My High School Revenge

Chapter 4

When lunch rolls around, I head over to meet Julie at the cafeteria. I spot her standing by the double doors waiting for me. When she looks up from her phone, she perks up. She doesn’t seem like the peppy cheerleader type, so it's interesting to see the change in mood happen upon my arrival.

“Hey, thanks for waiting,” I say.

“Girl, it’s no problem. I just got here a couple of minutes ago. I got held up after class. Is it true that you're dating the Captain of the hockey team?”

I push on one of the doors to lead us in. “Um, who's the Captain of the hockey team?”

“Eli Richardson, how do you not know that?”

“I don’t pay much attention to hockey. And no, we have never and will never be any sort of thing.” My voice is overcome by the frustration that I have been feeling, which has finally boiled over.

“Well, everyone's talking about it. But I’ll take your word for it, and clearly it’s bothering you. No worries, girl. I’ll make sure to set it straight.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to go off on you. There’s history between Eli and me. One that includes Tate Cunningham. Nothing that involved a relationship. It’s hard to talk about.”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me or to anyone. I’ve been in a world of entitled jerks my whole life. They think that just because they have money and power, it gets them whatever they want. I don’t care much for it. I got your back. Anyways, what I’m really trying to say is, I hope that we can be friends. Watch each other's back, especially here. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. We, women, have to stick together.”

At a quarter to one p.m. I head to the science department, where the women’s health case studies are taking place. It’s the one thing I have been looking forward to all day. A chance to be able to prove to myself and others how far I have come. To do it in a place where that values hard work is where I flourish. Taking on challenges and aiding people along the way was the most rewarding part of the holidays. Seeing the look of gratitude on their faces always filled my heart.

When I go to pull open the door to the building, a person pushes it forward for me, holding it to allow me to enter. Not just any person, actually, Tate f*****g Cunningham.

“Cherry, can we talk real quick?” he asks, following behind me as I try my hardest to escape him.

“I’m on my way to work; we can talk later.”

“No, it can’t.”

He grabs onto my forearm and pulls me into an empty classroom, shutting the door behind. I should have known he wouldn’t take no as an answer.

“Dude, what the hell?” I snarl.

“I really needed to see,” he says, running his hand through his hair.

“Okay, you saw me; now get out of the way of the door, so I’m not late on my first day.”

“Just one minute. It won’t take long,” he pleads, his eyes begging me to hear him out.

I fold my arms over my chest. “Fine, get on with it.”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay. I heard about how stupid Eli was this morning. I told him to give you some space until you settled in more. To not come off so strong. I figured he would hit on you and stuff, but not threaten some freshman by saying he would kick his ass if he were his girlfriend.”

“Yeah, threw me through a loop, becoming aware of a relationship I had not consented to.”

“Don’t worry, I shut that s**t down real quick as soon as I heard about it. Also, Eli will keep his distance from you for a while. I promise we are not here to make your life difficult or hurt you in any way. And I know that I have said this before and then ended up doing some awful s**t, but I mean it this time. I will work every day to show you that you’re safe here, and you can trust me, us.”

I’m surprised, mostly by the sincerity in his voice. “Thanks; don’t be offended if I am a little apprehensive. It’s the first day; I only knew a handful of people going into this morning's disaster. Then I am on full blast around the campus. It’s a bit hard to believe after all that.”

“I can hardly blame Eli for being slightly possessive. I mean, he’s basically been pinning for you since High School.”

I laugh so hard, it makes him jump. “You call filming me while you rejected me in front of the entire school pining after me?”

“You saw one side of what was happening. When saw you for the first time, I immediately tried to take my shot. How could I not, look at you. Eli tried too, but after rejecting me, we decided that my association with him would most likely lead to you rejecting him as well. We both decided if we couldn’t have you, no one was going to. We made it look like you were undesirable. You think that our obsession over you faded when we left Thornhill? Baby, no, we still thought about you. Checked in on our acquaintances to make sure no one would touch what was inevitably ours.”

“I am not yours,” I seethe.

He quickly fills the space between us, pinning me against the wall. He brings his face centimeters from mine. He breathes in deeply, as if savoring me.

“Oh, Cherry, I really wanted to take things slow and not scare you. But I’m not sure that’s something I can do now.” He pushes a curl behind my ear, somehow looking at me more intensely than he had been. “You’re intoxicating, baby. It’s all I could think about last night. Finally having you near me again, there’s no way that I can let you go again.”

I push on his chest, putting some much-needed space between us.

“Tate, you need tp leave, now, I need to get to work, and you need to keep things strictly professional.”

He steps back more.

“I’ll let you go for now, Cherry, but just know there is no way of getting rid of me, and I can only say and do so much to keep Eli from you. I had to put in headphones to keep the noise of him moaning out your name last night.”

“Ew, I did not need to hear that.”

“Baby, as I said, you’re our obsession. You’ll be ours sooner or later.”

“You wish. Please stop calling me baby.”

“Not a chance in hell,” he says with a devilish look on his face.

When the door closes behind him, I’m left in a mess. Anger, frustration, and confusion flood my brain and body. I can’t help but squeeze my thighs together, feeling the ache between them. I’m supposed to despise this man. So, how is it that I can hate and want him at the same time? The implications that lie in him saying that I’ll be theirs are doing things to me, things that should not be happening.