Hardin Scott has been madly in love with Tessa Young since the moment he first laid eyes on her, but there's no way she could ever see him as anything more than a friend. After all, he's a bad boy with a promiscuous past and she's a sweet and innoce...
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"Tessa! Tessa, are you here?" I shout as I burst into the apartment. No one answers. I search the living room, her room, and even my room. She's not here and I feel nauseous.
Suddenly, I hear sobbing and realize it's coming from the bathroom. I walk over and place my ear against the door. Tessa is quietly sobbing and my heart breaks. I knock gently on the door. "Tess, are you alright in there?" She doesn't answer me, so I ask a little louder, "Tess, please answer me."
"I'll be out soon, Hardin," she manages to say, her voice cracking.
Does she know? If not, how am I going to tell her this? Why do I keep having to tell her about all the shit Zed decides to do to her?
I'm pacing impatiently around the living room when I finally hear the bathroom door open. Tessa's eyes are all red and puffy. She knows. I decide to see what she knows first before I drop the sex tape bomb on her. "Tess? Please tell me what's wrong."
"We should sit down," she says as she drags me over to the couch. My stomach sinks.
"You can tell me anything," I say as I place my fingers under her chin to force her to look at me. I need her to know she doesn't need to feel ashamed with me.
"It's bad, Hardin," she says shaking her head and looking down at her fidgeting hands in her lap.
"It's okay, take your time," I assure her.
"Today at school everyone was acting so weird. I had no idea what was going on, until Emma told me in yoga class."
"What did Emma tell you, Tess?"
"People are spreading rumours about me... about me being easy, sleeping with a lot of guys. I'm a slut to them," she starts to cry.
"Tess..." Tessa doesn't deserve any of this.
"Girls were whispering and gossiping. And guys... guys were..." She starts sobbing so much she can't finish her sentence.
"Guys were what, Tessa?" I ask angrily. I know first hand what guys were doing, but I hope Tessa didn't hear any of it.
"They were leering at me and making vulgar comments to me. On my way to yoga class a group of them cornered me and they were harassing me and saying disgusting things to me."
"Fuck! I knew I should have killed those little bastards," I say as I angrily jump to my feet.
"What?" Tessa asks, confused.
"I heard a bunch of guys talking about you today, too. I didn't know it was you until one used your name," I say as I sit back down and take Tessa's shaking hands in mine. "That's when I grabbed him and slammed him against the wall."
"Oh. You heard the things they are saying about me?"
"I did, but Tess, I think it's worse than you know." I look into her eyes.
"What could be worse?" She starts to tear up again and looks away.
"Fuck... I hate telling you this. I heard them talking about videos of you."
Tessa whips her head around to look at me. "Videos?" She has the most confused look on her face.
"Sex tapes, Tess." There is no way to sugar coat this.
"What?! Who told you that?"
"The guy I assaulted. He said he heard there were sex tapes of you from some guy. I'll give you one guess who."
"Zed is telling people he has sex tapes of me?"
"Not just telling, Tessa. He's threatening to show them," I warn.
"So, Zed started all this? I thought it was Molly..." she trails off.
"Tess, that's not the most important part right now. People are going to see you... having sex with Zed," I choke on those disgusting words. I hate thinking of that sick son of a bitch touching her.
"There are no videos, Hardin," she sighs.
"What? You don't think he'd do that to you after everything else he's already done? How can you still be so naive?" I start to shout.
"You don't understand. There can't be any videos of him and me."
"And why not?" I demand.
"I never slept with him."
"What?" I ask, more confused than ever.
"I never slept with him. I've never slept with anyone. I'm a virgin."
She's a virgin? Suddenly, relief washes over me knowing that Zed can't use anything against her, but also at the thought of Tessa being only mine some day.
"Hardin?" Tessa breaks me from my thoughts.
"Sorry, Tess. I'm just so... surprised. Have you and Zed done... anything together?"
"Nothing major. We've only fooled around a little. We've never been naked together, though."
Suddenly, him cheating with Molly makes sense. He couldn't get anything from Tessa, so he went to her. Now, he's going around pretending he's had Tessa and has videos. I didn't think it was possible to want to kill him more. I also understand why Tessa wanted to go slow with me.
"All those threats of making me regret leaving him make sense now," she sighs.
"Come here, Tess." I pull her into a hug. "Don't worry. He's a dead man, I promise."
