There was something different about him—something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. His shoulders were no longer in a permanent slump. He had a stance of someone with a lot of confidence. His eyes had always been hollow and tired, but they looked full of life. When his gaze turned to me, I felt a lump rising in my throat. They were intense to the point it felt like they were staring a hole straight into my soul.
“Ms. Lewis...” He let out a sigh. “You’re next.”
This isn’t going to end well.
Chapter 5: Anton
I could still taste the whiskey on my tongue when I got done destroying Frank and prepared to come face to face with the devil herself. My brother had told me all about Bethany Lewis. She was the one that pushed him over the edge. I knew it would only be a matter of time before she was sitting across from me. I had been watching her since I first arrived, just waiting for her to fuck up.
The one thing I couldn’t avoid seeing was her beautiful curves and her drop-dead gorgeous blue eyes. She was the kind of chaos that would have gotten me in trouble when I was younger—eyes like that had held me in their grasp more than once—and with that body, it was hard not to let my eyes linger. She might have been a high school student, but she was almost nineteen and absolutely delicious. A beautiful girl her age should have already been in college, tempting some frat boy, or lining up a beta fool to support her for the rest of her life. Instead, she was born with the silver spoon shoved so far up her ass that she didn’t have to worry about anything.
I pointed to the chair across from mine as she entered my office and took a seat. She was as arrogant as my brother described, and I could still sense it on her, even as she pretended to be remorseful with her sad stare.
“Ms. Lewis.” I took a seat behind my desk and shook my head. “Skipping class—smoking on school grounds—why am I not surprised?”
“I was going to go to class, I just got lost.” She tilted her head and shrugged. “The cigarettes weren’t mine, I was just holding them for a friend.”
“You really expect me to believe any of that?” I leveled my eyes at her as I opened her file. “This isn’t the first time you’ve been in trouble for either of those things.”
“None of that is true, Mr. Thorne. You know the teachers have it out for me.” She smirked and shrugged again.
“Like you’ve had it out for my—me.” I almost slipped up and said my brother, but I caught myself at the last minute.
“It was just a prank.” She looked down at the floor for a moment before her beautiful blue eyes met mine again. “You can’t seriously be upset about that.”
“Things are changing at Grantham University, Ms. Lewis. You can either get on board with it or I’ll find a way to get rid of you for good.” I closed her file and folded my arms across my chest as I leaned back in my chair.
“You can’t do that...” Her arrogance finally started to show. “My parents practically built the gym. They’re not going to let you throw me out.”
“I have no problem talking with your parents about this. Perhaps we should give them a call and ask them to come join us for a longer discussion about your behavior.” I reached for the phone.
“Wait...” Her eyes flickered with concern. “No, you don’t have to do that.”
“You’re going to spend the afternoon in detention, Ms. Lewis. If you end up in my office again, you’ll be suspended.” I pointed to the door.
“Fine...” She glared at me and stood. “I guess I’ll have to be on my best behavior going forward.”
I didn’t expect Bethany Lewis to cave so easily. I thought I would be dragging her out of my office kicking and screaming before she would accept any form of punishment. It was almost too easy and that didn’t sit well with me. I let my eyes linger on the curve of her hips and her legs until she was out of sight and then pulled the bottle of whiskey from my bottom drawer. I certainly understood why the job had sent my brother to the bottle, but I just needed something to take the edge off.
The rest of the day was uneventful. I had a few more wayward students that got sent to the office and I did some administrative work that I hardly understood. Luckily, the assistant principal was good at that stuff, so I passed a lot of it off to him. The day was almost over and I was ready to head back home. I tapped the keyboard on my computer aimlessly until I saw Mr. Matthews appear at my door.
“Can I come in?” He looked at me nervously.
“Sure, come on in.” I motioned to the chair.
“Mr. Thorne, I can’t do this.” He sat down with a look of panic on his face.
“What are you talking about?” I tilted my head in confusion.
“Detention!” His tone got a little louder and his voice squeaked. “Not with Bethany Lewis, please!”
“She’s just a kid, besides—you’re the one who sent her to the office.” I stared at his face and saw a bead of sweat form on his forehead.
“Things have been be
tter lately. I don’t know what got into you, but you’ve really started to turn things around. You just don’t understand how she torments me. She makes it her mission to mess with my head...” He swallowed hard.
“I see.” I nodded. “Okay, then I’ll handle detention today.”