My Bully’s Love by Stacy Rush

CHAPTER 1: FRIENDS NO MORE

“Ella, hurry up or you’re going to be late for school!” This is the second time my mother has yelled upstairs for me, but I just sit here, on the edge of my bed, staring at the wall.

I tell myself that it’s going to be a good day, but who am I kidding? I haven’t had a good day at school in two years. Only six more months left of my senior year, and then it will be all over. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, and that’s the most messed up part. I’ m eighteen years old, about to graduate high school, and I have a full scholarship to pretty much any college I want to go.

My name is Ella Baxter and I’m a nerd who has no friends, I never break any rules, and I have a deep need to please everyone, but myself. I haven’t always been this way, but circumstances bring on change, and for me, it was not for the better. I used to have a lot of friends; two of them being my best friends, Amy and Bree. We were inseparable throughout middle school and junior high. It wasn’t until the beginning of sophomore year when I had to distance myself from everyone in my life except for my family.

“Honey! Are you coming down or not?” Once again, my mother’s voice reaches me. Sighing, I reach down, grabbing my backpack, and head down before mom has a coronary.

I paste a smile on my face as I round the corner to the kitchen, where my younger sister and brother sit with a bowl of cereal. Eli, my nine-year-old brother has his bowl tipped back as he slurps the milk out. Meanwhile, my fifteen-year-old sister, Elise, is dripping milk on the table every time she spoons the cereal into her mouth because her eyes are glue to her cellphone. This is an everyday occurrence in the Baxter household.

I roll my eyes and lean down, giving my dad a kiss on his cheek, “Good morning, daddy.”

“Morning, sweetie, did you oversleep again?” His concern for my wellbeing is written all over his face. I’ve always been his little

girl, and it shows in the way he babies me over everything. I don’t complain though, because I need all the love and attention that I can get these days.

“No, daddy.” I don’t add anything else, but I do smile at him. I could have lied and made something up, but again, I’m a goodie goodie; I would never lie to my parents. He only hesitates a moment before going back to his newspaper.

Taking my seat beside my dad, my mother sets my two slices of peanut butter toast and a banana down in front of me. Unlike my siblings, I’m not a fan of cold cereal. I prefer something more substantial in my stomach before starting a grueling day at school.

“This is the third day in a row that I had to holler for you to come down more than once, Ella,” Mom takes her place across from me, on my father’s other side, as she sips her black coffee, Please don’t make it a habit, my throat is starting to hurt.”

paper, earning himself a slap

parents enough to know how they are. They are both in their early forties, and still have their good looks. Unfortunately, they also still have a high sex drive, so I can only imagine what my dad’s chuckle was insinuating. Being around them every day, you get used to it. Besides, I think it’s so cute that, even after all these years, they are still madly in love with one another. I hope I find a love like theirs in

back to me, “I have a PTA meeting at Eli’s school this evening. I’ll have

and sister eat.”

always volunteering here and there, and she is the head of the PTA,

and it may run late. Just put a plate in the warmer for me if I don’t make it in time.” I nod. My dad is a partner at his Law Firm, so it’s no surprise when he doesn’t make it home on time.

Eli and Elise. Driving them to school every morning is our little morning ritual. It’s the

as we get into the car, Elise cranks up the

her strawberry blonde curls bounce around. Her blue eyes sparkle when they findmine, and she gives me a big smile. Unlike some sisters, we actually get along very well, but it’s times like this that I envy her innocence. I hope

With my laptop bag slung across my body, I quickly make my way to my first class before anybody can stop me. Mr. Miller, our math teacher, sits at his desk, shuffling through

our next assignment, which kept me busy through the whole class, and before I know it, the bell rings. Packing my laptop away, I turn

Kaylee Simpson glares at me as

Kaylee, it was an

“How about you accidentally jump off a bridge?” Her friend, Callie, snickers at her lame attempt to insult me as they walk

still talking between classes and outside of school. Now she treats me like the dirt under her feet. Like everybody else, she dropped me like last season’s fashion line two years ago. One Friday night we were talking at a friend’s party, and then come Monday morning, Kaylee and most of the senior class started to ignore me. It had only taken about a week, and then the rest of the school abandoned me as well. That’s when it all started; it’s when

celebrated together. Jace knows everything about me, and I, him, since we were best friends; wherever Jace was, I was right there with him. That is until we entered our sophomore year

after the school year had started, and we had hung with a group of friends after school let out for the weekend. We were excited and talking about the party we were all going to that night. As always, Jace had driven us over to the party. I was having a good time even though I wasn’t drinking any of the alcohol that was available to us, but Jace was. Not that it was

named Madison, that had just moved to town. Her and her brother were

she was more reserved. It looked like Jace was enjoying the conversation, so I wandered around, stopping a few times to chit chat. When Mason

was very kind of

on, and Mason stuck to my side, flirting with me