The Bad Girl's Bites

Chapter 6

Belle

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the bell rang for lunch. As everyone gathered their stuff in a rush, I was plotting my revenge on Damien. I clenched my hands into tight fists as I whirled around to face him. But he was gone! I didn’t even hear him leave.

“What the actual hell?” I muttered, slamming my fists down unto my desk.

This was absolutely infuriating.

“I can’t believe he switched seats like that during class,” Eve said as she came up beside of me.

I ground my teeth together in aggravation while I nodded in agreement. The arrogance of that man was about to drive me insane!

“Do you know where he is?”

She shrugged and then shook her head. Why was he taking such pains to avoid me? He even left with the hoard of students just so he wouldn’t have to talk to me. Without another word, I stomped out of the room to go look for him. He had to be somewhere at school. It’s not like he could just disappear into thin air.

I made my way over to the cafeteria, which was all the way over on the south side of campus. Seriously, there was a special place in hell for whoever designed this school. Entering the enormous cafeteria, one would think a person would actually have some space to breathe. But, no! It was slammed packed full students and faculty. Some of the students were busy selecting their lunch from the buffet. A few of the teachers sat together and were discussing lesson plans. Mostly, the room was full of several groups of students who had formed their own clicks and were in their own little world.

After grabbing a sandwich, I went over to the register to pay. I felt dozens of stares on my back as walked by each table to find a seat. A group in the far corner saw me approaching and hurriedly gathered there things and left. That didn’t bother me as I was use to it by now—but that guy with the stupid yellow hoodie—he definitely bothered me. I glanced around the room just to see if I could see him. For some reason, I was overcome with the urge to scream out his name. Why did I care so much? Was it because I was angry at him or was it something else? I shook my head and let out an annoyed sigh as I flopped down into a chair. All I could figure out was that I didn’t understand myself when it came to Damien and that was definitely new.

“Why are you here so early today?”

My head snapped up and I saw Sunny standing in front of me with a wide grin on her face. Hearing the groans of displeasure, I looked behind her and immediately rolled my eyes. A group of boys that she had been sitting with were looking at her with forlorn expressions and were pleading with her to come back to their table. Sunny’s fan club was already up and running. Well, it wasn’t any surprise that she had a copious amount of boys following her. She was beautiful, charming and easy to talk too. Not to mention that she was also a very skilled dancer. The girl had it all. Ignoring her question entirely, I stuffed the sandwich into my mouth.

“Are you that hungry?” she asked as she sat in the seat next to mine.

I nodded as I munched on my sandwich while scanning the room for that damned yellow hoodie.

“Jeez! You are nasty!”

I turned my head to see who was making such a racket and frowned. A few tables over, there was a girl sitting by herself just trying to eat her lunch in peace. However, the three girls who were towering over her and taunting her made it impossible for her to do anything. I groaned in exasperation as I watched them sneer at her. They took turns pulling her hair and shoving her around. As if reading my thoughts, Sunny suddenly turned around and said over her shoulder, “I think you have this well in hand, darling. So you won’t be needing my help, right?”

Without waiting for a response, she continued to walk back over to her group of boys. True to form, Sunny didn’t like involving herself in such sticky situations. I cursed under my breath as I stood up and strolled over to the poor girl and flopped down into the chair across from her. She looked over at me with a frightened expression and she was shaking. She wasn’t going to last in this place if she didn’t get a f*****g grip.

I leveled a steady gaze at her and asked, “What's your problem?”

The three girls that were bullying her walked around the table to join me. They chuckled as they sneered down at her.

With her eyes brimming with tears, she said, “I-I am sorry, Belle.”

“Oh for the love—” I muttered as I rubbed my eyes in irritation.

Looking back at her, I spied a pack of chewing gum in her shirt pocket.

Smiling, I reached forward for the gum. She flinched when I pulled the pack out of her pocket. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I sat back and popped a piece of gum into my mouth. After taking a few moments to savor the peppermint flavor, I asked, “Don’t you think that you are being a bit too f*****g pathetic?”

She stared at me as if I had gone crazy. I chomped down on my gum in a repetitive motion. I loved chewing gum especially if I was angry or annoyed. For some odd reason I found it relaxing and soothing.

“I-I am sorry,” she repeated.

She was new here, which explained why these three bimbos were giving her a hard time. I shifted my gaze down to her lunch box. My mouth watered at the sight. Everything looked exotic and extremely delicious. I tilted my head, suddenly curious about where she came from.

“What's your name?”

“Payal,” she replied as she lowered her gaze.

Christ, was she ashamed of her own name?

“Your accent is different. Are you Indian?”

She nodded.

“Are you in junior high?”

Once again, she nodded. The three idiots beside me started to laugh. Rolling the piece of gum around in my mouth, I chuckled to hide my irritation.

“Are you a transferred student?”

Before she could nod, I added, “You have tongue, don’t you? Use your words.”

Her eyes flashed with anger as she asked, “What do you want from me?”

Well, would you look at that? I thought as I smiled at her.

Her voice was so loud that everyone in the cafeteria had turned towards us. I smirked at her and stood up.

“Oh, so you can talk? Cool! And look, you’re not even stuttering now. And that tone, you should use it more often. Or you can—” I paused and turned to the trio. “Just do this.” Abruptly, I reached out and grabbed a fistful of hair of the girl closest to me.

The girl cried out as she thrashed around while trying to disengage my hand with her hair. I tightened my grip and the girl immediately stilled. I smiled down at Payal, who stared at me with complete shock.

“It might solve some of your current problems, but it won't stop people from laughing at you. In that case, what you need the most is confidence. Have confidence in yourself. It's...” My words trailed off as I caught sight of that dammed bright yellow hoodie. “Damien,” I whispered.

He abruptly stopped and met my gaze. He was wearing earphones, how the hell could he hear me? My lips parted and I watched as his eyes slowly moved to my hand which was still gripping the girl's hair. Without hesitation, he turned and walked out of the cafeteria. He was ignoring me again?!

“Wait!” I shouted as I let go of the girl and started running after him.

It was too late. No matter where I looked, I couldn't find him. I even looked for him when it was time to get back to class. He went missing. He didn't show up in the next two days as well but no one seemed to care.

Or should I say it was only me? I was anxious. I was confused. I was startled and also, annoyed by myself. From the beginning to the end, my eyes would only search for him everywhere in school.

But why? I had no idea. I just wanted to know where that bastard went to.