Chapter Four: Beauty

I felt my muscles tense as soon as I heard that voice flow into my ear and felt his breath fan over my neck.

I cursed to myself as shivers ran down my spine, and I took a deep breath. I tried not to whip around and punch him in that shit-eating face. "Leave me alone, Zach," I snarled.

"Oh, but why?" He taunted. "You didn't seem to want me to leave you alone, oh, how long has it been? Five years ago, did you?"

I clenched my fists. He was fucking asking for it at this point. I whipped around and glared at him. "You better shut the fuck up right now before I make you."

He widened his eyes in mock fear and puts his hands on his face. "Oh no!" He mocked. "What are you gonna do? Attack me with historical facts?"

I narrowed my eyes. "What I'm going to do is punch you in your God damn face."

He raised his eyebrows. "Ooh, you have me shaking in my boots. I think you'd cause more damage with your history facts." He leaned forward and whispered in my ear. "Besides, I think the only one here who could silence the other is me."

I turned and faced forward. Heat rose in my cheeks, and I decided to try to take Haylie's advice, and tried to ignore him. I could feel his hot breath across my neck, causing goosebumps to break out on my skin.

"You know," he whispered, his accent dripping with taunts. "You should learn to control your temper. No one likes a moody hoe."

I ground my teeth and used all my willpower not to turn around and start beating the shit out of him, and tried to focus on something else, anything else. I looked forward to Ms. Sconley, but the lecture wasn't strong enough to occupy my mind, so I started tracing lines around my paper, making nonexistent shapes and figures.

And yet, Zach's breath still lingered on the back of my neck. "My, there's a first," he mocked. "Never seen a nerd not pay attention to a lesson before."

Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself before he said anything that would've actually set me the fuck off. Keep your cool, Leia. He was only doing it for a reaction. Don't give it to him, and he'll leave you alone.

I felt him lean up closer to me again as he whispered in my ear. "You look a little tense, Tiger. What's got you so worked up?"

I gripped my pencil tightly.

"Hm? You getting in the right mindset for a date you got tonight? Maybe two? Or three?"

I ground my teeth again, and my knuckles turned white from my grip on the pencil. If one more bullshit thing came out of his fucking mouth, I was going to break his fucking nose.

His hot breath lingered on my neck as he whispered again. "Or how about three dates in one place?"

The pencil snapped in my grip. Fuck.

He chuckled behind me. "You know, you seem like the kinda girl who would have four guys in one place. Oh, wait!"

That was fucking it. I stood up and got in his face. "Shut the fuck up!"

"Miss Roschèr!" I heard Ms. Sconley shout. My stomach sank into a bottomless pit.

Zach raised his eyebrows. I felt my insides go cold as I turned around.

Ms. Sconley had her hands on her hips. "Never have I ever expected you to have such an outburst in my class!"

Zach snickered. "I need a beer to drink to that."

I shrank back and looked down from the intense glare Ms. Sconley gave.

"Miss Roschèr, mister Turploy, go to the principals office. Now," she demanded.

Zach's jaw dropped. "What did I do!?"

Ms. Sconley glared at him. "You provoked. Go."

Zach cursed under his breath as he put his stuff in his backpack and picked it up.

I gathered my things, my face hot, and walked out, Zach right behind me.

As we walked down the hallway, I could hear Zach's footsteps fall in line with mine as he strided beside me. "You know," he started, pure smugness dripping out of his voice. "You should learn to take a joke."

I stopped short and whipped around to face him. "Yeah? Well, you should learn to make one!"

He cocked a brow. "Oh? think I can't make a joke?"

I glared at him. "I know for a fact that your sense of humor is fucked up."

He nodded in amusement. "Hm. Okay. I'll have to fix that, then."

I scoffed. "Yeah, you really shou-"

I was cut off in the split second it took for him to push my shoulders and slam my back into the lockers. He put two hands on the lockers beside me and caged me in with his arms.

I could feel the burning heat creep up my face as he leaned in close, and his hot breath blew gently onto my face.

"You wanna see how much more I can fuck you up, Tiger?" He growled, a deep, gutteral sound that came only from the darkest depths of his throat.

I shrank back against the lockers underneath his intense blue stare.

We stayed in this position for what felt like an eternity before he blinked and took a step back, as if his entire sense of self had come flooding back to him or something, and he turned and headed to the 'exit' doors.

"Where the hell are you going?" I sputtered as I tried to recollect my thoughts.

He shrugged, a nonchalant look on his face. "Out." And with that, he walked out the door like he owned the fucking place. Like what had just happened hadn't happened at all.

Fucking piece of shit.

I groaned in frustration and made my way to the office.

I knocked on the door and waited for a response.

"Come in."

I walked inside and saw Mr. Moltrey sitting behind his desk.

"Have a seat, Ms. Roschèr."

I opened the front door of my house and closed it behind me. A grin spread across my face when my Beagle, Copper, skittered on his paws to greet me as he rounded the corner. I crouched and wrapped my arms around his small body, laughing as he attacked my face with his tongue.

"Honey?" My moms voice rang from the kitchen.

"Yeah, it's me," I responded, rubbing Copper behind the ears.

"Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes!"

"Okay."

I stood upright and trudged up the stairs and to my room, Copper bounding up behind me. I let him in before I shut the door. I flopped on my bed and looked around the room.

My bed was made, and my lava lamp sat in the same spot as before, on top of the cherry wood nightstand next to my bed. My laptop sat on my desk, hooked up to the monitor beside it, as well as my keyboard and mouse.

Copper's dog bed still resided underneath the oak desk, where he had always liked to lay whenever I did my homework. Copper jumped up next to me and licked my face again, and I couldn't help but giggle.

"Oh, Copper," I sighed as I rubbed his ears.

I stood up and grabbed my backpack, and pulled out my assignments and textbooks to get my homework done. I walked over to my desk and sat in the cushioned swivel chair, and got to work on history. I might as well get my homework done now so I wouldn't have to do it when I would get back from the trip.

Copper settled in his dog bed underneath the desk, curling up and snuggling into the cushioning.

I finished my homework quickly and thoroughly. I double and triple checked my answers before I put all of my things back into my backpack.

Copper leapt out of bed as soon as I stood and stretched, and bounded down the stairs after me as I walked into the dining room. I saw my parents and younger brother, Timmy, sitting at the table, and the smell of spaghetti and meatballs wafted through the air and into my nose. My favorite dinner.

I inhaled and took in the delicious scent as I sat down in my seat. Copper took his spot underneath the table, right by my feet. He knew where the scraps came from. I smiled and rubbed his head.

"So," my mother started. "That Turploy kid was teasing you again?"

Of course Moltrey had called mom and told her about me having been sent to the principals office today.

I looked down and twiddled my fingers. "Yeah, he was talking about what happened five years ago again."

My dad narrowed his eyes. "That kid is nothing but a jerk." Then his gaze softened. "I wish you didn't have to go through all of his bullshit."

My mom slapped his arm. "Michael!"

"What's bullshit?" Timmy asked, tilting his dark head of hair as curiosity clouded his blue eyes. He had my dad's hair, brown, commonly mistaken for black when it wasn't looked at closely.

Dad stiffened. "Uh...it's..." He looked at mom, but she crossed her arms and shook her head. "You got yourself into it, Mike. You can get out of it."

Timmy looked between them. "What is it?"

Dad cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. "Well, Timmy. It is a very mean thing to say about bulls. It hurts their feelings. So best we not say it, yeah?"

Timmy nodded and smiled. "Okay!"

Dad took an obvious breath of relief.

"It's completely understandable that you can only take so much of his crap," mom continued. "Is he going on the trip tomorrow?"

I nodded. "Sadly, yes."

"Just kick him in the balls," Timmy chimes, grinning like the poor child he was. "That's what Stella did to Perry at school today."

"Your turn," dad whispered to mom.

I looked at the time. "Oh shoot! Jake's gonna be here any minute."

Timmy's face lit up at the mention of Jake, who basically treated him like a little brother. "Ooh, yay!"

I finished off the rest of my spaghetti and rinsed my plate before dashing upstairs. Copper leaped up and followed me into my room. I ransacked my closet as I tried to find something to wear.

Eventually, I settled on my sky blue sweatshirt and dark-wash distressed skinny jeans. Jake hadn't told me where we we would be going, just to wear something warm. I grabbed my navy blue Converse and tied them back on.

I check the outfit in the mirror to see how it looks. The best thing about these Converse wad that they matched literally any outfit. I brushed my hair and let it fall loosely in its s-wave layers and applied natural looking makeup, nothing bold or obvious.

I grabbed my little black purse just as the doorbell rang and walked down the stairs just as an excited Timmy opened the door, revealing Jake, who sported a Nike hoodie which I was sure I was going to steal later, loose jeans, and his black and white Nike sneakers.

He smiled down at Timmy and gave him a high-five before looking up at me. His eyes immediately lit up, and he smiled.

I walked up to him, and he wrapped me in a hug. "Hey, gorgeous." The butterflies.

"Gross," Timmy gagged.

I hugged him back, then smiled and looked up into his eyes. "Hey."

"You ready?"

I nodded and smiled. "You going to tell me where we're going?"

A mischievous grin spreaded over his face. "Nope."

I gave an exasperated groan, which made him to break into a chuckle. My parents walked in and greeted Jacob. He and dad had a small talk until he checked the time. "Well, we should get going so we're not late."

He took my hand in his, interlacing our fingers, and I raised my eyebrows. "We're on a time crunch!?"

He laughed at my reaction. "Yeah! And we gotta get going!"

We said goodbye to my parents and Timmy before we went to Jake's black BMW, which he named Victor. I grinned as I buckled my seatbelt, excited to see what Jake had planned. We drove for about ten minutes before he pulled into a stadium parking lot.

"What's this place?" I asked as I tried to get a better look through his tinted windows.

Jake only grinned. "You'll see." He stepped out of the car and walked to my side, opening the door for me and taking my hand. He held his arm out to me, and I took it as he led me to the stadium.

We walked inside, and I saw multiple signs. Each one gave away the event: a hockey game. I beamed up at Jake, who was already smiling down at me. "I know you love hockey, so I thought I'd take you to see a game."

He guided me to our seats as he explained the game, mainly the teams playing; The Mishton Cobras and the Prolter Panthers. He said our team is the Panthers.

The lights dimmed, and a song began to play. "Immigrant's Song," I thought. The head screen lit up and brought the intro to the game, and began to announce the players.

I watched the screen as each player was shown as they skated into the rink when announced and clapped along with everyone else. I recognized Owen Foley and Marcus Miller as they were called and skated onto the rink.

"And finally," the announcer boomed. "Team captain of the Panthers, the fan favorite, Zachary. Bentley. Turploy!"

The whole crowd cheered as Zach skated onto the rink, waving and grinning at his fans. The cheers to increase in volume, the sound growing deafening in the limited space of the stadium.

Fuck. No.