You Suck: A High School Bully Romance (Bullies of Crescent Academy Book 1) Read online

  Mr. Wilson turns around.

  “Phones down,” he motions absentmindedly to the group of boys before passing out the test. It’s something I’ve prepared for, studied for, worked for. I’ve spent the last few weeks tirelessly prepping for this exam, but suddenly, it feels like it’s completely impossible. I do not want to do this. I don’t want to be here.

  Unfortunately, this test is worth almost a third of my grade for the semester. It’s insane that Wilson is allowed to weigh a single test so heavily, but all we’ve done is prep for this. In this class, there are only two exams per semester: the midterm and the final. Coupled with our homework throughout the semester, those two grades make up everything.

  If I flunk this, I’m completely fucked.

  I look over at Karen, but she just gives me a sympathetic look, grabs a pencil, and starts writing her name.

  So much for bonds of the sisterhood.

  I don’t really know what to do now.

  The room hushes as the test begins. Everyone is serious. Everyone wants to get a good score because we’re seniors now and every single grade matters. At this point in our academic careers, any mistakes are going to solidify our track to a bad college, and none of us wants to go to a bad school.

  Especially me.

  I need to do well on this.

  Unlike the other rich-kids at Crescent Academy, I’m on a scholarship, and if I let my grades drop even a little bit, I’m going to lose everything I’ve worked for. I’ll lose absolutely everything and I’ll have nothing to show for just how much I’ve suffered these last four years. I don’t want to be here anymore than they do, but I’m here, and I’m stuck with it.

  Am I going to let something as little as an embarrassing post coupled with a humiliating picture detract me from college?

  No.

  I can’t.

  I close my eyes, shake my head, and reach for my paper.

  I can do this.

  Gavin

  I SEE HER REALIZE WHAT’S happened just moments before the test, and a little smile spreads over my lips.

  Good.

  The little princess is about to fall just another rung down the ladder of royalty that is her life.

  Serves her right.

  She doesn’t belong here anymore and she needs to know it. The picture wasn’t my idea, but it was a good one, and I have my buddies to thank for it. They know just how much of a distraction Emilia is on my life and how desperately I want her out of it.

  Emilia Riley is trash, and trash needs to go in the garbage.

  “Quiet, please,” Mr. Wilson says. “Eyes down.”

  I slump down a little bit more in my seat and start writing hastily. By the time I’m halfway through the exam, I’ve completely forgotten all about the look of devastation that played on Emilia’s face when she realized what happened this morning. Instead, I’m focused completely on acing the quiz. Mr. Wilson has really high standards when it comes to what he expects from his students, and I’m more than happy to meet those.

  I’ve spent the last month preparing for this test. Hell, I’ve spent my entire life preparing for this quiz, so when I finally finish it and move to the front of the classroom to turn it in, I’m feeling pretty fucking good about the results.

  “Thank you,” he says. “Have a seat.”

  When we finish a quiz or an exam in Wilson’s class, we sit quietly and read until the class is over. I’m not going to do that today, though, because when I’m moving back to my seat, I catch a glimpse of Emilia Riley, and it does something fucked up to my cock. Her tear-stained face as she silently cries over her exam makes me instantly hard.

  Yeah, I’m a fucking freak, but who cares?

  I slide into my seat and pull out a book. I open it and pretend to read it, but I’m really watching her. She’s doing her best to take the test and to answer the questions about the literature we’ve been studying, but there’s no way she’s going to do a good job. Not on this. I made sure of that when I leaked the picture of her this morning. There’s no going back.

  Her blonde hair hangs loosely over her face. Most people would assume she’s just focused on the test, but I saw her hollow eyes when I came back to my desk. Besides, I know Emilia Riley better than she knows herself. I know exactly what kind of person she is and exactly how to make her squirm.

  “Five minutes,” Wilson announces, and she looks up sharply at him, obviously surprised there’s so little time left. She looks wildly around the room, as though she can’t believe the time is almost up, and she starts scribbling furiously on her paper. There’s no way she’s going to be able to finish in time. From where I’m sitting, it looks like she’s only on the second page of the quiz, which means that even if she gets a perfect score on what she did answer, she’ll be walking away with a 50%.

  Take that, Emilia.

  She won’t be so perfect after today. That pristine 4.0 GPA is going to plummet before the school-year ends, at least if I have anything to do with it.

  The bell rings and everyone gets up and starts to file out of the classroom.

  “Leave your exams on my desk,” Wilson says. “And make sure you finish your homework before the next class.”

  “Come on, bro,” Timothy says to me, rapping his knuckles on my desk.

  “Yeah,” I slide up out of my chair and grab my shoulder bag. It’s lunchtime at Crescent Academy, and I’m ready to get out of the classrooms for a little while. We walk past Emilia, who is still staring at her exam blankly.

  “Miss Riley,” Mr. Wilson calls out. “Your exam? Please.”

  She gives me a look as I walk by. There’s so much contained in that look: pain, remorse, devastation. I realize that by screwing up this test, her grade in the class is going to suffer. Oh, if she worked hard enough, I’m sure she could bring it up again before the end of the semester. Besides, she could always do what the other female students do and offer something for extra credit.

  Mr. Wilson is many things, but a stand-up guy?

  Not so much.

  Too bad Emilia is the kind of girl who will let her morals get in the way of her grades. That’s going to be her downfall. A smidge of remorse tries to wrestle its way into my heart when I see just how totally devastated she is, but I push it away.

  No.

  I won’t feel sad.

  Not for Emilia Riley.

  She deserves to suffer just like she’s made my family suffer.

  She deserves to feel half of the pain my family has felt as a result of what her father did. As far as I’m concerned, she’s just as guilty as he is, and I will never, ever forgive Emilia.

  “Bro,” Timothy says again from the doorway. “Coming or not?”

  I realize I’m standing by Emilia’s desk and I’m just staring at her. Shaking my head, I hurry up and leave the classroom. I need to get some food in me.

  I need to stop thinking about Emilia.

  Emilia

  “IT’S NOT THAT BAD,” Karen says.

  “Yeah,” Adalee agrees. She picks at a green bean, examining it before she hesitantly pops it in her mouth. She chews slowly, making faces, before she finally swallows. She’s always hated vegetables, but she’s on a health kick and is trying to convince herself they aren’t so bad.

  They totally are.

  “How is it not that bad?” I ask, shaking my head. “The entire school saw me. They almost saw my underwear!”

  Granted, it could have been worse. The picture could have been something really incriminating. It could have been a nude photo or a nip slip or something awful. It wasn’t, in the grand scheme of things, but it’s still completely humiliating.

  “I mean, everyone kind of saw it happen in the first place,” Karen points out. “You fell on the first day of school. It was in front of everyone.”

  “Not everyone!” I blush furiously. “I mean, the new freshmen didn’t see me. Not everyone saw...”

  They certainly have now.

  “Look, there’s nothing you can do a
bout it,” Karen tells me. “And almost doesn’t really count. Nobody saw your panties. I have no idea how you managed to fall so gracefully,” she shakes her head, as though that’s some sort of compliment.

  Adalee picks at another green bean. I have the sudden urge to grab one and shove it in her mouth, then pinch her nose until she swallows. She’s being ridiculous. Then again, maybe I’m just in a terrible mood.

  I can’t imagine why.

  “I can talk to the principal,” I point out. “I can tell him who took the picture and who uploaded it.”

  “You could, but I mean, there’s no proof. Crazed is all about being anonymous, right? It’s not like he used his normal name or his screen name when he posted it.”

  She’s talking like she knows who uploaded the picture because she does. We all do. Who else could it be? Nobody hates me nearly as much as Gavin does, and why? Because our fathers were two-timing assholes who couldn’t get their story straight long enough to keep them out of prison for embezzlement. Somehow, Gavin thinks my dad is responsible for what happened.

  I’ve never really understood that. Gavin isn’t the only person who lost his dad all those years ago. We both lost our fathers. We didn’t have to lose each other, too, but Gavin made pretty damn sure that we did.

  I pick at my food, wondering what I’m going to do. Karen is right that it’s not the worst thing in the world. I mean, everyone very nearly saw my panties. It’s not like they saw my pussy or anything like that. That would be horrible. It’s not like they saw my nipples or the fact that I was wearing a matching bra that day. The real question is just, why did I have to be such a klutz on the first day of school? Of all the days to be clumsy, it shouldn’t have been day number one.

  But it was.

  “Miss Emilia Riley to the principal’s office,” a voice says over the loudspeaker, and suddenly, all of the chatter in the cafeteria comes to an abrupt stop. Great. I wonder why I’m being called into the principal’s office? What could it be? Hmm. Let me run over some ideas.

  “Maybe it’s not something bad,” Adalee says.

  “Maybe he just wants to talk to you,” Karen says helpfully. “Maybe you won a prize or something.”

  “I appreciate the pep talk,” I tell them. “But we all know that isn’t true. We all know exactly why he wants me there. Fuck. Here,” I shove my uneaten food toward Adalee. “Stop fucking with your beans and just eat my sandwich, okay?”

  Then I turn and leave, walking away. I try to ignore the way my cheeks flush as I hurry out of the room. It’s weird having everyone stare at me. It’s humiliating. Embarrassing. I’m so not used to having everyone’s attention be focused on me that I don’t really know what to do with it. I’m much more comfortable being a wallflower and just blending in.

  That’s kind of what I’ve been for the last few years, anyway.

  Ever since our dads were taken away, Gavin and I have lived very different lives. He chose to go into sports and become one of the star athletes of the school. It’s hard to blend in when everyone’s staring at you all of the time. I chose the opposite approach. I buried my head in my books, hoping that one day, I’ll be able to find peace.

  Apparently, that really was a pipe dream.

  “Hey Clumsy,” a boy snickers as I walk past him in the hall. I ignore it, blushing harder. So yeah, everyone at the school knows that my ability to walk is questionable at best. Maybe there really are worse things.

  “Hey,” a girl walks by. “Fall down any stairs lately?” She bursts into laughter, like this is the most hilarious thing she’s ever heard, and then she keeps going. Ducking my head, I hurry down the next hallway and scramble to the principal’s office.

  Just as I’m about to reach for the door, it opens and Gavin walks out looking pissed as hell. He glares at me as he walks by, shoving me with his shoulder as he does. Shit, that fucking hurts, but I don’t cry out or complain at the gesture. He’s obviously pissed about something. Why was he in the principal’s office?

  Does Principal Davis know what he’s done?

  I step inside the office and the secretary looks up at me.

  “Emilia,” she says. “He’s waiting in his office for you,” she looks at me with something on her face that I can’t quite read. Pity? Is it pity? Or is it shame? I can’t really tell. I probably don’t want to. Okay, so it’s not just the students who have seen me falling on my stupid face. It’s the teachers, too.

  Perfect.

  I move past her and take a deep breath outside of the door. I raise my fist and knock, and almost instantly, he calls me inside. I push open the door and step into the oversized office that Principal Davis calls home.

  “You wanted to see me?” I ask.

  “Have a seat.”

  He gestures to one of the chairs in front of his desk, and I sit down. So this definitely isn’t about a prize I’ve won. He’s frowning and staring at his phone, and as soon as I’m sitting down, he sets his phone on the desk and looks at me.

  “Is there something you’d like to tell me about?” He asks.

  “Um,” I don’t know what the right answer is here, so I just shrug slightly. That was the wrong thing to do. Principal Davis shakes his head, obviously disappointed.

  “Apparently, there’s a picture of you going around the school today. Do you know anything about that?”

  “I fell on the first day of school,” I whisper. “Someone took a picture of it.”

  “And now the picture is, what do you kids call it? Going viral? The photograph is going viral, apparently, especially at our school.”

  Shit.

  What a fucking way to become famous.

  “I didn’t take the picture,” I whisper, as if it matters.

  “It’s a picture of you falling,” he says. “You obviously didn’t take it, but I would be willing to bet that you know who did.”

  “I don’t,” I say drily. I’m not a damn snitch, much as I want to be. Word around Crescent Academy spreads fast, and nobody likes a tattle. Admitting that Gavin is trying to sabotage me would be even worse than letting it play out on its own.

  “Really?” He says. “That surprises me.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “You’re a very observant student. You have perfect grades. You volunteer for every event we host.”

  “I just like being busy,” I lie. I hate being busy. I only commit to things because it keeps me from dwelling on what happened to my dad or thinking about what my mother did after. Keeping myself busy is the only reason I’m still alive and walking free: not locked away in a mental institution for the criminally insane.

  Principal Davis isn’t buying what I’m selling. He’s a smart guy, but he has to be. He’s the one who keeps Crescent Academy running as smoothly as possible. He has to deal with some of the richest and most dickish people in the state. If he wasn’t clever and shrewd, he’d have been replaced years ago.

  “I’m going to ask you again,” he says. “This is a real problem, Emilia. We’ve already petitioned the app to remove the picture since it’s quite private and was obviously shared without your permission.”

  “Okay,” I whisper. “I still don’t know who it was.”

  It’s a lie and we both know it. I’ve never been good at lying. I’ve never been good at any of this stuff.

  He’s disappointed in me, and it shows. He sighs and shakes his head.

  “I don’t know why you’re protecting him,” he murmurs, but it’s almost more to himself, than to me.

  Chapter 2

  Gavin

  I’M WAITING OUTSIDE of the office when she emerges looking like a ray of fucking sunshine. I hate how perfect she always looks. Her eyes are swollen and it’s obvious she was either crying or she’s fighting back tears. The sight makes my dick hard again, and I discreetly adjust myself, irritated that I even have to.

  It’s not fair that Emilia has this effect on me. None of this is fair. Then again, what happened to us wasn’t fair, either. I’m not so st
upid that I think she wasn’t affected by everything we went through, but I still blame her and her family. If her father had just stuck to the story, everything would have been okay. If he’d just been able to keep his facts straight and his out of his ass, then maybe my father would still be here.

  Maybe I wouldn’t be growing up at some stupid boarding school because my mother can’t stand to look at me.

  I look too much like him.

  I know that’s the reason.

  As soon as I hit puberty, she stopped looking at me. She stopped wanting to be around me. She constantly made excuses for us to be apart. Oh, she had a business trip out of the country. Oh, she booked a summer camp for me to go to. Oh, excuses, excuses.

  And now I’m living at Crescent Academy with the one person who never should have even been permitted to come to this damn school.

  I eye her suspiciously as she leaves the office. She doesn’t notice me at first. She stops just outside of the door and seems to be collecting her thoughts. What happened during her meeting with Davis? She was obviously talking with him about the photo. What else could he have asked to see her about? There’s no way Wilson has even looked at her test yet, and Emilia is a picture perfect student. Everyone loves her.

  Adores her.

  Everyone thinks she’s just so fucking sweet.

  Well, not me.

  She starts walking down the hallway and I push myself away from the wall and sidle up to her. I sling my arm around her shoulder without a word and match her pace. She tenses for a second, but doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t push me away. She doesn’t resist. She just keeps walking.

  “I see you had a meeting with the principal,” I say.

  Emilia keeps her face forward. She doesn’t react to my words at all: not even a little bit. What the hell? I thought that would at least get something out of her, but it doesn’t. She just keeps stepping forward, one foot at a time, and moving down the hall.

  I glance down at her. She’s smaller than me. She’s by no means petite. Nope, she’s tall for a girl, but not as tall as me, and she’s slender. Puberty was kind to her. Her heavy, perky tits seem to draw my attention no matter what she’s wearing. It’s not really fair, but even now, I’m drawn to them. When I’m not being careful, she invades my thoughts, and I’ve jerked off to the idea of sucking those sweet nipples on more than one occasion.