Three Years Later, He Came Back Begging novel Chapter 458

Their eyes met, and they both immediately looked away.

This time, Bonnie refused to believe it was just a coincidence. She pressed her lips together, a flicker of defensive caution entering her eyes.

She had seen guys pull stunts like this before.

She pulled out an earbud and stared at him coldly. "Are you following me?"

Lawrence was a senior in the advanced placement class. As far as Bonnie knew, seniors—even the ones who lived off-campus—were required to attend evening study hall. Not to mention, his homeroom teacher was Shirley.

There was no universe in which Lawrence should be on a random city bus at this hour, sitting right next to her.

Lawrence instantly recognized the suspicion and distrust in her eyes. His chest tightened uncomfortably, feeling like he'd swallowed something incredibly sour. He scrambled to explain.

"I swear I wasn't following you."

"Bonnie, I was just worried those girls might try to get back at you. It's late, and I couldn't stop thinking about it."

Realizing how intense that sounded, Lawrence looked her straight in the eye and added with desperate sincerity, "You're my homeroom teacher's daughter. As your upperclassman, I couldn't just leave you to fend for yourself."

Bonnie froze. Guilt washed over her for assuming the worst about him. Looking into his clear, earnest eyes, she felt entirely ashamed.

"...Thank you," she said stiffly. "But it's fine. They wouldn't dare do anything."

They were cowards who only knew how to talk big.

Lawrence was genuinely impressed by how completely unbothered she was by them. Most teenage girls would be severely traumatized by relentless bullying, but Bonnie handled it with an eerie calm.

Then again, it made perfect sense. She was Shirley's daughter, after all. She probably wouldn't flinch if the sky fell.

But he was still burning with curiosity.

They gave her a cruel nickname: The Phantom.

The malice teenagers were capable of often required no justification. They would destroy a peer they barely knew, inflicting the deepest wounds at an age when they lacked any moral compass.

Abby and Bridget had sat directly behind that girl. They used to draw on her back with ink pens, intentionally spill water on her chair, and invent endless ways to humiliate her.

The more the girl endured it in silence, the more vicious their bullying became.

Like most of the class, Bonnie hadn't intervened, but she also hadn't joined in. Self-preservation was human nature, and nobody wanted to draw the attention of girls like Abby and Bridget.

But one day during morning track, Bonnie had cramps and skipped the run. Walking back to the empty classroom, she caught Abby and Bridget slipping a hundred-dollar bill into the girl's pencil case.

Standing at a moral crossroads, Bonnie didn't hesitate. She turned around and reported them straight to the teacher.

While she stopped a blatant attempt to frame the girl for theft, she successfully painted a massive target on her own back.