Page 53 of Broken by my Bully

Is that why after class ends, I call her to me? Why I suppress a smile as she hurries over?

Wide-eyed, nervous, shy, curious. A flurry of emotions, openly broadcast for anyone to see.

What it must be like inside her mind as she tries to navigate this new world.

Does her pulse flutter whenever she’s uneasy or unsure?

Is it doing so now?

“When is your next class?” I ask her.

“Uh…I have Urban Studies at two.”

I nod and let the silence grow until she has no choice but to fill it with words. “I was going to study for a while. Work on some assignments.”

“Good. Then I’ll walk you to the library.”

A flash of surprise lifts her eyebrows before she tries to look cool and detached. “I wasn’t going to the library.”

“Then where?”

Her lips move like she’s trying to hold back the truth, but that’s the funny thing about authority. It can be…persuasive.

“Just…in my car.”

“In yourcar?” The words come out sharper than intended. The thought of her hunched over textbooks in that beater…”That environment isn’t exactly conducive to learning. I’ll walk you out.”

I head for the door, but she doesn’t follow. When I turn back, she’s watching me with a blank face, a touch of unease in her eyes. Like a deer that’s caught a hint of a predator’s scent in the air.

I walk back, scratching at my temple. “Is this the part where you tell me you can look after yourself?”

I make a point of looking at the bruise on her jaw.

It’s much fainter than I make it out to be. But I’m keenly observant,and I’ve known something’s wrong with Miss Lee for a while now.

Always putting on a brave face for her peers, but I notice the tiny moments of desperate panic that make her eyelashes tremble, her lips thin, her hands tighten into fists.

How she tries to keep track of everyone in the room all at once, all the time.

She wipes at her face again. Charming, how she thinks it’s that easy to eradicate cruelty.

Imagine a world where everyone’s bruises could just be wiped away.

She hesitates, even glances away as if she’s trying to find an alternative. But she must realize there’s safety in being at my side. That the presence of a faculty member provides some respite from the monster tracking her through the ever-darkening forest she’s gotten herself lost in.

Miss Lee dips her head and falls in line behind me as I go to collect my satchel from the desk. Ezra Jordan’s younger brother, Kai, watches us approach with a lopsided smile.

“Hey, kid. You get that copy of Lucifer Effect from the library yesterday?” he asks when Miss Lee and I are in earshot, sliding my laptop over the table to me.

I’m focused on putting my laptop away. At least, it must seem that way to them as he pushes the remaining envelopes over the desk.

“No,” she replies coldly, snatching the envelope and shoving it into her AHC tote bag. “Some asshole took the last copy.”

She makes it sound intentionally spiteful. If she considers every form of bad luck in her life a purposeful slight by the universe, no wonder she thinks there’s a curse on her.

“Oof,” Kai says through a laugh, twanging the end of a plastic sucker stick against his teeth. Teeth he won’t have much longer if he keeps at the candy like that. “Tough break. Guess you’ll just have to go buy one. She needs it for the class, right, Sir? Make or break kinda situation?”

I straighten, giving each of them a long look.