A Dare With The Bad Boy

Chapter 4: The Player

Luna felt the eyes of students watching her intensely as she walked to her locker. In the past, she would often make herself almost as invisible as possible because she hated the feeling of being watched. She knew people looked at her because she wasn’t as pretty as most high school girls, but this time, she didn’t know why. 

“Hello, beautiful.” Luna jumped to her side when a random person appeared from beside her and greeted her out of nowhere. 

She looked to her left to see who it is and immediately knew it was Klein.

Klein was the son of both an actor and actress and so he usually had girls fawning over him. It wasn’t unusual for him to have looks that could steal glances from everywhere when both his parents also modeled from time to time. Standing at six foot two and with platinum blonde hair that perfectly matched his blue eyes that almost looked as if it also changed into the color green depending on the light, he could hypnotize girls with his flirtatious words in a second. Luna always saw Klein with a different girl at least once a month. There was no doubt that he was the school’s notorious ladies man or in other words, a player.

He was also quite popular around school but he didn’t hang out with Aiden’s group. He had his own group of posies but they were still all attractive and sometimes made fun of Luna back then as well. 

With Luna and her new transformation, Klein was immediately attracted to the seemingly new beautiful student in front of him. He didn’t know where she came from nor who she was because all he cared about was having her as his next target. 

Klein watched Luna with devious eyes as he watched her every move. He has had experience with a lot of girls, many of them coming from different backgrounds because to Klein, as long as they were pretty, nothing else mattered. 

The moment Klein saw her, he somewhat knew she would be an easy target to manipulate. From the way she kept her look down on the ground making sure not to get in contact with other people’s eyes to the way she walked like she was trying to run away but trying not to make it too obvious, Klein knew Luna was insecure and he was going to make use of that exact weakness of hers to get what he wanted. 

“No worries, I don’t bite. My name is Klein, or you can just call me tonight.” Klein eyed her up and down and Luna felt instantly uncomfortable at the way he looked at her like she was nothing but a s****l object to him. 

She knew all the stories about how he went from one girl to another girl without a single remorse or empathy for any of them. He broke hearts more than girls bought new clothes. Back then, she used to feel somewhat grateful that she wasn’t Klein’s type of girl because she knew he would never even think of being with her that way which meant she was free from his disgusting motives. 

Luna chose not to say anything and continued walking, making sure to move faster than earlier, wanting to get to her locker as fast as possible. She thought if she completely ignored him as if he didn’t exist, he would sooner or later get sick of it… wouldn’t he?

Unfortunately for Luna, once Klein had something or someone he wanted in mind, there was no stopping him. 

“Oh, come on. I’m just here to make friends. What’s your name, beautiful?” Klein continued to bother Luna even when they reached her locker. 

Luna clenched her jaw as she opened her locker and put her things in place. She was going to stand her ground in ignoring him for as long as she could. Besides, Luna thought there was no way he could hurt her in the middle of the entire school. Luna was anxious but believed he couldn’t harm her. 

Other than that, she already felt too drained from what had happened earlier. After two whole years of being bullied continuously, of people talking about her and saying bad things to and about her her, she thought she would have gotten used to it all already. In a way you could say she has because if not, she would be crying everyday. But sometimes, it still got the best of her. This was one of those times. 

It definitely didn’t help that Luna’s crush of all time, Aiden, was standing right in front of her watching Emily shout at her and ask her if she had gotten plastic surgery. She didn’t even think of that at all but she began to worry if Aiden had believed all of that and if Emily had caused such a stir earlier, did Aiden finally realize or remember who she was? 

Luna bit her lip in frustration and suddenly remembered that she had a bruise there and jumped from the pain.

“Ouch!” Luna hissed quietly as she instinctively placed the handkerchief in her hand over her bruised lip. 

Her nose was suddenly filled with an unfamiliar scent that tingled her sense of smell. It was a mix of citrus, lavender, and wood that made Luna feel like she was suddenly transported into a vast garden filled with the most beautiful and fresh scented flowers. She was so engrossed in the smell of the handkerchief that she had completely forgotten that she was not alone. 

This was until Klein decided he had enough of being ignored by the woman in front of him. As he watched her act as if he was not there this whole time, Klein’s ego began to feel more and more hurt and although he promised his parents not to resort to violence from now on because this would affect their career, Klein couldn’t help but feel annoyed and decided enough is enough. 

He slammed Luna’s locker door closed and Luna moved in surprise as to what had just happened. The sound of the locker being slammed echoed throughout the hallway and some students looked at them in curiosity. 

“W-what…” Luna dropped her hands to the side and tightly clenched her fists as she started backing away from a very angry-looking Klein. 

Klein continued to walk closer the more she moved further back, his breathing was deep and heavy as he kept his gaze locked with Luna’s eyes. 

With every family, there always came a secret. One of Klein’s family secrets was that once a week, he had to go to a psychiatric session and take medicines for his episodes. Klein had anger management issues and his medicines helped calm him down. The problem was that Klein hated the fact that he had to go through all this trouble. He was a very boastful and prideful man that he often chose to skip taking his medicine thinking that he didn’t need them. 

Today was one of the days he chose to throw his pills in the sink instead of taking them. 

At this point, a lot of other students had gathered around them but there was still no sight from any teacher. There was still about five minutes left until the bell rang so most of the teachers would be in their lounge. 

Not a single person bothered to help Luna up once she reached the locker and hit her back, and made her trip down to the floor. 

Luna began to feel nervous and scared as she looked all around the area, waiting for someone to say something, to speak up, to tell Klein that this was wrong and he shouldn’t be doing this. The problem was that back then when Luna was still being bullied, no one stood up for her as well. Perhaps they were all just scared as well, but it hurt Luna to see some of them look like they were amused more than worried. 

Luna turned back to look at Klein who was now only a few inches away from her as she raised her hands up to somewhat cover her face from whatever he was planning. 

“Wait, Klein, please stop this. This isn't right.” Luna pleaded to Klein, her eyes starting to get teary eyed. 

Klein could no longer think of anything as his brain began to be preoccupied with thoughts of anger. All he saw in front of him was a girl that ignored him and this damaged his pride and so he needed to avenge it. 

The second he reached where Luna was, Luna’s entire body tensed up once he took her by her arm and lifted her up from the floor. 

His grip was tight and hard and Luna winced from the pain as he pulled her up. Once she was up, her legs suddenly felt like they were jelly and she tried her best to keep herself standing. 

“What’s…” Klein began to speak up, his hand continuing to squeeze Luna’s arms and she could feel a bruise starting to form on it. 

“Your…” The tears Luna was trying her best to stop from flowing began to come out of her eyes as she could no longer control her emotions and pain. 

“Please… s-stop…” She pleaded once again, hoping this time he would feel bad for her. 

But instead, he let out a light chuckle that was so cold it sent goosebumps on some of the students just standing there and watching. 

Klein felt his inner self begin to rage even more as he looked at Luna who was crying. He hated the sight of tears because to him, it was the sign of weakness. He never cried and he made sure no one around him did as well. 

He felt aggravated and with his grip on Luna’s arm, threw her as far as he could with his brute strength. 

It felt as if she was floating as Luna was thrown from the middle of the school hallway. She started to feel dizzy and lightheaded that she could no longer keep herself standing and as her legs were starting to feel like they were going to give up, instead of landing flat on the ground, she landed on a person that helped keep her up instead. 

“Don’t you dare hurt her.” The person said as he landed a punch right on top of Klein’s face that instantly knocked him down. 

Luna felt too dizzy that she was unable to keep her eyes open. She tried to open her eyes, but the last thing she saw was the figure of someone throwing a punch at Klein. 

And then darkness. 

The students dispersed immediately as the fight ended and Klein was immediately reported to his parents. A teacher showed up right before it ended and saw some of it happen and Klein was forced to be suspended from school.

After missing one class, Luna had finally awoken. She raised her hand to feel her head as it was slightly throbbing when she was shocked to see that there was someone next to her by the bedside. 

She didn’t need a lot of time to figure out who it was because for someone who had been admiring this person from the back, she knew exactly whose hazel hair it was that was next to her. 

What she wasn’t sure about was why he was next to her. The last thing Luna could remember was being attacked by Klein and thrown to the other side. Other than that, everything was a blur. She was so scared she barely had time to realize exactly what was going on.

Luna was unsure if she was going to make it known that she was awake, but then something inside of her had suddenly made her move her hand up and it was now hanging on top of Aiden’s head.

Her hand was only a few inches away from his hair and she began to move it around, pretending to somewhat stroke it and imagining how it would be if Aiden was her boyfriend and she could actually do this any time she wanted. 

Aiden began to groan as he started to wake up and Luna immediately pulled her hand away and back to her before Aiden raised his head. 

While her heart was still beating fast from almost getting caught, Luna gave him a shy smile. 

“You’re awake.” He said softly as he placed the back of his hand on her forehead.

Luna flinched a little from the sudden movement and Aiden apologized for being so abrupt. 

“Oh I’m sorry. The nurse said earlier that you had a low fever and wanted to check if it’s gone now.” Aiden said apologetically. 

“Oh, okay. Thank you. I think I am fine now.” Luna replied while she was still a bit shocked from Aiden’s hand on her. 

Aiden cleared his throat to recompose himself and licked his lips as he tried to figure out what to say next. For some reason, he was starting to feel quite nervous. All his life, he has never felt nervous with any girl. He had gotten used to being surrounded with them as they always asked him out, but he was never the type to not know what to say. 

“Um… by the way…” Aiden let out a deep breath as he looked directly at Luna’s eyes. 

There was something about her light green eyes that made Aiden forget about all the things he was thinking about. It was as if the second he looked into them, nothing else mattered and this made him scared, but at the same time, he wanted to know more about her. 

Luna tensed up at Aiden’s words. She had so many questions running through her head with not a single answer to be found and top it all off, she suddenly remembered that little fiasco with Emily and how Aiden could possibly know who she is already. Luna tried to dig in her head to think of what to say or do once Aiden brought it up, but deep inside she was still hoping for him not to do so. Not now, at least. She needed more time to think of what to say.

“I know you, don’t I?” Aiden spoke up and the second she understood what he had just said, her whole body stiffened in nervousness. 

Today was not her lucky day, she thought. 

Luna swallowed the lump in her throat as she bit her lip and instantly felt the metal taste in her mouth. 

Deep inside she wished for the bed to suddenly open up and swallow her whole. She wished for the weather to suddenly start raining meatballs. She wished for a dinosaur to show up out of nowhere. Anything, it didn’t matter. She just wanted to get out of answering Aiden’s question. 

Aiden was about to speak up again when suddenly, there was a knock on the door. 

Luna and Aiden both turned their heads to where the sound came from as Luna internally began to thank the universe for her savior.