Fated To Mate

Too Much

MAX

“P…ple…ase, do…don’t hurttt me,” I stammered, my voice barely above a whisper. I hated how I sounded, how the words trembled and broke apart in my throat, but I couldn’t help it. The fear always made it worse.

No matter how early I tried to get to school, they were always there, waiting like shadows I could never outrun. Four of them. Laughing, sneering and taunting.

They weren’t random bullies. Mary had sent them. They are her personal pack of hyenas, handpicked to torment me for reasons I still didn’t understand. Maybe because I existed. Maybe because I can’t fight back or simply because I was forced to exist in the same space as she did.

Yes, Mary is my sister, and I would do anything for her. At home, Mary was the perfect daughter, the golden child who could do no wrong, nobody saw her evil side except me. She would light the stove after I had left the kitchen sometimes, so the food would burn, or sneak in an extra heap of spice just to get Ginny or her husband punish me, sometimes she went as far as bleaching some of her clothes and blamed me for ruining them during laundry. I can't complain, because no one would believe me.

“Oh, we won’t,” Anna, the leader of the group, said with a smirk, eyes glittering with cruelty. “As long as you sing us a song.”

The others burst out laughing like she’d said something clever and my heart sank.

I couldn't speak without struggling, and now they want me to sing?

"Pp..ppp....pp...pl....eeee....aaa......pleeeaasssssss, I....w.....w.....wi....willllll...d...dd...do...an...an...anything else," I said the words with difficulties, shaking my head, and praying that would be enough. But I already knew it wouldn’t be, because for them, this wasn’t about songs or games. It was about dominating me.

"Are you trying to be difficult?" Judy snapped.

She used to pretend to like me once. Smiled sweetly and sat beside me in class when no one else would. And asked about my favorite things, I was stupid enough to believe it.

She got me talking and I told her little harmless things, but somehow, they ended up twisted and exaggerated, delivered straight to Mary who ran home to Ginny, saying I was gossiping about her.

That was the end of school for me and I was banned from ever going back.

It took three weeks of insistent begging and because Mary couldn’t keep up with her lessons. I was her last resort for help with the assignment and class projects.

Even I find it strange sometimes, how easily the lessons would make sense to me, despite my schooling being constantly interrupted. I absorb things quickly, like my brain was making up for all the time lost.

The girls circled around me like vultures, shoving and sneering as if I had committed a crime. My presentation papers went flying into the air like startled birds, scattering everywhere.

They burst out laughing.

“Come on,” Sandra mocked, “construct a perfect sentence without sounding like a broken record.”

They knew I couldn’t do it. I knew that too. But who was going to explain to them? And even if someone tried, would they care? Probably not, to them, I am nothing but a joke. A living, breathing target they could poke for fun.

They had shown up early just to mess with me, like always. Caked in thick makeup, nails polished to perfection, as if they were headed to a fashion show instead of school. Empty minds wrapped in designer perfume. I had helped them with assignments before, but cruelty was their only real hobby. Whatever they were planning today, I just hoped it would be quick so I could get to class on time.

Suddenly, a voice rang out behind them, startling us all, a deep, firm voice

“What’s going on here?”

My heart dropped, great, now they even brought their boyfriends to join the fun.

But then the girls slowly turned around, suddenly quiet and tense. I peered between them, and saw three figures approaching, they moved like they owned the ground they walked on. They were tall, confident and striking. They looked like royalty in casual clothes, the kind of people you only ever saw in movies.

I wonder what brought those godlike men around and thought they were probably with the girls. Better to gather my scattered papers first and see if I could slip away without notice.

It was surprising, no, shocking, when one of them walked straight to me. Not to shove or mock me like I had braced myself for but to help.

He knelt beside me, silently gathering the scattered papers with a gentleness that made my breath hitch. Every movement was careful, deliberate, like he was afraid to crease a single sheet or startle me.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I flinched, not because he was loud or harsh but because no one had ever cared enough to ask how I was doing.

“Hey,” he said again, softer this time. “Don’t be afraid. No one’s going to hurt you again.”

That made me freeze.

What was he implying? That he was here to save me? That he was different? I know better than anyone not to trust anyone, they always start this way, pretend to be gentle, and then they run off to Ginny, maybe she sent them.

Curiously I glance up for a second to see what he looked like but he was staring at me intently, quickly, I dropped my gaze. What had I done now? Does he want to pick on me too? I have never even seen this guy before. If Mary saw this, she would claim I was prostituting myself.

I just got permission to return to school, I can’t afford to stir up trouble on my first day. I want to get away before things went too far.

“What is your name?” he asked, standing in my path.

To anyone else, the question might have sounded harmless, but to me, it felt like a jab. Was he mocking me? Was he just another person who wanted to draw attention to the way my voice always came out rough and broken? Almost everyone in school knew I was practically nonverbal, thanks to the stutter that turned every word into a battlefield.

I drew in a slow, steady breath, bracing myself to respond, even if my voice ended up sounding like metal scraping against metal.

But before I could speak, Anna’s laugh sliced through the moment, sharp and mocking.

“Do you not know, or are you pretending not to?” she sneered, her tone dripping with contempt.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” one of the other guys asked, his voice was cold enough to make Anna’s smirk falter.

I blinked in surprise. Wait, were they getting angry for my sake? But why? Weren’t they all together?

The bulky one standing in front of me spoke again, this time, his tone was low and dangerous.

“I’ll ask you one more time,” he said, pausing just long enough for the air to tighten, “What do you mean?”

Anna hesitated, then took a slow step forward, she tilted her chin and flipped her hair the way she always did when talking to boys, her voice syrupy sweet.

“Look, everyone in school knows he is...” She stopped mid-sentence, letting the pause hang heavy, as if she wanted to savor the attention before delivering the final blow.

“...he is dumb. In all the ways a person can be dumb,” she said with a sickly-sweet smile, and her friends erupted into shrill, cackling laughter.

The sound made my stomach twist. If I stayed here any longer, I would not only miss class, but Mary could show up any minute and that would make everything ten times worse.

Without a word, I quickly fished my notepad from my bag, and scrawled a few words, then tugged lightly at his sleeve. When he looked down, I pressed the paper into his hand before turning and jogging off.

I didn’t look back. Whether they ended up fighting or flirting, I wanted no part of it.

******

We were in the middle of second period when three figures appeared at the doorway to my class, the same guys from this morning.

Mr. Anderson had been deep into his explanation of astrophysics, scribbling equations across the board, but the moment they showed up, the entire class attention shifted. Every head turned. Even Mr. Anderson stopped mid-sentence, marker frozen in his hand.

Whispers rippled through the class like wind through leaves.

“Are they models?” someone hissed.

“No, I heard they’re celebrities,” another voice said.

A few claimed they had seen them around before, that they were students just like us. But judging by the way they carried themselves, made it hard to believe. Then they locked eyes with me, and without a word, they stepped into the room and headed straight for my row. The one who had asked my name earlier slid into the seat right beside me, while the other two settled in directly behind. It was as if they didn’t notice the dozens of eyes following their every move, or the whispers buzzing like static all around us.

And now they were drawing far too much attention to me. My chest tightened with the question, had I done something to offend them before? Across the room, I caught sight of Mary, her expression darkened, the way it always did before deciding to make my life harder. Her friends were missing from first period, which was unusual considering that I had seen them this morning and expected they would flock around Mary by now but the empty seats told a different story

Mr. Anderson cleared his throat and went on with his lecture as if nothing had happened, which was strange. Everyone in school knew he hated interruptions during class, yet now, he didn’t even acknowledge the three strangers at the door.

I tried to follow the lesson like everyone else, but it was impossible with a pair of eyes burning into me, making me feel like I had become some kind of spectacle. The longer it went on, the more self-conscious I became.

Finally, unable to take it anymore, I scribbled a note in my notebook and slid it across the table toward him.

DID I DO SOMETHING TO OFFEND YOU?

He looked at the words with an unreadable expression, his eyes flicking briefly from the page back to me. For a heartbeat, I thought he might ignore it altogether. Then, he picked up his pen and wrote something in slow, deliberate strokes before sliding the note back.

No. Why would you think that?

My fingers tightened on the paper. I didn’t know how to answer that without sounding paranoid, or pathetic. Before I could decide, he leaned slightly closer, his voice low enough that only I could hear.

“You have nothing to be afraid of,” he said. But instead of reassuring me, his words only set off every warning bell in my head. What did he mean by that? What does he really want from me? Across the room, Mary’s glare burned into me, as if I had committed some unspeakable crime. This is it, my life was officially over. There is no way Ginny will hear about this and let me live, I need to find a way to diffuse the situation. I didn’t even know why I was so eager to come back to school today of all days. I should have stayed home.

I tried to focus on Mr. Anderson’s voice, but it was getting harder, then I felt a gentle tug on my notebook. He slid the notebook toward himself, and before I could protest, his pen was already moving, neatly jotting down every word Mr. Anderson said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I still don't know what his deal was, but I knew one thing, I will get him off my back one way or another after class. My gaze flicked to Mary again. She was practically vibrating with jealousy, her eyes sharp enough to cut through steel. I could guess the poisonous thoughts swirling in her mind.