Bully

"I- I wasn't talking to him." I say and lose my ball again, it rolls along the pavement in front of me but no one goes to retrieve it. The air is thick with tension as I look at the faces that surround me, Three girls and two boys, the leaders of Luca's fan club. They follow him like he's a celebrity, they wear shirts with his face printed on it like fan-merch, I swear one morning I saw them praying together that Luca could live forever like a God. These people are certifiably insane, and I've just touched something that belongs to them.

"Like hell you weren't," One of the boys says to me.

"We literally just saw you two sitting together a little bit ago." A girl with braids in her hair says.

"Why the hell was he talking to you?" The boy sits on the bench and scoots close to me, boxing me in. The others crowd around me until I feel like I'm almost suffocating.

"He-" My mind whirrs as I try to come up with an excuse, "He was just giving me my ball." I muster, I point to the abandoned ping pong ball on the ground. "I dropped it, and I don't know, he was just passing by and saw it, and-"

"Stop lying." a girl with pigtails cuts me off. "We know Luca better than anyone else, and we know he doesn't just approach people out of the kindness of his heart like that."

~They have a good point. Even I know Luca doesn't do stuff like that.~

"I- I don't know-" I try to stick with my lie because I don't know what else I can say. I definitely can't say the truth; that he was helping me with ping pong, cause that might give away the secret. And then both these guys and Luca would be pissed at me. "I should go." I stand and squeeze past the group, I'm surprised they don't try to stop me right away. But when I bend over to pick up my ping pong ball one of the boys steps on it first and crushes it under his shoe.

I don't say anything, I don't want to provoke them anymore than I already have. So I stand and turn to leave.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" The girl with braids steps in front of me and blocks my path. The others crowd around me and I get a sinking feeling in my chest.

This is going to end badly.

"I really don't have any kind of relationship with Luca." I try-

"Who the fuck said you guys had a relationship?" The boy who stomped my ping pong ball asks.

"You're that mortal bitch, aren't you?" another asks.

"Oh, I get it." the braided girl who seems to be their leader laughs sarcastically, "You think because your blood tastes better, you might have a chance with him, is that what it is?"

"No!" I defend myself, "I've never even talked to him before today."

"Shut the fuck up." the girl with pigtails grabs me by my scarf and yanks until I'm nose-to-nose with her, "I saw you fucking talking to him."

I try to straighten myself up but someone from behind me kicks the back of my knees and I end up falling on the pavement. I feel the cement scrap the skin through my jeans. The girl holding my scarf pulls it tighter and I feel my airways constrict. She pulls it until I'm on my knees staring up at her. "Maybe our mortal friend just needs to be taught a lesson."

"That's right," Another agrees, "A lesson to not touch what doesn't belong to her."

"Please." I muster, although it's hard to breath, "I promise- I won't go anywhere near him again."

"Shut up!" Braids spits on my face, and every muscle in my body goes taut. "You obviously haven't learned your lesson yet." She turns to pigtails who's still holding me like a dog on a tight leash. "C'mon, lets go administer our lesson."

Pigtails smiles, and pulls me to my feet and then the whole group of them nearly drag me across the cement and grass to a nearby building.

I've been bullied before, people have left me mean notes, told me to go back where I belong. I've heard people bad-talk me and even say mean things to my face, but I've never been physically assaulted before. I don't know what to do, I don't know how to fight back. There is only one of me and so many of them.

My knees shake as they yank me through an empty hallway in the science building: easily the most elaborate and confusing building on campus. They pull me down a dark abandoned hallway then push me against a door, the door handle jams into my back.

"Please," I try to plead with them again, "I swear, I don't even know Luca."

"Shut the fuck up." Braids yank my scarf from my throat and stuffs into my mouth. My heartbeat starts to beat in my ears.

~Are they going to kill me? They're vampires, heck, they could feed off of me until I'm dead If they want to.~

"Look at that." Pigtails says when my scarf is pulled off, she runs a fingernail over my throat and my pulse quickens, "Is this why you think you have chance with Luca?"

Braids grabs my hair and yanks my head to the side, I try to fight, weak adrenaline running through me, but as quickly as I try to fight I'm subdued. "your neck is the prettiest part of you." she says in my ear as I fight against her, my arms being pinned to the door behind me. She turns to her gang, "What do you say, guys? should we fix that problem?"

Without any hesitation from her question, pigtails takes her long nails and drags it down my neck, it scratches and it hurts, she does it again leaving my skin rough and red. I cringe at the pain, but when braids does the same thing I scream. My neck feels warm suddenly and I know the feeling is blood.

My neck is bleeding.

"Abby, what the hell!" One of the boys speaks for the first time to braids, whose name is apparently Abby.

"What? I'm just having fun." She smirks at me.

"She's bleeding a lot, though." the boy defends.

"Whatever," She makes a disgusted face at me. "you always ruin the fun, Dante." she turns to the boy who is defending me. She tears the scarf out of my mouth and then turns and walks down the hall. "Get rid of her, if we're done with her." She says, and pigtails and the other girl open the closet door I've been pinned to, and push me inside.

They shut the door and lock me away from the world. blood drips from my neck to the floor.

I don't know how long I stay in that closet. There is no light that I can find and the door is locked from the outside. My neck is bleeding, but after an hour or so, the blood stops flowing and starts to turn to dried crust on my neck. Even still, I feel it throb each time my pulse pumps.

I feel trapped in that closet. I cry, I yell, I pound on the door, until I give up.

I hate this. I hate myself.

why did I have to join the ping pong club?

Why did Luca Zhang have to come and ruin my life?

I don't know what time it is when a janitor opens the door to my prison and yelps in surprise at me. I run past him, eyes still burning with tears, and b-line for my dorm.

I run through campus and I don't stop for anyone. I don't stop until I hear my name.

"Theresa."

~Fuck. no one else calls me that except...~

"Luca." I turn to him as he stands on the sidewalk with Travis beside him.

"where were you?" Luca asks, "You missed practice, I told you-" His words stop short when he sees the real state of me.

He steps toward me and I try to back away from him, but he eats up the space between us in a single stride. He grabs my chin and angles it up so he can see my neck. I pull my chin from his grasp.

"Who did this to you?" he asks.