Scarred Knight

She Hates Everyone

Chapter 2

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Lake

“Hey, Trace.” I called out as Trace slipped inside the car, settling on the backseat.

“Hi…” She murmured softly, her eyes going to Liam before she settled back and looked out of the window.

“How was your vacation?” I asked. I wasn’t much of a talker but the tension in the car was building up since she joined us and I was trying to bring it down a notch.

A shadow crossed her face as she shrugged, and answered me, “Okay. Same. Nothing new.” Pasting a smile on her face, she questioned back, “And, what about you? Did you meet anyone?” Her baby blue eyes sparkled with genuine curiosity.

Besides Liam, she was the only one I’d call my friend. May be, because all the time I had spent in all girls boarding school, she was the only one there with me. With me. Every time when other girls were cruel to me and made fun of the way I looked and wasn’t able to read and write like normal person because of my disability, Trace had been there to hold my hand and soothe my pain. She had sat with me, heard my stammering rants and even joined me when I cursed the other girls. And it came as a blessing when the headmistress told me that I couldn’t study in the school any longer as my annual fee due for the next year was unpaid and they didn’t know whom to contact except Mrs Wilson, my emergency contact, who was my therapist and the only mother figure that I knew about or I should say remember.

I took a deep breath and came back to the conversation at hand and what Trace had asked, “Not yet. But I have decided to let the past be and enjoy what present brings.”

Liam gave my shoulder a squeeze and I felt Trace's eyes tracking the moment before she cleared her throat and said, “Yeah. I was thinking the same. What about we go to the welcoming party tonight, will you come with me?”

“Sure.” I replied, knowing just like me Trace was too trying to embrace herself as she was. The only difference was Liam and his mother had helped me during the summer, giving me all the emotional support I had needed, whether it was regarding my weight, my dyslexia and the lack of confident. But unlike me, Trace had no one and it filled me with remorse to think I couldn’t be the friend for her the way she was to me.

Liam turned the car in the school’s parking lot and just like always all the students, boys and girls, stopped to look in our direction. Or more like, in his direction. Liam was a golden boy, with shaggy light blonde hair and perfect dark blue eyes, he was every girl’s dream but for me…

For me he was like an annoying brother, but no one knows that. Because Liam liked playing with everyone’s mind, especially Trace’s. And that was another thing I hated about myself, I never cleared the misunderstanding Trace harboured about Liam and me. She still thought we were more than friends.

But we were not. We are not.

There was only one person I felt the pull towards, the man I didn’t want to think about. The one who makes my nightmares turn into something else. He was the stranger that I didn’t want to meet again but yet I wanted him with ferocity that makes me scared of myself. He was the one who had managed to make me conscious of my own being. But then, there was my ghost— he had helped me to forget about the stranger, with him nearby I feel aware of myself. I could feel my heart pumping the blood. My pulse skyrocketing. My breathing coming out shallow. With his gaze upon me, every cell in my body feels alive and sizzling.

“Lake!”

I startled and looked up at Liam, who frowned at me and asked, “Where were you lost? Are you okay?” Concerned lined his eyes as he eyed me.

I nodded and pasted a smile to soothe his worries. It wasn’t the unknown past that had gripped me for once. No, it was the possibility of what could happen if I took this opportunity like it was meant to be. “I am okay. Let’s do this.”

He cupped my face and leaned closer to kiss my forehead. “You’ve got this. And you look stunning.”

I wrinkled my nose but I was smiling. I looked down at my clothes and stifled the uncertainty that reared its ugly head. I was finally size four and I wore a very short plaid grey, blue and red checkered school skirt with white shirt and a tie. No longer I carried the extra pounds of my teenage years and Mrs Wilson, Liam’s mother, had helped me in improving my dyslexia. It took me to calm my breathing, think about my response and then put it in words and I no longer stammered or swallowed my words. Mostly.

Liam stepped out of the car and rounded the hood before coming to my side of the door and opening it. And, I glared at him when he stood there waiting for me to come out. He rolled his eyes and directed his attention to the backseat before e opened the door for Trace as well and I gave her a reassuring smile as she stepped out too.

We didn't even take two steps forward when Chase and Asher joined us. Chase slung an arm around Trace’s shoulder while Asher came to walk beside me. Chase and Asher were Liam’s best friends but they had taken both me and Trace under their wing, sort of.

“You look beautiful, Lake.” Asher said, his knuckles brushing under my chin.

I felt my cheeks heating up as I gave him a smile and replied, “Is it the short skirt or tight shirt?”

Chase laughed from the other side while Liam snickered and said, “She got you there, Asher.”

Asher scowled. “You all are arseholes.”

Asher was a flirt. As far as I know I hadn’t seen him twice with a same girl. “Aww, baby, did I hurt your feelings?” I taunted, patting his cheek.

He smiled. “No. First, I don’t have feelings. And secondly, I was being serious, you look good.”

This time I genuinely smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”

When I turned to face forward, I stilled seeing the green eyes narrowed at me. A contemptuous smile curved her lips as she dragged her eyes from the top of my head to my shoes before coming back to meet my grey ones once again. “What did you do? Starve yourself?”

I swallowed, my fingers curling into fists. I could feel the boys and Trace shifting toward me as if to protect me, but I was done needing their protection. “Nope. Just had to imagine your face and I lost my appetite.” I quipped and got a soft chuckle from Trace.

But it wasn’t right, was it? Because, with green eyes, lush red mouth and dark long straight hair, Valentina was anything but ugly. She was the very definition of beautiful. Even my unusual grey eyes were nothing in comparison of her green gaze. I still carried the plumpness in my cheeks whereas her face was all angles.

Valentina's green gaze flashed and she stepped forward. “Do you think that losing weight would also improve your speech and you’ll magically know the difference between b and d?”

I felt my whole body going cold at the insult. I don’t know why god hated me so much to have her here when I had thought to leave the boarding school and her behind. But of course, she also got out and she also took admission in the same school in which Mrs Wilson had me enrolled.

“Enough, Tina, or you know I also have things to say.” Asher said, his flirty smile gone as he glared down at Valentina.

Valentina stiffened and blanched back at the nickname as if he had slapped her. “Don’t call me that.” She hissed at Asher, before her eyes came back on me and said with a cruel smile, “I’ll make your last year hell.”

As soon as she turned her back to me, I let my shoulders drop and slumped sideways so half my weight was on Liam. “You were good.” He murmured softly.

“I don't know why she hates me so much.” I said as I once again straightened when I felt the attention of other students who were now looking between me and Valentina.

“She hates everyone.” Asher mumbled but before anyone of us could ask him about it, he strode inside the school.

Liam and Chase shared a glance that I only battery understood before they turned to us and shook their heads. “Lets go.”

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So new characters??

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