Hannaford Prep: The Complete Series Page 8

  I can’t see where Joey has disappeared to and I’m starting to get suspicious that his ‘something stronger’ is drugs. I need to find a discreet way of leaving this party before he gets back, because there is no way in hell I’m going to be around drugs. My mother was a hard lesson to learn, but boy, did I learn it.

  I’m pooling the energy to get up and leave when Harlow and three other girls sit down around me. They’re all in tiny dresses, high shoes, and shivering like crazy. I groan and level her with a look. “Well, you’re clearly better at this than we originally gave you credit! Bagging Joey as your first Hannaford fuck.”

  Harlow is a tall girl, she has a good foot on me, and I know she enjoys playing basketball, but I’m sure that even with half a bottle of spirits under my belt I could beat her in a fight.

  “I’m not fucking him.”

  The tinkling sounds of their giggles makes me clench my jaw. It’s so fake and grates on me something wicked. “We all know he brought you here. He wouldn’t do that unless he wanted something in return.”

  “He can want all he likes. That doesn’t mean I’m going to sleep with him.”

  One of the girls, a platinum blonde with fire-engine red lips, leans in toward me, and I can smell the whiskey on her breath. “His family is richer than god. Why wouldn’t you fuck him? Maybe your Mounty cunt will bewitch him, and you’ll never have to worry about who’s paying for your clothes and shoes again.”

  Clothes and shoes. Yep, that’s my biggest concern. I roll my eyes at her and stand up. Harlow’s hand shoots out, and she grabs my wrist hard. I freeze and look down my nose at her.

  “Don’t fall for him, Mounty. Don’t you even try and get your claws into him.” Her voice is dark as she stakes her claim on him. I shake her off, and then walk off in the direction of the school to the sounds of their tittering. I don’t see Joey, but that suits me just fine. I’d be able to tell him I got cold and bailed tomorrow.

  I can hear the sounds of students having sex as I stumble out of the clearing. It’s such a cliché, these kids could sneak into each other’s rooms, but instead they’re out here freezing their asses off to get laid instead. I try not to look at any of them closely, since I have no interest in anyone's sex life, but as I get to the edge of the woods, I look up… and make eye contact with Harley.

  He's leaning against a tree.

  There's a girl kneeling at his feet, her head bobbing as she sucks his dick.

  I freeze. I can't look away, and Harley doesn't break eye contact either. He doesn't look shocked to see me or embarrassed. He looks blissed out and smug as the girl goes to town on him. I can't see who it is, and I'm glad. My skin feels all hot and prickly. I'm jealous.

  I guess I really am broken.

  Harley quirks an eyebrow at me, but he doesn't call out to me or wave me off. He just stares at me. I can feel my face heating up and beads of sweat forming on my forehead despite the brisk breeze. Why can't I leave? I shouldn't be standing here watching this! But my traitorous body won't move. I begin to pant as a loud moan rips out of Harley's chest, and then he shudders as he starts to come. His hand digs into the girl’s hair and he pulls her head back. I can see the thick white streams of his come as it coats her face. He finally shuts his eyes, and I can move away.

  I bolt for the school.

  I get as far as the light-horseman statue at the front of the school before I hear Joey call out to me. I curse under my breath as I turn around, and I'm still shaking from watching Harley…finish. Jesus fucking wept.

  “Hey! The party has barely started. Don’t bail on me now, Mounty!” Joey’s voice is strange, hyper and excited like I’ve never heard it before. His sleeves are pushed up around his elbows so I can check for track marks, and I’m relieved to see none. It doesn’t mean he’s not smoking something, but at least he wasn’t injecting heroin. The relief lasts for a second before I remember that my mom used to inject between her toes so her boss wouldn’t find out, and then I’m looking at his shoes to see if they look messed with. I don’t care about him at all, I just hate drugs so much that I need to know if he’s using. If he is, I’m going to stop playing this little game of ours and freeze him out completely.

  He catches up to me and throws his arm around my waist, pulling me into his body, and I smell it.

  Cocaine.

  The good shit too, all sweet and floral and none of the chemical scent that comes with poor product. I’m sure anyone else smelling him would brush it off, but my mom spent a summer dating a cocaine dealer and he would pack his little Ziplock baggies in our living room in the morning before I would head off to school. The second I smell it on Joey, I’m back in that tiny goddamned living room getting yelled at by my mom. I freeze and Joey pulls me into his body tightly. “Come back to my room, we can party there instead,” he murmurs.

  I’m going to scrub my neck when I get back to my room, because he just keeps breathing on me. I can feel the tremble in his arms, and I know he's high. I'd never been hugged by my mom without feeling that vibration under her skin. I should leave him, walk off and enjoy my buzz in my room by myself, but stupidly, I feel like I should see him to the safety of his room. I know he would never do the same for me, but that didn't mean I had to stoop to his level, right? One last kind deed for this dickhead, and then I’ll never speak to him again.

  “Lead the way.”

  I feel him chuckle as the wind drowns out any sound of it. He begins to babble incessantly, but I ignore him.

  My mom’s addiction made some sort of sense. She had been a foster kid after my grandparents died in a house fire. She herself had only made it out of the blaze in the nick of time, and half her body was covered in thick scars. She had never been smart or motivated like I am, and she dropped out of school at fourteen. She had worked as a waitress, a dockworker, in the factories, anything she could do to eat and keep some sort of roof over her head. Then she got knocked up and found drugs. I’d never known her sober. The woman I knew was a shaking, cackling, retching, screaming banshee that would beat you if the demons in her head told her to.

  Joey’s addiction stemmed from boredom, and that made me so angry. All the privilege in the world, and he decides to snort cocaine instead of making something of himself. Do the twins know what their brother is getting himself into. Is this why they’re so afraid of him? Cocaine usually made people ecstatic and happy, not the deep and cruel violence of other narcotics, but that didn’t mean he was a good person to be around.

  We arrive at the boys’ dorms and climb to the juniors’ floor. I wonder if Ash is downstairs or if he, too, was in the woods getting off with some girl. I shake my head at myself. Pathetic. It doesn’t matter what any of those boys are doing. I don’t let myself think about Blaise. Seeing Harley was bad enough.

  We stop outside the end room, and Joey shoves the door open. No lock. I’m guessing the other guys know exactly what will happen to them if they dare to enter this room. I push Joey’s arm off my waist, and his hand latches over my wrist.

  “Come in, little Mounty girl.”

  I pull against his grip, but his fingers tighten like a vice. He’s easily twice the size of me.

  He shuts the door behind us, closing me into his room.

  Chapter Nine

  Joseph Beaumont’s room is easily the size of the house I used to share with my mom.

  It has a kitchen, a sitting area, a giant Cal King bed, and he has a private bathroom, which is the only thing I’m truly jealous of. Joey drags me toward the bed, and I go with him begrudgingly. I’m waiting for him to let my wrist go, and then I’ll make a run for the door. I size Joey up and I know, without a doubt in my mind, that he would have no problem sexually assaulting me. His drug use makes him a bit of a wild card, so I don’t know how hard he would fight me if I tried to shake him off. I could scream, but I don’t think that would work all that well. The walls in the dorms are pretty thick, the other boys are probably at the party, and even if someone heard me, it’s likely they wou
ldn’t want to take on the psychotic Beaumont sibling for a poor scholarship student.

  I’m on my own.

  Joey sits and pulls me down next to him. His eyes are still dancing wildly around the room, bouncing off everything they touch. “Have you ever been fucked on a mattress that costs more than a Bentley?”

  I jerk away from him when his lips touch my ear. What a dumb question. I’d never tell him I am a virgin. I won’t hazard a guess about what he’d do if he found out. I decide to just be honest with him, and if he attacks me, I’ll have to take my chances with my knife.

  “I’m not fucking you.”

  He chuckles and kisses my neck. I cringe away from the feeling. His fingers are still tight on my wrist, tight enough that I can feel the bones grinding together and I know it’s pretty close to snapping. My fingers start tingling. Writing assignments will be a bitch if he breaks it. I slip my fingers into my pocket and grip my knife, but I don’t pull it out just yet. I give it one last try.

  “Joey. I’m not having sex with you. Let me go.”

  He grunts and rips my arm until I sprawl backwards onto the bed and covers me with his own body. The hand I have wrapped around the handle of my knife is trapped between our bodies, and I can feel his erection digging into my thigh. Instinct tells me to scream, but I choke it back. I put the scared fifteen-year-old girl into a box, and I let the Wolf take over. The Wolf is calm and patient and can wait for the right moment to go for his throat.

  “Just lay still. You might find you have less trouble at this school once you’ve been fucked by me.” His lips crush into mine, and I can feel his tongue come out and force its way into my mouth.

  I’ve never been kissed before.

  It’s disgusting.

  I might never kiss a guy again, if it’s always like this.

  I arch my back deliberately and he purrs at me, obviously thinking I’m melting for him. It gives me just enough room to pull the knife out of my pocket and press it against his groin. I’m aiming for his femoral artery, but I know he’s more worried about his dick when he pulls away and gapes down at me. There’s a comical look on his face, and I know it's only there because the cocaine has taken hold.

  “Get off me.” I say softly. The vein in his neck is flicking, his blood pumping like crazy. He’s frozen for a second, just staring down at the knife pressed against the hard line of his dick.

  He finally releases my wrist and stumbles back. I can see the high is really setting in, and for once in my life I’m glad he’s taken cocaine. I don’t want to think about how he would fight back if he were lucid. He runs a hand over his face and laughs.

  “Fuck it. It’s not like I need the money, I was just hoping for the bragging rights.”

  Money? Bragging rights? What the hell was he going on about? I shoot him a glare and raise the knife toward him as I edge around him toward the door. Maybe Ash had been right, maybe I should have taken his warnings a little more seriously. Clearly, Joey is more than a psychopath. He’s also deranged. “What the hell are you going on about? I wasn’t going to give you money.”

  He laughs again, and I flinch at the cruel edge to it. “My family earns more money in a minute than your worthless bloodline ever has, so clearly I didn’t mean your money. If you fuck me, I’ll win the sweep.”

  “What fucking sweep?”

  He smirks and stands up. His pants have a clean cut in them from my knife, and I can clearly see the outline of his erection in his dark boxers. A dark thrill of panic shoots through my blood, and I look back up at his face quickly.

  “First to fuck you gets the sweep. There’s currently a hundred and forty grand on the line, and it’s climbing daily. I thought it would be worth a quick fuck even if you are Mounty trash.”

  A hundred and forty grand?! That’s more than four times the amount my mom used to earn in an entire year at the docks, and these pompous dicks are throwing it around on a stupid bet? I see red. I see so much red that I think about slapping his handsome, cruel face. I think about stabbing him too, but then I count down slowly from five until my vision clears. This boy is way too dangerous for a scholarship girl to mess with without a plan. If I want to end him, I’ll have to be more subtle about it.

  And now.

  Now I want to end him.

  The walk back to the girls’ dorm is much more tense now that I don’t have a rich dickhead to clear the path from teachers. I have to duck and weave, and I find myself thankful that Hannaford is a big, old, castle-like building with lots of alcoves and statues to hide behind. I sigh with relief when I make it and sneaking past the other freshman rooms is easy. I get to the sitting area across from my room when I see Avery straddling some guy and making out with him like she’s starving for oxygen, and he’s the best option she’s got.

  I don’t have the problem I did with Harley, and I sprint to my room. Once I’m safely locked inside, I give myself a minute to freak out about Joey and how close I came to something terrible happening. When the minute is up, I change into my pajamas and climb into my bed.

  I don’t sleep.

  I think about skipping classes the day after the party because it’s the last day before fall break, but I don’t want to ruin my perfect attendance record. I spend double my usual time on my makeup, because you can see every sleepless minute carved into my face. I finally give up and head straight to class, skipping breakfast. My stomach is rolling with the memories of the whiskey last night, and I’m sure if I touch food, I’ll hurl. I’m early enough that I’ve even beaten the teacher to history, so I enjoy the quiet.

  I collapse into my desk and rest my head against my textbooks. I’m sure I look hungover, but I can’t summon enough energy to care. I hear the teacher arrive and I give her a little wave without looking up. She doesn’t seem to be concerned that I’m expiring at my desk. Then I feel the chair next to mine pull out and Harley drops into his seat. I glance up at him and he looks too healthy, too happy, just too much, and I give him a glare.

  “Did someone have a big night?” he says, too loud and far too cheery. I want to hurt him.

  “Feel free to choke,” I reply, and he grins at me. Avery is already at her spot in front of us and she looks down her nose at me with a smirk. The class starts, and she flips her hair at me. I spare her a second of my time, just long enough to wonder if she has anything else planned for me, before I push her out of my mind.

  I manage to pull myself together enough to get through the class. My stomach gurgles toward the end, and Harley keeps slipping me these looks until I’m squirming in my chair.

  “Enjoy the show?” He doesn’t look at me when he says this, and I know it’s on purpose. He’s taking notes for the homework we’re supposed to get done over the break. It takes me a second to remember what I saw last night in the woods. I can’t think about any of it without thinking about Joey’s dick pressing into me and his body pressing me into the bed. My wrist is still aching, and I’m a little worried he’s sprained it.

  “Not particularly. Though if you need my opinion, I’d suggest you start using protection. The girls at this school get around even more than Mounties do, and you don’t want to catch something that makes your dick fall off.”

  He smirks at me, and then leans in toward me. He smells amazing, and usually I’d secretly love feeling the heat from his torso against mine, but I’m just not in the mood for his shit today.

  “That’s why she was sucking me off.”

  I lean away from him and shoot him a glare. I don’t find his banter amusing. I don’t want to high-five him, except maybe slapping him would be cathartic. I decide to change tactics instead.

  “Did you know there’s a price on me? Did you know that’s why I’m being stalked by guys at this shitty school?”

  Harley’s smirk falters on his lips for a second, and then it’s as strong as ever.

  “Everyone knows about it. They all know Joey staked his claim on you as well.”

  Staked his claim, like I’m a slab of
fucking meat. I feel the grips of that white-hot rage taking me again. Harley must see it too, because his face splits into a grin. “Like I said, Mounty, if you hit Joey, I will take that memory to bed for the rest of my life.”

  “Fuck hitting him,” I whisper back, and Avery turns to glare at us both. It must kill her that I’m next to Harley in nearly all our classes. She can’t contain him or control him if she’s not right beside him.

  The bell tolls. I shove my books away and pull out the required homework for the fall break. I enjoy the feeling of all the students’ eyes on me as I hand it over to the teacher. She takes it with a shocked look, and then scans over the page.

  “Well done, Miss Anderson. Enjoy your fall break.”

  Harley is the only student who knows how far ahead I am, so he’s the only student not gaping at me when I arrive at every class for the day with all the assignments already complete. Even Avery is hissing at me by the end. I’m smug as fuck, knowing they’ll all be at home with their families and slaving over classwork, and I’ll be running around Hannaford doing whatever the hell I want to do.

  I refuse to go down to the dining hall for dinner. I don’t want to see Joey or be approached by any of his raucous group. I don’t know if he’s now lifted his ban and I’ll be propositioned in the halls again, so I settle into my bed and try to ignore the rumbling of my stomach. By tomorrow afternoon I’ll have the building to myself, and I’ll be able to eat all I want.

  Fall break is the best week of my life so far.

  I sleep in. I shower at odd times of the day. I eat whenever I feel even the slightest bit peckish. I watch movies on my phone and dance around my room in my underwear while listening to good music. I do whatever the hell I want, and I do it in my own time. I feel free.