BENEATH HIS MASK

CHAPTER 7 HER AUDACITY

I (A/N - this chapter is dedicated to my friends -@micaela_cr , panathi aka @manjuladinesh and @scarlet_prii for being excited and patient readers. a big shout out to my sister @ridhi19 who claims to be a fan of both Rebecca and Damien. sorry I took so long guys, I hit a writer's block and that's why I was late with the update. I am recovering from it now. if you like this chapter click on the star and vote and leave a comment. your feedback means a lot especially since I am sort of new here and this is my first story

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(Damien's POV)

"aaaagh." My opponent groaned. I was having my weekly kickboxing match and needless to say I won this round. It took me more time than usual in knocking my opponent to the ground but then again my head wasn't at the right place.

"damn it Damien. What the hell is wrong with you today?" my opponent Derek Zander asked.

"what do you mean?" i asked panting.

"well you are not in the game today." He replied as stood up. I handed him a bottle of water as i wiped my face with a towel.

"i know I took five minutes more than i usually do." I said now regaining my composure.

"not only that, it was more like your head wasn't in the game but somewhere else. Yes, You took more time but your punches were twice as hard as if it was driven with aggression. Like you were mad and not focused." He explained.

"yeah?" I asked no longer in the mood to listen to this.

"does this have anything to do with that girl?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

The mention of Rebecca made my blood boil. While Derek didn't really interest me with this conversation, the mention of her made me alert. She is the first girl in my 21 years that managed to aggravate me so much. Although it didn't start of like
that, it really didn't. I first got to know of her through word of mouth by some of the other students in college. I got news that a freshmen had the guts to spite my boys in public. I couldn't believe my ears so i called my best friend Darren to confirm it. He then told me about Rebecca and Liam's so called conversation. I was amused to say the least. In all honesty i was actually impressed. Liam wasn't actually a lady's man. He used classless ways to hit on women and managed to disgust them rather than impress them. He must have used this trick thousands of time and on countless occasions, he either managed to get slapped or send the girl crying. But this one actually managed to turn the table around. she made Liam the laughing stalk for his classless trick. Needless to say, i wanted to meet her. Moreover my guys weren't happy with her especially liam who kept insisting that i had to teach her not to mess with us. To be honest i wasn't really a fan of liam. He always played cheap games with us and was a snitch from time to time. But he was one of us, a part of the gang. And the fact that his dad was a lawyer had proven to be helpful on multiple occasions. So i decided to help him out. I had to think of a way to meet her. I wasn't the type of guy to go to someone, it made me feel powerless. I always liked it when people came to me.

So i decided to throw a party at my pent house, and invited the entire college.

Given my reputation with parties, i knew that word would spread and it would tempt anyone. All i had to do was to wait and watch. At the party while i was hanging out with liam, some girls came to us and started flirting with me. One was batting her eye lashes while the other was fiddling with her hair. Liam tried to impress them but they seemed uninterested by anything he said. He then gave me a dirty look and challenged me to an arm wrestling match. Needless to say i beat him in a matter of minutes. The girls started to
clap their hands and bat their eyelashes which i found so typical. I was bored by this so i decided to take a dip in the pool. Liam told that he would come with me. For some reason he wanted to see who could swim faster which seemed childish to me. We both jumped at the same time but by the time i was in in the

other end of the pool liam was still in the canter. When he came out he looked like he was going to hit someone. He then came up to me and told me that our guest of honour has arrived. I turned

my attention to where liam pointed and then i saw her. She looked nothing like I expected. I thought that she would be dressed in a leather jacket and have dyed hair to give a tough persona or in a slutty dress to attract attention. But she was dressed in a simple outfit of jeans, tank top and jacket. I imagined the event at the cafeteria was just a way of showing off or attracting attention but judging by her outfit and body language, i was starting to have my doubts on that. I approached her and introduced herself. She simply stared at me as if she never saw a man before in
her entire life. I took that as an opportunity to make a snide comment.

''are you going to enjoy the party or continue to stare?" to which she started to
stammer. I thought that it would be easy to threaten her. Christ! I was so wrong. She started to give snide repliesto my threats. I was actually amused by her replies to my hidden threat until, When I told her i have eyes everywhere, she actually retorted by saying that we can't even see the difference between a guy and a girl and she left the party creating another scene telling us we are brainless who gets away with things because we have money. I couldn't let her get away with this. She had to learn that along with money, we had power and no one dared to mess with us. The next morning at college when i ran into the college s****t. Her name was Abigail.... something. She was rumoured to be the girl with no self esteem. She was the use and throw toy for many guys including me from time to time. I didn't have any other need for her but she was exactly what i needed right now. Abigail was known to make life miserable for other girls and i needed her to give Rebecca the message so when i ran into her. I told her i had a job for her. She happily obliged. It was simple to do, i needed Abigail to make Rebecca apologise and capture it in video. Abigail was assured that she would be able to get the job done. She told me that she would threaten Rebecca and make her apologise while a friend would record the whole thing from a distance. I was supposed to meet her a few hours after lunch to see the video. But what i saw shocked even me, Rebecca managed to break Abby, she actually made her cry. Just who is this girl?. Instead of an apologising she called me a freeloader of my brother's money. I was infuriated by this. I went looking for her and finally found her coming out of the library. I couldn't control my anger. It's like rage had captured my body when i slammed her against a wall. She asked me to let go but i felt like i couldn't. I didn't know what came over me, i never manhandled a woman before. But this girl knew just where to poke me. She managed to infuriate me but then again she was the
only one who stood upto me. After a while, she did something which made me speechless. She actually slapped me. She
had the audacity to slap me. How dare she? . she however wasn't speechless, she looked at me with such fire in her eyes, i never seen such fire in anyone's eyes let alone a woman. She looked at me with those brown eyes filled with fire and then started to speak.

"i will tell you what you are. You are a coward who over powers those who are weaker than you thinking that's strength. Well let me tell you that you are mistaken. real Strength isn't fighting those who are in a weaker position to dominate your power; it is standing up to something or someone even if the odds are against you. You are a coward and an arrogant jerk who has no respect for women." She said and stormed away. I just remained standing not knowing to go after her and threaten her or just go away. It was as if i had forgotten how to move. it was at the moment i noticed people whispering and talking, that i knew that every teacher and student passing by had witnessed what happened. i then realised she didn't just slap me, she slapped me in front of the entire college.

I would definitely not let her get away with this. It was at that moment i took a solemn vow that i would make her life miserable as long she is here.
(A/N
Guys let me know if there are typos