Beauty & Her Bruises

Chapter Six

 "Did you see the new guy?" I heard a couple of girls whisper to each other. I slowly placed my notebooks in my locker and grabbed my calculus book out. I placed it neatly in the crook of my arm and stared at the contents of what was in the locker. Mostly just to eavesdrop on the girls next to me. I'm pretty sure they didn't even notice me. "He's so hot."

I smirked a bit but closed my locker door shut. I slowly walked passed them and left the two gossipers alone. I knew whom they were talking about but if Dustin were the same as all of the other guys, he would pine after Serenity and take up all of Meg's offers.

I knew that all of the girls would be too busy to bother me today to catch Dustin's attention. Knowing this, I felt a smile grow on my face as I stepped in the doorway to the classroom.

I was the first one in here but I wasn't surprised. I was usually always the first person in the room. Everybody came five minutes late and the teacher would come right in when the bell rang. He was old and didn't seem like he had enough energy to yell at anyone coming late so he just quietly wrote them a detention slip or he let it pass. Most times he was already sleeping to even notice that nobody was in the doorway. This was his last year so he was letting everyone go easy this year.

I flipped the cover of my notebook and wrote down the objectives for today on a clean page. When I was half way done with the writing, I was a tad bit surprised to see a bunch of the population for the room was already in.

All of the girls were in here.

Looking around again, I understood why they were all in the room now. Dustin was sitting in the back with a slight smirk on his face from all of the female attention and I couldn't help but chuckle a bit. He seemed really mysterious the first day I met him but he was a chatty Cathy now that he was in school.

Too bad he picked the worst day to come in for school. As the door slammed shut to begin the class, all of the girls that were surrounding Dustin had now fled to their original, assigned seats. I stayed put because thankfully this was my natural selection of choice to sit at. I looked back at Dustin again and I smirked, as he seemed like the most lost, puzzled puppy dog ever.

"Who are you?" the substitute teacher snapped. Instantly hinting that the scenario was serious, Dustin's smirk vanished, he took his feet off of the table, removed his arms from behind his head, and stopped tipping the chair backwards.

"Dustin."

The substitute teacher looked at the seating arrangements and her tongue clicked against the top of her mouth. This was the hint that she didn't truly believe him and that she was already ticked off about something. It wasn't a surprise though because this was the most strict substitute in the world and if you even breathed wrong, she would yell at you wrong and write you up.

No warning.

"Well, Dustin," she said marking absentees and whether anyone came late. "Seems like you're not on this list, care to explain?"

"Well," Dustin started. Everyone turned back to see how he was going to react and I couldn't help but do the same. Even Serenity stuttered in front of this substitute and Ashton lost his player, rebel attitude. He bit his lip and then the next minute a smile was plastered on his face. "I'm new here."

I looked back at the substitute to see what she was doing but she was already on the phone to see if his story was allowable or just a lie. When she hung up, she arched her eyebrows and grabbed a ruler. She snapped it down loudly and made everyone jump.

"Well Dustin, it seems as if you're tale is the truth." She walked towards him but he kept the smile on his face. "Since you're new here, why don't you take a closer look at the board." Dustin got up with enthusiasm and made his way towards the giggling group of girls. Instead, the substitute grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and stared straight towards him. "I think you'll be much better if you sit near Zara."

Dustin looked at me and I stared back. He squinted trying to remember me and then his smile grew even wider on his face. He slid in the seat next to me and draped his arm around my shoulder.

"Gladly."

I'm sure my mouth dropped but I saw that the substitute was surprised for a moment. All of the girls that were now giggling, shot me death stares and I couldn't help but shrug Dustin's arm off of my shoulder. The substitute regained her composure and began teaching up front.

"What's with her?" Dustin questioned as he leaned into whisper in my ear. I ignored him and continued writing in my notebook what she was teaching. "Come on, I know you're not that shy." I picked my head up from my notes and managed to raise my eyebrows and staring at him. I looked back at the board and Dustin just sighed a bit. "So are you coming to the library tonight?" I nodded no with my head and opened my textbook to do the practice exercises she was assigning. "Why not?"

"I have work," I whispered without lifting my head from what I was reading. I bit my lip as I tapped the pencil against my forehead.

"The answer is forty-eight," Dustin whispered.

Looking at Dustin, I nodded my head but flipped to the back of the book to see if he was right. Running my finger over the page until I found the correct number, I stared at the answer without blinking. Forty-eight. Flipping back to the regular page, I looked back at him in which he had a smirk on his face.

"How'd you do that?"

"It's easy." He stopped leaning in his chair and pointed at the number. He continued to teach me with confusing methods until the bell rang for us to leave. I closed my book and stared at him until he got up with a smirk on his face.

"My ladies await me but," he said as he looked up. The girls giggled as they waited for him to come and get them. I looked back at Dustin and he placed his hand on my shoulder, but I jerked it away. "On days you come to the library, I can teach you how to do the calculus."

Without letting me reject or accept his offer, he skidded away from me and slyly walked with all of the girls; who were fighting over who got which arm.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my things before making my way to my next class. The hallways weren't as busy as they usually were since everybody was following Dustin, but I still have the greatest luck of running into someone and knocking their things all over the ground.

"I'm sorry!" I said as I bent down to collect them. I didn't even bother looking at who it was but as soon as I picked up their things and stood back up, my smile melted.

Liam roughly grabbed the things from my hands and started walking away. Without thinking, I grabbed onto his arm and clung onto him until he stopped and turned to me.

"How is everything at your house?" I questioned. Liam seemed to process whether to tell me the truth or not. When he figured it out, his voice was hoarse and it was clear he still blamed me for what happened.

"I'm getting kicked out, thanks to you."

I let Liam saunter away after that and my hopes were being crushed. His dad seemed like he was okay with it so I wasn't sure if it was all the mom or if they both agreed on it. I knew the mom would be a lot to handle but it was still scaring me that Liam would have to live on his own.

He didn't even work.

Unless he moved in with boyfriend, I'm not even sure if Liam could survive on his own. I know for a fact that Liam's boyfriend's parents were okay with it though so I wasn't sure how Liam was going to live on his own.

Either way he wasn't forgiving me.

Either way I didn't care.