The Initiation (Darkness Within Duet 1)

“Did you see that? It was so funny,” Joanne said. “Damn, Draven must really have it in for her. Not that she needs another meal. She can totally skip a good couple hundred.”

Through the crack in the door, Harper saw Joanne making fun of her.

“That Draven is hot though. I’d love for him to pay attention to me. The right kind of attention though,” This came from Louise. “What I would do to ride him. I’ve heard he’s rough in bed. He loves to fuck a woman and make her scream for days.”

“I hear he fucks married women as well and that even husbands want to kill him because his cock ruins it for everyone,” Charlotte said.

All of them were cheerleaders, wearing little skirts that showed off a great deal of thigh.

“Could you imagine Harper trying to ride Draven?” Joanne asked. “It would be so funny. The girl’s a pig. I can’t believe she didn’t just slit her wrists. I bet that’s why her mother did it. She looked at her dirty ugly ass and said no more.”

“Joanne, that is bad.”

“So what? It’s the truth. Anyway, I hear that Draven makes you fuck his friends. That’s why they don’t have any girls in their club. The initiation is brutal. They like to fuck and play, and no girl can put up with all four of them.”

Shaking her head, Harper gritted her teeth. How much longer were they going to be talking about all the slutty things Draven wanted his girlfriends to do?

For another five minutes they kept on talking.

Finally, once they left, Harper made her escape.

She’d heard about the supposed Initiation. Draven and his gang had been inseparable for as long as she could remember. Axel and Draven lived close together where Buck and Jett lived in the old neighborhood where she used to live.

There were all kinds of rumors that surrounded them.

Stonewall wasn’t exactly a safe haven for anyone. Look at Mr. Arnold that morning. He wouldn’t have done anything. She’d seen fights break out, and the teachers walked to break it up.

No one dared to make waves in their small, shitty town. They were only happy to keep the money in their pockets, and to survive another day.

Leaving the bathroom, she made her way to her locker and stared at it. Would she find anything else waiting for her? She opened up her locker, and nothing was inside.

No books. No jacket. Nothing.

Glancing up and down the corridor, she saw no one. Closing the door, she rested her head against the metal. For a Monday, this had to be her worst day ever.

She didn’t care that anyone had broken into her locker. What she cared about was someone had stolen her jacket. The last thing her mother had given to her.

The thought of finishing up the rest of the day didn’t thrill her. She wanted to go home, only there was no home.

Hannah and Ian’s house wasn’t where she belonged.

Kicking her locker, she turned on her heel and went to class. She wouldn’t let anyone think they’d won. She was a fighter. No matter what her dad said or Hannah tried to do, or even these dickheads at school, she wouldn’t fall.

Squaring her shoulders, she headed back to class.

The giggles and laughter that followed her rolled off her shoulders like water. She didn’t pay attention to any of them.

After all, they were just children, and she didn’t need their approval.

****

“Did you see her face? That was fucking priceless,” Axel said, laughing.

“Dirt and no lunch all in one day.”

Draven stared down at the jacket he’d taken from her locker. A couple of the jocks had decided to follow them, and he’d caught them attempting to steal shit from Harper’s locker. They’d only just gotten the lock open when he found them.

Seeing five jocks piss themselves had been kind of amusing, but he’d been left with a broken locker, and the temptation of taking her stuff.

“Do we burn it?” Buck asked.

“We don’t want it,” Axel said. “She’s way too dull. All she has in her locker is shit for school. No pictures. Nothing. She’s, like, the most boring chick in the entire history of the school.”

Draven searched the pockets of the jacket and came up empty. It was dirty from the mud they’d stored in her locker.

It wasn’t well worn either. The jacket looked new, cheap but new.

“We’re not burning her shit,” he said.

“What is it with this chick?” Buck asked, dropping her books onto the ground.

“I don’t know. I find her pretty interesting right now.” He folded the jacket, leaving it on his knees as he stared at his friends.

“You do realize you’ve announced her as public enemy number one with what you did in the cafeteria?” Jett asked, once again playing with his knife. Jett had so many wounds up and down his arms from tossing the knife and catching it wrong. Still, it didn’t stop him from holding it.