In Ruins: A Dark High School Bully Romance (A Black Falls High Novel Book 1)

Jamie let out a gasp as Ian walked toward us in the hall a week and a half into my servi-tude. I’d just arrived at my locker with Jamie, grateful Cole had said I could drive myself for the day. It was the first day I’d been allowed to drive myself since this whole thing started. He’d also taken great pleasure in making me do his laundry. He sat on the dryer, annoying me and pointing out each time I wound up touching his underwear.

“What happened to him?” Jamie murmured, her face scrunched in worry.

“Looks like he tangled with some dudes he shouldn’t have,” Enzo said.

I hadn’t heard him come up behind me.

He winked at me. My guts twisted at his words, my mind darting back to the day in the locker room when Fox said Ian would be taken care of.

Jamie looked at us for a moment before turning back to watch as Ian passed by, his head down, probably as both a means to hide from Enzo and hide the black eye, split lip, and purple cheek he sported.

“I have to see what happened. I’ll talk to you later, Rosalie!” Jamie didn’t wait for my an-swer. She shot off down the hall, calling out to Ian.

“Did you do it?” I whispered.

Enzo leaned against the locker next to mine, his dark eyes sweeping over me as I pulled my books out. “Do what?”

“You know what. Did you guys beat him up?”

Enzo shrugged and pushed off the locker. “A magician never reveals his secrets, Sunshine. Come on. We’re wasting time talking about things that aren’t important. I want to have some fun while I have you.”

I swallowed thickly, looking up at him. “I’m with you today?”

“Do you not want to be?” He cocked a brow at me.

I shook my head, blowing out a breath. “Honestly? All of you are a pain in my ass that I wish I could be free from. Seeing as you all hate me and want my misery, I don’t see my freedom coming up any time soon, so it’s whatever at this point.”

“Ah, Sunshine. You wound me.” Enzo clutched at his heart in mock pain.

I studied him for a moment as he dropped his hands from his chest. “Did you guys really hurt Ian?”

Enzo stepped closer to me and leaned down. “My little ray of Sunshine. Why does it matter?”

“Because, you can’t go around hurting people—”

“Who says we did? Maybe he just mouthed off to the wrong guy.” There was a dark glint in his eye as he pulled away. “It’s really not important. Come on. We need to get you off to class.”

Sighing, I fell in step with him as we traversed the halls.

“I heard you want to try out for the school musical.”

I shrugged. “Yeah. I was thinking about it.”

“Can you sing?”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, knowing damn well I could probably give anyone in the school a run for their money. Admitting it made me feel self-absorbed and egotistical, so I dodged the question.

“You don’t know if you can sing but want to try out for a singing part?” Enzo gave me a look of confusion. “How does that work?”

“I figured I’d get into the chorus or something.” I glanced at him. If I tried out for a chorus part, it would keep my dad off my back. Getting a lead part would make my home life difficult because Dad would accuse me of ignoring my academics for a pipe dream.

“You’re too damn pretty to be singing in the background. Come over to my place tonight. We’ll work on your audition.” It was my turn to look confused.

“What? Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you want to help me?”

“Why would you think that I wouldn’t?”

“Uh, I’d think the answer to that is pretty obvious.” We stopped outside my classroom.

“You’re a funny girl. We’ll work on it tonight, OK?”

“I’m busy—”

“The only answer you have for me is yes, baby girl. You know that.” He tweaked my nose, winking at me.

I scowled. “Of course, your highness.”

He grinned. “I like your spunk, Rosalie. I’ll see you after class.”

And with that, he left me standing there, shaking my head. These guys were just plain confusing. They were all mean and bullies. But sometimes they did something that wasn’t solely for their pleasure or to torture me. Something nice and considerate. Something for me. And it only made things worse when they slipped back to their group dynamic of being horrible to me.

“IAN SAID he was helping his dad clean out the attic, and the ladder came down from the ceiling and hit him in the face. Can you believe that?” Jamie stared at me with wide eyes as she tore her chocolate cupcake in half at lunch.

“No.” I shook my head, knowing damn well it’s wasn’t an attic-related incident. If there was a ladder involved, it was probably handled by Fox and the guys as a weapon.

“I mean, that has to have sucked. He missed school because he said it was so bad his eye was swollen shut.”

“That does suck,” I murmured. I glanced around, wondering where Ian was. I spotted him sitting with some of his friends from the paper, his head down. He’d certainly lost his bit of swagger over the last week. Something about that gave me a sick sense of satisfaction. He’d been a real dick.

“Sunshine, where’s your lunch?” Enzo flopped down in the seat next to me and brushed the stray hair which had escaped my ponytail away from my face.

“I don’t know. I didn’t get one.”

Jamie frowned at us, no doubt confused about why it was Enzo up my ass and not Cole since everyone was talking about our recent hanging out. She’d been questioning me lately about what was going on, but I’d become an expert at smiling and dodging her questions.

I peeked over my shoulder at the crew table and saw the rest of the guys in their usual spots. They were bent over a notebook, Fox scowling and Cole smirking at him. Cole marked something in the book and closed it. Ethan met my gaze and gave me a smile before getting to his feet. Enzo noticed and grinned at me.

“Looks like we’re getting company.”

A moment later, Ethan slid into the seat on my other side. Jamie opened her mouth, her gaze volleying between the three of us. She swallowed down her bite of cupcake.

“Jamie, this is Ethan,” I said awkwardly, nodding to Ethan.

Ethan grinned his boyish grin at her. “Hey. I heard you’re on the yearbook committee. Any chance of getting a picture of us and putting it in the student life section?”Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah. Sure.” Jamie rooted around in her bag for a moment before unearthing her camera. She uncapped the lens and gestured for us to get closer for the photo.

The guys slid closer, Enzo wrapping his arm around my waist and Ethan resting his hand on mine.

“On the count of three,” Jamie called out. “One. Two. Three!”

On three, both guys leaned in and planted a kiss on my cheeks. I scrunched my face up at the move, my heart racing. The flash went off, and the photo was captured.

“I’m going to want a copy of that.” Ethan nodded to Jamie’s camera. “I’ll pay you for it.”

“Same,” Enzo echoed, nabbing a fry off Jamie’s plate. She nodded her head vigorously.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. I’ll print copies off after school for you guys.”

“Excellent.” Enzo snatched another fry. “I’ll be right back.”

I watched him get up and go, leaving me with Jamie and Ethan. “Where’s he going?”

“To get you something to eat.” Ethan gave me a quick smile. I nodded. If nothing else, they all wanted to make sure I ate.

“So… Jamie, are you trying out for the musical?” Ethan’s hand was still on mine. Jamie’s eyes shot down to it quickly before she glanced at me.

“Uh, no. That’s not really my thing. I might do some backstage stuff and grab the photos for the yearbook, though.”

Ethan nodded. “Cool. I like photography.”

I listened as Ethan engaged Jamie in conversation about her camera equipment. She visi-bly relaxed as the conversation moved to which lenses were best to use.

Knowing nothing about photography, I tuned them out, opting to look over at the crew table again. Cole was in a deep conversation with Fox. They looked mad about something. Cole’s face reddened as he said something to Fox which ended with Fox snarling something back at him. A moment later, as if sensing me, they both peered in my direction. It wasn’t a pleasant gaze that met me either. Instead, Cole got to his feet, shoving his tray at Fox and grabbing the notebook, before stalking away. Something was wrong. I glanced at Fox to find him still staring at me. Not sure what to do, I turned back to Ethan and Jamie, who were going on about which was better: digital or film.

“Both have their uses. I just like the old school feel to developing the film,” Ethan said, squeezing my hand again. “In fact, I’d love if Rosalie would sit for me one of these days.”

“Huh?”

He smiled. “I was saying I want to take photos of you. What do you think? Will you let me take your picture?”

Jamie sat back in her seat, curiosity on her face. I cleared my throat and let the wobbly smile spill onto my lips.

“The only answer I can give is yes.”

Ethan let out a soft laugh and leaned in and spoke in a low voice only for my ears.

“You can choose to say no as well. I won’t be upset. I’m not the others with their ridicu-lous notions. I want you to choose.”

“You do?”

He nodded, a serious look on his face.

“They do too, but they won’t admit it.”

I rolled my eyes at that. “Yeah, right.”

“Trust me. They do.”

We didn’t get to finish the conversation because Enzo showed up with a tray of food and sat down next to us again.

“What’d I miss?”

“Only the most confusing situation I’ve ever been in.” Jamie shook her head.

I gave her the same brittle smile I’d been giving her for the past week.

Confusing didn’t even begin to cut it.