An update. Yaay, comment your gratitude 😂. Jokes, man.
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“Bad Girls Have Bad Secrets.”
The Fifteenth Secret —
His Reasons
- I need to be tutored by Lance.
If my father asks,
I'm with you.
Sent.
Within seconds, Shane's reply popped up
- you sure it's
only tutoring?
I rolled my eyes and typed: shut up.
To which he responded with: Have fun, doll.
I heard footsteps before the door opened in front of me, "Hello."
I stilled at the sound of Logan's voice, looking up while I shoved my phone into my jacket pocket and stepping into his house when he held open the door. The house was quiet, save for the sound of a door being opened somewhere, and then Logan's footsteps up the wooden stairs. I followed him to his room, where he gestured for me to sit down on a chair aside his desk.
I dumped my backpack on the floor, zipping it open to pull out my books. He sat aside me, taking it from me before he began to tug on the corner of his lip nervously. After a moment of silence, he spoke, "We'll focus on math for a while. I don't want to do both subjects at once and confuse you— wait, are you hungry?"
"No."
"Oh, what's that? You're starving?"
I bit down on my lip to suppress a smile, "Shut up."
He grinned, "Mum's cooking, but would you like some cupcakes? It's not nice to work when you're hungry, you can't really take everything in."
"I'm fine," I responded, frowning.
He stood, "They're chocolate. Irresistible. I'll be back in a minute." And he was, quick as could be, he returned with cupcakes and placed it aside me. Then began an hour long process of tutoring, and by the end of it, my brain hurt, but I was beginning to understand what he'd been teaching me.
I laid my forehead against the edge of his desk, sighing quietly as I watched him jot something down in blue ink, his left hand moving across the page quietly, while the other reached up to scratch his temple, covering his face from me.
"I'm tired now."
He laid down the pen and handed me my third cupcake, reassuring me, "Cake helps."
I took it and greedily bit in, "It's so nice."
"Of course, I made it."
I turned to him, stunned, "Really?"
He nodded and I reached my hand to the side of the desk, where a streak of the winters sun had filtered through the window. It's warmth was ever so gentle and I wriggled my fingers, watching the shine glint over my fingernails.
"Apricity."
"What?" I drew my gaze away, to look at him. He was watching me with the smallest of smiles.
"Apricity," he repeated, "It's the warmth of the sun during winter."
"Oh." I took the last bite of my cupcake, staring as I chewed. His knowledge of rare words never ceased to be startling. It was weird — as though he'd studied a dictionary in his spare time, but there was something about it that made me want to smile. Besides making my chest swell with pride for him, it was attractive; especially to me, as someone who loved words and poetry but didn't know many of them, with my bad memory.
I voiced my last thought to him and he smiled suddenly.
"Let me guess," I muttered, "You know a word for it."
"A person who's love for words is more than their knowledge of it—" Laughter bubbled from his lips, "— I believe it's logastellus." The word rolled from his tongue ever so smoothly and I decided then that not only was his voice beautiful, but his pronunciation of words was pleasant enough to make me actually listen to him teaching me. It might've just been his S'.
"And what about you?" I raised an eyebrow, "Do you know a word that describes your knowledge of words?"
He tugged his ear in thought, "Well, logolepsy is a fascination with words, and I am."
No. Definitely not only the S. He even made a word that sounded like leprosy seem beautiful.
"Let's stop for today."
I nodded in agreement, "You're a good teacher."
He looked away and gathered my books, placing them into my bag for me. Stop being so nice, I wanted to say, but a knock on the door shut me up.
"Lulu." The door was pushed open and a girl popped her head in, I stared in surprise at how much she looked like her brother. It was like Logan with smoother features and long, light brown hair that fell in layers to her butt. Faint dark circles resided beneath a pair of glowing, wide eyes. On seeing me, she lifted her hand subconsciously to her face, shielding the light blemishes that dotted her chin His twin sister. "Oh, hello. You must be Vicky. I'm Luella."
"Hi," I mumbled, lowering the hand that had reached out to take my belongings from him.
"Did you take my charger again— really, Logan?" She muttered something under her breath and plugged the charger out, grumbling as she left, but a smile was sent my way.
"She calls you." I blinked, "Lulu?"
His head fell into his palm,"Please don't call me that."
My lips twitched in amusement, "I think I might."
"Please no," he whispered, horrified as he lifted his face to look at me, "Anything but that— I have a middle name too, you know? It's Myles. I prefer that even over my first name. Even Nerd is fine— Beer Guy. Whatever you want, really, just not—"
"Lulu."
He sighed, and was about to speak when my phone vibrated loudly. I opened it to a message from Shane.
- ran into Conrad,
he asked where you were.
Said you were with Stephan.
Another messages popped up.
- he doesn't believe me.
Then: - Get your ass to my
house asap, he might go there.
I stood abruptly, grabbing my backpack and stuffing my phone inside. I swung it over my shoulder, explaining in haste that I had to leave. Logan got to his feet, nodding and walking me out.
"Hey," I said, before I stepped out, "I'm sorry for being an ass."
He shrugged, a smile playing on his lips, "I wouldn't say an arse exactly.."
I scoffed, then hurried to my bike, swung my leg over, and turned the key. The bike roared to life, in seconds, I sped off. I didn't want trouble then, I was tired of being yelled at and beaten up, and I knew he'd most probably be furious at me for doing what he'd said I shouldn't. The ride to Mason's home was short and in less than ten minutes, I hurried inside, taking the stairs two at a time, until I came to Stephan's room door, "Steph—"
He opened the door, smiling at me, "Pretend you're doing something because your dad just pulled up."
"The door was open," I said, dropping my bag onto the floor.
"I know, I left it open for you."
Loud knocking came from downstairs, and then the door was pushed open. "Victoria!"
I bit down on the inside of my cheek, heart thudding as I walked into the passage, "What?"
He stood at the bottom of the staircase, glaring up at me, "Where were you?"
"Here."
"Don't fucking lie," he hissed, "I saw you pull up minutes ago."
My mouth went dry, and he took a step forward, "Come down here or I'll make you. We're going home."
Stephan appeared at my side, handing me my bag. He looked cautious, unsure of what to do or say as his eyes flickered between the two of us, trying to make sense of the situation. I thanked him and hesitantly descended the stairs.
"Where were you?" He hissed once more, as we walked.
"I didn't go to the cops," I stated, pushing the house door closed as I headed for my bike, wanting to put distance between us.
"That's not what I asked!" He yelled, glaring at me as he got into his car. In moments, we were back where we stayed — a house that I was bound to, but never my home. I hurried inside, already halfway up the stairs when he yelled once more, "Victoria, I asked you a question and I expect an answer." The door slammed shut as I turned and he appeared at the foot of the staircase.
"I already told you I won't go to the cops about the abuse."
He hated when I called it abuse, because for some insane reason, he didn't see it as such. In his mind, he was doing what was good for me— he was teaching me, building me up and making me strong. "Why wouldn't you?"
I swallowed hard, "Because I actually care about my mother, unlike you." It was something I had only recently come to realise. She was so timid and fragile, and even though she had been silent my whole life, simply standing on the sidelines, never helping me when I needed it, I couldn't bring myself to hate her anymore. I pitied her, more than anything.
His eyes flickered down for a split second, "I care," he spoke through clenched teeth. "You don't know anything."
My eyebrows rose, and I was unable to respond. Mixed emotions rose in me; anger sparked and spread through my veins as my heart thudded.
"What about other things?" He pressed on.
It took me a moment, but I understood what he meant. "You think I'll tell on you for being a murderer."
His eyes turned hard, and I stepped back when he ascended the flight of stairs, I swallowed hard, gripping the railing. My chest constricted with fear, but I stood tall, almost his height and faced him. "What—" His nostrils flared, "— Did you say?"
"I said you're a murderer," I uttered, despite the tremor of my lips, "You're cruel and selfish. You're a drug dealer and people are terrified of you because you're despicable." My heart was racing and I knew I was in for a beating after this, but I couldn't stop speaking, saying exactly what I wanted to tell him, "Apparently you're so rich, yet your wife and I are living off barely anything—"
"You know nothing," he snarled, fists balled at his sides.
"Then tell me." I said, "Tell me why we live this way if you're some successful ganglord— if you're rich, why are we struggling?"
"It's a cover." His voice rose, the vein in his forehead more apparent, "A cover from the police. This way, they'd never suspect I'm The Emperor, because as such, I would be evidently rich. Being dirt poor is the best cover— and you don't get to question me about it!"
I wanted to throw something, my body burned with fury, "You're so fucking heartless and I hate you. I hate you so much." I gritted my teeth and stood my ground when a sharp pain tore across my cheek and jaw.
He was seething with anger, but there was something else. Something I'd never seen there before. For a split second his eyes flickered downward and his shoulders sagged, just a bit and I almost missed it.
I bit the inside of my cheek. For the first time, the silence was deafening. I regretted calling him a murderer — it wasn't fair of me to do so, because I had no idea if he killed people, aside from my kidnapper, and that had been for a reason. He was right, I didn't know much. I took a step back, when he finally looked up.
His eyes hardened, voice low and cold as he said one last thing, "I killed that man to save your life."
• • •
See that star? I think it'd be quite nice to tap it. Go on, test your tapping skills.
Also wouldn't hurt to comment 😂
Thank you for reading! ❤❤
I've changed my username, as you can see!
- ya Empress.