Chapter 6: Still A Bully

His gaze and smile turned toward me, making me blink and swallow. Then his lips hit mine before I could even process his face coming closer. I froze for a second, completely caught off-guard. His lips were soft and he tasted like caramel. His favorite sweetener.

I leaned into the kiss without thinking much of it. It felt so familiar… and easy. Like I’d been in that moment a hundred times before. His tongue slipped into my mouth and an embarrassing low moan came out of me. The baby whined in my arms.

“Can you not be disgusting?” Marcus muttered near us, making Trojan break off the kiss and kiss my forehead instead.

Moon Goddess, how did I get here? How did this become my life?

“You go get the dress,” Trojan murmured and gently took the baby from me. “I’ll take care of these two and make sure the preparations go smoothly.”

“Thank fuck.” Marcus rolled his eyes.

I just stood there like a deer caught in the headlights, all while trying to figure out how to tell my supposed baby daddy that I didn’t want to go anywhere with his son. Or anywhere near him for that matter.

Marcus glanced at me with a sweet smile. “Let’s go get ready, mommy. You have twenty minutes before we have to leave.”

He hooked his arm to mine and led me up the stairs. Then the psycho waited in my bedroom as I got ready. The good news was, I had breast pads. The bad news was, my breasts hurt like a motherfucker by the time I was done dressing. And they felt fuller than earlier. Further cementing that those little strangers were mine.

I bet everyone at the academy had a field day with that. I couldn’t imagine the insults I probably got from them for this development. Slut. Daddyfucker. Whore. Marcus wouldn’t pull any punches. Did I even go to the academy anymore?

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Marcus’s designer friend, Kieran, had the dress ready by the time we arrived.

“What the hell is that?” I asked, staring at the orange monstrosity Marcus called a dress.

A dress that he ordered for me. It looked like a half-peeled orange, and the way it was so big, I was certain that it would make me look like Winnie-the-Pooh. If not worse.

It was hanging on its own rack next to a bunch of other dresses. Probably because it needed the space.

“I thought it was better than the one you originally ordered,” Marcus muttered, pretending to be looking through the other rags in the store.

I doubted that. I’d never had much fashion sense or fashion experience, but I was sure as hell that I’d never choose anything like it. Not even in a dream while in a coma. I wondered what I actually chose.

“Just take what you’re given and make do.” Marcus turned to me and folded his arms in front of him. “We are already feeding you for free.”

I bit my lower lip, waiting for the words to pierce my chest like they always did. I’d heard them so many times before, coming from him and his friends. Even from the person the Moon Goddess had supposedly chosen specifically for me.

But the tidal wave never came.

The words still stung, but they didn't crush me like they normally would have. There was no sudden burn behind my eyes. No tightness in my throat. No desperate need to pretend I wasn't hurt while wondering what I'd done to deserve it.

I just stood there watching that smug look he always gave whenever he was waiting for me to flush in shame or even cry.

Instead, I turned to Kieran. “Can I get something else?”

He blinked in surprise, his eyes traveling between Marcus and me. As if trying to figure out which one of us to listen to. One thing was clear to me, though. I wasn’t going to let Marcus walk all over me on this. It felt like I wasn’t that girl anymore.

I remembered how I used to shrink whenever he spoke to me. How I’d swallow my tears and tell myself that I was used to it. How I'd lie awake afterward replaying every word until I found a reason to blame myself.

That missing year didn’t seem so scary anymore. And if I was going to find out what happened to me, I had to stand my ground, starting by making sure that Marcus treated me with some level of respect. I was his daddy’s woman after all.

“We are taking what we ordered.” His arms were still folded when he walked closer. “You wouldn’t want to waste my dad’s five thousand dollars, would you?”

I looked at the dress, then at him. “No.”

His smug smile returned. “Good.”

“I said I don't want to waste his money.”

His smile faltered.

I pointed at the orange disaster. “That thing looks like it was designed specifically to waste it.”

Kieran made a strange choking sound beside us.

Marcus's jaw tightened. “Watch your mouth.”

“Why?” I asked. “Are you going to cry?”