Chapter 8

Aside from one girl in particular. I rose an eyebrow as I walked towards my seat. There sitting, was a girl with wavy blonde hair. She was extremely skinny, however the only meat that was on her body was her chest and bottom. She was sitting only on half of the chair, majority of her body leaning towards Landon. They were joking and flirting in some type of way. She glances back at me for a second before giving her full attention back to Landon. I sensed that she was ignoring me on purpose.

Quietly, I set my bag on top of my table, and stood patiently until she got out of my seat. Class was already starting, and Mr. Winston was horrible in getting the class to follow his guidelines.

A few minutes passes by and the girl uneasily took a few glances back at me. She finally cleared her throat and turned her body towards me, "Do you mind?"

I lifted my eye brows looked at her in disbelief, "Yes, I do." I bluntly responded.

Other classmates who were sitting around us looked over. Some holding back their laughter, some looking at me disgusted.

The girl continues to ignore my presence as I shook my head. Tired of the situation, I grabbed her books and swiftly pushed it over Landon's table.

I maintained a blank expression as I also pushed my bag onto Landon's table. Landon rose an eyebrow and kicked the leg of my table. One of the broken bars from the table stuck out, happened to hit against my knee cap. My knee heated up in pain as I bit the inside of my cheeks to keep myself from making a sound. Calmly, I pushed the table back into it's original position and sat on it.

"Excuse me!" the girl behind me scoffed, "You're in my way."

I didn't respond. Instead, I reached into my bag and pulled out my notebook and pen, jotting down the notes that Mr. Winston had wrote on the board. I ignored the burning sensation in my knee that was throbbing from the impact earlier and continued to focus on Mr. Winston's lecture.

"Bitch," I heard Landon mumble beneath his breath from behind me.

Hearing those words escape from Landon's lips stopped my breath. Sounds started to tune out, replaced by a piercing noise banging against my ear drums. I clenched my teeth as my eye sight starts to tune out of focus. The word 'bitch' came across my mind on a constant replay.

It only felt like a quick second before I felt something hit the table roughly. I blinked out of my trance and turned my body slightly, looking behind me. A thick Pre-Calculus textbook laid closely behind me, ang the girl who was previously sitting in my seat already left. Landon laid his eyes on me, biting the end of his pen.

I slid off the desk and walk behind it. As soon as I set my notebook on the table, Landon lifted his leg and places his feet on my chair. His big leathered combat boot laid heavily on my seat and he carelessly pretend to pay attention to the lecture ahead of him.

Finally irritated by his actions, I grabbed my chair and yanked it away from his foot, and shoved it back underneath the table. Almost instantly, Landon shot up and hovers over me. His body was only a foot away from mine.

It's odd how Landon was acting fine a couple of days ago, and now looks like he has the urge to kill someone.

He leaned his face towards me and stares at me deep in the eyes. His right hand gripping my left shoulder as he shakes me viciously. My eyes widen in shock as I try to remove his grip from my shoulder.

"Who. Do. You. Think. You. Are." He speaks underneath his breath, nudging me forward after each word. He finishes his sentence with a scoff, along with small a laughter, sarcastically spitting in my face.

After being put up with his constant harassment, I felt my throat tighten as I blink multiple times, desperately holding back my tears. My heart was beating fast, my face was heating up, and my fists were clenched tightly until my knuckles turned white.

"Let me go," I simply requested in a soft voice.

By then I felt an uncontrollable tear drip down my cheek. His grip loosens as soon as the tear has escaped my eyes. His smirk was wept off of his face as he slowly drops his hand from my shoulder. I watched him as he swallowed his saliva, his adam's apply moving in the center of his neck. Some of Landon's friends even bothered to pat Landon on the back, encouraging him for his ruthless behavior towards me.

"What's going on back there?" Mr. Winston speaks out from the front of the classroom. He caught the drift of the mood in the room and looked at Landon and I.

"You two, step outside."

Landon clicked his tongue as he stomps towards the exit, swinging the door as hard as possible for it to reflect and bang on the other side of the wall. I cleared my throat as I quietly followed behind him.

By then, I barely managed to hold back my emotions and wiped the previous tear that had dripped down on my face.

"Aubrey?" a soft voice from down the hallway called. The voice belonged to dearest friend, Bella.

Both Landon and I looked at her as I breathed deeply. I was clutching my emotions by its last thread.

"What's wrong?" Bella asked as she hurried towards me.

The moment I felt the nurture from Bella, tears uncontrollably escaped my eyes as I started sobbing softly. I didn't care about Landon's presence, and he definitely does not care about mine. I felt Bella's arm wrapping around my waist as I wrapped my arms around her neck, burying my face in between my arm and her neck. I cried as quietly as possible.

Without thinking, I glanced back up and unmeaningly landed my eyes back on Landon. He was avoiding my eyes this time, looking down at his palms. Just looking at him makes my body shake and heat up in anger and hatred. Shortly afterwards, he stuck his hands into the pockets of his jacket and turned towards me. We made eye contact. I furrowed my eyebrows and hugged Bella tighter as she rubbed my back with comfort.

Landon opened his mouth for a second, before closing it again. His expression of fault quickly changed back to a careless smirk. He licked his bottom lip and tilted his head backwards as he started to walk in our direction.

Bella released me from our hug as she looked at me with sad eyes, fixing my hair, pushing some strands away from my face. My gaze was focused on Landon, as his was on me. The feeling of slow motion occurred again before Landon passes us, and continues walking towards the exit of the hallway.