I wake up with a start…

“Haa……Haa…..Haa”

I am having difficulty in breathing and my heart is also beating so hard that I fear it might pop out of my chest.

I lift up my body and look around myself in a daze. I am in a bed inside a familiar looking room right now; my room.

How did I get here?

“Aaaah…” I raise a cry, suddenly feeling an incredible pain in my head.

It hurts so much…

Yeah… right… I was with Zoe when she decided to give me a “lift”. They must have made me faint again by hitting me on the head.

Those fuckers! Why didn’t they just give me a sleeping drug like Lily?

Lily…

Suddenly my chest tightens and I feel my pulse rate increases even more. Even my hands and feet are getting cold now…

I remember… I remember the crying face of Lily…

She called me a vile and evil person…

She even hit me and told me that that I am a fiend whom she thought of as a friend…

“She called me a rapist…” I recall.

And after that she even… she even told me that she hates me…

Lily… My Lily told me that she hates me… the girl I love from the bottom of my heart told me that she hates me…

It is clear than anything that she knows that I rape her…

I look around myself once again and questions start rising inside my head…

How did I get here?

I was with Lily but then I don’t remember anything…

And if my head is hurting so much right now then why didn’t it hurt when I was with Lily?

Don’t tell me…

Was that a dream?

No way… Lily felt so real… even when she slapped me, it hurt so much… how can it be a dream?

But didn’t Natalie said that Lily was transferred to the school? Then how come she was in that room?

I cannot even tell how did I come here from that black room…

I huge knot inside my chest unravels itself a little.

That was a dream…

But a new, greater uneasiness settles inside my mind.

I never thought of things like this…

Even when I was raping Lily, I thought that I am doing this for her sake, to save her life and mine.

But will she understand that? Will she forgive me?

Because no matter what, at the end of the day, I am the rapist and Lily’s just a victim.

Some might say that I had no other option, that I am a victim too, but was that really the case?

I will be lying if I say that I loathe each and every second of what happened. And seriously, what’s even the point of lying to myself?

I thought that Lily will forgive me if she hears about my reason and my situation at that time, but will she?

Who can say that Lily won’t behave just like this dream?

It seems a much more likely possibility than she forgiving me and us living happily ever after…

Fuck! Forget forgiving me, will she even listen to me once I tell her that it was I who raped her?

No way in hell… she will absolutely hate me!

I slump myself onto the bed, my hands covering my eyes, while deep in thought.

Suddenly, my alarm starts ringing.

Is it morning already?

I stand up and look outside the window; the sun is coming up.

I need to go to school… I might see Lily there…

But will she come?

I doubt she will. Even though she rarely ever misses school. But really, who will come after what happened yesterday?

Fuck it! Even if there is a slight possibility, I need to be there to tell her what actually happened…

Yes, I feared her knowing my identity when I was raping her, but now it’s different.

At that time, I thought that if it’s for her sake, then maybe it’s okay if she never knows the truth.

But now I don’t think I can live with myself anymore if I don’t tell her.

Maybe she will hit me. Maybe she will hate me. Maybe she won’t even talk to me anymore.

But I need to tell her. She needs to know…

I will tell her all that happened, from my abduction till her rape and this time I will let her decide for once, what she wants to do.

I will accept whatever she wants… whatever she decides…

I get up from the bed. My head still hurts badly but I somehow get dressed up and go downstairs.

By the way, the chocolates I worked so hard to buy are missing, someone must have taken them…

My mother is in the kitchen making breakfast.

Wait, how did those people actually bring me inside my room?

I guess my father wasn’t home but even my mother didn’t notice anything?

“H-Hey, mum?” I call her out.

“Hmm…Caiden? You woke up?” My mother asks lightly.

“I wondered when you got home because I didn’t saw you coming. You looked so tired that I decided to not wake you up for dinner,” she informs me.

“You must be really hungry, right? Here, sit down and eat this,” Mum says while forcing me onto a chair and placing a plate filled with eggs, bacon, and sandwiches in front of me.

I don’t know why but even though I haven’t eaten anything for almost a whole day, I still don’t have much of an appetite.

But still, I force down as much food as I can to avoid getting my mother suspicious.

“I am going,” I tell my mother after finishing the breakfast.

I walk towards my school in a dull manner.

Once inside the school premises and I stop to take a fleeting glance towards the school grounds…

Why is no one there?

I look at my wristwatch.

Oh shit! I am late! I was walking so slowly that I am actually late now.

I run inside the school building and barge inside my classroom in a hurry.

I immediately look at Lily’s seat.

It’s empty…

I give out a grunt of frustration but then I notice the whole class looking at me in silence.

“”

“Caiden, you are late! Care to explain why?” My class teacher, Professor David Neustadt, asks me.

He is a middle-aged man with short blond hair and brown eyes. He’s a bit fat and his height is short too. People usually call him Professor Neustadt or simply Professor but I call him only Neustadt, well, at least in my mind.

“I-I got a bit of headache in the morning,” I tell him.

“Headache? I will be asking your mother to confirm that. And be prepared for detention if she says otherwise. Now sit down,” He orders me.

And yeah, this man hates me…

I move to the farthest corner of the room and sat down on my seat. For some reason, Neustadt has seated me diagonally opposite to Lily’s seat.

Anyway, my guess was right, Lily didn’t show up today. Well, it’s obvious after what happened to her…

“So, where were we…” Neustadt continues.

_______________

The first half of the school has ended and I am currently sitting alone in the cafeteria eating my lunch.

Lily sits together with me but if she’s not there, which is rare, I usually sit by myself.

“You sitting alone today?” A male voice asks me from behind.

I look back and see two people standing; a guy and a girl. The guy has long black hair with green eyes. He is tall and has fairly distributed body mass making him well proportioned. All-in-all, a good-looking guy.

“Oh… so it’s you, Luke,” I address him.

The girl standing next to him also smile at me. She has a small stature. Her eyes are of light brown color matching her neck-length hairs which are just a tad bit darker. She has smooth looking white skin. Her breasts are also on the smaller side.

All of her features make her look a bit younger than she actually is.

“And you, Sofia…” I say.

Luke and Sofia are in my class and had been a couple for 2 years. While I and Luke are not exactly friends but because he’s not one of the guys who would go after Lily, we are not enemies either.

On the other hand, Sofia and Lily can be considered good friends. She’s one of the girls Lily usually talk to when I am not there. But unlike most of those girls, she doesn’t hate me and thus talks fairly nice to me.

They both put their lunches down on the table and sits next to me.

Man, I am so not in the mood to talk right now…

“You know why Lily didn’t come to school today?” Sofia asks me.

“N-No, I don’t,” I lie, not looking directly at them.

“Hmm… I am worried about her, an important sports tournament is coming in a month and she is participating in it. I know, she won’t miss the practice unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Sofia says while nodding to herself.

“R-Really?” I say, feeling even more down.

“Yeah, She ev—

*THANG*

Out of nowhere, my lunch fell off of the table and land on the ground with a noise. The contents flew here and there, dirtying the floor.

“Hey, fucker, where is Lily?” A loud grunt like voice asked me from behind.

Shit… not again…

I did not reply.

“Can’t you hear me, asshole? I am asking you something,” the voice says.

I feel a plump hand enclosing around my neck and clenching itself.

“She didn’t come today,” I answer, tiredly looking back.

The most noticeable thing about the guy holding my neck is his body.

He’s fat as fuck!

He has wavy blond hair and blue eyes and his height is a head shorter than me.

This guy’s name is Johnny Bristow and he is my greatest enemy and also my biggest bully in school. Well, it’s much better to just call him “Pig”, as I do.

Pig’s father owns a high-class hotel in a posh area of Yarlees, thus making him the second richest kid in school after Lily.

His main hobby is flexing money on the ones poorer and hitting them when he gets bored of doing that. Well, it was his hobby…

Nowadays, his mind, as little as it may be, is focused mainly on another thing; making me suffer.

Why?

Because this pig fucker made his move on Lily the first day he arrived at school. This idiot proposed to her while waving a thick wad of money at her.

Far from being answered, Lily treated this pig like air and got past him without even giving him a glance. Then this jealous Pig noticed her talking to me and decided to dedicate his whole life to make mine miserable.

And how did he do that?

“What? Ugly Cady’s cow girlfriend didn’t come today?” the girl standing next to Pig jeers at me.

He made Ava Leawitt, another one of my bully, his ally.

She has a bit darker blond hair tied up in twin buns on both the side of her head with two of her bangs coming loose on her forehead. Her eyes are golden yellow in color and her height is medium. Her breasts are not big but not small either, they are just the size which makes them fairly noticeable from far when the clothes are on.

I would have rated her as a beauty, if not for her nature.

Pig and Ava together leave no opportunity to bully me. The only time I don’t have to worry about them is when I am with Lily.

Even these people don’t mess with her…

But don’t pity me too much, I am not a wuss! While I don’t do much about Ava for certain reasons, I leave no chance to get my revenge on Pig.

Even now, feeling pig’s pudgy hands on my neck, I too have an urge to grab hold of his.

But for two reasons I couldn’t…

First is that he has his three burly friends lined up behind himself and Ava, glaring at me as if waiting for me to make a move. Well, they are bodyguards more than friends because Pig actually pays them money.

Anyway, the more important reason for me to not do so is that Pig doesn’t even have a neck. His man tits start directly after his triple chin ends…

“Hey guys, can we not do this in the cafeteria?” Luke speaks up, looking a bit irritated.

“But I want to do it here. If you have a problem, I can maybe do the same for you, Luke? Or maybe you want something different? Well, I can give your girlfriend a nice fuck for you if you want,” Pig says, smiling nastily at Sofia.

Luke stands up from his seat so suddenly that the chair topples over.

Woah, Pig is already going overboard…

“You fat fucker, I will freaking kill you,” Luke says, his face twisted in anger.

Pig’s bodyguard friends also come forward while flexing their arms.

“What is happening here?” A loud voice speaks.

We all turn back and saw Neustadt standing there, his arms are fold while he taps his foot on the ground.

“Sir, Luke threatened to kill me,” Pig speaks at once.

“Yes, I heard him. Luke, detention,” Neustadt speaks softly.

“But Neus–, I mean, sir, Pig was the one to come at—

“Enough,” Neustadt cuts in between when I try to defend Luke, “You will be getting detention too, Caiden.”

“Why me?” I ask, my eyes are wide open in shock.

“Because it looks like you were fighting with Johnny there. You even threw his lunch, huh?” Neustadt blames me.

“What? He threw my lunch,” I say angrily.

“So, you like lying too. Well, Double detention for you then,” Neustadt says with a mean smile on his face.

I look down on the table and saw a lunch box there in perfect condition.

What the heck? This is not even my lunch box…

I see Pig’s hands empty.

This fucker! He put down his lunch on my table when I was not looking.

And this bastard Neustadt! Forget about the lunch, he’s not even mentioning the fact that Pigs hand is on my neck.

“Now, get away all of you or there will be more punishment,” Neustadt tells us while turning his back to us.

What the hell? So, you won’t punish Pig at all?

“See you later, fucker,” Pig tells me while patting my head with his fat hand.

Ava too gives me a nasty smile and walks away with him and the bodyguards follow.

Luke is still fuming beside me while Sofia is trying to calm him down.

You asshole Pig… just wait, I am so gonna fuck you over…

_________________

The school is over and I am now passing through the school gates. My mind is having repeating thoughts about what happened today.

“Woah, what is that?” I speak out unconsciously.

Outside the school gate, an expensive looking pure black car is standing with its back door open. Many passing students are looking suspiciously at it because even the windows are tinted black. But I know why it is there…

So, they have come to pick me up, huh?

I quickly ran towards the car and got inside closing the door shut as fast as possible. I hope that no one saw my face going inside.

“Hey, Caiden! How are you?” A cheerful voice greets me and at the same time, a hand intertwines itself to mine.

What the hell? Why is Emily here? She’s coming too?

“Come on… Let’s go,” Zoe’s voice came from the front passenger’s seat.

The engine immediately starts and the car starts to move forward.

“Hey, it’s the girl from yesterday,” Emily suddenly speaks.

I see her looking outside the window at her side. I too look in the direction of her gaze.

A girl in casual clothes is walking towards the school gate. Her footsteps are unsteady and her face is looking down, not noticing anything around her…

Lily is going towards the school at this time… but why?