The Bad Boy's Thorn

Chapter Six

clarissa sintez played by ashley benson

annabelle royal played by rachel mcadams

S I X

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After Val had left with Sally and Sarah to go outside, I stood beside the locker dumbfounded. Val couldn't be jealous? Archer is like that to everyone, I mean he's Selveridge highs very own playboy.

"Seems like you've got Val agitated." I found Clarissa next to me. She smiles flipping her perfectly cut blonde hair back, she glances at me with a impressed look.

I shrug my shoulders, "If it weren't for Archer saying those stupid words, Val wouldn't be plotting my death right now." I say as Clarissa releases a light chuckle.

"Archer does that a lot, he flirts with every girl in this school. Val should be aware that you're not special." Clarissa says, her words slightly burn.

I nod my head in agreement, it was true. Archer Silva was capable of flirting with every girl in this school. He didn't care about appearances, from what I could see he would go for any rank.

"So Mal lets go to the cafeteria, you must be starving after your long lesson in economics." Clarissa pulls me by my arm, leading me towards the cafeteria.

A small part of me didn't want to sit with her and that was only because of the people there. They were all smart and cunning according to the rumours of this school, I've seen their cruel behaviour myself.

I reluctantly follow behind her. As the both of us enter the cafeteria I felt the peering gaze of other students on us, Clarissa held her head high, appreciating the attention as she kept me close to her.

Minutes pass and we're already near the rank 1 table, I nervously look at the people who were already sat on the table. My brother Dylan was sat next to Yuta as they both spoke to each other in hushed tones, Vincent was across them with earphones plugged in as Archer sat beside him. Annabelle Royal was sat on the table eating her small salad as she scrolled through her phone.

Clarissa practically squeals as she walked towards them, "Everyone meet Malia." Everyone looks up except for Vincent and Yuta. Yuta avoids my glance as Vincent listened to his music not even noticing my presence.

Archer smirks, "So you're sitting with us now? That's great." he grabs my hand, making me sit right beside him. I sit beside him reluctantly.

"I can never avoid you can I?" I ask, Archer grins as he held my hand. I try to shake his grip off but he doesn't let go. After a few seconds of trying I gave up.

"You guys are so perfect! I love it." I turn my attention towards Annabelle Royal, the girl that was said to be interested into guys for money. She was the girl who had hook ups all around school, she was also open about it.

I morphed my face into a look of disgust as Archer chuckles, "I'm not interested in guys like him, I like mature guys." I mumble as Archer stops laughing.

"Wait what? Am I not mature?" he frowns as he looked at me.

"You're far from mature Archer." I heard Yuta state, I look up to lock eyes with him: he instantly looks away.

Archer scoffs, "Who are you to say that Yuta? You're always--" Archer is interjected by my brother Dylan.

"Archer your girlfriend of the week is coming over towards this table."

I watch as a slender girl walks towards our table, her makeup was flawlessly applied to her skin. To be honest she looked amazing, she smiles widely as she stood near Archer.

I notice Clarissa staring at her, it wasn't with jealousy. It was with admiration. Something seemed a little off, I notice the girl looking at Archer with love.

"Hey Archer." the girl says cutely, Archer throws her a bright smile, "Bethany, you okay?" so his girlfriend of the week was called Bethany.

"Yeah... I was wondering if you'd like to hang out right now." Bethany fidgets with the hem of her trousers, I felt sick right now. She wanted to hook up with Archer right now?

Archer purses his lips, "Sure, Annabelle do you have the key?"

I remembered that Clarissa had given me a key that opened the doors to all of the school.

Annabelle nods her head, she rummages through her large bag, she frowned looking up, "The key, I don't have it. Maybe I left it at home." she says as Clarissa looked at me.

She gave me a look to keep quiet, I nodded my head. "Seriously? You always have that key." Archer groans looking at Annabelle.

"Jesus Archer, you can hook up with this girl later. Don't get annoyed at me for no valid reason." Annabelle snapped as Archer's girlfriend of the week turns red.

Clarissa stares at her shaking her head.

"Whatever, Bethany I'll hang out with you after school." Archer waves his girlfriend off as she sighs, I notice her walking off in annoyance.

"You should ditch her." Clarissa told Archer. Archer sighs leaning on the chair, he turns his head to look at me.

"What do you say Malia? Shall I ditch this girl, there's other girls that seem to grab my attention." he says glancing at me.

"Why would you need her answer? She wouldn't give a single damn if you ditched the girl or not." Dylan says, I smile at him.

Archer shrugs his shoulders, "I felt like it, what about you Dylan? Seen some girls you like." he looks at Dylan who seemed to be looking at Annabelle.

"I have, they're not as good as the girl I like." Dylan sighs before looking away from Annabelle.

This can't be, Dylan likes Annabelle? It couldn't be, Annabelle used boys like tissue - she would break his heart if he ended up confessing he liked her.

My brother is never the one to catch feelings. Hopefully Dylan doesn't like her, if he did. Things would go really wrong.

"All you guys talk about are girls, don't you feel sick of it?" Yuta scowls before grabbing his bag, he looks at me for a few seconds before making his way out of the cafeteria.

"He failed his English literature exam, that's why he's acting like that." Dylan says before taking a large bite of his sandwich.

"I was wondering why he was acting a little strange today." Annabelle says as she continued to eat her salad.

"I wouldn't react like him, if I failed a test I would just deal with it." Clarissa says pulling out her lunch, it was a small container filled with sushi.

Archer have her a pointed look, "You're forgetting Yuta has strict parents and you don't."

Clarissa widens her eyes, "Oh how could I forget, Yuta's mom is a control freak about his grades."

"Sometimes I feel sorry for the guy." Dylan says as he sipped his soft drink.

Annabelle looked at Dylan, "I agree, his mother places too much stress on him." Dylan's cheeks slightly turn pink, maybe he's feeling hot, oh who am I kidding. It was clear my brother liked Annabelle.

"I would offer to help him with english literature but I forget that I'm horrible at it." Clarissa says as everyone except Vincent chuckled.

Vincent had his eyes closed still, he was hearing his music silently.

"This boy tries too hard in being good at his education that he's slowly losing himself." Archer says quietly, he looked sorry for Yuta.

"Why doesn't he get a tutor?" I ask them.

"You see Yuta's parents believe in natural smartness, they think that he should study by himself." Annabelle explains as my jaw drops.

"That's totally unfair, not all people are born to be practically great at everything naturally." I say annoyed, it wasn't fair for Yuta. The pressure his parents placed on him was wrong.

"Well say that to his parents." Dylan says as I sighed, I look at the door to the cafeteria. What could Yuta be doing now?

"I doubt anyone would even say that to his parents, they're really scary." Clarissa shivers slightly.

Annabelle nods her head, "The last time I spoke to his mom, I nearly lost my place in this school." she says as I slightly look at her taken back.

"Wait... his mothers the school's principal?" I say shocked, realisation hits me hard, was that also one of the reasons why he worked so hard?

Annabelle nods her head to say yes, "I'm never talking to that woman ever again." she shakes her head.

I stand up, tucking my chair in, "I'm going to the bathroom, see you guys later." I say walking towards the exit of the cafeteria door.

I walk past a few classroom but my body freezes as I noticed Yuta sitting in one of the classroom, his gaze was focused on to a large textbook as he held head in frustration.

He was studying, he left lunch early so he could study. My breath hitches as I found myself walking towards the classroom he was sat in, my English literature class that I shared with him.

Once I entered the classroom, Yuta didn't look up - he was too focused on to the text book in front of him.

I pull the chair beside him, he looks at me shocked. He keeps a blank expression before focusing back to the text book.

"Why are you here Malia?" he mumbles as he wrote a few words down on the paper in front of him.

I didn't know why I was here, perhaps I wanted to help Yuta. I was really good with English literature, I seemed to ace every exam to do with it.

"I've heard that you failed your English literature exam." I trail on, Yuta's body stiffens as he gripped his pen tightly.

"I did, that's why I'm here. Studying harder than ever, I failed due to my stupid lack of focus on this subject." he snaps.

I grab his pen, he slightly seems taken back my actions. "You need to accept your failures and overcome them, just because you failed this one test - it doesn't mean that you'll fail the next."

Yuta purses his lips before glancing at me, "If only your words were true, I always fail this exam repeatedly that I lose hope that I'll ever ace it. Your words hold no importance." he takes the pen before returning to write on his notebook.

I sigh looking at him, he focused intently on the text book clenching his jaw. "I can help you, I've never failed a single English literature exam." I offer, I pause. Was I really giving up time for a boy? I felt sorry, that's why I'm helping.

Yuta locks eyes with me, "My mother doesn't believe in tutors, she'll never allow it." he tells me as I look at him deep in thought.

"We could always go to a library." I offer but Yuta shook his head to say no.

"I'm banned from the towns library." he says looking down at his book.

I look at him slightly shocked, "How do you get banned from a library?" I question curiously.

"When you stay there till the night studying that you don't feel like leaving, the librarians get sick of your appearance that they casually ban you." he says spitefully, he genuinely spends his time constantly studying and it was all for his parents.

"How could they ban you? Isn't the library meant to be happy that you're attending or something?" I look at him in confusion.

Yuta shrugs his shoulders, "All I know is that I'm never going there after being banned."

I try to think of another idea, "What about a coffee shop? Can't we study there?"

Yuta frowns, "I hate coffee shops, they make me think about my past." he says coldly, he's not the same as before. There's things that I'm finding out about him that I never knew, and to be honest it surprised me.

"What do you suggest we do?" I say out loud, Yuta gives me a pointed look.

"Not help me? I'm fine on my own." he says blankly returning to his work.

"Yuta! I'm trying to help you, so let me." I groan as he sighs, flipping through the textbook.

"You can help me all you want, in the end I'll always fail these stupid tests and my mother will hate me." Yuta says, his words were laced with hurt.

"Shut up, we're going to study at your place whether your mother likes it or not. I'm going to say it's for a school project but really we will be studying, I promise you that you won't fail your next test Yuta." I state as Yuta looks at me with his eyes lighting up.

"You really are just like her..." he murmurs.

"Like who?"

"Like my old best friend, Malia Alis." he smiles to himself, my heart slightly beats faster. He missed me?