Bullied By My Alpha Stepbrother novel Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Jasmine's POV

"Jazz, hi, good morning, you really need to check your messages. Something big has happened." Nadia said over the phone and I froze in front of the entrance into the school hallway, my throat closing up as panic suddenly hit me.

What was happening?

Had something else been spread about me in less than twenty four hours?

Did I need to turn back and head home?

"Jazz, are you there?" I heard her say, and even though the phone was on my ear, her words seemed so far away.

Was I having a panic attack?

"Jazz, where are you? Are you still there? Jazz!" Nadia screamed into the phone, her voice sounding panicked and I inhaled deeply and tried to look around my surroundings.

"I'm in front of the entrance" I managed to murmur and I found a tree to lean against, sitting on the ground as I counted backwards, trying to relax.

Nadia appeared in front of me a few minutes later and her eyes widened as she knelt in front of me.

"What happened? You look so pale." Reaching inside her bag, she gave me a bottle of water and I emptied it in a few gulps, exhaling slowly as my tight chest loosened.

"You said something had happened." I whispered and her eyes finally widened in understanding.

"Oh shit, my bad. Something good, Jazz. I am so sorry, I did not think you would take it to mean something bad about you. I didn't think. Forgive me?"

I nodded, relieved that it was not what I had imagined and allowed her to pull me up to my feet.

"So, what happened? Tell me." I whispered and she nodded, moving close to me and rubbing my back gently.

"I sent the link to your phone. It's a video. You, more than anyone should see it. But right now, I'm sure you're the only one in the school who has not seen it yet." She answered and I reached for my phone in my pocket and opened her chat to see that she had indeed sent me a message at about 1am in the morning with a link.

My mouth fell open as I played the one minute video of Dahlia confessing to being the person involved in the spread of the rumour about me and apologizing for any harm it has caused as she intentionally tried to spoil my name.

Unable to believe that this was happening, I watched the video again and when I was done, I looked at Nadia who nodded.

"It's real, I promise. It dropped at midnight and people have been going wild in the comment section apologizing to you and stuff. I tried to call you immediately but your phone was turned off."

I had turned off my phone because I did not want to receive any messages from guys who were hellbent on believing that I was interested in sleeping with them thanks to a baseless rumour.

"Come on, let's go to class." Nadia looped her hands through mine and as we entered the hallway, I saw people staring at me but this time I could actually read the expression on their faces and most of it was guilt.

I wanted to lie to myself that it didn't matter but Dahlia's video had gone such a long way in changing the narrative about me that she had spun overnight and the fact that only some days ago, I was horrified to even enter this hallway made me grateful that it was finally over.

Heading to my locker, I opened it as Nadia leaned against the locker beside me.

"Hardin is just the best step sibling to have, isn't he?"She said with a sing song voice.

Closing my locker, I raised my eyebrows at her in confusion.

"Did anything happen?" There had to be a reason why Nadia was suddenly praising Hardin.

Nadia's eyes widened at my statement, and I wondered if I had said something wrong again.

"He didn't tell you? Well, of course he didn't. Immediately after the video dropped yesterday, he dropped a message warning everyone to stay away from you. Turns out he was the one that ordered Dahlia to make the video so that your name would be cleared, can you imagine that?"

My mouth fell open in surprise and I shook my head. I had not seen or spoken to Hardin since the incident with Dahlia and I had just assumed that I was going to get an apology at best, but hearing this, that he had been actively involved in trying to clear my name, it made me all forms of uncomfortable.

I was beginning to wonder if I had been too harsh on him when he tried to check if I had been hurt yesterday. But as much as I wanted to believe that Hardin had a thread of goodness in him, I was worried about getting my hopes up.

"I'm certainly surprised." I answered and when I turned to walk to class, my eyes collided with Hardin's where he stood with his clique on the other end of the hallway.

His face remained stoic and even though his friends were trying to gain his attention, his eyes remained glued to mine and it felt like it was just the two of us standing in the hallway, the rest of the crowd fading away.