The Billionaire Student's Secret.

12

Jade was having a hard time studying because she was preoccupied with how she'd make money to pay her rent. If she was kicked out of her apartment, she'd have no place to stay. Jade didn't know if she should get a spot under one of the bridges on campus, but she was sure the good spots there would have already been taken by homeless people.

Jade packed her books from her spot in the school library and stood, “It's useless, I'm not going to understand anything. I might as well give up.”

On her way out of the library, Jade opened her phone and clicked on Jobbie, the job-seeking app, and refreshed her page to check if she'd been employed for the many jobs she'd applied to.

Not discriminating, Jade had applied for the post of a cleaner, bartender, cook (although her cooking skills were non-existent), secretary, assistant mechanic, plant manager, personal assistant, dog nanny and many other menial jobs.

When the page finished refreshing, Jade saw zero hires.

“Must be the internet connection,” Jade mused and refreshed the page again. Hoping and praying to see at least one hire.

When the page loaded, nothing changed. Jade was so disappointed, she slipped her phone into her coat pocket.

“I'm really going to have to drop out of school,” Jade complained bitterly to no one.

Jade was too busy wallowing in her sadness that she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings. She collided with a huge wall of muscle who put his hands on her to steady her.

Jade looked up to apologize, and saw it was Leroy Hawkins. Immediately, she frowned.

Leroy also released her as though she had lice, and wiped his fingers on his expensive team jacket.

“Eww, Mouse, can't you watch where you're going?” Leroy called, smirking.

“That's not my name!” Jade growled. Normally, she'd have apologized and run away as fast as she could, but her disappointment at not finding a job had metamorphosed to anger, and Leroy was the person who had cost her job in the first place.

“What did you say?” Leroy was shocked by her audacity.

“I said my name isn't Mouse! It's Jade!” Jade shouted.

Leroy glared at her new found courage, “Shut up, Mouse! What's gotten into you?”

Jade noticed Leroy was alone, without any of his annoying goons. Also, she noticed him looking around at the few passers-by entering and leaving the library.

Jade concluded Leroy didn't want to cause a scene. She decided to take advantage of that, “What's gotten into me is that I can't take all the s**t I used to take from you, you stupid, dumb, idiotic, moronic bully!”

Leroy's eyes narrowed and his cheeks reddened at being addressed in a rude manner, “Shut up!”

“Or what? You'll sprain my wrist like you did to Harry?” Jade taunted.

Leroy's eyes darted around to see if anyone had heard what Jade had said, “This is my last warning to you, if you don't shut it, you'll regret it!”

“You're all talk,” Jade laughed mirthlessly, and left, shoving a bewildered Leroy out of her way.

When Jade had walked a considerable distance, she stopped and leaned against a wall to calm her racing heart. Replaying her encounter with Leroy in her mind, Jade could not believe that she'd stood up to him.

Way to go, she thought, giving herself a mental high-five.

She couldn't wait to share the news with Harry, that Leroy wasn't as invincible as he wanted everyone to believe.

“If I only I had stood up to him earlier, I might still have a job,” Jade regretted. The thought dulled her ecstacy at having put Leroy in his place, and she resumed her walk, trudging to her apartment.

* * *

When Jade approached her building, it was twilight already. She was displeased to find out that the light that lit the hallways was out. She hated the dark, and wondered how long it would take before the landlord's son made his way to the apartment to fix it.

Jade switched on her phone's flashlight and used the stream of light to make her way to her apartment.

She was halfway there when she felt a sweaty grip on her hand. Before she knew it, a hand grabbed her phone from her.

Jade panicked and opened her mouth to let out the highest scream her lungs could allow when a beefy hand clamped over her mouth.

There were two men in her hallway, one had a hand over her mouth and was using his other hand to keep her from moving, while the other held her phone.

“We meet again, Mouse!” The man holding her phone chuckled.

Jade gasped, it was Leroy.

“Let's see you run off your mouth the way you did earlier today,” Leroy taunted. Before Jade could blink, she felt a hand pull at her blouse and the next thing, she heard the fabric rip loudly.

Jade knew what was coming next and tried to extricate herself from her captor's hold, but she was no match for the bulky man. She bit on his hand as hard as she could, but the man didn't budge. Instead, he moved his other hand and applied pressure to her neck, almost choking her.

Jade momentarily lost the strength to struggle, and Leroy continued, groping her breasts through her bra.

“Not bad, Mouse!” Leroy laughed sardonically, “let's see about down there!”

Jade twisted her legs tightly but it was to no avail. She was wearing a knee-length skirt, and Leroy had no trouble sneaking his hand beneath it.

Just as he was about to make contact with Jade's panties, a light came on in the hallway.

Immediately, Leroy and his goon reflexively released her. As Jade's eyes adjusted to the light, she was able to make out her savior, the cropped black hair, the tall lean form, the arresting face which was currently set in a thunderous expression, and she tried to hold the pieces of her blouse together to shield her breasts from Black's gaze.

“Hey!” Leroy shouted, running up to Charles, “what do the heck do you think you're doing here?”

Charles stood his ground, “The right question is, what are you doing here?”

“You didn't see anything!” Leroy shouted. His goon left Jade's side and also went to where Charles stood.

Charles motioned for Jade to run away, and she did, entering her apartment and locking the door. Even after she'd done that, she didn't feel safe. So, she pushed her table, her chair, her only sofa and a cabinet she could find against the door. Next, with shaky hands, she divested herself of her clothes and her underwear and entered her shower.

Turning on the water temperature to extra hot, Jade used shaky hands to scrub her body, hoping to wash away Leroy's disgusting touch.

She began to cry in the shower, wailing loudly since there was nobody to hear her. When she was tired of crying and standing in the shower, she got out, toweling her body and her hair. Jade looked into the mirror, and what she saw scared her. A haunted gaunt-looking young woman with puffy red eyes stared back at her, and Jade could not believe that was what she looked like. She wondered how long it would take her to get over what Leroy was planning to do to her.

From her bedroom, she heard what sounded like a knock. Jade froze, wondering if it were Leroy and his man, coming to complete what they'd started.

Then, she heard her name being called, and recognized the voice. It was Charles calling her.

Jade rushed to her sitting room and replied, “Go away!”

“Not until I make sure you're okay!”

“What do you care?”

“I'm going to keep knocking until you open up!” Came Black's determined reply.

Jade sighed and decided to let him in. That way, it would be easy to get rid of him.

“Where are Leroy and his friend?” Jade asked cautiously.

“They won't be bothering you again!” Charles assured confidently.

For some reason, Jade found she believed him, and so she removed the barricade of furniture against the door and opened it, seeing a sight she never thought she would, Charles gazing at her with concern.