The Fun In Being Blackmailed | ✓

01.| the crybaby incident

                  Brooke liked to believe that she's mentally stable enough to not have a mental breakdown on school grounds.
It takes a special kind of thing or someone to make her eyes well up despite being known around as a big sensitive softie.

She stared at her phone, disbelief written all over her face. Her chest wasn't rising and falling anymore as she forgot how to breathe. Her hands shook uncontrollably which caused the phone to drop out of her grip. She felt as if someone poured freezing cold liquid over her, or as if someone shocked her with the city's electric charge.

God, this can't be happening. She thought she would be the last person on Earth for something like that to happen to her. She is pretty reserved, she barely even wears shorts or crop tops so how did someone manage to see her naked and take pictures of her nude? It didn't quite register yet.

She was on her lunch break, she hadn't even made it to the cafeteria yet. She slid down against the cold lockers of her school and fell to the ground next to her phone. What has she done to deserve this? She is a good person, she rescued two dogs and adopted them, she feeds the homeless when she can and she doesn't anger her mom. Her grades are good, she doesn't go to church regularly but she still does. She tries to be nice and kind to everybody so why was this happening to her?

The tears hadn't fully fallen down when she heard footsteps approaching. She quickly rose to her feet with her hands still shaking and her knees still wobbly and weak. She inhaled and wiped away whatever fell from her eyes before she proceed to walk away so nobody can see her. What she didn't consider is the direction of the footsteps so she assumed that the walker was headed to the cafeteria so she went the same way to avoid crushing into them.

Alistair McCall hated lunch, he was probably the only student who did so. It was probably for all the unnecessary and uncomfortable stares that he gets. He was more on the popular side but not because he was funny, smart, beautiful or athletic, it was because he punched the school's golden boy and keyed a teacher's car. In his defence, they got what was coming for them. He was their bad karma in a way.

He bought himself a turkey sandwich and headed to eat it either in the parking lot or the small back yard, whichever had less people.

He was busy scrolling through his phone to see a head of blonde hair bumped right into him and caused him to lose his balance for a quick second. The girl though wasn't as lucky and was quickly falling to the floor.

Alistair super fast reflexes caught her by the elbow and pulled her towards his chest to steady her. Her small, well manicured hand rested on his chest and a small gasp escaped her small yet full lips.

"A-" As soon as his eyes took in the girl, he knew something wrong has happened to her and he found himself wanting to know what.

"Are you okay?" Alistair furrowed his eyebrows. His question held a double meaning that was only obvious to him.

"I am, thanks. Sorry about that." A forced smile made its way onto Brooke's lips. Alistair hesitatantly let go of the girl's elbow as she took a few steps back.

"It's okay, it was my fault too, I wasn't looking where I was going." Alistair tried to grin so the air would lighten up a bit but the girl was so tense, it was like she's trying to hold something in.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Brooke didn't know why the bad boy of her school was even remotely concerned about her. She can't actually believe he's talking to her. It's a day full of surprises for her.

"Yes, I am sure." No, she wasn't okay and she definitely wasn't sure about anything. The solid ground underneath her seemed to be shifting and crumbling. Her life right then was experiencing an earthquake.

Brooke wanted to get rid of him quickly before her legs could give up on her again. She tried walking away but her legs were too weak, she couldn't stay upright so she found herself sliding to the floor again. A silent sob escaped her as she did so. Her hand covered her mouth as salty tears started flowing again. She was full on crying in front of the infamous bad boy.

A brick of empathy and concern hit Alistair in the face as he watched the little blonde lady cry. He sat on the floor next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He brought her closer to his chest as she sobbed quietly into his shirt. He rubbed his hand over her forearm in a comforting gesture, hoping to somehow ease her pain. He might have seen her around but he definitely didn't know her to be comforting her in this way, but something about her innocent face that made her look like a hurt little girl.

Brooke couldn't bring herself to care about the current position she was in with Alistair. She needed someone and he was in wrong place at the wrong time.

"Shhh, it's gonna be alright." He whispered into her hair as she continued to whimper.

"No, it won't." She whispered back as another round of tears escaped her. She took a second too long to think about whether or not should she tell him about the nudes but before she could, the bell above them rang. It was a wake up call for her, what was she thinking?

She got up hurriedly and wiped her tears with the sleeves of her sweater. She apologised and thanked Alistair one more time before basically running to her next class.

Alistair stood still in his place as he watched her jog away with her hair flying behind her like a cape. He was confused and disorientated, what just happened?

He really didn't like to show his soft side to anybody, in this school they liked to take advantage of it and the only thing you receive for being kind is a bunch of nonsense rumors surrounding you and haunting you like ghosts. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. It had already been a very long day so he decided to skip the rest of the day so he could find something relaxing to do, so he went back home to an empty house and took the longest nap ever.

This was supposed to be up on Saturday but something came up. Sorry :(

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are excited for the next one.

Are you ready to start this new journey with me?

I'm thrilled to be writing this book, I have high hopes for it.

From now on updates are going to be every Saturday unless I get held back by school or some other things.

I love you all and thank you for reading this chapter!

-Hayfaa Abbara