Page 37 of Vicious Intentions
I watch in horror as it all begins to sink in. One sleeve of my blazer hangs loose, fabric ripped and useless. My cardigan gapes open where it has been torn apart. My books lie abandoned nearby, pages splayed across the ground like evidence of how quickly everything has gone wrong.
They crowd me from both sides, laughing, filling every inch of space until I can barely breathe.
They’re too close. Too close for me to think. Too close to move. I cannot look down. I cannot scream again. I cannot make my body obey.
“Come on, Blondie. One kiss won’t kill you,” Alec sneers, leaning in so close that I can feel his breath prickle my skin.
Bile rises up my throat as Tim steps back to pick up a stick and drag it along my legs, nudging my skirt higher up my thigh. “Kiss?” he snarls. “The only thing I want her mouth to touch is my junk.”
“I have a better plan,” Alec offers, sounding far too pleased with himself. “Let’s see if her virgin pussy and ass can take us both in.”
They laugh like it is nothing. LikeI’mnothing.
My hands curl into fists, nails digging into my palms as I squeeze my eyes shut. My body continues to betray me. I want to run. I want to scream. I want to fight.
I do none of it. I just… freeze. Every muscle locks, fear crushing the air from my lungs. I am aware of everything and nothing all at once. The sound of my own heartbeat roars in my ears, drowning out everything else.
“The hell’s going on here?!”
The loud angry voice slices through the air, followed by the sound of a stick clattering to the ground.
I force my eyes open and see a familiar face running toward us—Frankie, Luciano’s girlfriend. The same girl who once pulled me into the basement beneath the chapel and saved my phone. The same girl who stood up for me when my bullies cornered me in eighth grade. Relief crashes into me so hard my knees nearly give out.
“You wanna play too?” Alec jeers. “Just wait for your turn. We’ll gladly make room for you next.”
“Actually,” Frankie says, her voice tight with fury, “I’d like my turn now.”
I barely have time to register what is happening before Frankie moves. Unlike me, she doesn’t hesitate, even for a second.
Alec sneers at her, still blocking my escape, when Frankie’s hand snaps up and slams hard into his throat. The sound he makes is awful, strangled, as he clutches at his neck and stumbles back, gasping for air. Before he can recover, she hits him again, her fist connecting with his jaw. The impact knocks him sideways, and he goes down in a heap at her feet.
Tim lunges toward her next, fury flashing across his face, but Frankie is faster. She drives her knee up between his legs with brutal precision. He folds instantly, collapsing beside Alecwith a groan, both hands clutching himself as he crumples to the ground.
I can barely breathe. I can barely blink. But thankfully, Frankie is in complete control of the situation.
“Come on,” she says before grabbing my hand and pulling me away from the trees, away from the shadows, away fromthem.
I stumble as she drags me toward open ground, leaving my books and torn clothes scattered behind as if they no longer belonged to me.
I don’t look back. I just run with her, my hand locked in hers, my body shaking as the trees finally fall away behind us.
When I see Marcello’s face, something in me breaks loose. I let go of Frankie and run straight for him, grateful to collapse into the arms of someone who would never hurt me.
I have always known there is evil in the world.
I just never imagined it could wear the face of someone my own age.
Or that I would encounter it here, at Sacred Heart.
I always thought it would come to me in the form of dark hair, cold eyes, and a New York accent. I never imagined it would be a passing classmate, someone I had never even spoken to.
I will not be caught off guard like that again. Next time, I will not freeze.
For the next two days, I lie in my bed and barely leave my room, the memory of what happened at school still clinging to my skin. I’ve taken more showers in the last sixty-two hours thanmost people probably take in a week, and still I feel their hands on me. Their eyes raking over my body like I was nothing more than something to ridicule.
Thankfully, Stella told my overprotective parents that I was sick with stomach cramps, giving them a reason why I’ve been hibernating in my room all weekend.
I wish my sister were as easy to fool. Since the ordeal, she was on my case all Friday night and throughout most of Saturday, demanding to know the names of the boys who assaulted me. But I will never tell her. And although I managed to get her and my brothers to promise not to say anything to our parents, she, along with Marcello, is still very much a concern. I know exactly what each of them is capable of. I cannot have those boys’ deaths on my conscience.
