#Chapter Five
Kitty sped down the grass path as Becky's minions called after her with laughs of derision. They roughened her up earlier and she already sustained a nasty scratch on her right elbow, and honestly, she wasn't in the mood for another bruise. Her mother was sending her weird looks every night when she came home from school with a fresh new scratch and she knew that sooner or later, she would have something horrible to say or some new dreadful order that she was going to subject her to.
She rounded the corner of the building quickly and continued brisk walking as she heard them repeating their usual terms of hate towards her. They were fast getting sick of simply pushing her around - she knew they wanted more blood. She rounded another corner and that was when she saw him.
He was leaning against the hood of a white car with sunglasses on, as his hands brought a cigarette up to his lips. He lit up and puffed smoke from his mouth, the jaw of which was lined with light scruff that was dark. He had a leather jacket on with a brown crewneck inside that caused Kitty to do a double take, because it looked as if he had not worn anything under his jacket.
"Hey, Gunner," a professor Kitty knew belonged to the school rounded the vehicle and spoke some words to the man, who threw his head back and laughed, a raspy sound leaving his thin lips.
"Fuck off, you asshat," the man said and he flipped him off as his Adam's apple bobbed up and down. The professor erupted into a chorus of laughter at that and Kitty stared agonisingly at the man on the hood of the car, who was now getting off it. She watched a trickle of sweat run down the side of one temple, across his dark throat and the base of her stomach turned in a sharp twist.
"Oh, Kitty, Kitty," someone behind her said and Kitty's head snapped backwards.
Crap, they were right on her tail.
She wanted to send the man another fast look but pangs of guilt stung at her as images of Barry flashed through her mind, so she forced her eyes away and ran down the other side of the building. She escaped into the hallways and tried to look for some room, any room to hide in when she saw something on the other end of the hallway.
Becky, flanked by some boys.