Chapter 11
Jasmine's POV
There was a knock on the door to my room and I wiped my eyes quickly, turning and ready to tear into Hardin if he was the one.
I was terrified of him and what he could do to me but I did not deserve any of this.
And if he was coming here to rub in the fact that he had yet again succeeded in ruining my life with that useless rumor, then he would be in for a surprise because I would not cower.
And it didn't matter what the consequences would be this time because what had he not already done?
The door opened and when Nadia stepped in, with her smile hesitant, I released a breath that I didn't know I was holding and sniffed, more tears rolling down my eyes.
Her face softened and she opened her arms wide as she ran to pull me into a hug.
"Oh, my sweet friend, I'm so sorry. I brought those cookies that you like so much." She said gently.
Pulling back, I widened my eyes.
"You did?" I said tearfully and she nodded, cleaning my eyes with her hand and leading me towards the bed.
There was another knock on the door and I froze.
Oh, God, let it not be Hardin.
Nadia smiled and stood up, heading to the door.
"That must be the orange juice I asked for. The maid said she would bring it up."
Heaving another sigh of relief, I watched as Nadia smiled and thanked the maid, closing the door with her leg as she walked towards me with the tray that had two glasses and a pack of juice.
"You should never eat those cookies alone, should you?" She said in a sing song voice and grinned when I nodded.
Pouring me a glass, she opened her bag and brought out the pack of cookies, handing it to me.
"You look like you're about to cry again. Aww, don't."
I blinked back the tears quickly and feigned a smile.
"It's just been a rough weekend, that's all." I answered, surprised that my voice didn't sound hoarse from all the crying I had been doing lately.
She nodded and squeezed my hand.
"You're still adjusting to being step siblings with Hardin and then someone pulls this shit? That's really low. Why would anyone think that you and Hardin would ever be romantically or sexually involved?"
I choked on the cookie that I was eating and her eyes widened.
"Are you okay?"
I nodded, quickly drinking some juice.
I didn't dare tell Nadia what had happened between Hardin and I in the past few days. I was terrified of what Hardin would do if he found out that she knew and I could not put my friend in that type of danger.
"Who do you think posted something like that? I bet it's one of those people at school that would benefit the most from this."
"No idea." I answered even though I was certain of the one person that would benefit the most from this rumour.
Hardin Morales.
Nadia sighed and moved closer to me.
"You know how rumours are, don't you? It is bound to fade out very soon, especially because it is not true. I'm here for you, no matter what, okay?"
She pulled me into a hug and I sighed, happy that I had Nadia on my side and decided that I would pay no attention to the rumours and Hardin.
"Have you watched the latest episode of our favorite show? It's out!" Nadia said excitedly, jumping on the bed and I smiled, assured that maybe things were not so bad after all.
I was going to get through this.
Several hours later, the next day, I realized that I had spoken too soon about how bad things were when I entered the school's hallway.
Different eyes watched me as I stepped into the hallway which suddenly became awfully quiet as I saw girls run to their friends and start whispering about something.
It couldn't be about me, I thought to myself, trying to reassure myself that they were not talking about me but it was hard when eyes kept watching me.
I ignored them and walked up to my locker, my eyes widening as I saw notes that had been stuck to my locker.
Picking them one after the other, my body shook with rage as each note was worse than the last and from the handwriting on it, they were from different people. And their phone numbers were attached to them.
"Would you like to fuck, Jasmine?"
"I heard you're trying with Hardin but why don't you try with me?"
"How about you set your sights on someone lower and more attainable? I can show you a good time."
My eyes were filled with tears by the time I read the last note and I squeezed them in my hand when I heard people laughing around me.
Turning around, I spotted Hardin leaning against the locker and laughing at something a girl was saying and my anger increased.
He looked so nonchalant, and so unaffected. Meanwhile, I was going through hell because of him.
Slamming my locker shut, I gasped to see Jasper, one of my classmates leaning against the locker beside mine and grinning.
"Guess which of them was my note? Oh come on, will you give me a chance or not? I promise to be good to you." He flexed his arms and when his smile widened, I felt the strong urge to throw the papers at him and slap his face.
Instead I swallowed back my words and walked away, heading back to the exit door from where I had just entered, ignoring him when he called my name.
I was going home. Nadia was wrong. The rumours did not look like they were ending anytime soon. Coming to school was a mistake.
Two boys stopped in front of me and when I raised my head, they smiled.
"I'm Juan and this is Luke. We both left notes and between the two of us, who would you pick?" Juan asked and Luke elbowed him, licking his lips as he grinned at me and I wanted to vomit.
"A threesome is possible too, you can come to my place and..." The rest of Luke's words were lost to me because I turned around, heading towards where Hardin was standing.
Why did he get to smile when he was ruining my life?
Forgetting that I had planned to avoid him as much as I could, I stopped in front of him and the people around him stopped talking, looking at me curiously.
Hardin narrowed his eyes, clearly surprised that I was in front of him and I frowned.
"We need to talk. You need to take that post down and tell everyone that I have never nor will I ever try to come on to you." I said, my voice shaking and the people around him looked at each other, proceeding to murmur.
Hardin's smile wiped off his face in an instant and he looked almost murderous.
I started to rethink whether it was a good idea to come up to him. But before I could walk away, he grabbed my arm and dragged me away.
"Let go of me." I screamed and he laughed.
"You should have thought of that before coming to mouth off to me, little brat."
Pushing me into a closet, he entered and locked the door, pocketing the key and turned to face me.
I tried to get away from him in the dark room but there was literally nowhere to go and he pressed me into the wall.
"Let me go, Hardin."
"Why? So that you can go back outside and pretend like you are not enjoying boys following you around and all of the attention?"
He had been watching me?
"I don't know what you saw, but you're sounding like a jealous man. "
Even in the dark, I could see his face harden as he pressed into me further and I gasped, his entire scent enveloping me.
"Shameless. You're just shameless. Aren't you? So you didn't like any of them and now you're here, stalking me again?"
"I have never stalked you, you liar." I screamed and his hand covered my mouth.
His lips lifted in a smirk and I struggled to speak against his hand on my mouth when his hand found my jeans and unbuckled it, pushing his hand, I did my panties to cup my pussy.
"I'll give you what you want, little slut. This is why you came to me afterall."
Holding his hand didn't stop him from pushing two fingers inside me, and tears dropped from my eyes as he fingered me hard and rough.
My knees buckled and I wanted to scream but his hand was hard against my mouth and fingers moving fast, in and out of me.
More tears trickled down my eyes and for a second, I felt him hesitate. I thought he wanted to stop.
But the smile on his face returned and he continued to finger me, rubbing against my clit.
In that moment, I hated him so much for manipulating my body to feel things against my will.
When he was done, he forced my mouth open and put his fingers inside.
"Taste yourself, little slut and count yourself lucky that I'm in a good mood today or you would have gotten worse." He growled even as he released me finally and I fell to the ground, shaking.
And without looking back, he left me in the closet, half dressed and sobbing.