My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 75

Chapter 75 Fear Revealed in a Cracking Voice

The smell of decaying velvet and stale dust offered the only refuge I could find.

I pushed through the heavy wooden doors of the abandoned drama wing, escaping the chaotic rush of the Friday afternoon dismissal. The school administration had shut this section down two years ago due to budget cuts. The long corridor behind the old stage was a graveyard of discarded props and forgotten theater seats. It was dark, quiet, and empty.

It was the perfect place to hide.

I had spent the past two days mastering the art of invisibility again. When Ryder declared our contract over in the middle of the B-wing. the invisible shield surrounding me shattered. Harper Vance and her clique noticed the distance. The whispers returned, creeping along the edges of my peripheral vision. The school decided Ryder had chewed me up and spit me out, just as Vanessa predicted.

I did not care about the rumors. I did not care about the stares.

The only thing that mattered was the crushing, hollow ache festering behind my ribs. The absence of him felt like a physical weight. I missed the scent of cedar and peppermint. I missed the solid heat of his shoulder pressing against mine.

I stopped walking, I dropped my heavy canvas backpack onto a dusty prop crate and leaned my spine against the cold, exposed brick wall

of the corridor.

I closed my eyes. A ragged breath shuddered past my lips.

I tried to reconcile the boy I loved with the monster Vanessa described. I tried to forget the feral rage I had seen in his eyes when he caved in a metal locker. But every time I tried to reach for the memory of him teaching Mia on the alphabet rug, the image of a steel tire iron replaced it.

A heavy, deliberate footstep echoed against the wooden floorboards.

My eyes flew open.

A tall shadow detached itself from the darkness near the exit doors.

Ryder stepped into the dim light filtering through the high, frosted windows. He wore his heavy leather jacket over a faded gray t-shirt. His dark hair was a chaotic mess, falling across his forehead in unruly waves. The fading yellow bruises on his jaw looked stark against his pale skin.

My heart stalled. The air in the narrow corridor evaporated.

He had not gone to his truck. He had tracked me down.

I grabbed the strap of my backpack, my knuckles turning white. I pushed off the brick wall, intending to walk straight past him.

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Chapter 75 Fear Revealed in a Cracking Voice

Ryder moved fast. He stepped into the center of the narrow aisle, using his broad shoulders to block my path.

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“Move, I commanded. My voice sounded thin and unconvincing.

He did not budge. He stood like a stone statue, his hazel eyes locked onto my face. The indifferent, bored mask he wore for the hallways was missing. His expression was raw, tense, and brimming with a dark, restless energy.

“You take the long way to European History,” Ryder stated. His voice was a low, rough scrape that echoed in the quiet space. “You sit in the front row. You don’t look back. You spend your lunch period hiding in the library stacks.”

“I have a lot of studying to do, I lied, keeping my gaze fixed on the center of his chest.

“You are running from me,” he corrected.

“You ended the contract, I shot back, the sting of his rejection flaring hot in my chest. “You told me we were done. I am giving you what

you asked for.”

‘I gave you an out because you looked at me like I was a monster,” he snapped. The harsh sound bounced off the brick walls. “You flinched, Raisa. I raised my hand, and you slammed yourself against a locker to get away from me.”

The accusation hit me like a physical blow. The memory of my own terror burned in my mind.

I tightened my grip on my backpack. I forced myself to look up and meet his eyes. “Vanessa told me what you did sophomore year. She told me about the boy from St. Jude’s. She told me about the tire iron, Ryder. She told me you put a seventeen-year-old kid in a coma.”

Ryder’s jaw locked. The muscle beneath his cheek ticked in a rapid, erratic rhythm.

“And you believed her,” he said. The words carried a heavy, crushing weight.

“You confirmed it!” I yelled, the frustration and heartbreak boiling over. “I stood in the hallway and asked you if it was true. You looked me in the eye and said yes. What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to think?”

Ryder closed the distance between us.

He moved with a terrifying, predatory grace. He took one step, then another, backing me up until my shoulder blades hit the cold, rough brick of the corridor wall. I dropped my backpack. It hit the floorboards with a dull thud.

He crowded into my personal space. He planted his large, bruised hands flat against the brick wall on either side of my head, caging me in. The physical heat radiating from his massive frame washed over me, a stark contrast to the freezing air of the abandoned wing.

I pressed myself flat against the wall. The scent of worn cedar, sharp peppermint, and raw adrenaline overwhelmed my senses.

I expected you to ask why,” he breathed.

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12:55 Fri, Jul 10

Chapter 75 Fear Revealed in a Cracking Voice

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