He Said Mine So I Took Him Instead

CHAPTER 2

I tugged my sleeve down over my hand, wrapping it around my palm without thinking. It was something I had started doing a while ago, like a reflex I couldn’t break, mostly to hide the bruises around my wrist. He would grab me too hard whenever he thought I messed up, like pain was just part of correction.

Right now, I was covering a fading yellow-green bruise that was about a week old, the result of me taking a day off school because of a stomach flu that had completely wrecked me. I still went back the next day, even though I wasn’t fully okay, and ended up spending most of it in the nurse’s office, throwing up while quietly telling them no one would be home to take care of me.

"Hey," a sharp whisper came from my left, and I slowly turned just to see Damien Vale glaring at me like I had personally ruined his day, his eyes dropping pointedly to my shaking legs.

My stomach tightened and I immediately forced my foot to stop tapping, even though my knees were still trembling under the desk like they had a mind of their own, because getting noticed right now would be the worst kind of trouble.

"Yes?" Mr. Calloway snapped from the front, and the moment I looked up, my breath caught because his eyes were already locked on me like a spotlight.

For a second, panic shot through me as I thought he had seen everything between me and Damien, and yeah… that would’ve made things ten times worse.

"I’ve finished, sir," Chloe Bennett suddenly spoke up from behind me, and I felt my shoulders drop in relief as I quietly exhaled, realizing I had just barely escaped getting caught in whatever that moment was.

"Put it in the tray on my desk," Mr. Calloway said, leaning forward slightly as he paused for a second, like he was thinking it over. "Actually, everyone just hand in your homework. Finished or not, I want it on my desk tray."

A wave of relieved sighs immediately spread through the room, like everyone had been holding their breath this whole time and finally got permission to breathe again. Chairs scraped loudly against the floor as my classmates started standing up all at once.

I grabbed my backpack from the ground and pushed myself up too, already thinking about getting out of there. I slung the bag over my shoulder, eyes locked on the door like it was the only thing that mattered, and tucked my chair back under the desk before moving with the rest of the class.

Then—

"Seraphina, I need you to stay behind for a moment."

Mr. Calloway’s voice cut through the room so casually it almost made it worse. My whole body froze on instinct.

Slowly, I walked forward anyway, each step feeling heavier than the last, until I was standing right in front of his desk with my head lowered. I could feel it—everyone staring as they passed by to drop their homework in the tray before leaving, like I was some kind of live problem they didn’t want to be next to.

It didn’t even take two minutes before the whole class filtered out, until it was just me and Mr. Calloway left in the room.

I just wanted him to say whatever he needed to say so I could leave already, so I tugged my sleeve down again and again, making sure it covered the bruise on my wrist. My fingers moved on their own, like if I kept adjusting it enough times, it would magically disappear.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught it—Mr. Calloway’s gaze tracking the movement. His gray eyes behind his glasses widened just slightly when he noticed it, like he hadn’t expected to see that at all.

A second later, I quickly pulled my arm back in, hiding it completely from view.

"Is everything okay, Seraphina?" he asked, voice softer than I’d ever heard from him.

I actually froze.

Because in all the time I’d had him as a teacher, he had never sounded like that. Not even close.

My eyes went wide as I stared at him, completely thrown off, because that wasn’t even what I thought this was about. I knew he wasn’t calling me out for the real reason I was still here—he had just noticed the bruise.

And weirdly enough… that tiny bit of concern almost messed me up more than the detention itself.

But I couldn’t tell him.