Bitter (A Dark High School Bully Romance)

Beck laughs again, and I watch him. When he’s smiling without all that manic glee behind it … he almost looks sweet.

“So, what do you think, bro?” Beck asks, spreading his hands. “Think this is romantic?”

I start a little at being referred to as “

bro”.

“Sure,” I reply, glancing around. “Insulated from the cold. Cozy. Barely any room,” I add, pointing at his knee brushing mine.

“Yeah, write that down. Professors love that kind of shit,” he says, nodding before suddenly glancing around the space while patting his outside pockets. “Let’s take pictures or something.”

We do, and then we crawl out and take pictures of the outside, too. Beck slips his phone back into his pocket and leads me back to the train station.

Somehow, the walk back seems just a little less cold.

“There’s a town with a grand church in it,” he tells me as we head inside. Now that I’m with Beck, I seem to draw fewer stares. It’s like I’m his pet, that somehow being with him takes away any question of my own legitimate right to be here.

I pause at the ticket counter and search my pockets for a second, but Beck only purses his lips, pays for me, and leads me to one of the compartments without a word. When we sit, he keeps talking about different places we’ll visit as though nothing happened. As if he didn’t just pay for me only weeks after mocking my own inability to afford a trip home for fall break.

A trip that’s now been paid for by our very own Jasper.

I wonder if Beck is aware of that. Even more, I wonder if that would change anything about the way he’s treating me … if he would go back to acting like I’m a burden of a charity case, or if that would make him more sympathetic.

I used to think that he and Heath simply did whatever Jasper told them to, but now I’m not so sure. Maybe there’s more to this Brotherhood than meets the eye.

The first church he takes me to is beautiful, but not what I’d call romantic. I find the village surrounding it much more … quaint. It’s run down, the houses in a state of disrepair that is just beyond the level of comfort. Rather than looking well-loved, the whole village just looks on the brink of abandonment.

“I like the wood framing on the outsides,” I tell him, looking for something to say that isn’t going to make me sound ungrateful.

“Chalet,” he replies.

“Gesundheit.”

That comment makes him laugh again. “No, I mean you like the chalet style.”

He nods back up at the house in front of us.

I’ve never heard Beck laugh this much. It’s a little contagious. He seems like he’d actually be a cool guy to hang out with if he calmed down.

“I guess I do,” I say, forcing myself to look away from him and back up at the building. I cock my head to the side and try to imagine what it once looked like.

Beck, in turn, narrows his eyes at me as he scrutinizes the reaction on my face. “Okay. So, churches—maybe not romantic.”

“I can see how the architecture could be inspirational, though,” I concede, pushing my hands into my coat pockets. I keep my eyes trained on the building as I take another step away, even as I feel Beck’s eyes linger on me. “Maybe it’s just—”

But I’m cut off as Beck suddenly lunges for me.

“Watch out!” he shouts, grabbing my elbow and yanking me out of the road as someone speeds by in a car, the noise only reaching us as he shoots past through the space I just occupied.

I’m pulled into Beck’s chest once again, and this time for a moment, it’s like he’s holding me.

My heart thumps. Maybe it’s just that we’ve been purposefully going to romantic places today, or that he’s been really relaxed around me, but … when I look up into Beck’s face there, just above mine, I can no longer ignore the knotting sensation in the pit of my stomach.

Fuck.

I think I’m starting to develop a crush on Beck.

I mean, he’s hot. That’s always been the case. Jasper and Heath are hot, too, but something about the way Beck is acting today, almost like I’m a friend of his, makes me feel … nice. Warm and fuzzy, even.