Blackmailed by a Bully

Freida stared at the picture. She stared at it until her eyes filled with tears and then blinked them away.

The longer she stared, the more she noticed the little details in the picture.

'His face,' she thought. 'He looks... utterly disinterested in her.'

She tried to recall if he had looked at her that same way in the beginning. He certainly had not fallen for her right away, but who could blame him? She hadn't exactly been nice to him either.

After a lot of anxiety-ridden thoughts, she decided the best thing to do was be honest and open with him. What was the point in playing games? If she wanted the truth, there was only one to get at it. She got up, strode over to him, thrust out the phone and showed him the picture.

Damon frowned at the screen for a moment before shrugging. "She's the girl that bullied your little brother with that Christian loser. I didn't touch her at all, I swear. I'm not going to do anything with her. This, with you... it isn't the same thing at all."

"So why did someone send this picture?" she asked him.

"Isn't it obvious?" Damon asked. "Someone wants to come between us. Someone is jealous of at least one of us."

"Take this phone back," she said, handing Damon the handset. "They can't mess with me if they have no way to contact me, right?"

Damon stared at her blankly for a moment, as if he couldn't quite believe what was happening.

Then he smiled.

"You're a smart girl," Damon said. "You know that's why I like you, right? I mean, you're really hot too... but I like you because you're smart." Freida let out a nervous-sounding laugh. It was the first time he'd ever given her a real compliment.

Ben made a puking gesture that was a complete overreaction before excusing himself.

"If you two are going to be doing all this lovey dovely bullcrap I'm out," he said, getting up. "I'm going to see if the guys want to hang out." "Where's your girl tonight?" Damon asked him. Something about his voice was odd-tense.

There was an awkward pause.

"You know what she's like," Ben said and rolled his eyes. "That girl is... not living up to expectations."

'She is with my little brother,' Freida thought but did not announce. She didn't want to drop them into trouble, especially considering how Nathan was clearly in love with her. The strange thing was... she seemed to be into Nathan too. This was the first time a girl had ever shown any type of interest in her brother.

'Good for him,' she thought.

After Ben left, Damon grabbed her by the hands and pulled her into his lap. She straddled him, leaning in to give him a kiss that ended far too soon for her liking.

"I know this is annoying, but I need to go and see someone. It's important or I'd hang out with you instead," Damon said.

Freida nodded. She couldn't help but he worried about the tenseness in his voice he never sounded that serious.

She guessed it had something to do with the picture and whoever was messing with them. He had to have some idea who it was.

"Will you be home later?" Freida asked.

"I'll be back," he replied in a Terminator voice with a silly grin.

Freida felt disappointed as she made her way back through the fence to her own house, even though she really should be getting on with her project. All she wanted to do was be with Damon.

When she opened the kitchen door, chairs clattered as bodies jumped up.

"Oh," Frieda cried, looking at a very red-faced Nathan and Chelsea.

"We were just... erm... we were..." Nathan stammered.

Freida held up her hands, showing her palms. "Hey... you guys do whatever you gotta do. But... shouldn't you break up with Ben first if you want to be with Nathan? I don't want to stick my nose into your business but it only seems fair to the guy."

Chelsea looked down at the floor.

"I... I can't break up with him," she said.

"Why?" Freida probed, out of sheer curiosity. She was probably being overly nosy--something she couldn't help being at the best of times. It was simply in her nature.

Chelsea looked so sad, and as Freida approached, she began to cry. Little wet spots appeared on the kitchen tiles around her feet. "H-He's... he's awful... but he says that if I tell... he'll..." she stammered.

"I'll make some tea," Freida said and gently stroked the girl on the back as she turned on the kettle. "Let's try to figure this out."

She made a pit of tea and bought the milk, sugar, and her mum's best biscuits over to the table.

Chelsea gingerly took a biscuit and smiled up at her with wet eyes.

"I was never dating Ben," she explained. "Not really. He and Damon cornered me and threatened to reveal an awful secret if I didn't do whatever they said. I mean... at first, I thought it was Damon who was the bad guy. Ben was kind to me. He said he would try to talk to Damon... make my life easier--"

"Hmm, he said the same to me," Freida muttered, forgetting herself for a second. She realised what she'd blurted out when Nathan's eyes widened in horror.

"I knew it. I knew he was hurting you-" he began.

"Don't worry," Freida assured him, holding up her arms in a 'don't shoot' gesture. "Me and Damon... we worked things out and... I like him now."

She felt her face blushing as the pair stared at her blankly.

Eventually Chelsea smiled. "Damon is not as bad as he wants people to believe. That's what I think, at least."

"I'm sorry, I interrupted you," Freida said to her. "Please carry on with your story."

"Oh..." Chelsea's face became sad again. "I soon found out that Ben was the instigator of the whole thing. He had a crush on me and wanted me to be his girlfriend, but I wasn't interested. So he found dirt on my family and threatened to tell his dad. But he made it look like Damon was the bad guy and he was the good guy. Eventually... I found out the truth the hard way..."