The College Bully (Love Came In #2)

Chapter 14

A/N: thank you for taking the time to read this story! I appreciate any kind of feedback you lovelies have, it helps me improve a lot ❤️

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Knock knock. "Iris." Knock knock. "Iris." Knock kno-

Before Roxy could finish, I opened the door and stopped her mid-knock, shooting her an unimpressed look at the big bang theory reference. The two of us walked to my couch placed in front of a medium-sized TV I had bought with money from my first ever internship in freshman year.

"Chips, dips, wine," Roxy placed everything on the coffee table. "And Icecream." She banged the last container on the table, a large tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

I blew her a kiss and picked up the tub, going to the kitchen and keeping it in the freezer, grabbing two wine glasses from a beautiful set my dad had gifted me with. As I set them down and poured the wine for both of us, relaxing back into the couch, Roxy grabbed a packet of chips from the table and swung her legs onto it. I reached for my laptop to unpause the first episode of season 2 of Criminal Minds, which we both were re-watching and folded my legs under me. Before I could unpause it, Roxy slapped my wrist, making me look at her in confusion.

She handed me my wine glass I had kept on the table. "Spill first. Right now, before you get this wine spilled on you."

I rolled my eyes but cuddled my wine glass and told her the short version of the story. I told her about the match we went to together, and how I was still okay when Reece had done his usual immature bullying. How when he had left, his two cronies had taken it a step further than he ever had and locked me into the small storage cupboard for an hour, probably much longer had the janitor not found me. I told her about the small space and how it incited unwanted memories, and my very clear panic attack a few days ago when Reece had pulled me into that cupboard.

I sipped my wine and stared at the TV. "So this morning, when I heard about the two of them getting beat up and their reaction to me in the hallway, I was so confused. All this time I thought Reece had told them to lock me in there two years ago."

Roxy was silent for a minute. "You know," She started. "What I find weirdest is why now. Why does he care so much now, care that you had a panic attack and that this horrible thing had happened to you under his nose."

I shrugged, equally confused.

"I have a theory. I think Reece was triggered when he saw you being close with Cullen, like the many times I've seen him get jealous of boys who get close to you." She shushed me when I started making noises of disbelief. "No, hear me out. When you really think about it, he has never done something like locking you in, its always mostly been verbal, although I'm not saying that doesn't hurt just as much, maybe even more. I think that he's a shitty human being, but he actually cares about not crossing the line. And what his buddies did was crossing the line."

I ignored the parts about jealousy but agreed with her about him not crossing the line in this sense, in the sense of physically hurting me or endangering me.

"Whatever happens, next time, I want you to tell me when you have panic attacks. I want to be there for you and help you!" Roxy scolded me.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "The hypocrisy! Why don't you ever come to me when you have those sad days when you pretend like you have a bunch of assignments but really you're at home mourning? Why don't you let me be there for you then?"

Roxy frowned at me and pouted, knowing I was right. Roxy's dad had passed away a few years back just like my mom had passed away when I was little, the only difference being that she was actually close to him, unlike my glacial mother and our relationship. She grumbled under her breath as I hid my smile at her behavior. We were silent for a few minutes, lost in our thoughts.

"It's so confusing to me. Why all this, why after so much time, and why is he always paying attention to my every move." I huffed in annoyance.

"To be fair," Roxy started, with a sly grin. "He has always watched you, since freshman year. Always staring, always noticing things."

I blushed at her words and rolled my eyes. "That is not true, you're just mistaking his angry glares. And speaking of staring, you little heifer, don't pretend like John isn't always staring at you even when he's pretending to be all funny and clownish."

"Shut up about that, it's not true!" Roxy burst out while I laughed at her pink face, the same shade it got whenever I pointed out John's stares.

"He hides so much behind that funny facade. He must've gotten hurt really bad in the past." I say, grabbing a few more chips.

"Yeah, he hides a lot of himself," Roxy muttered quietly. I watched her sad expression with a frown as she reached out and unpaused the show, distracting us both but not our thoughts on the two men we were discussing.

******

A few days later, it was a slow day and John's weekly session. As we drew nearer to the semester's end, I could see real improvement in him. I had made him play a few simple memory games as a way to test out if it helped him remember the many laws and figures in International relations, and it had worked surprisingly well. Currently, we were sitting on my kitchen counter doing economics together, specifically a few statistics sums he had difficulty grasping. John was smart but in very specific applications, such as pure maths. For some reason, linear programming went over his head, or maybe it was because he got bored too soon with the long sums, although they were simple for his capabilities. Although this was not a part of our tutoring subject, he had helped me with my pure math subject in exchange for help with stats.

"No, for the last time, John," I sighed but patiently explained to him, "the sum does not end once you finish the regression part. You need to assign the jobs on the basis of regression results, so you absolutely have to get that part right, as well as the actual progression before it."

John banged his head on my table at my words. As he continued to grumble and I patted my hand on his shoulder consolingly, my door bell rang.

I got up from my seat opposite John and opened the door. Before I could even see the visitor's face, I got pulled up in a fireman hold, making me shriek.

I heard a familiar laugh and slapped the large back holding me up. Alex put me down and pulled my cheeks, making me grumble and slap his chest, which of course did nothing but make him laugh again. "You goof, you scared me!"

He grinned and hugged me, and I hugged him back tight, having missed my big brother. The last time we had met had been almost a year ago, owing to him missing the last Christmas family dinner.

I let go and turned around to pull him inside before noticing John standing in the entrance of my kitchen, who had probably heard my shriek and come out. His mouth was gaping open and his eyes wide, trained on Alex.

I sniggered and pulled him forward, gesturing to Alex, who was looking at John with a suspicious face. "John, this is my brother Alex, Alex this is my close friend and tutor-student John!" I introduced them cheerfully.

Alex wordlessly raised his hand, and John's eyes widened even more before he shook the man's hand. John turned to look at me. "I think you meant to say best friend, also please pinch me because I think I'm dreaming." He said in a tight voice.

I laughed and turned to Alex. "John's a basketball player. He's small forward for Duke, they recently got off from an 8 game win streak."

"That is pretty cool." Alex folded his arms and regarded John with an impressed face. "Are you entering the drafts kid?"

"Uh, I'm not sure yet but mostly I will. Sir. Holy shit you're Alex Campbell, Golden State Warriors, MVP 2 seasons ago." John said in a rush.

"Last time I checked." Alex looked amused.

John looked at me again. "Holy shit."

Alex stepped forward and placed a hand on John's shoulder, squeezing and making him wince. "What exactly are your intentions with my sister?" He asked in a flat voice.

I rolled my eyes and forcefully removed Alex's hand, shoving his arm away.

John stepped back with a gulp. "No intentions at all sir, none, I am a very nice person and would not like to get murdered by you or Reece."

My eyes widened and this time I shoved John away, making him snigger. He seemed to be recovering well from his shock.