"She was another broken doll dreaming of someone with a glue. "
- Atticus
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FOR THE FIRST TIME in years, I wake up feeling a bit hopeful. It's been such a long time since I didn't find any reason to leave my bed besides protecting my brother. With the practice that happened on Saturday, I could already feel better and at least, imagine that something good will happen, especially for Sammy.
I look at my clock stand and it still marks 6:30. Just the fact that I woke up early than usual is enough to make me smile to myself. Today will be great, I know it.
Before taking a shower, I decided to pick my outfit for school but I don't bother to care about it that much. I just choose a light blue sweater paired with high waisted black jeans and my same color ankle boots. It's probably cold outside since we're in the middle of October and I don't want to get sick right when I'm training to protect my brother.
I go straight to the bathroom and I wasn't even going to look, yet I can't help but take a peek at how my face is looking after what happened two days ago. When I finally see my cheek, how purple it is, I have the urge to cry. I knew that several slaps would hurt like hell but I didn't expect them to look this ugly.
All the enthusiasm I had for today is gone.
Even if Tom is not here next to me, he still manages to bring the worse out of me.
I let the tears come as I enter inside the shower stall and turn the water on as hotter as it can get. A scalding bath is probably the only thing that can make me feel a bit better.
Crying doesn't take you anywhere but I continue doing it. I didn't expect me to hold this much sadness but suddenly, I'm sobbing. It keeps getting louder and I need to take a deep breath so my dad or Sammy can't listen to it.
When I finally get out of the shower, after what it feels like hours, I inhale and exhale deeply to calm myself down and face another day. At least, I'm doing something to protect my brother and me.
My thigh is still injured even after two whole days taking care of it. This time, Tom left marks on me, he made sure I would never forget him. There will be a long scar from the left thigh to my knee and I need to find a very good excuse as to why is that.
After my mental breakdown, I do all I need before going to school, pretending that nothing ever happened. My makeup is barely enough to cover the purple bruise covering my cheek but it somehow hides. Sometimes, I wish anyone would manage to see what I hide so well.
I wake Sammy up and go straight to the kitchen, to grab some breakfast for my brother. Today, I won't sit still in the damn countertop, smiling at the monster I live with.
"What do you think you are doing, Lina?" Tom asks from the top of the staircase, a big cynical smile on his face.
"Today the classes start earlier, don't ask me why. I'm already late for it." I lie, flawlessly and I just hope my dad will buy this whole story.
"Alright, but don't stay out too late today. You are cooking dinner for us." I nod, feeling light inside that I won't need to have breakfast with him. Having to cook dinner is a small price to pay for that. Tom comes back to his room, probably to drink much more, and I finally exhale the air I've been holding without realizing it.
"C'mon Sammy!" My brother comes running downstairs and smiles at me, before going straight to the car. He grabs his breakfast in the way as I hand him.
"Don't leave bread scrumbles in my damn car, Samuel!" I scream at him, closing the door and just hoping Eric would have some biscuits in his bag like usual.
That will be my breakfast.
I'm sweating as I leave Mrs. Easton's class, Algebra 2. There was going to have a test today and I haven't studied anything for it. All the inequations I managed to check were the ones that the girl next to me was reviewing. I hope that those notes along with what I learned were enough to make me do well on the test.
If I fail this test, I don't want to imagine what Tom would do to me. What marks he would choose to leave on me.
"Hey, bitch." Eric hugs from my behind and I can't help but squeal like a little girl. He laughs of me and all I do is roll my eyes, a big smile following my gesture.
"Are you getting better, chérie?" The French nickname Eric chose for himself is nothing but funny yet if he wants to be called like that, who am I to stop him.
"One step at a time, right?" He smiles sadly at him and I rub his arm, an attempt to make him feel better.
"I will always be here for you. You can call me any time of the day and I'm going to be there for you in a heartbeat. But now, hand me those damn biscuits that I'm hungry." He puts his hand up like he's surrounding and I get along, by forming a gun with my fingers to point at him.
We both laugh for a long time before he throws at me a package of what will be my breakfast and I give him a thankful look. He doesn't need to know why I didn't eat anything.
"Are you sure you want to it that? It's been in my bag for days, besides, we are heading for the cafeteria." I slap playfully his shoulder while I grab a biscuit and place it in my mouth, just to piss him off. It tastes like heaven, or maybe it's because I'm hungry.
"Alright, alright. Eat that piece of shit while I eat a whole hot dog." He winks at me and I just laugh, making fun of his face.
"You didn't think I would only eat these biscuits, right? Come on, you know me." Eric shows me his tongue and I laugh before whispering in his ear, "A hamburger would be perfect now."
As soon as we reach the cafeteria, I can see all my classmates already divided into their respective groups. There are the cheerleaders, the jocks, the addicted, the nerds and of course, the gang table. It always sits just the three, Kayla, Chadwick and Damien, so they don't expose the other members.
I try to find the bad boy among the crowd, my eyes quickly scanning the whole room but it's useless. I don't see him anywhere.
"Are you coming or not?" Eric takes me back from my thoughts and I nod at him, going closer to grab a tray.
The line for the lunch is relatively small today and I thank god for that. Waiting more than 30 minutes to eat sucks. My friend and I quickly grab our food, hot dog and hamburger, before heading to the table we've sat for over two years now. We don't belong in any group and somehow, that's good.
"Do you know if Bella came to school today?" When I'm about to answer Eric's question, I spot him.
Damien is coming down the hall with his hands in the pocket of his black jeans. Kayla and Chadwick are right behind him but I don't care about them.
The bad boy has my whole attention.
He is as handsome as always with his dark blonde hair combed back and a malicious smile on his lips. The leather jacket he has on completes the bad boy look and for once, I wish he would notice me.
I'm being stupid but I want to have something to forget about my dad so badly. Kissing Damien would only come as handy.
When our gaze meets, my air suddenly feels lost. He doesn't do anything special so our undercover meetings aren't blown away but I can tell when his hazel eyes brighten and all do is give him a slight smile.
No one can know that he's helping me.
"Sorry, Eric. What did you say?" I come back to talking to my best friend as Damien walks to his table on the other side of the room, breaking our eye contact.
"Do you know if Bella came to school, today?"
"I don't think so. She wasn't well at Chadwick's party." Bella Adams was a mess. Funny how that Saturday night went differently for the three of us.
That party was where everything with the bad boy started.
"Have you finished, Lina?" Eric asks, after some time, but I haven't even started my lunch. My mind isn't letting me, with all the thoughts that are going through it.
"It's fine, you can go. We text each other in our Whats group." He smiles at me and I send him a kiss before finally eating a piece of the hamburger in front of me.
I look at Damien that is far away but he's too entertained in his talk with his best friend to pay attention to me. When he sees his sister coming his way, his lips form a true smile that makes him, for once, look like he's alive. That he isn't the dead person walking as everyone says.
For both of us, family matters.
The bell rings and that's the sign that school is over. I stop paying attention to the bad boy so I can get the hell out of this place. I thank god that it's finally over. I couldn't take it anymore after the test I didn't know how well I did.
The cold air that hits me as soon as I leave school makes me shiver and I wonder how Bella can wear those short skirts in the middle of winter. My best friend is one of a kind.
After I get home, I need to make sure she's recovering from Saturday night. All her emotions came flushing that day. She doesn't know but I'm the one that understands her the most.
Hiding your emotions well and lying flawlessly are things that require practice and I'm the one that has a degree on both.
Before I can reach my car, I feel a pair of hands pushing me to the side and my instinct is to scream but the air catches in the back of my throat as soon as I see who is behind me.
"What the hell, Kayla?" I yell at her face while managing to inhale deeply. She throws her head back in a laugh and I have the urge to roll my eyes. She's making fun of me.
"Sorry, girl. But my brother asked me to give you a message." Her hazel eyes flicker with anxiety and I'm scared of asking what is it but I need to pose as confident to all the Stones.
"Fuck, tell me already." My lips form as a smile as Kayla quickly puts on a mask of a badass. I'm getting under her skin and we are starting to be friends but she's part of a gang, after all, can't get too close of me.
"You guys have practice today, that's all. The same place, the same hour as the last one." There's a bit of curiousness in her voice and I wonder if she wants to know why her brother is helping a girl like me. There's no clear reason for it.
"I can't, Kayla. My dad is working late today and I need to be with my little brother." Part of it is a lie since Tom never, in a million years, showed any interest in taking care of Sammy. That's good I guess. He stays far away from his little child.
"Well, Lina," the sarcasm is clear as she says my name but I choose not to care. Fighting with the bad boy's sister wouldn't take me anywhere. She can look down at me if she wants, "the thing is: Damien doesn't like to cancel a meeting and no one has ever left him hanging."
I can't help but laugh while running a hand through my dark brown locks. Kayla looks at me worried but her brother and she needs to know what my beliefs are.
"There's a first time to everything. Tell Damien I don't give a fuck about who he is. My brother will always come first."
I enter my car before she can say anything else and when I'm about to leave, I open the window and say, "Use the exact words to give him my message."
With that I turn the car on, losing no time to leave. Kayla is left speechless behind me but I don't care. Sammy is the only one that matters.
After almost dying in Mcdonalds because my little brother couldn't sit still and decided to go to the playground, I finally have some moment of peace. Doing homework in the silence of a room might not be everyone's dream but in my life, with Tom in it, this is my favorite time of the day.
My playlist is so loud in the music speaker that I almost don't hear the noise that is coming out of my window. It sounds like someone is throwing something at it and my mind instantly tries to find a way out of here. I wish I didn't always think negatively about any situation.
I take a deep breath and gather all the courage I have to look through my window to find what is making this irritating noise that is not allowing me to study.
The air I inhaled, the one that I thought would calm me down, instead, catches in the back of my throat when I meet with a pair of hazel eyes that I'm getting to know so well.
Damien Stone is standing outside my house with a bunch of little rocks on his hand, a malicious smirk all over his lips. So, he is the one that has been making noise.
I roll my eyes before I close the curtains, completely ignoring him outside. Tom can't know in a million years what I have been planning. The bad boy might be charming and irresistible standing in the middle of the night out there but I can't go see him.
My phone buzz inside my hoodie pocket and instantly I know it's him.
Bad boy: I'm outside your house, waiting for you if you didn't notice.
I groan as I text him a quick, I said not today, before throwing my cellphone in my bed. These practices are already interfering with my studies and I can't let Tom know what is happening.
What my plans are.
My mind is still going a thousand miles per hour as I sit on my desk but I try to calm myself down and hope that Damien would go away.
The minute I manage to get back on a study rhythm, I hear the doorbell. I tug my nails so hard on my palm that it probably bleeds as soon as I understand who is behind all of this. Kayla wasn't joking when she said the bad boy didn't take no as an answer. I just need to get to that door before my dad.
I don't think I've ever run that fast. I go downstairs in a matter of seconds and before Tom gets to see who is behind the door, I get in the way. His green eyes widen and I smile at him, like a quiet and shy girl would do.
"I'm waiting for a package, dad. It's probably the mailman." My dad looks at me from up and down, my breath becoming more and more frantic but I can't let him see how nervous I am or else he would figure out that it's not the mailman.
Tom nods before going to the bathroom and without losing any more time, I go outside and silently close the door behind me. I'm met by Damien with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face. He's inches away from me and I can smell his cologne, a dangerous scent mixed with a cigarette odor. He should stop smoking if he wants to continue living.
"What do you want, bad boy?" There's sarcasm on my voice and he quickly notices as Damien grabs my arm and pulls me to the side so I have my back to the cold wall.
Our breaths are synchronized and having him so close to me, makes my heartbeat go faster and faster.
I don't like where this conversation is heading.
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{A/N: Hey guys! How are you all doing? Well, here it is, another chapter of Becoming Bad! I hope you enjoyed it and please, if you did, don't forget to vote and leave all your thoughts on the chapter! I'm super excited for my readers to see what will happen along with this plot! I'm sure you all will love it. Thanks for all the support and the incredible 11k reads! I couldn't be more grateful. Faster updates are coming, I swear ;) With love, Ally.}