Hear Me Now by Melyssa Winchester Read Free Book Online

for as long as my mom’s worked here. She comes home every single day and tells me about it. Knowing him the way I do, at leas t the little I do know, he’s such a nice guy. So he’s a little different. It doesn’t mean he deserves to be picked on for it. Eric Carmen wouldn’t hurt a fly. I’m pretty sure he’s as against violence as I am.
    The anger I feel inside seeing the look on Dillon’s face and then the look of absolute fear on Eric’s pushes me forward before I’ve given it any real thought. I start pushing at him with everything in me until he finally breaks the hold he’s got on my friend. There is no way I’m letting this continue. Whatever it was I saw in his eyes in the hall earlier or the way he kept me entertained in class is gone. All I see now is the jerk my mom told me about.
    When the girl threw me to the ground, I’d been expecting it, but that doesn’t mean I was expecting the pain that came the minute I hit the floor. I’d been expecting it to hurt a little with the way she grabbed and tossed me, but laying here now, I can feel it running all the way through me, from my legs all the way up my arms. I’m definitely gonna bruise from this.
    Not even twenty-four hours into my first day here and I’m locked in a battle with the popular kids. It’s exactly what I didn’t want when my mom dropped the bomb that I’d be coming here. I was supposed to go under the radar and bide my time until my school was up and running again. Not getting involved in situations like this and getting hurt for my trouble.
    He doesn’t realize it, but after I fell to the floor, I saw his face. He might want to appear as though he’s a big badass and that what happened is funny to him, but he wasn’t laughing or even smiling when I hit. His eyes went wide and for a split second before he turned back to Eric, he actually looked concerned.
    Whether he’s concerned because he knows this is gonna come back to bite him or this went a little farther then he intended, I’ll never know but there’s no erasing the look from my memory. Even as Eric helps me to my feet after the three of them take off, it’s the only thing I can focus on. I don’t even care about the pain I’m feeling anymore. All I can see is the haunted look in the eyes of the school bully that I should have known better than to go toe to toe with.
    Feeling Eric’s hand on my chin, lifting my head up in an effort for me to read his lips, I lock eyes with the boy I just inadvertently saved and smile weakly.
    “Are you okay?” he asks and I nod, keeping the smile firmly planted on my face. I might feel pain, but that would pass. All I care about now is making sure he’s alright. That what Dillon had done to him before I stepped in hadn’t caused any damage.
    You? I raise my hands and sign to him.
    “Caddy, holy crap! I’m the last person you need to be worried about. Do you need go the office? Ice? Anything?”
    His words run together so quickly I’m not sure I’ve read them right, but the ones I am able to pick up on, I answer back with a shake of my head. I don’t need the office. I could probably use some ice, but definitely not if it means going there. The last thing I want to do on my first day here is be the poster child for bullying.
    “Are you sure?” he asks, not believing the shake of my head as the truth. I can’t blame him. I’m pretty sure my reaction is his standard response when he goes through this.
    Yes. I sign again with a sigh. I just want this to be over with.
    “Okay, well come on. I stopped because taking the other way around is faster.”
    I allow him to take my hand in his and walk me slowly back the way we came, all the while doing all I can to ignore the pain that’s still shooting up my leg into my back. Blocking it out, I think about everything that just happened and I realize my mom was right along.
    Dillon Murphy is bad news.

Chapter Four
     
    Dillon
     
    Heading back into Ms. Taylor’s class when