He was in there.

With a girl.

He always locked the top lock to keep me out when he was entertaining someone.

Yuck.

Except,notyuck.

Angel Knight was hot—a fact that couldn’t be denied. Not even by me. I just could never figure out why the thought of him with girls made my stomach turn. Sighing, I took a seat on the stoop and waited for him to finish. An hour later, the door opened and out stepped a leggy blonde with a satisfied smile. I turned my head when I saw her lean in for a goodbye kiss and cringed when I heard their lips meet.

A deep groan came from beyond the door, and the kiss went on.

After three minutes of nonstop lip locking, I decided I’d had enough.

I coughed and coughed again until I was pretending to have a choking fit finally gaining their attention.

“Calm down, kiddie tits. We’re done.” I heard his laugh just before he disappeared back inside without me seeing him.

I glared at the blonde as she practically skipped down the sidewalk. I shot up with a huff but then winced when my knees reminded me of my injuries.

After walking inside, I came to a dead stop when I found him standing there waiting for me with a bored look.

“What?”

“What happened to your lip?” His tone matched his face until his gaze trailed down and stopped at my scraped up knees. “Jeez, did you fall?” Dark brown eyes watched me curiously.

“You can say that.” I avoided his gaze and limped around him. There was a first aid kit in the bathroom that I desperately needed.

“Bullshit. You got beat up, didn’t you?” I heard his mocking laugh. It was closer than it should have been since I walked away, which meant he had followed me. “What’s her name?”

I stopped at the top of the stairs and whirled around to face him. “Jesse Newman. Andsheisn’t a girl.”

The smile dropped from his face quicker than it appeared. “Say what?”

“He’s even meaner thanyou. I hate him.”

I hate you.

“You’re fucking with me, right?”

“Nope.” I turned and limped the rest of the way to the bathroom. I could see from my peripheral that he was still standing at the top of the stairs. Stupidly, I met his gaze. He definitely wasn’t laughing anymore.* * *I walked throughthe front doors the next morning dreading school. Last night, I bandaged my palms and knees and treated my busted lip as best as I could and forced myself through my homework assignments. I hadn’t heard a peep from Angel after I told him I was beaten by a boy. Was he upset that he wasn’t the only one getting a kick out of making me miserable?

Angel never did seem like the sharing type.

I found the object of my thoughts standing at the bottom of the stoop, dressed in a white muscle shirt, black shorts, and a frown. “Took you long enough.”

Was he actually waiting for me?

“Are you waiting for me?” My brain screamed for me to move, but my feet refused the command.

“What was your first clue?” He tilted his head as if he really expected an answer.

“Why?”

“I’m walking you to school.”

“Why?”

“That the only question you know?”

“Okay… what for?”

“Just come on,” he bit out showing his impatience. Five quick steps later, I was standing beside him. Rolling my eyes didn’t make me feel any better, so I looked up with a quirk of my eyebrow—God, he was tall—and waited. He started walking, and I followed. We made the fifteen-minute walk in ten with his long strides and me practically running to keep up.

He had never walked me to school before even though he was supposed to be protecting me. It was no secret that we couldn’t stand each other, so we limited the time we spent together. He taunted me occasionally, and I tattled to my dad to get him trouble. That was the extent of our interactions.

The schoolyard was already busy with kids rushing from cars and school buses to hurry inside the building. Some loitered around with the intention of skipping as soon as the teachers and their parent’s backs were turned. Jesse Newman would be one of them.

Maybe he would be waiting around for a second helping of his foot in my ass. I tried to fight back, but he was just too big, and the other kids just egged him on. I didn’t even have Erin around to help, not that she would have. She would have been even more scared than I had been. Jesse decided to turn his bullying on me when I stopped him from kicking the shit out of some kid who had run off as soon as Jesse’s back was turned.

Big mistake there.

With no one left to punch, he’d socked me a good one and called me a nosy cunt. Some kids laughed and egged him on while others stood around too afraid to say something or even call for help. I fell when his fist connected with my lip. When I got back up to face him, someone from behind pushed me, and I fell forward. It was how I got my scrapes.