Deviant King (Royal Elite 1)

I mean, Xander bullies her at any chance he gets. Why would the others be friends with her?

Especially Aiden.

“Why were you at the nurse anyway?” I ask.

“Just a headache.” She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I went to pick you up but your uncle said you already left.”

“Sorry about that. Aunt picked me up and I forgot my phone at school.”

She’s silent for a second, chewing on her bottom lip.

She’ll eventually tell me whatever happened. For now, I rub her shoulder and speak in a light tone. “Senior year, senior resolutions, right?”

“What resolutions?”

“You know, we’ll nail this year, too.”

She stares at me, appearing lost. “How? How can we do that? Because your empty optimism never brought us anything.”

“Kim…?”

She doesn’t seem to have heard me and continues in rapid-fire. “We can’t stop them. We can only stay under the water while it’s being poured on us and pray they don’t miss so we don’t have to endure it again. We can only bow and let them strike, hoping this will be the last.”

“Kim!” I shake her. “Don’t say shit like that again. We weren’t born to be stomped on. Do you hear me?”

“I’m not all strong and put together like you, Ellie.” Tears shine in her eyes. “I can’t freeze the world out as you do. It hurts. All of it hurts. I’m tired, okay? I’m just so fucking tired of this shit. It was ten years ago. Ten fucking years. Yes, I fucked up, but I’m only human. I deserve a second chance.”

I remain rooted in place as Kim wipes her eyes and storms around me to enter the class.

She… snapped.

Kim isn’t the type who snaps. She’s so kind and quiet and… bullied.

What happened to make her snap? And what the hell did she mean by saying that she deserved a second chance?

A second chance from whom?

Maybe I don’t know my best friend as much as I thought I did.

Something prickles at the back of my neck and my stomach tightens with strange awareness.

I turn around only to be captured by the smoky eyes of the dev

il king.

And he’s smirking.

For the rest of the day, we’re so preoccupied in our classes that I can’t find a chance to talk to Kim.

I’m fidgeting, my legs won’t stop bouncing, and I keep biting the cap of my pencils.

There’s also the fact that the pack of four horsemen surrounded us in every class. Every. Freaking. Class. Aiden always sat behind me like a looming threat.

If anyone took the seats on either side of me and Kim, all they had to do was stand there and anyone who occupied that seat scrambled away.

Aiden didn’t make a move to talk to me or even acknowledge my existence since the smirk he flashed earlier.

His silence is scarier than his words. I can react to his words. How can I react to… nothing?