The Prince and the Bookworm

Chapter 49

"Sadie?" My name was spoken by Dallas. It was a gentle prompting, one that made me realize that many moments of complete silence had passed. I was still trying to figure out what to say, to try and form a game plan in my head. Apparently the boys were getting impatient. Which meant that it was time to throw any plans out the window and wing it.

This was going to be fun.

"Okay look," I started, fixing my gaze on the twins. For extra emphasis, I tightened my grip on the notebook. Unsurprisingly, it didn't faze them in the least. "I get that Adam is totally and utterly annoying. I know that he's a jerk."

I paused momentarily when I saw Adam shooting me daggers out of the corner of my eye. Not helping, his bold hazel eyes seemed to yell at me. I chose to ignore him.

"But that doesn't give you the right to bully him." I finished strongly, hoping that Sam and Trevor would hear a note of confidence in my tone. I had backed down from a lot of things in my life. But if there was one thing I hated most in the world, it was bullies. This was something I was not going to back down from. As though sensing my resilience, Trevor stepped forward and got in my face.

"Listen you b-"

"No, you listen." I snapped, accepting the challenge by also stepping forward. When I locked eyes with him our noses were only a couple inches apart. I didn't usually confront people with so much audacity, but I was feeling a little heated in the moment. "Don't even try to justify bullying to me cause you'll only waste your breath. I've been a victim of bullying ever since middle school and I'm sick and tired of it. So why don't you just back," I stabbed a finger into his chest, "off."

Trevor's eyes tore viciously into mine and his hands balled into tight fists. But despite the acts of intimidation, he actually took a small step backwards. To be honest, I was glad some distance had been put between us. Being that close to him had been more unnerving than I had allowed myself to let on. Trevor suddenly let loose a haughty laugh.

"If you weren't a girl...." He didn't finish his sentence, letting the threat hang in the air.

"Knock it off." Dallas intervened coolly, placing himself in the small distance between Trevor and I. It was subtle enough, but I instantly noticed the protective nature of his actions. Sam must have also noticed because he sauntered up to stand beside his brother. As I looked back and forth between the rigid body language and intense stares, I knew that another fight was about to break out. Even Adam was slowly making his way over to rejoin Dallas.

"No!" I yelled, tugging on Dallas' arm. Thankfully, he complied and allowed me to pull him away from the twins. "We are going to talk this out like civilized people. If one more punch is thrown, I swear to God I'm going straight to the principal and then we'll all get punished. Is that really what you want?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at Trevor and Sam.

"As long as he goes down with us I don't really care." Sam snarled, jabbing a finger in Adam's direction.

"What is your deal anyways?" Dallas demanded, taking a menacing step towards them. I reached a hand out and grabbed his arm, scared that he might decide to let his anger take over. "What did he ever do to you?"

"Nothing." Trevor answered with a shrug of his shoulders. I gave him a puzzled glance. The nonchalant way he had answered caught me off guard. "He's arrogant and he thinks he's above everyone else. We're just putting him in his place."

"You've kidding, right?" I asked, staring at them with a look of obvious shock and disgust on my face. I could tell by the way their eyes flashed in my direction that my question had rubbed them the wrong way.