to punch the fuck out of him.

  “Yo,” he greeted. He slung his arm around the back of Tat’s chair. “Looking good, Tat. Your boobs gotten bigger?”

  She laughed and elbowed him in the side. He fake gasped and clutched his ribs dramatically. Prick.

  Sophie returned then. She set a steaming plate of lasagne in front of me, one of my favourites, and sat at the head of the table. I dropped my chair back to all fours and started shovelling the food into my mouth, starved.

  “Hey, Knights!” Henry announced.

  Sophie’s fork froze on route to her mouth and her blue eyes narrowed. “What, Henry?”

  “What’s the deal with your dad being demoted? Everyone knows now. The Voice blasted it this morning.”

  “We know,” I snapped. “We have phones too, you know. Wonderful little inventions.”

  Henry rolled his eyes. “Whatever. But what’s the deal? What happened?”

  “None of your fucking business,” I said and took another bite of my food. “Was that simple enough for you?”

  “You’re a dick, Knight,” Henry said.

  Sophie cleared her throat. “Daddy demoted himself,” she lied. “He wanted more time to be able to focus on the novel he’s writing. Daddy wants to be an author. He’s really good.”

  It was the lie we’d been told to recite whenever someone asked us. Not that I was ever going to say it.

  “An author,” Henry said. “Sure.”

  Next to him, our friendly stoner associate, Jay, snorted in disbelief. Honestly? I didn’t blame him.

  “Regardless of what you think, Henry,” Sophie said, “everything happens for a reason. Wouldn’t you say?”

  Her words were loaded with hidden meanings. I knew she was over Henry. Was probably over him while dating him but using him to further some kind of dastardly plan. Now, word around the table (when people think I’m not listening) is that she’s got it bad for Connor Patrick, who is dating Jessica Summers.

  If I know my sister, and I know her well, she’ll have Connor to herself by Christmas.

  “New girl starting today,” Ginny said, spearing leftover salad with her fork. “Wonder what she’ll be like.”

  “Anyone seen her yet?” Tat asked.

  Sophie and I exchanged glances over the table.

  “Nope,” I answered, rocking back on my chair again. “She’s probably as delightfully boring as the rest of you.”

  Ginny glowered at me but no one else gave me any satisfaction. Never mind, I’d try harder next time.

  ***

  After dinner, I headed straight to the gym.

  It was one of the only places I could get away from the ridiculously stupid people of this school. If any of them ever had an original thought, or – God forbid – an intellectual thought, their brains might explode. Plus, I was hiding from Sophie. I changed and headed straight for the treadmill. I couldn’t explain it, but running didn’t feel like exercise for me. I actually enjoyed it.

  I’d been running for a little over thirty minutes when a familiar hand swept across the side of the treadmill. It was familiar because not twenty-four hours ago, I’d had those hot pink nails scratching grooves into my back.

  I slowed the speed to a walk and turned to face her.

  “Skylar Quinn,” I greeted with a smile. “What brings you here.”

  I took in her outfit. A sports bra highlighting her fantastic breasts and tight leggings. Her flat, toned stomach was glistening with sweat. Oh, she really was an extremely attractive girl.

  “Hey, Luc,” she said lowly. She reached out and trailed her fingers across my sweaty bicep. “Just burning some calories, the boring way.”

  “Boring, huh?” I asked. “What would be a more exciting way?”

  “I think you know,” she said.

  I quickly compared my options. Finish working out (the boring way, as Skylar has so eloquently put it), or go back to her room and take out my frustrations (both sexual and mental) on Skylar. She wasn’t the best in bed, but it was a warm body and as far as I knew, I was the only boy in Edgewood who’d fucked her.

  Decision made, I shut off the treadmill and jumped down gracefully. With a grin that told her exactly what I had in mind, I slung my arm around her shoulders and led her towards the gym doors.

  ***

  It was nearing ten when there was a sharp rap on my dorm door. I considered ignoring it, but the only person who would even think about visiting me at this time was my sister. I sunk back in my chair, eying my open journal. If there was a God, Sophie would remember she needed to go complete some evil master plan somewhere and leave me to finish writing up my tiresome day.

  And then the knocking started again.

  I groaned and shoved away from my desk, storming over to the door. When I yanked it open, Sophie gave me an innocent smile and pushed past me. By the time I’d closed the door again and turned around, she was sprawled on my bed, journal in hand.

  I lunged for it and she squealed, rolling away from me and holding the journal above her head. But she was no match for me, and I had my baby back in seconds.

  “What do you want?” I snapped, smoothing the front page of the book before slotting it onto the shelf I kept it on.

  “I thought you might like an update on my progress.”

  “Not really,” I said. “This is your thing. Not mine. I’m just sweetening the deal.”

  “Well, I want to talk to you about it. Listen!”

  I groaned and sunk back onto my desk chair. “Fine. What?”

  “Forget it,” she snapped. “You obviously don’t care.” She stood from my bed. “You know, it’s okay for you, Luc. He leaves you alone. This might be my best shot of getting all of this to stop.”

  Just like that, I felt like the world’s biggest dick. I flinched and reached out to my sister, but she shrugged away from my grip and narrowed her eyes at me.

  “Soph, I’m sorry.”

  “You can be so insensitive. I get why you are to other people, but not to me.”

  “I said I’m sorry. I don’t mean to hurt you.”

  She sighed heavily. “Don’t do it again, Luc. You’re the only person I have.”

  As if I couldn’t possibly feel any lower, she swept my feet out from under me. “Tell me everything,” I said, and watched as she flopped back onto my bed with a satisfied grin.

  “Okay, so I know you’ve met her already, but wow is she a freak! I couldn’t believe how easy it was to convince her I was some God-loving weirdo. What an idiot.”

  I nodded and linked my hands behind my neck. “What else?”

  “Well, I asked Principal Brighton if I could show her to her room and whatever earlier, so when she arrived, I was waiting and, of course, listening to everything they were talking about. It’s sickening how much she doesn’t appreciate that she even has a dad.

  So, I take her to her room and begin to put together the Sophie I want her to see. And of course, when we get to her room the little Princess thinks she has her own room! I was so happy when we opened the door and there was Grace.”

  I could only imagine how entertaining that would have been. “Oh yeah? And what was our wonderful Grace doing?”

  “Not Charlie this time. But Grace invited him over later, so the little freak will probably get a front row seat to that disgusting show.”

  She would be humiliated. Part of me was excited about that. The other part felt a little sorry for the girl.

  “Maybe I should let her see how it’s really done,” I mused.

  “Eww, that’s gross. Anyway, you don’t want to scare her off too soon. The plan is to allure her an
d intrigue her.”

  I fought back the urge to snap at Sophie. “I know the plan,” I said calmly. “I was joking.”

  “Oh, well good.”

  “So, tomorrow morning it really begins,” I said.

  She grinned. “For you. My part is already under way.”

  Chapter 4

  We were all told by Sophie to meet down at breakfast for eight the next morning. When my alarm clock blared an hour beforehand, I almost switched it off and went straight back to sleep. Why in God’s name did Sophie have to be such a morning person? And why did making us look like good studious students have to be part of the plan?

  But the memory of Sophie’s torn expression so fresh in my mind was all the motivation I needed to wake up. I showered (though I’d showered after my calorie burning session with Skylar last night too) and acted like a big girl when it came to choosing my outfit. In the end, I went with chinos and a blue polo. The colour of my shirt – I’d been told – really made my eyes stand out.

  I wanted Isla to recognise me but think I didn’t recognise her.

  I wanted her to be infuriated by my complete disinterest.

  I wanted her to think about me.

  I got to the table before Sophie and the new girl and after dumping my bag, headed up to the kitchen to grab a fully loaded English breakfast. I was practically salivating by the time I sat down, which was when I noticed Sophie leading Isla in.

  She looked pretty today in an understated way. Especially compared to my sister, who had, as usual, gone all out. Isla wore a pair of well-fitting jeans (she’d been sitting the only other time I’d seen her, but I was happy to see she had a nice little bum on her) and a blouse that was slightly sheer. She wore a black bra underneath. I wondered if she knew it was see-through…

  I was caught up in daydreams of removing black bras when Grace sat at the table with a plate full of pastries.

  “God, she’s duller than drying paint,” she muttered.

  A few of the girls at the table laughed.

  “Because you’re so interesting,” I snapped.