I wasn't easily attracted to anyone. Sure, the girls at school were pretty and I had had my fair share of them, but last night with Ella had felt surreal. Ella was different from all the other girls I knew. My brain had clouded over with an emotion I hadn't felt before, and didn't want to examine now.
I watched as she disappeared around the corner and frowned. None of her classes were that way. Was she going to use some faraway bathroom again? I shook my head and turned to walk away. I needed to stop this. The strange fascination I had for her that automatically made me look for her at school. I needed my head back in the game.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hank’s towering form at the end of the hallway. My head snapped back towards him as a nasty feeling grew in the pit of my stomach. He was looking at Ella. Ella, who was oblivious to a stampede, let alone a quiet stalker. His gaze was intense, exhibiting what I could only describe as hunger. My gut twisted with an ugly, sinking feeling as I watched him disappear around the corner. I sprinted down the hallway, hoping to get to him before he could reach her. Up ahead, I saw her blond head disappear through a door, and Hank enter after her. I ran towards it only to find it locked. Damn it! It was one of the science labs – which meant that there should be a connecting room. There were the scraping sounds of furniture being pushed around inside, then Hank’s low voice followed by a loud cry. I tried the lock again and sprinted to the other end to find a door. Thankfully, it was unlocked. I ran inside and through the next door to find Hank advancing towards Ella. The sneer and his hooded eyes made my stomach lurch.
"Get away from me, you pig!" Ella was shouting. The look on Hank’s face only got uglier as he leered at her.
"I always get what I want, and today that happens to be you, you cunt. You should be grateful someone like me even wants to look at the likes of you..." His eyes snapped towards me as I lunged towards him. "You! Get your own piece of meat!" he hollered.
I felt the satisfying crunch as I sank my fist into his jaw. "That should stop you from spewing more nonsense." I ducked when he threw a punch, and managed to send him howling and stumbling across the room after I sank my foot soundly into his groin.
"Ella! Go!"
Her eyes wild, she nodded and unlocked the door, glancing one last time before she left.
"Stay away from her," I chewed out, my mouth frothing with hatred. "Last warning."
He wiped his bloodied mouth with his filthy paw and looked at me from the floor. "Can’t stand the thought of sharing, huh? She can handle the both of us, you know. It’s a matter of whether you want to or not." That his tone sounded like he actually believed I would cave in horrified me. The mere thought of his suggestion sickened me and I stepped back before I could ram my foot into his stomach. I wanted badly to give the sicko everything he deserved, including knocking him out cold just so he would shut up. I gritted my teeth from the effort of restraining myself. Although he deserved to be beaten up into a pulp, I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of putting me in jail.
Instead, I spat at him. "Don’t you ever suggest we are the same. You and I, we are as different as night and day."
It wasn’t long before the teachers showed up and took Hank away. The principal looked at me up and down before nodding with what I assumed to be approval, and invited me to give my version of the incident. Ella must have told them about what had happened. My head throbbed, purely from the hatred that made my body shake. How dare he. Was I really the monster he thought I was? I did my best to slow down my breathing but wished instead that I had beaten him up more. I needed the satisfaction of seeing him knocked out cold.
After a ten-minute interrogation, I left the main building to head home. Ella was nowhere to be found, so I assumed she had gone home with her mom as she always did nowadays.
It was strange that my role in Ella's life was now reversed. By some stroke of fate, I was now her protector twice, instead of the persecutor that I had envisioned myself to be.
I just hoped what I had told him about the difference in our natures was true.
Chapter 13
Ella
I knocked on his door, nervousness making my knocks too loud, too fast. It was some time before he answered, and I saw why. His hair was sticking up in all directions, his eyes bleary, and he was shirtless again. In his boxers this time. I willed my eyes to look only above his chin.
“Sorry...did I wake you up?”
He looked surprised to see me and nodded. “Uh, let me throw some clothes on.”
A moment later he reappeared in a gray t-shirt and shorts. Scratching the back of his head, he asked, “Did you want something?”
He looked so endearing at that moment, standing there half-awake with unkempt hair, that I couldn’t resist a smile. “Uh, you got some drool
