SERAPHINA'S POV
I scrub every inch of my body the second I get back to my dorm. Every bit of me they had seen; washing the marks left on my skin from their leering eyes.
Artemis's words replay in my mind over and over again as I scrub, leaving red sore marks that complement the already darkening bruises.
My first day and I'm already a walking rainbow.
"I hate it here." I admit to myself for the first time, feeling more tears gathering in my eyes.
Miss Lucy had been so happy that I finally got into this school but being here now, I have to ask what's so special about it anyway, just another place where I can't fit in no matter how hard I try.
Yet I can't let everyone back home down, not now. They have so much hope for me, and I'm already losing faith in myself.
The next day in school, it's mostly quiet around me, besides the obvious hateful staring from everyone else in school.
And there hasn't been a prank too serious. There's another stick ball in my locker, but it's still an okay day.
I assume the school is being calm after the previous accident that the Administrator got involved in. No one wants to get in trouble but they can all partake in it while I'm the one punished for being bullied.
I ignore all of it, choosing not to let any of it bother me anymore. Just a few more months of this and I'll be out of here. I just have to endure it, right?
Just as the final bell for school rings and every one shoots up from their seats, reveling in their freedom, I, unlike everyone else, gets up from my seat only to head to the supply closet for my punishment.
Clean the gym for a week.
Even if it is something minimal, I hate that I have to do this while that handsome jerk roams the halls of school, doing nothing else but being a cocky jerk-ass.
It's just for a week, Seraphina, and then you'll forget. Hopefully, your paths won't cross again for a while.
Cleaning the gym doesn't take that much of a time with sweeping the large hall room and picking a few cones tossed around. Just 30 minutes and it's mostly more spotless than it was when I arrived earlier.
Memories from the beat down I had received just on my first day filters into my mind while cleaning the same spot I laid in for almost an hour in pain.
My hip still hurts just from thinking about it. I don't dwell too much on it, wanting to just retire for the day finally.
All I need to do now is get the cones back to the store room and I'm done.
I turn into the hallway, walking for a while before the familiar blue door comes into my line of vision and I make my way to.
Before I can turn the knob and walk in, the sound of numerous objects clattering to the ground draws my attention now, followed by a banging thud.
It's almost as if someone's in there.
I take a peek through the transparent glass on the door, solely out of curiosity, wondering just who or what is in there.
I spot two human-like silhouettes, one larger than the other, and arms wrapped round. They stand way too close for comfort and from the looks of it, it's definitely a male and female and they seem to be... making out?
No, scratch that.
The sound of her high-pitched moan follows after only a second of watching them, bringing me to a deep realization.
They're having sex, and in the fucking closet room!
He picks her up while her legs hang on his waist, pinning her against the wall and pounding his hips against hers more fiercely, like a piston.
I look away fast once I realize what the hell I'm witnessing. My cheeks are flushed just from looking and hearing the obscene sounds being made in there.
The fact that I've never had sex before, never even thought of what doing it would look and feel like...
Seeing it now has me feeling all weird inside.
Who would be so stupid and daring to do this in school? According to my brief knowledge of a few of the school's rules, I know performing coitus on school grounds isn't allowed.
They must not give a shit about the rules or having someone backing them up.
The moaning only grows louder, like a pair of hungry apes going at it without a single ounce of caution.
Something pulls me back in and I'm peeking again. Something about that body seems oddly familiar until it hits me.
Even with the lack of light, my eyes adjust in the darkness and Artemis' face becomes more obvious under its veil.
I gasp, briefly slapping my hand over my mouth before they hear me and I'm branded a pervert for the rest of my school life.
It's not as if I'm looking as a means of entertainment... this is purely curiosity.
I'm immediately appalled...
Of course, it would be Artemis, bold enough to take a girl in the most unsanitary place in school nonetheless. I bet she's a real piece of work to be willing to let an asshole like him get a piece.
And then it hits me, the perfect idea for revenge - one that won't make up for what he's done to me, but it would be a start. Even for a brief moment, he'd be something to look and laugh at.
I pull out my phone from my pocket, hitting on record and raising it up to my view, taking it all down on video. I can already imagine what his horrified face would be like once the evidence of him breaking school rules reaches the Administrator's desk.
Maybe I'd even hold it over him or use it as blackmail and force him to beg me to delete it.
More than a few ideas fall into my mind and I'm loving every single one of them, watching them through my phone.
While I'm plotting the perfect revenge, my eyes fall on the two desperately pressing their bodies together in the heat of the moment, too engrossed in their own pleasure.
Artemis doesn't have his usual glower, instead he looks partially absorbed in what he's doing, focusing on her expression while he thrusts his hips forward.
I imagine that he's dripping in perspiration because the room has no source of ventilation. Each drop sliding down the contour of his rigid toned body.
The movement of his hip suddenly grabs my attention, each firm and powerful stroke, driving himself at her with a look of pure satisfaction on his face.
She grips onto him, desperately taking the force of his thrust with happy squeals of ecstasy and I'm sucked right into it, feeling a new tickling sensation igniting within me.
Suddenly, I'm thinking back to how close he had been yesterday when I confronted him. The way he stared down at my chest and licked those pale pink lips before passing that tempting smile.
What would it be like if I had taken him up on his offer?
What the hell am I thinking?!
I shake my head, in the process shaking the rated dirty thoughts out of my head, looking away from the glass in the door.
Just what am I imagining right now?
Getting with him?
Annoying asshole Artemis; the current bane of my existence?
I must have been hit really hard to even consider him in the first place.
I gag and swallow those heinous thoughts. Whatever this is must just purely be attraction, based on the fact that he does have a pretty good-looking exterior compared to his rotten interior.
I'm still lost in thought, watching the two when the girl's eyes just so happens to stare at something other than Artemis and meets mine just outside the door.
She screams, falling off him roughly and he turns in my direction swiftly.
I move out of the way just before he can get the chance to see me, feeling my own chest trying to burst open from the force of my pounding heart.
I drop every other thing just outside the door, making a run for it before I'm caught. The girl might have not been able to fully recognize me before she freaked out, and there's no way he saw me before I ran away.
No one will ever know that it was me.
I run out of the school building, all the way to the dorms and then to my room, only resting the moment I'm in and locking the doors behind me.
My erratically pounding heart finally relaxes.
"Sera?"
My eyes move to my roommate siting at the edge of her bed over her own laptop and looking at me with a worried gaze.
"What happened?" She asks with concern written all over her face and getting off her bed.
How do I tell her that I'm being chased by the Alpha prince after videoing him having sex with some girl?
"Sera?" She asks again now, standing right next to me, resting her palm on my shoulder. "They didn't bother you again today, did they?"
From the tone of her voice, she's more worried than ever.
The news of what transpired yesterday had mortified her and thrown her into an immediate frenzy, ending with me promising not to do anything crazy until the whole thing with Artemis dies off.
I made the promise without the intention of actually keeping it, yet here I am, back from getting myself into more trouble.
She checks my arm for new bruises and sighing the moment she finds none and relaxing just a bit like a concerned mother.
The gesture tugs at my heartstring, making me feel even worse for what I'm about to do.
"Promise you won't get mad." I start with that first.
Her eyebrow goes up with confusion before I hand her the phone, pressing play on the video.
It goes right into the shameful moans of the girl clinging onto Artemis, like she's high on the sex.
"Oh." She says, surprised by the sudden start of it, not expecting to be hit with a sex video all of a sudden.
"Wait for it..."
The scene where it becomes obvious that its Artemis, her eyes widen and her jaw almost drops.
"Oh." She says in a different tone, now realizing what she's watching.
A few more seconds and she stops, pausing the video to look at me.
"Do you know what this means, Sera?" She turns to me more seriously.
"I know, right?" I say excitedly. "This could put an end to everything. We have leverage over him for the first time. Posting this all over school would be epic."
"No, Sera.' She stops me, reeling my imagination back in.
"You don't understand. This girl..." She points to the screen. "She's not his mate."
There's a moment's pause between the both of us while the new information sinks; not as easily as I want it to.
I remember being debriefed about how big of a deal mates are and the fact that Artemis does in fact have one.
Didn't having a mate mean devoting yourself to just one person?
"If you post this for the whole school to see, it's not just a funny jab at him for having sex in a utility closet, its exposing him for disrespecting his mate bond."
"It's not like he's not already doing that well enough on his own, and I doubt this is the first girl he's done with."
"Yeah, but everyone ignores it like its nothing, posting this is much more different. I advise against it."
I stare down at my phone, at the hard evidence I had just risked my life to get, and now I'm being asked to just let it go just like that - after what he did to me?
"I don't think I can do that, Olive." I say, meeting her eyes again.
I wish I could promise her but it's just going to be another lie.
"Not after what happened yesterday. I'm not one to shy away from a chance at revenge, so I can't possible let this go."
Her eyebrows remain furrowed but she doesn't speak.
I can imagine she wants so desperately to talk me out of it, but she knows she won't be successful.
He has to pay for what he's done.