“Let me go,” I demanded. I was angry, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I was angrier about. He shoved me away and when I almost fell, I glared at him but his back was already turned as he walked away as quietly as he’d come. I followed behind at a slower pace so that I could recover from the last five minutes. Fucking hell.

* * *

The cafeteria was alive with upperclassmen milling around in various cliques. I usually avoided the cafeteria, choosing to spend lunch in the library or anywhere Keiran wouldn’t be. It was usually his routine to torture me at either the very start or end of the day and ignore me during the middle. Still, I thought it was safe to be invisible during that time just in case he ever felt extra sadistic.

I chased around answers for why Willow wouldn’t tell me about this summer as I looked around for her. When I didn’t immediately see her, I knew it meant I would have to risk going further. With Keiran out for my head I was more on edge than ever. All morning I’d been wondering if he was actually serious about taking my virginity for revenge.  At least…that’s what I think he was saying.

The idea that Keiran desired me sexually when he hated me so fiercely was impossible to believe. He has to be using sex as a way to humiliate me. It wasn’t about desire. It couldn’t be.

I circled the entire cafeteria looking for Willow when I realized whose table I was unknowingly approaching and before I could avoid it our eyes connected and I suddenly got the feeling that he had been watching me the entire time. I quickly turned around to head back in the opposite direction.

“Stop.”

I froze on the spot. The sound of that command took me back ten years to the playground where I first laid eyes on him. I slowly turned back around to face him and his table of mindless followers.

“Have a seat.” He ordered and pushed out the chair in front of him with his long leg.

“You seriously don’t mean here do you? But we hate her.” The catty girl currently sitting on Keiran’s lap and staring daggers at me was Anya Risdell: head cheerleader, and all-around bitch. I’m sorry was that mean?

“Yes, I mean here. If you have a problem with that you can go sit at another table,” he replied, coldly without taking his eyes off me.

I was still standing a few steps away, thinking of a way to get out of entering further into the lion’s den. When his eyes flickered from me to the chair and back, I reluctantly sat down in the designated chair, letting my displeasure show. He looked only a second away from causing a scene and I remembered all too well the last time he caused a scene in the cafeteria. Don’t go there.

I felt numerous eyes staring between us curiously. Keenan was sitting at the table along with their other friend Quentin, who they called Q. He was a lot like Keiran: silent and brooding. He never really had much to say and sort of moved in silence. No one has ever seen him with a girl on his arm either and so there was a quiet rumor around school that he might be gay. People are idiots.

A couple of other guys and girls were sitting at the table as well but they were all jocks and cheerleaders. Give me a break. Sheldon Chambers, Keenan’s girlfriend was at the table as well. She seemed to be the only person not giving me hostile looks. Instead she was looking at me curiously from her seat next to Keenan.

“Who were you looking for?” Keiran asked breaking me out of my inner musings.

“No one.”

He became eerily silent as he watched me from lowered lids; his face looked like it was carved out of stone as he clenched his jaw muscles. “Is that a lie?”

“No,” I lied again. I didn’t owe him an explanation on anything I did.

“We’ll see,” he replied smoothly, but I heard the threat in his words and saw the promise in his eyes. I knew I made a big mistake by lying, but it was too late to do anything about that now. My mind was occupied with Willow and what I heard just minutes ago.

Sometimes I wondered if Keiran’s empty threats were just that– empty. But the look in his eyes would always warn me that they weren’t. So what held him back? I’ve been enduring his tricks and torments for ten years. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle with only a year left and my freedom right around the corner. I was going to make it.

“So, Lake. How do you like the fact that Keiran is back? I’m sure he has a lot of catching up to do with you. I cannot wait,” Anya cackled and her robotic friends laughed with her.

“I don’t think he’ll have much time to do anything if he’s too busy using you. I heard it was his favorite hobby.” There were a few muffled laughs and snickers around the table from the guys, and Anya turned a deep shade of red.

Normally, I would just ignore Anya but the frustration from dealing with Willow and Keiran this morning, had me a bit touchy. I decided to ignore her anyway and discreetly texted Willow for the third time. I had to think of a way to get out of here and away from the firing squad.

When I returned my attention back to the people at the table, I noticed Anya was still glaring at me. I met her start and lifted an eyebrow in mock challenge. Her lip curled as she leaned forward and spoke words that I definitely wished I could have slapped right back down her throat. “Didn’t you and Jesse Fitzgerald have a thing last year? I mean, you two were pretty cozy for a while, but who could blame you. He was a major hottie. So what happened to that? You finally get a boyfriend and couldn’t keep him?”

The table grew deathly still as silence descended after Anya’s question. A few guys shifted in their seats and looked at Keiran nervously which was weird because I was the one he was looking at like he wanted to kill. I avoided his gaze and looked down at the empty space on the table.