Nero(37)

As Elle walked down the hallway, she saw Sebastian and a senior doing something fishy. Sebastian handed over the money while the senior handed over a small bag. Elle figured they thought they were being sneaky doing it in the back hall when all the teachers had checked their minds out for the day an hour ago.

When the deal was done, Sebastian looked around as the senior left with his money. Elle quickly turned her head, afraid Sebastian might have seen her. She guessed he hadn’t when he didn’t come after her.

She was closer to the doors when she had to take a sharp turn to get out of the halls and reach the front. When she took the turn, she felt a huge whack on her face. She swore she heard her nose break from the hit. Elle was whacked so hard she fell back on her ass. Reaching for her nose, she could feel the blood rush down her face, soaking her shirt.

Elle looked up and saw Chloe frozen in place and Sebastian standing over her with a huge-ass biology book in his hands. Elle was terrified by the look on Sebastian’s face.

“You need to fucking keep your eyes to yourself, bitch.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything. I don’t care what you do.” Her hands and arms were now saturated in blood.

“What the fuck did you just say to me? You don’t care what I do?” Sebastian reared the book back in his hands as Elle covered her head. She felt a smash on her forearm and prayed it wasn’t broken, either, because of the sound she’d heard.

“Keep your fucking mouth shut, the both of you.”

Elle looked up. She was sick to her stomach that he would go for Chloe. Exactly as she’d feared, he reared the book back again, this time toward Chloe.

“Noooo!” Elle moved to grab his leg and was happy when she didn’t hear the book connect.

“Don’t you tell me no.” Sebastian raised the book back a third time.

Elle managed to get her arms up to cover her again when he smashed her same arm. By the sound, she knew it was as good as broken from the second impact.

Sebastian finally left, satisfied with what had taken place. Elle didn’t even care about her arm when she looked up at Chloe’s crying face. The tears were illuminated red on the right side as they slid down her slashes. It was worth it to her…



“Elle, it’s your turn. Elle.” Elle was brought back by the sound of her name coming from Mr. Evans.

“My turn?” She was starting to become embarrassed when she saw everyone staring at her, especially when Nero turned around.

“Yes, Chloe popcorned you.” Elle couldn’t believe someone had picked Chloe. They probably wanted to hear her stumble.

Elle was grateful when Chloe moved over and put her finger at where to start reading. Elle began reading immediately, not wanting to make a bigger scene. When she popcorned Nero, she decided to follow along this time because she was afraid of the same thing happening again. The class actually flew by for the remaining time now that Elle had decided to get into the story.

The bell rang and Nero actually walked out of the classroom. For some reason, she’d thought he would wait for her. Elle and Chloe packed up their things and walked out to see Nero, Amo, and Vincent leaning up against the lockers, talking. Elle walked over toward them, feeling Chloe following behind.

As soon as Elle got there, their conversation came to an end. Nero nodded his head at Amo and he started walking. Nero was still mad, and he wasn’t trying to act friendly. Elle decided not to care, and subsequently she went to follow Amo.

Chloe walked beside her. Although she was still somewhat awkward, she was getting the hang of it. Elle also thought Nero would walk beside her, but he didn’t do that, either. She turned her head back and saw he was walking beside Vincent today.

Elle was starting to get mad at herself. She didn’t know why she cared so much, but she did. She had actually been getting used to him walking with her and holding her hand. I don’t miss holding his damn hand. Elle decided to get that out of her mind.

“What’s up his butt?” she heard Chloe whisper.

“I don’t know. He was fine before I walked into English. The moment he walked in, though, he flipped a switch and turned into a different person.” Elle kept it at a whisper, as well. The halls were noisy enough to block out anything they said. Besides, they were walking a few feet in front of him while they walked a few feet behind Amo.

“He’s probably bipolar, Elle. You saw the look in his eyes yesterday with Sebastian.” She was probably right. Whatever Nero had, however, he needed to be on medication for his problems.

“I bet you’re right,” Elle whispered back. “He has to have something wrong with him. No one is that perfect and good-looking without having a screw loose.”