No Strings Attached (SUSPENDED)

Chapter 6

The word 'whore' echoes around my head as I stare at Kat in disbelief. I keep my mouth shut as she continues her verbal attack.

"I mean, the little virgin hooking up with a college student? How low can you get?" She sneers, glaring at me. I continue to keep quiet, hoping she'd let me go soon, not that it mattered, by this point I was most definitely late for class. She continues to verbally abuse me. Throwing in words a lot worse than 'whore'. Every word feels like a punch in the gut and before long my eyes are filled with unshed tears and my throat is as dry as a desert.

"How do you know?" I manage to croak around the lump in my throat. She grins her malicious grin as her eyes glint evilly.

"So it is true. Somebody saw you leave the bedroom with him, you wasn't exactly discreet about it, slut," her eyes narrow on the word 'slut' and it pierces through me. I bite the inside of my cheek to stop my tears from falling. I can't show her how much her words affect me; I've made that mistake before. Whoever created the saying "Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me", had clearly never been bullied before. Words hurt.

The rest of the day drags by, with people purposely pushing me and aiming horrible insults at me between classes. Somebody even has the cheek to call me an attention seeker. I'm pretty sure I'd prefer to go through high school without all the negative attention. By the time the day is over I'm too emotionally exhausted to even smile at Madison when she runs past me on her way to cheer practise. The whole reason I gave my virginity up without commitment was so the bullying would stop, but instead it's gotten worse. Yet I can't bring myself to regret my night with Oliver McAlister, no matter how hard I try.

** Flashback **

Oliver and I made our way back to his house and my car. His hand continuously brushed mine as we walked side by side, causing goose bumps to rise along my arm.

"So was this our first date?" He asked, winking at me with a cheeky grin on his handsome face. I stumbled over my words for a second.

"Date? What happened to no strings attached?" I rushed. He stopped momentarily and frowned before continuing his stride.

"We kind of broke that rule the moment you agreed to go for milkshake with me, sweetheart," he wiggled his eyebrows like a child. I tried not to smile but I just couldn't help myself and a grin ended up spreading across my face.

"You practically kidnapped me."
"If I had kidnapped you then you wouldn't be walking to your car right now."
"What? You would have killed me? I thought you was better than that, Oli."
"That's it."

Oliver lunged at me. Terrified I was going to get ticked half to death again, I set off into a sprint, running as fast as my short legs would go. If I was a cartoon right then you would have seen my legs going around in a circular blur with the wind rushing behind me, pulling my hair with it. The only difference was; I wasn't fast, or graceful enough for my hair to flow behind me. Instead it got stuck in my mouth choking me and then wrapped around my eyes, blinding me long enough to sprint face first into another warm human body.

I rebounded off the body, flying backwards. This would be the part where my knight in shining armour would catch me so I wouldn't hurt myself. But no, instead Oliver jumped back to protect himself and I fell on my arse, possibly bruising it.

Oliver, the kind gentleman, burst out laughing as I fiercely glared at him. I heard an angry huff and my eyes widened at Oliver before turning to face the victim of my attack. Familiar dark blue eyes stared back at me, but instead of being connected to Oliver's body, they were connected to his, pretty intimidating, younger brother's.