Blackmailed by a Bully

"At first, he pretended to be nice, but when I said I didn't want to be with him in that way... he basically said he was going to mess up mine and my entire family's life if I didn't do everything he said," Chelsea explained. "Even now... he isn't interested in me anymore but he still won't let me go. I'm stuck with him until he decides otherwise."

"Well... in that case... I guess your only option is to go behind his back," Freida concluded. "I mean... he doesn't seem to care about what is clearly going on between you two."

"Oh he does this every so often when he's got his claws into someone else," Chelsea said. "But he always keeps me on a string, waiting until he gets bored." Freida nodded slowly, a horrible thought forming in her mind.

'He is trying to get his claws into me,' she thought. 'Well, I am not going to let him.'

She wasn't willing to throw away what she had with Damon to save Mr Preston. Not anymore. And her brother would be fine. He had no leverage to use against her. Still... she couldn't help but feel uneasy.

"I'm going to leave you guys to hang out," she said before taking her cup of tea to her bedroom.

Once inside her bedroom, she opened the window and noticed Jayce hanging out of the adjacent window to smoke a cigarette.

"How's it going chick?" he asked.

"Oh, you know, I'm still alive so..." Freida said, unsure how to answer.

"Do you know what Damon is up to?" he asked.

"No idea," she replied truthfully.

"Hmm." Jayce scratched his chin. "I'm worried. Can't get hold of him."

"Sorry... he was quite mysterious about where he was going," Freida told him.

"I'm sure I'm worrying over nothing. But I have to, you see... until he turns eighteen I'm his legal guardian. I don't want to lose him," Jayce explained. "He does a lot of dumb shit. Honestly, the social services are on my back about him a lot. He's going to end up in the care system if I'm not careful."

"I'll try to talk to him," Freida promised.

She slipped back into her bedroom and went to phone him before realising she had no phone.

'I wonder why he didn't give my original phone back,' she thought. It made little sense to keep it now.

With no way to contact him, she decided it was a good time to get on with some of her coursework project coding.

Eventually, and with a lot of helpful information from her favourite AI chatbot, she created a first draft she was happy with.

But every ten minutes or so she would check the window to see if Damon was back or not. It got to almost midnight and he still hadn't returned.

As worried as she was about him, she eventually fell asleep.

The next morning, Freida woke with a horrible feeling. She had slept fitfully, waking many times in the night from nasty dreams that startled her to wake.

In one dream, the red face guy from the film Insidious popped up in her bedroom and almost made her wake up in the midst of a heart attack.

'I knew I should have turned that film off,' she thought, mad at herself for being such a wuss.

The dreams left her with echoes of bad feelings. Fear, anxiety and melancholy followed her like a rain cloud as she dressed for college.

She chose something a little different--louder than her usual outfits. A tartan skirt and a bright green sweater. Katie always dressed in a unique style, and though Freida didn't want to copy her, she did want to express her individuality a little

more.

As she passed Tom, Felix and Stacy on the lecture hall stairs, she saw Stacy give her a smirk and overheard her say, "Wow, nice jumper."

'I'm not taking her shit,' Freida thought. She turned to Stacy, who wasn't a pretty or slender girl. She wasn't even a snappy dresser.

She turned, looked her deadass in the face and said, "You know tearing me down won't make you any more attractive, right? Maybe try a diet instead."

The three of them were gobsmacked as Freida made her way towards Katie.

"What did you say to her?" Katie asked with a funny smile.

"I told her that slagging me off wouldn't make her any more attractive and she could try a diet. Was that too harsh?"

Katie snorted with laughter, making the rest of the room turn and stare. "No way, she is always slagging people off. I'd say she was in a glass house... but I don't think she'd fit."

Freida laughed so hard she cried. The pair of them were cackling like a pair of witches when the lecturer, Gary, turned up and asked them what was so funny.

Neither of them could answer, but they managed to stifle their laughter and apologise for being so loud.

Once Gary was done explaining, Freida asked a question about how to use a module called Flask--a way to serve webpages. She was hoping to use it for her project and wanted to make sure it was safe.

She overheard Stacy making a snide remark. The amazing thing was... Gary heard too. He turned to her and spat, "There are no stupid questions, and actually, that was quite a good question. It's a good idea to get the help of a professional because web security is a huge issue."

"Wow, Gary the white knight," Katie whispered in her ear. "I think you are the teacher's pet."

These words triggered a reaction in her gut that almost made her sick.

Mr Preston had called her teacher's pet.

'But why does it make me feel so sick?' she wondered. She was definitely one hundred per cent over him. Damon was the only one on her mind these days.

She said goodbye to Katie, sashayed past her former 'friends' with her head held high, and made her way to the bus stop.

"Oh shit," she mumbled to herself, seeing a familiar face.

When Ben saw her approaching, he stood from the bench and smiled. "Hello, Freida. I think it's about time we had a little chat."