Chapter 3

Present… 

“What? Are you not daring enough to save him from me like you saved your friend yesterday?” he mocked with a smirk and goosebumps appeared on her skin due to coldness in his tone. 

He saw it and asked, “Scared, are we? You were not this scared yesterday when you came forward to help your friend. But today you just ran away without helping, Why?” 

“Because you didn’t see this monster yesterday that you witnessed few minutes ago, huh?” he completed. 

“Please… let me.. go…” she stuttered in low voice, still stiff against him. 

He saw the sweat on her forehead, fear on her face, he could feel her heart beating rapidly due to fear against his chest where their bodies were connected and for some reason he didn’t like it. 

He lifted his right hand which was resting against wall, to touch her face but she flinched away… 

His body stiffened. Hurt flashed in his eyes making its way to his heart squeezing it in a tight grip. 

He noticed how her breathing became uneven.. as if she was having difficulty in inhaling the sufficient amount of air. 

New sweat buds started forming on her forehead and eyes started getting blurry because of unshed tears. To him it felt like she was on the verge of getting panic attack. 

But why? 

She whispered low as her trembling became worse “Please…. Don’t touch me.. you have blood on… your hand..” 

His gut tightened upon hearing those words. 

Of course she would be scared. How can he forget who he is? 

He is a delinquent, an unfeeling monster, most vicious bully. An infamous bully of Victoria University who is feared by everyone. 

He is a sophomore student but everyone from Victoria High school to this college knows his name and is scared of him. 

Everyone tries to distance themselves from him, even seniors crawl to the sides when he passes by, teachers are afraid of him. 

He does whatever he wants as no one is daring enough to go against him or stop him because of his own reputation. But his father’s reputation also plays an important role in, as to why no one dares to go against him. 

After all he is mayor’s son. 

Whenever people see his raw knuckles, blood splattered over his clothes or boots, when they see the deadly look on his face, everyone thinks of him as monster and Cara is no exception. 

‘What were you thinking Chase huh, that she will sit beside you and talk to you like she did in the past? That she will see past through this monster that you are?’ He asked himself. 

‘Even you can’t deny the fact that you are not what you were when you met her for the first time' he tried to remind himself. 

She saw him today and she will think of him as ruthless, heartless beast who finds pleasure in beating people until they are left lifeless in front of him, and it’s true. 

He is that beast who enjoys others pain, who likes seeing fear on others face, he knows it, he believes it. 

Then why is he hating this fear on her face?

He swallowed the lump which was forming in his throat because of this unknown pain that her words caused him and replaced the hurt in his eyes with his usual cold expressions. 

He left her body and took a step away from her and said with gritted teeth, “Get lost… and don’t f**king come in front of me ever again if you don’t want to end up like the bastard you saw earlier.” It was the most harsh tone that he has ever used in front of her till now. She flinched at the tone. 

Not daring to look up she turned around to leave and took few steps on her wobbly legs but his voice stopped her again causing her to turn around and stare into those orbs. 

“Remember my words and don’t come in front of me. I need you to stay away from me. You heard? you have to stay away from me”. Instead of command, it came out like a desperate plea, and he doesn’t know why. 

It’s as if he was trying to convince himself that it’s for her best, to stay away from a beast like him. 

He feels like he is losing his mind because of her and it’s just second meeting with her. He is feeling something which he shouldn’t feel. 

She just stormed out of there at the speed of lightening. She was so scared to notice the hidden desperation in his tone. He was left there staring at her retreating back again, for the second time. 

Once she was out of sight he rubbed his face with his left hand and then he gazed at his raw knuckles. It reminded him how she flinched away from him and her words repeated in his mind. 

He punched the wall where he has pressed her body a few minutes ago, ignoring the pain and blood on his knuckles. He took in sharp breath, inhaling her fragrance lingering in the air, closing his eyes in the process. 

He raked his hairs back with his unbruised hand, out of frustration, not able to understand the meaning of restlessness he was feeling in his heart. 

‘What the f**k are you doing Chase? Stop f**king around. You are not some weak guy who gets affected by a girl who doesn’t even remember you. Her reaction doesn’t matters to you. Don’t let her affect you.’ he told himself. 

He felt a hand on his shoulder and he didn’t need to turn around to see who is this. 

“Are you okay?” John asked. 

Chase shoved his hand away lightly resting his back on the wall behind him and again closing his eyes, “What can happen to me? I am absolutely okay” he replied nonchalantly. 

John knew something was wrong with his friend but didn’t press. Instead he asked, “What do you want me to do now? Do you still want me to find information about her?” 

Chase again fixed his gaze in the direction where she went and replied, “No, it’s okay. You don’t need to dig anymore”. 

He pushed himself off of the wall and started walking to get out of this damned place but not before saying, “Take care of the bastard and make sure he can never repeat what he did yesterday”. 

John nodded his head and Chase walked away leaving the remaining work to his friends. 

.................................................................

Three days later...

Cara is making her way to the locker room with Sapphire. There is one more class left before the lunch time but she does not want to go to cafeteria and there are few reasons for that. 

One of the reason is Law. The guy is not leaving her alone since day one. It’s good, as because of him no other guy is approaching her but with Law around, she thinks she would have preferred different guys ogling her from far away. 

Law is persistent and even when she is trying to shake him off of her back, the guy is not getting the hint that she is not interested in him. 

Cara even tried telling him directly on his face that he is making her uncomfortable but he just shrugs saying she would feel more than comfortable with him, she just needs to give him time, which she doesn’t want to. 

That is why she is trying to avoid him. Luckily he is a sophomore student so he doesn’t share classes with her. To avoid him she just needs to avoid going to cafeteria during lunch. 

Apart from all the other reason one of the main reason she does not have appetite is that guy with gray eyes. 

It’s been three days since he had pinned her against the wall in the hallway but she is still unable to take him out of her mind. 

His bloodied hands, the sinister look on his face, the deadly glint in his eyes, still sends cold shivers all over her body. But surprisingly this is not what is making her restless.

But instead his breath fanning her face, his touch on her body which still tingles whenever she thinks of him, the look in his eyes when he said that she needs to stay away from him. 

This is what bothering her the most for past three days. 

She remembers how she ran away from him when he told her to get lost. She just ran without glancing back and entered into the nearest girls washroom. 

Luckily it was empty at the time as class had already begun. But going back to attend the class was not even last thing in her mind at that time.

All her mind was able to think at that moment was those bloodied knuckles and the coldness in his eyes when he was beating that guy up. 

She walked in an empty cubicle and locked it behind her, sliding down on the floor, breaking into the fit of sobs that she has been trying to control. 

She took out the medicine with her trembling hands, popping two pills in her mouth, trying to take deep breaths to calm herself. 

She doesn’t want to give in to panic attack that is trying to crawl on her back in attempt to take control of her senses. 

She sat there for a while still not able to control her tears. Suddenly someone entered into the washroom and she put her palms over her mouth to muffle her sobs. 

She doesn’t want anyone to see her crying like this. 

But the conversation between the two girls out, caught her attention. 

One of the girls said, “Did you hear what Chase did to Max half an hour ago in that empty hallway? The guy has been sent to the hospital, you know?” 

And Cara’s breath got stuck in her throat. 

‘I have even witnessed his cruelty' she thought. 

“But you know what, Max deserved it. Did you heard about what he did with Lana, yesterday in Law’s party? Max almost r***d her” the other girl replied. 

Cara controlled the gasp of surprise that threatened to leave her mouth. 

“Yes I heard. I can’t even imagine what would have happened to Lana if her boyfriend wouldn’t have stopped Max at the right time” the first girl replied. 

“I don’t know if Chase did it for Lana or had some other personal grudges against the guy, but I am not feeling bad for that bastard Max” the second girl said and then they left the washroom. 

‘Did he really? Was this the reason why he was beating the guy earlier?’ she thought. 

She doesn’t know but if he was really trying to punish him for his deeds then was the violence right way? There were many other ways to take care of the situation. 

She kept thinking about what she saw and what she heard until she was feeling a bit better than before. 

She washed her face and came out of the washroom again making her way to her next class. 

She hasn’t seen him since then and it’s been three days already so her heart is little restless about it. 

Did she misjudged him as monster without knowing his intentions? The way his body stiffened when she flinched away from his touch, is still very clear in her mind. Did she offend him? Did she made him feel bad? 

These thoughts are just driving her crazy because she knows the feeling of being accused of something you haven’t done is not good. It doesn’t feel good when someone points their fingers at you or misunderstands you, even when you have done nothing wrong. 

Her past experience proves that. 

She has heard many rumours about him in past three days. She found out that he is the most vicious and heartless bully on the campus, she has heard that he has even been to juvie for some unknown reason. 

Everyone fears him and she thinks she should be afraid of him too but for some reason, she wants to meet him again, wants to know him a little more. Wants to drown in the pool of those gray eyes. 

‘Try to keep yourself together girl, he is an infamous bully' she scolded herself. 

His warning again ringed in her mind, ‘don’t come in front of me. You need to stay away from me’. 

'Was he pleading in front of me to stay away from him?’ She thought while recalling the desperation she heard in his tone when he said those words. 

'Don’t be stupid, he is a bully, he doesn’t do pleading, he just commands'.

She shrugged the thought of meeting him again aside and entered into the locker room. 

Both Cara and Sapphire frowned at the unusual crowd in the locker room. 

Is there something going on here? 

They both walked towards the students who were gathered in circle to see something in front of them. 

The frown on both of their faces vanished as it got replaced by shock. 

There in front of her eyes, Chase has pinned a guy to the metal wall of lockers, choking him by his throat. His back was facing Cara. 

The other guy looked like he was on the verge of losing consciousness but Chase was not ready to leave him. 

“Let go Chase or else he will die” George said who was standing beside him at a little distance with John. Both of their expressions hard and blank. 

With one swift movement Chase pulled the guy’s lifeless body away from locker and threw him on the floor causing a loud thud sound to echo in the silent room. 

Everyone muffled their gasps by placing their hands on their mouth but Cara was not fast enough to do that and a low scream escaped her mouth. 

It was low, very low but she knew he heard it when he turned around and his emotionless, cold smokey gray eyes locked with her ocean blue ones and her eyes widened. 

For a split second, just for a split second many emotions swirled in those gray orbs. Cara saw them but was not able to decipher any of it before they were blank again. 

“Everyone leave. I want this place empty within thirty seconds” he commanded but his eyes were still glued to her face. 

Everyone started scurrying away. John and George also lifted the other guy from the floor and walked out of there.

Cara's feet were frozen to the place as if his gaze has pinned her there but when Sapphire came near her and whispered, “Let’s go out quickly” she came out of her trance and turned around to leave. 

But his deep voice boomed in the locker room when he said, “Not you Cara, you stay here” and her steps halted. 

Her heart started pounding as she thought, 

‘What does he want from me now?’