falling for my hot highschool bully

4

Chapter Four

Zane POV.

The next morning I woke up with terrible pain coursing through my entire body. Priya stood at the door, her eyes wet from crying to bed. "Are you okay brother. Is the pain much? Should I bring healing ointment"

She kept twisting her hands together nervously. "I'm fine, Priya. As he gone."

She nods repeatedly and cleans her eyes. "He told me to give you this." Stretching her hands to me, a balm was on her hands.

"Did he give you?" I asked doubting whatever intentions our father had for us.

"Yes, he said you should rub it on your back as usual. He also said nobody should know about what happened at home and you should fulfill your promise."

She placed it in my hands and turned to leave. "Zane won't it be better to just leave?"

After she left the room, my mind drifted to the time when our family was happy. Back then we were an enviable family, my mom sometimes followed him to his workplace. She assisted him in everything he did, from little decision making to higher-level decisions in his company.

But.....an incident occurred, and father came home angry. His veins were already popping out, he stormed into my mom's room.

And since then, they were at each other's throats, the warmth was no longer found in our home. Just a thin line for our family to be broken, and it came faster than I expected. The thin line was...

My thoughts snapped off when the maid pushed the door open. She sets a bowl down with a soft clink, steam curling up from the surface. "Master Zane," she said with her eyes down, "your father said you should drink the soup".

The steam smelled like ginger and turmeric, but the table between us might as well have been glass.

My father's words from yesterday still burn in my ears. "Thanks, I will drink it." I picked up the bowl and drank it at once.

The maid took the empty bowl and the pills she brought yesterday. She stared for a moment at me before walking off.

Walking into the school building with a plan on how to deal with that Collins girl. I sighted Mark not too far away, waiting for me. "Rough night?"

"Just a little tired, have the video been deleted." I shrugged his hands off as he tried putting it on my aching back.

"I did delete the online ones, nobody will play with such again." He fastened his bag to his back as we entered the class.

Class went on at its usual speed, I was not interested in listening to anything, only staring at the Collins girl three meters far from me.

I wasn't going to let her taste peace in this school. Not now, not ever.

By lunch, I had Mark spread rumours about her. Mark was an expert in that without getting his hands dirty.

Different rumours begin to circulate around the school. Some about her sleeping with a teacher, another about her running away from being bullied. All sorts of rumours came up.

I sat at our usual table with Mark and a few others. Marcus raised an eyebrow when he saw me scrolling. "I see you got stuck with that new girl huh?"

"She's nothing," I said. But the words tasted off. But I myself knew that it was a lie, that Collins never blinked her eyes.

She stared straight at me at every turn she got. "It's understandable, one minute man." Marcus had appeared at my back, laughing loudly.

"What do you want, Marcus?" He turned to face my long time rival. We went at each other's throats at any chance we got.

Marcus' father and my father were old time rivals. Perhaps Marcus was being used by his father to control Blackwall.

"I'm enjoying your battle with the new girl, I will be watching." He smirked and walked off.

I have to push my plan forward, I wasn't about to slip up for Marcus to gain any chance.

After lunch, I saw her standing beside her locker reading something. I intentionally passed there and leaned against the opposite wall.

"Find my welcome present?" I asked when she turned.

She ripped the note down without a flinch. "Step up your game Zane, or are we playing house. Make it lively."

I stepped closer. "Does it matter? You must be really hurt at the mention of your weight right."

Her eyes met mine dead on. "You really spent your lunch break doing this? It must be nice to have that much free time, I wish to be you."

I tightened my jaw. "You embarrassed me in front of the whole school yesterday. Nobody messes with the Hartwell family."

"I did not embarrass you. You did that yourself when you acted like an entitled prick."

I laughed once. It came out harsher than I meant. "You have no idea who I am, do you?"

"I know enough." She slung her bag over her shoulder. "Son of Richard Hartwell, a multi billionaire in the world of transport. And you are his entitled little scarecrow, a splitting image of him at that. Did I miss anything?"

I moved before I thought about it. One step and we were close enough that I could see the faint flush on her cheeks. "You just made the biggest mistake of your life, new girl. You are in for a ride to hell, I give you the end of today to apologize or else..."

She did not back down. That was the part that stuck with me the rest of the day. "We will see about that."

The afternoon turned into open season. By the last period, I had left food smeared on Zara's seat in English. She wiped it off with a napkin from her bag and sat down, as if nothing had happened. The teacher did not even notice, or pretended not to.

When the bell rang she packed up without looking at anyone.

I caught up to her in the side hall near the exit. The place was mostly empty now. Just a few stragglers and the echo of lockers slamming far away.

She sensed me behind her and turned. "What now?"

I stopped a few feet away. "You think you're tough because you got a few laughs this morning?"

"I think I'm late for the bus," she said. "Move."

I did not. "People who cross me learn quickly. You should start learning."

She adjusted her bag strap. "Is this the part where you threaten me again? Because I've heard it already.”