Chapter 14: Mutual Agreement Part 2

Lilac’s P.O.V

Nice to each other? Hmm…that didn’t sound so bad. Maybe we could see past the initial disagreements we had and actually start to…nah! Being friends…was too much of an attachment. Mutual agreement it is.

“Cool.” I agreed, holding up my fist. “Mutual agreement it is.”

“Cool.”

He bumped fists with me before he awkwardly scratched his nape and pointed towards the hallway. “I…er…have class.”

“Me too.” Great…now we had nothing to say…and somehow, that made me smile.

“See you…later.”

With that, Liam sped past me and down the hallway and I too, made my way back to my class, surprisingly, with a smile on my face.

What I wasn’t aware of however, was the pair of red eyes that had watched the entire ordeal.

Serena and I stood opposite to each other at the alleyway behind the school in the afternoon.

None of her goons were with her and that’s how I knew that she had kept this matter as low-key as possible. And that proved that she wasn’t as stupid as she let others think she was.

“My, my…” She tsked, shaking her head. “Look how the high and mighty has fallen.” She smirked, stepping closer to me. “I wasted so much time and energy on trying to get you to do my bidding... if only I’d know before…I’d have you lick dirt off my boots with your tongue.”

She trailed two fingers down my cheeks before she lifted up my chin with her sharp nails. “Things would’ve been so much easier if I’d known about your greedy little mind. Come on. Do it. Lick my feet. I’ll throw in a thousand more.”

Slapping her hand away, I held out my palm for the money, half expecting to be cheated…but she just smiled and took out a ward of cash from her backpack and handed it to me. But before I could take the money, she dropped it from her hand and it landed it right at her feet.

Swallowing hard, I fisted my hands and bent over, snatching the cash from the ground before she did something even more humiliating. I took the bundle and placed it inside my backpack.

With that, Serena flipped her blonde hair away from her shoulders and walked past me, but not before shoving my shoulders.

I watched her leave impassively…before I let out the breath that I had been holding as I hunkered down on the ground. When I finally uncurled my hands, I saw tiny crescent shaped scars on my palms that were already bleeding.

No…this wasn’t wrong…this wasn’t filthy.

What had been happening to me for the past four years…that had been filthy.

Very few people in this pack had a moral compass, so if they were to question me about my ways of making money…fuck them. I wasn’t a prostitute selling my body off to people. I wasn’t a home-wrecker or a thief. I had been working for free all this time, just to earn the right to breathe in this pack, because even the air here wasn’t free. It took its price from my soul and my sanity.

And now I was finally doing something so I could get the fuck out of here.

I was done being the naïve child they thought I was. I was done with this pack…with Krimson.

“Lily?”

Dani’s small voice caught my attention and I found her standing over me, looking at the cuts in my hand with trembling lips.

“Are you going to start crying again?” I asked her with a smirk. “Should I get you a jug? You’ll fill it up in no time.”

“Stop it!” She huffed, wiping at her eyes as she hunched down to a sitting position next to me. “Don’t make fun of me for being sentimental!”

“You cry after watching cartoons!” I chided her light-heartedly. “What am I supposed to say?”

“It’s not ‘cartoons’, it’s anime!” Dani corrected as she took out two band-aids from her bag and applied them to my palms. “And I’m crying because you don’t cry anymore…”

She was right. I don’t know what had happened…but one day, after that incident at the infirmary with Krimson four years ago…I had just stopped crying. No matter how much punishment I took…no matter how hurt I felt…I just couldn’t cry anymore.

“I’m gonna miss you when I leave.” I told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

“I’ll miss you too.” Dani said quietly, as we just sat there, watching the cars go by on the road and afternoon turn to evening.