Harassment at home

"Leave me alone, please!" I say to him as I slump against the wall, suddenly exhausted.

"You're really pathetic," he sneers as he looks at me with disgust and contempt.

I don't have the strength to care, but I manage to answer him. "And here you are again, looking for me," I mutter.

"I just wanted to know if the rumors were true."

"Well, I guess you know now. You can go tell everybody," I say wearily.

"Obviously that's what I'm going to do. I love humiliating your fat ass," she whines.

"What else is new?" I ask her. "Now if you could leave, I'd like to take a shower," I say, feeling all the hopelessness I feel transfer to my words.

I have no doubt that word will spread and that will cause me more harassment. I'm almost afraid to go to school, and that's saying something. He hesitates for a second, but then walks away and I let out a sigh. At least we didn't come to blows or tear each other to pieces like usual. That's got to be a victory, right?

I go back to showering to wash off the smell of vomit. When I finish and go back to my room, I sit down on the floor next to the bed. I grab my drawing stuff from under the bed, open the sketch pad and start drawing.

Some of the drawings are Rayan's and others are representations of what I'm trying to convey as the mess inside my head. I draw until I am too exhausted to continue and then I tuck the computer back under the bed.

All the drawings have one thing in common: Rayan is the monster in my story, although at the time I didn't know there would be others.

LIA

I got practically no sleep last night and was now in a very bad mood as I was walking downstairs. I guess it didn't help that I was drawing until I was too exhausted and my fingers started cramping up from going at it for hours.

By the time I finished, my whole body ached because I was bent over in an awkward position, sitting on the floor, drawing all the time. No wonder I couldn't sleep when I finally went to bed.

But the pain was worth it, because these new drawings came out amazing. I loved them because in them I saw how much my skills have improved over the past few months, especially with this new series. The only thing I really hated was the subject of my art.

Rayan Riverside...

I wish my mind wasn't so intrigued by this guy. I wish I hated him as much as he hates me, but that doesn't seem to be the case no matter how hard I try. All he has to do is look at me and instantly all my attention is focused on him, how could it not be? The guy was a masterpiece. That's why I keep drawing portraits of him. Well, not exactly portraits per se.

When I get to the kitchen, I'm surprised to see my mother and Jackson there. I didn't think I'd see them this morning. I thought they would have left by now, since they have a multi-million dollar company to run.

"Good morning," I say to them both as I continue walking toward the kitchen.

"Good morning, sweetie," Mom says.

"Good morning, Leah," says Jackson . "How did you sleep, how do you like the new house?"

"I slept well," I lie. "And yes. You have a very nice house," I say with a forced smile on my face. It's not a lie because it really is a beautiful house.

"Well, I'm glad you like it. I hope you'll soon consider it your own home," she tells me with a sincere smile. I smile back, but say nothing. The truth is that this will never be my home, nor will it ever feel like home. Rayan will do everything in his power to make me feel unsafe. I'm sure if he could throw me out of here, he would.

"What would you like for breakfast, Miss?" one of the maids asks me.

"Just an orange juice, please," I say with a warm smile.

"Aren't you going to have breakfast?" asks Mom. I hate it when she pays too much attention to me.

"I'll grab something at school, Mom. I'm late because I have an early study session," I lie. She gives me a disapproving look to let me know she's not happy with me right now.

"But...

"See you later, love you!".". I say, cutting her off as I rush out of the kitchen before she can say anything else. I bump into Rayan's hard, muscular chest as I'm about to walk out of the kitchen. "Shit, sorry!"

"Watch it, fat ass!" he grumbles low enough for me to be the only one to hear his insult.

"Good morning to you too, asshole !". I growl under my breath. I'm about to leave when Jackson speaks.

"Oh, Rayan , I'm glad you're up and ready to go! I'm going to need you to drive Lia to school until she gets her car fixed," he says, and I wonder what happened to my car.

"Um, I can drive myself. My car is fine," I say dumbfounded.

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you. When the guys brought your car in yesterday, all four tires were flat," Jackson tells me .

"How?" I ask.

"No idea, but I'll get you some new tires anyway," he says smiling at me.

"Umm, okay. Thanks I guess," I say with a strained smile.

I know I haven't been right in the head for a while, but I swear it's like someone's fucking with me or something. Although if that's true, it could literally be anyone and I wouldn't know who it is because everyone in the senior class hates me.

A second later, I realize. That's what was going on in my room when I didn't understand what was going on the night I left mom at the restaurant. Someone was in my room and some of my things were rearranged.

Fuck. That thought just chills me to the bone inside. They're not leaving this whole hate/bullying thing just for school. Someone or several broke into our house and were in my fucking room. Well, now I'm glad we moved. I hope this place has good security so I don't have to deal with that.

Back to the idea of going to school with Rayan . For the record, it's a bad idea. I don't think Rayan and I in the confines of the same car is a good idea.

"Oh, no. It's okay. I can take an Uber or borrow Mom's car so I don't have to take Rayan out or anything," I tell him.

I mean, he and my mom go to the same place so I'm sure they can go together while I use his car. Rayan and I also go to the same place but that's different since the jerk hates me.

"Nonsense. They won't kick Rayan out because they go to the same school," he tells me and I let out a sigh. There's no use arguing with that man when he's got things straight. At least that's something he and his father have in common. They are both stubborn and like to be in charge.

Honestly, I never thought he would be so nice to me. He's super nice to mom because they are in love but I thought he would treat me like I didn't exist. But everything has been different than I thought.

He definitely doesn't act like the entitled rich egomaniac I thought he was going to be, although the same can't be said for his son. I guess that's why I'm always surprised when he talks to me and does so with genuine kindness.

"Uh, okay, I guess," I reply, giving him a smile. Rayan snorts and rolls his eyes. The jerk is always ruining any kind of nice moments.

"Let's go! If you're not in my car when I'm in it, I'll leave you behind," he blurts out to me in a low voice so no one else can hear what he's saying.

Now I have to run after him to keep up. I hate this guy. I open the passenger door just as he opens his, quickly climb in and buckle up before closing the door as he sits in his seat.

Well, that was close. I barely manage to grab my purse from the stairs before I have to run after him. It's not until he's out the door and on his way that I realize I've left my cell phone charging in my room. crap! Well, I guess I'll just have to make do without it today. When we're about five minutes from the house, Rayan pulls over to the side of the road.