Bullied By My Alpha Stepbrother novel Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Jasmine's POV

Something had changed with Hardin since that fight with Lorenzo and I knew it.

I could feel it in the way he looked at me that night when I came out of his father's office after telling him about what had happened because they had called from the school about the incident, a situation that I wanted to avoid. It was exactly the way he used to in the beginning, when my mother and I first moved here.

No, it was worse.

I noticed it the next day when the principal had called all three of us to his office and the disciplinary committee had asked to hear our sides of the story and Hardin hadn't said one word, only asking what his punishment would be.

Lorenzo had gotten one week suspension, with three days out of that week in school, to be served working at different places according to the discretion of the school.

Hardin's was worse. And by worse, I meant infinitely worse. And it was not the fact that he was going to be at home for one week. It was that for that month, he would step down as Captain of the lacrosse team and not play in any of the games. And upon his return, except he was voted in as captain, he would remain as a member of the team.

I had seen the look in his eyes when he looked at me after hearing the announcement.

I knew he blamed me for it.

And I didn't know but I had a feeling that things were going to become infinitely worse.

"Excited for your party tonight, babes?" Nadia asked, all smiles as we walked into the cafeteria and my eyes moved automatically to where Hardin's clique was sitting. His seat was empty. It had been for the past one week because of the suspension.

And he had not come to the house once since that day. My mother had asked Russo about it and even tried to convince him to reach out to Hardin but apparently, he was refusing to pick any calls and answer any messages. Not that I had dared to try to reach him especially when I was sure that he would bite my head off.

My eyes locked with Alex's and the frown on his face told me all that I needed to know. I was back to being public enemy number one.

My birthday was tomorrow and because we had a test the day after, I had decided to do the party from the eve till my birthday morning.

And even though we were holding the party at Nadia's home, since her parents were out of town and she had a pool plus the fact that whatever Nadia planned, she didn't want my mother to be involved, I still felt uneasy.

I felt like something was coming.

Lorenzo walked into the cafeteria and headed for our table and when he smiled, I could not help but feel bad towards him. I was the reason that he had to be sent home for a week and even though he had tried to text me when he was at home, I had been unable to be nothing but curt, because of the guilt that I felt.

"Hi guys. Hi Jasmine." He said with a smile that I feigned in response, my eyes locked on Sandro who raised his middle fingers at me.

"Who did you invite to this party?"

"Don't worry. Not many people." Nadia assured me.

But I should have known better than to believe her when she said not many people because my mouth fell open as people trooped into the house that night and as I watched from the railing upstairs at the amount of people dancing, wearing a red dress that was Nadia's gift to me, I turned around to look at her with raised eyebrows.

"When you said not many people, was this what you had in mind?"

"Oh, come on, you should enjoy the party." She said and handed me a glass cup before dragging me downstairs.

"Come on, the real party is by the pool. We are moving everyone there"

"The birthday girl is here" Someone screamed as Nadia and I reached the middle of the crowd and the cheers made me want to believe that everything was going to be okay.

I decided to take a cup of drink and relax as Nadia and I went to the pool.

And true to her words, the party outside was way louder than inside.

"Hey, birthday girl" Lorenzo said, appearing in front of me and handing Nadia a present.

"It's for you. I hope you like it." He said to me with a grin that I reciprocated shyly as he tucked my hair behind my ear.