Wicked End Academy

My eyes lock on Jimmy's written words, unfortunately attracting the attention of Matt.

"What's wrong," he whispers. Mr. Dowd is too busy talking about chemicals to notice us in the back.

"Nothing," I say. Jimmy takes the paper and puts it in his folder. Matt leaves it at that and doesn't say anything for the rest of the class. Neither does Jimmy.

The bell rings an hour later and I grab my bag, getting out of the room as soon as I can. Someone grabs me around my waist.

"Hey, girl, where you runnin' to," Rodney sneers in my ear. My brain tells my legs to move away from him as fast as they can, but they don't listen. I'm frozen in place.

"Get away from her," someone growls loudly. A quiet crowd forms a circle, leaving space between us and the last person I want to see right now.

"Whatchya gonna do, Haner? Hit me," Rodney teases, laughing. I struggle against his hold, but he's too strong for me.

"I told you to stay away from her," Brian says hoarsely, his eyes burning for a fight.

"And you think I'm going to listen to you? Yeah, right!" Brian steps toward us, but three prefects come running down the hallway. Everyone leaves, avoiding the impending trouble. Rodney releases his hold on me. Brian doesn't move.

"Mr. Wilson, Mr. Haner, Miss Merriweather-" I cut him off by running down the hallway. I hear footsteps after me.

"Charlotte, stop," Brian yells. I run down the G-wing staircase and hide in the hollow space underneath the stairs. I wipe the tears that had fallen from my eyes. I pull my knees to my chest and rest my forehead on my knees. Minutes later, I hear more footsteps coming toward me. I look up and gasp.

Brian dashes over to me and covers my mouth with his hand.

"Don't scream, I'm not gonna do anything, okay? I just wanna talk," he murmurs. After staring me down for a few seconds, he slowly moves his hand to hold himself up with his hand. He just so happens to place it right by my thigh.

"I don't want to talk to you," I whisper. He smiles a little.

"Yes you do, you know you do." He does the same with his other hand.

"No, I don't-"

"Can you be quiet for two seconds so I can talk?" I shut my mouth, narrowing my eyes at him. "Thank you. Now you can't be serious when you say you believed those girls about Lydia, right? I mean-"

"I talked to Jimmy."

"And what did he tell you?" I look down.

"That Rodney was the one that tried raping her."

"Do you want me to tell you the real story?" I nod, but still don't return his gaze. He clears his throat. "Lydia and I were dating for around two months. Rodney was new in the school, and we were actually friends for a little while. He came to me and said he saw her making out with one of the jocks. I broke up with her, and the next day I saw Rodney with her in the H staircase."

"What happened?"

"He drugged her and tried raping her. I got in a fight with him about it. He cut me and the prefects came running. Rodney claimed he had found me with Lydia, but she couldn't remember what had happened."

"Did she really go to Huntington Center for the Mentally Ill?"

"No, her mom sent her to live with her dad." I don't say anything for a minute. "Do you believe me?" I look up at him and see his pained eyes. "Do you believe that I would never do that to you?"