Dangerous [A BAD BOY ROMANCE]

9

The boys and I climb out of the water after our cliff jumping experience, and I ring out my hair onto the dirt. I spot Maddie and Sam sitting on a couple of rocks in another area of the lagoon.

"I'll be right back," I tell the boys. "I've gotta go say hi to some friends." They nod and continue whatever conversation they're having about how sick the cliffs were. The rough rocks sitting in the sand make it a bit difficult to walk on, but I make it over to Sam and Maddie fairly quickly. 

"Teagan! Hey girl!" Maddie calls out.

"Hi! So good to see you, girls! I feel like it's been way too long." I feel a little guilty for keeping the fact that I'm friends with Gray Williams on the down low, but I know it will just create more drama than within my friend group, so I keep my mouth shut. "Where's Leila?"

"She didn't come today, she said she's feeling a little under the weather." I nod.

"Oh, that's too bad, this place is awesome."

"Yeah, it's gorgeous right?" Sam adds. I look at Sam and notice for the first time what she looks like without her regular dark eye makeup. She looks good.

"So where have you been the past couple of days?" Maddie asks. "Besides having lunch with the cool guys of course." There's an underlying bitterness in her voice.

"Oh, you know, homework." I'm surprised they haven't heard about the incident with Luca. To be fair, this school is bigger than any other school I've been to thus far, and the girls aren't really great friends with that group. Maybe Luca's trying to keep it out of the public eye for the sake of his pride.

"Okay well, I'm gonna go get a drink." Maddie ends and then walks away. The anger in her voice is more clear this time.

"Everything okay with her?" I ask Sam.

"I'm not sure. I should probably go check on her. Sam chases after Maddie quickly, leaving me alone. I'm not exactly sure what I did to make Maddie so angry. I mean of course I've been hanging out with Gray, her crush, but she doesn't necessarily know the whole situation. Thinking about it now, I realize just how shitty of a friend I'm being to Maddie. I should've never even considered something happening between Gray and me after she told me about her feelings for him. From now on, I'll keep Gray at a distance, I don't need to stop hanging out with him and the other boys, but I do need to make sure that he and I are nothing more than friends.

I stat back over the warm sand towards the boys, deciding that standing alone awkwardly at a party isn't my best move. I make my way over the rocky sand and through the closely grouped trees. I'm just about to reach the guys, who are laughing about something, when an aggressive grip wraps around my waist, pulling me back into the forest surrounding the trees. Everything inside of me fears that Luca is here with me, and is about to finish what he started at his house, but to my relief, a tall black haired boy stands in front of me when I turn around.

"What the fuck?" I yell. "You scared the shit out of me!" The look of anger on the black haired kid's face doesn't change. I've seen him before in the hallways, he's one of Luca's minions.

"Luca doesn't like what your boy did to him. He broke his nose, you know that?" Something snaps inside me at that. I don't wanna be the new girl who can't stand up for herself anymore.

"That fucker deserved it. You probably deserve a good punch too." I growl.

"Be careful what you say, baby. You never know what could happen." The boy says, clearly trying to put on a seductive tone. Once again, I feel anger rush through my body. Nobody should be speaking to me like I'm an object. I pull my hand back and slap the guy in front of me across the face. 

"Fuck off. I'm not scared of you." The boy pulls his hand up to his face as if in shock, and his eyes darken with rage.

"You really shouldn't have fucking done that." He snarls. "Darell!" All of a sudden, another male teenager emerges from the trees behind me and grabs my arms, pulling them tight. I struggle to escape. "Well, Teagan, I was hoping to have a civil conversation with you, but apparently you can't have any interaction without either throwing yourself all over the other person or hurting them." Darrell pulls my arms tighter behind my body. "Now obviously we can't mess with big bad boy Gray, which is where you come in. Because what're you gonna do if we do something, I don't know, like this?" As he's speaking he pulls his fist back and rams it right into my abdomen. All of the air leaves my lungs from the impact, and I feel an excruciating pain throughout my stomach. My legs sway beneath me, and if it weren't for Darell holding me from behind, I'd probably fall down. "You can't do anything if we do this." He punches me again. "Or this." He punches me again. I can only imagine what the bruises will look like, but somehow I keep my cool and don't immediately panic. The punching continues for a couple more minutes. With each punch, the pain in my stomach increases exponentially.

"Now Teagan, you know what we can do. If either you or Gray crosses us again, you can expect more where that came from." Darell drops me to the ground, and both of the boys walk away from the small patch of trees we'd been standing in. I'm in a lot of pain, and there's nothing I want to do more than go home and take a long hot bath. I want to go tell Gray what's happened and seek his comfort, but I flash back to the boy's words. If either Gray or I do anything about this, it will only make things worse. I take a moment to compose myself and pick myself up off of the ground. The pain coming from my stomach is still there, but it's gotten better since Luca's boys left. All I have to do is put on a t-shirt and ask if Gray will drive me home. I'm sure he'll understand.

Mustering up as much confidence as I can, I walk out of the forest and back toward where I remember seeing the boys last. They're still there, laughing about something still. I walk first over to the rock that holds my clothing, and throw on my t-shirt, deciding that my shorts can wait. After that, I make my way over to the group of boys.

"What's up T?" Aaron addresses me first. I make a small smile at him before looking at Gray.

"Can you take me home?" I see the concerned look I know so well come over Gray's face.

"Of course."