Page 60 of Let the Game Begin (Kiss Me Like You Love Me #1)

Selene

“So you’re into music?”

I was furthering my acquaintance with Kyle. I had found out that, in addition to being very intelligent, he was also quite nice to be around. I didn’t have any romantic interest in him, and I wasn’t attracted to him, but I was intrigued by his personality.

“Mostly I like playing guitar, just like Adam and Jake.” He gestured to our friends and praised their talent.

I grinned and kept walking with them toward a university cafeteria.

My stomach was growling because I had been eating less and less.

I regularly skipped dinner with the family at night to avoid my father’s incessant questions about how my stay was going.

What was I supposed to tell him? That I’d been dumb enough to sleep with his girlfriend’s son?

I liked Neil too much, and it was messing with my head.

I’d made another dumbass mistake when I let him take me after he’d so presumptuously barged into my room without knocking and found me in the bathroom.

He’d done me once right there in front of the sink with his sinful mouth and then again on the bed with his diabolical body.

And it had been just as incredible as it ever was.

Having sex with Neil was like watching a spectacular fireworks display. And then, at the end, there was nothing left behind but a deep, dark sky and few traces of smoke.

I’d tried to talk to him, to keep him from running away, and all I got was a glib, crude response followed by, “It’s just sex. Stop plaguing me with all these questions.”

He couldn’t be much clearer than that. The only thing left for me to do was to ignore him, stop giving in to him when he came around, and try to get back to the old me—the girl from Detroit who was full of principles and never would have thrown her virginity away on a stranger.

The one who certainly wouldn’t have let that same stranger continue to visit humiliation after humiliation on her.

But the truth was, Neil wasn’t a stranger anymore. He was an asshole, a selfish prick, and a walking disaster, but not a stranger.

“Hey, there’s steam coming out of your ears.” Alyssa threw her arm around my shoulders and tried to get me to smile. For too long now, I had needed someone to talk to about the things that were weighing on me. But Alyssa was dating Logan, so telling her my giant secret would be inadvisable.

“I have a lot of homework,” I muttered, trying to turn her attention back to classes, subjects we were studying, and upcoming exams.

We walked into the large cafeteria to join the line of students with trays in their hands. The place was packed as usual, but that didn’t prevent me from noticing the Krew not far away from us. Xavier was talking to a girl, or rather, he was hitting on a girl while she stared fearfully at him.

Abruptly, he reached out and grabbed a lock of her hair, twining it around his index finger while the girl looked down. It looked like he was trying to talk her into doing something and she couldn’t say no; he was Xavier Hudson, and no one said no to him.

“What a dick,” Cory noted from behind me. He was; he really was. Xavier was the worst of the Krew: slimy, cruel, and pitiless. I had heard terrible things about him from Logan.

“Yeah,” I agreed, pausing to watch him. His black eyes and arrogant smile did nothing for me—except perhaps make me break out in hives.

Once I loaded up my tray with a bowl of soup, some chicken and potatoes, a bottle of water, and a piece of bread in a paper napkin—I turned and headed for the table where my friends were waiting for me. I was careful to keep my meal balanced on its tray as I moved through the crowded space.

Suddenly, however, someone stepped in front of me and blocked my path.

It was Jennifer.

Her blond hair had been wrangled into two elaborate braids that fell over her firm breasts, clearly visible thanks to the tight T-shirt she wore. Her short skirt, on the other hand, barely covered her crotch, though she was wearing dark tights. She looked like an edgy model—beautiful and damned.

“Hey, Saint Selene, wanna come sit with us?” She gestured to a table on my left, and I looked over, almost afraid to see who was sitting there.

First I spotted Luke, the seemingly normal blond guy, and then Xavier, who was staring intensely at me in such a twisted way that it made my skin crawl.

Finally, I glimpsed Alexia and her blue unicorn hair before looking back at the blond girl before me.

“No, thanks,” I answered firmly.

“What’s wrong? Are we beneath you, princess? Not worthy to be honored with your presence?” she mocked me, tossing a knowing look back at her friends.

“I hope you all have a nice lunch,” I answered with artificial politeness, hoping they’d just leave me alone.

My fingers tightened around the edges of my tray, and I tried to move past her, but Jennifer scattered my lunch all over the ground with one slap.

I jolted; silence fell over the room as everyone turned to look at us.

My eyes caught on the puddle of soup that was spreading out over the floor before I looked back up at the smug bitch who was grinning at the ridiculous scene.

“What the hell do you want from me?” I demanded, feeling anger making the veins in my neck stand out.

“Show us how you clean up your shitty soup. Lick it all up like a good kitten,” Xavier cut in, clearly enjoying the spectacle, while, beside him, Luke glanced around nervously. There was no way I was going to buckle under their harassment.

“Fuck you,” I said, clenching my hands into fists at my sides. My heart hammered in my chest, and I could feel my skin getting hotter under the light sweater I was wearing.

“How about you fuck me, baby doll,” Xavier answered back, winking at me.

I felt trapped. The Krew was known around town, and they scared people. They were unpredictable hotheads who would do anything to feel dominant and in control, and no one was willing to go against them for that reason.

Nobody was going to save me.

So I would have to save myself.

“We hear you’ve got a boyfriend back in Detroit, even though you’re messing with one of ours out here.

” Jennifer advanced on me, pulling my gaze back to her.

“A mutual friend…amazing lay, right?” she whispered into my ear, and I blanched.

How does she know? Had Neil confessed it all to her?

Did he tell her about us or about me and Jared?

I felt almost lightheaded. I was even struggling to stand on my own two feet.

“How… How…” I babbled, and she grinned in satisfaction at my chalk-white face.

“How did I know?” she finished my sentence for me.

“Instagram and Facebook are things that exist, and your profile photos are of you and your boyfriend, all happy and smiling in Detroit. You tagged him, sweetie,” she said caustically with the pleased expression of someone who has her victim in her clutches.

Well, of course.

That bitch had stalked me on social media like a psychopath.

“He’s… He’s just a friend.”

“Friends don’t comment ‘I love you’ on every single one of your photos,” she answered, amused. She really had done her research.

Damn Jared’s need to be overly demonstrative on social media.

I didn’t care at all what the Krew thought of me, but I didn’t want them getting in touch with Jared and telling him what was happening in New York.

Undoubtedly, they would frame it all in the worst, cruelest possible way, and while I may not have loved Jared, I did still care about him.

I didn’t want him to get hurt, especially not during such a tragic time in his life.

“My personal life is none of your concern,” I hissed through gritted teeth.

Ours was a specifically female challenge, and we were not playing on a level field, as she now knew a lot more about me than I did her.

All I wanted to do was take Jennifer by her dumb pigtails and smash her head into a wall, but I couldn’t do that. I was like her. I wasn’t like them .

“Okay, then. If you don’t want your man to find out everything, then stay away from mine,” she threatened, and I nearly laughed in her face. Stay away from her what ?

Apparently, Jennifer was having a one-sided relationship with Neil. He wasn’t exclusively sleeping with her any more than he was exclusively sleeping with me. But the problem was clear: Jennifer was possessive and jealous all the same.

“Really, now? Can we say that Neil is ‘yours’? From what I understand, he’s still fucking you through a rubber so he doesn’t get an STI!

” I’d blurted it out before I even really thought it through.

I had grabbed on to Neil’s admission that he used condoms with everyone except me, hoping that he hadn’t lied to me.

Judging by the disbelieving look on the blond’s shocked face, he hadn’t.

Jennifer’s mouth fell open, and then her face turned furious just before she launched herself at me with shocking violence.

She pulled my hair until I screamed and then slapped me so hard my eyes shut automatically.

I groaned in pain. I fell to my knees and tried to shield my head with my arms as she started raining punches and kicks down on me.

I couldn’t see anything; I could only feel my body jerking in the places where she hit me. A blow to my left side, another to the right, another one to my shoulder while the taste of blood spread across my tongue from my lower lip. It already felt swollen and painful.

People saw, people heard, but they did not act.

They did nothing at all. It was like everyone was petrified.

As I cowered on my knees, taking a beating that I didn’t deserve, I realized that no one was ever going to stop people like the Krew from hurting others.

Fear, social pressure, and threats always won out over the defense of dignity, which people like them trampled on the daily.