The Big Boys' League: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Troubled Playthings 3)

Yup…

Thought so. Don’t worry, I get it. I’d offer to pick you up otherwise but I think we could all do without that scene. I’ll give you my address, if you can get partway on the bus maybe I can pick you up from the bus stop?

I hadn’t realised how much this would lift my mood until I was yelling a goodbye down the stairs to Dad and running down the driveway with my bag still hanging open so I could be well clear of the area before Axel arrived. The thought of talking to someone I didn’t have to justify everything I was doing to or hide anything from was wonderful.

Matt was waiting at the bus stop when I got off, and almost dragged me to his car. Maybe he was starved for good company too.

“I wanted to apologise again,” I started once we were buckling in, “for—”

“Please don’t,” Matt said. “I get it. Axel’s a dick you don’t want to have to screw with if you can help it.”

“But I don’t want you to think I’m taking advantage of you—”

Again, he waved me off. “We’re basically the founding members of the Axel Bennett Support Club, aren’t we?”

“Great, so where do I turn in my membership card?”

Matt failed at not laughing. It was nice to be able to make someone laugh again. Dad used to find me funny all the time when I was younger, he’d brag to his friends and girlfriends about his smartarse daughter. N

ow he just bitched that I’d gotten all serious, like every ‘damn woman’.

Matt’s neighbourhood was hard to get to by public transport because it was fairly new, the bus timetables years off being adjusted to provide regular service. Probably most of the residents had little interest in taking the bus. The shelter by the stop was still only partially built, but there was no chance an area with houses this big would have its complaints ignored.

“I’d suggest we study together,” Matt said, “but that seems a bit stereotypical of me, and anyway I’ve been spending so much time avoiding everyone who’s pissed off at me, I’m prepared about ten times over.”

I groaned. “Me too. Let’s just watch a movie or something.”

“How long until you… uh, until you’ll be good to go home?” Matt asked.

“No idea. The way my dad goes on sometimes, could be into the evening. I assume he’ll drop me a line when the coast is clear.”

“At least once we get into the garage, there’s no way Axel will see you’re here unless—oh.” He groaned. “Oh, fuck.”

“What is it?” But by that time, I’d already seen.

Axel himself, in the flesh, was standing on the street outside one of the improbable houses we were rolling by. He was following Matt’s car with a stare that didn’t seem like the regular sort of friendly look you shot someone you knew. I didn’t have to question whether he’d seen me sitting in there.

Matt was grimacing. “Here we go again. I thought you said he could be at your dad’s place for hours?”

“My dad’s pretty unreliable like that. Sorry.”

“It’s not really your fault,” said Matt, although he was struggling to make that statement sound convincing. We turned up into a driveway with the garage door already rising to welcome us, but suddenly it felt like a gigantic mouth opening to devour me. I put my hands over my face.

“Seriously,” Matt said, “you really haven’t done anything wrong. We’re allowed to hang out, it’s not like we’re even dating or anything. Is there something you’re not telling me?”

I needed to tell someone. “I don’t want to talk about the details, but… things got a bit out of hand with us the other day. And now…”

Matt parked and hit a switch on a little remote attached to the dash of his car. The garage we were now shut in filled with light that made me cover my eyes again initially. Matt waited until I could look at him again.

“Do you want to date Axel, then? Is that the problem here?”

“I don’t think I’m quite Stepford enough for him,” I said, and then realised that wasn’t really an answer. “I mean, no, I don’t. But…”

“But things are more complicated than they used to be? Yeah, preaching to the guy who founded the religion here.” Matt turned away from me and opened his door, coming around to help me with mine while I was still struggling to make sense of the unfamiliar latches. He was such a gentleman… unlike fucking Axel.

But why did I have to compare Matt to Axel? Why did I have to think about Axel at all right now?

“You know what,” I said, “Axel might be out there right now waiting to punish me for being at your house at all, but I’d like to declare this an Axel-free zone until I get out of here.”