The Two Alphas of Rosewood Creek [MxM]

Chapter 15

Ryder, the ginger shitbag he was, smiled with evil delight as I stumbled aback, dusting the gravel off jeans, a sharp pain stinging the palms of my hands as small cuts from my fall started to seep trickles of blood. Regaining my composure, I saw that I was surrounded; these were Nate's boys as far as I could remember, recognizing them from Theo's brief altercation with the gang in the cafeteria. But Nate was nowhere in sight. The odds were out the window. Six miscreants to one shaky nerd‒‒I had no chance at winning here.

Ryder paced slowly around me as the jock squad formed a circle, caging me in as if we were in some kind of cockfighting deathmatch. Strangely enough, I found myself distracted by the sun setting behind my assailants: vignetted by the tree-covered mountain peaks, surrounded in almost the same way I was.

"Well if it isn't the new kid." Ryder's cackling filled the air, and he stopped so close in front of me that I could feel his stale breath settling around the skin of my face. I shifted slightly, recoiling my head in mild nausea, possibly to avoid regurgitating any small amount of my library snack directly onto him. "I haven't seen you around school lately," he said precariously. "Lunch just hasn't been the same without you."

I involuntarily rolled my eyes, which seemed to deeply unnerve the flaming dickweed in front of me.

I mean, it's not my fault that he's mad about his small dick, or that I have a flagrant inability to take people's bullshit seriously.

Ryder's eyebrows raised to my defiant stance. It was almost as if he expected his mere presence might collapse me to my knees. Yet there I was, calmy standing with my hands in the pockets of my hoodie, side-eyeing him as he continued to circle me like some sort of pedantic, mediocre hyena. On some level, I knew he'd done this to other people before; only, in the past it must have been easier‒‒people getting down to quake on their knees and pleading for mercy. But here I was: having not said a word, seemingly unbothered.

"I was just wondering where you had been all this time. Until I saw you standing here, all by yourself. Where'd you little loser friend go? Or your big bad boyfriend from that trash pack?" I furrowed my brow. Sure, Kash was kind of a loser‒‒but my loser friend nevertheless. And Theo?... My boyfriend? Is that what people really thought of us? We'd only just kissed two hours ago. Had the word somehow gotten out? My thoughts became a whirlwind.

What the fuck is going in here on this day?

As perturbed as I began to feel, I somehow managed to maintain quiet and stillness. Something was telling me to stay put and just hold my ground, so I did precisely that.

"Nothing to say, huh?" My silence was beginning to aggravate him, but the group of scoundrels encircling us egged him on. "That's interesting, seeing as you can't seem to shut up when your crew's with you." I couldn't decide which was funnier: the fact that he couldn't even come up with a good read, or that he couldn't manage to talk without spitting on me. And his face was still so close to mine that I started seeing the milia on his forehead and under eyes and the oily zits along his jawline. His skin was only made paler by the contrast of his fire engine red hair coiffed into a pompous greasy comb over.

"Come on, you little bitch! Say something!"

Doing my best to hold like a brick wall, at this point I was starting to feel twinges of fear go off in my stomach. This was probably going to get physical, no matter what I did; and I don't think there was going to be anyone swooping in to save me this time. A small headache started to linger behind my eyes and I could feel the blood vessels swelling in my forehead