I barely managed to keep my hands from shaking as I stood there, trapped between my locker and the swarm of his followers. Landon leaned casually against the locker beside mine, his eyes twinkling with the same mischievous glint that had once set my world on fire. My chest tightened.
“You still scared of me, Izzy?” The nickname slipped from his lips as though it belonged to him, as though we were still the same version of us. It wasn’t his real voice, though; it was the voice of the boy who had tormented me, not the boy I used to know.
I swallowed hard, trying to maintain control. “What do you want, Landon?” My voice came out steadier than I felt, but I couldn’t let him see how rattled I truly was.
He pushed himself off the locker, his gaze never leaving mine. "I thought we could talk. You know, catch up.”
Catch up? The audacity. We had nothing to talk about, not after everything he’d done. He wasn’t the same Landon who had once shared inside jokes with me, the one who had made me laugh until I cried. No, this was a version of him that was far more dangerous. His reputation had only grown during the years he’d been gone.
The laughter from his entourage echoed, mocking me, but I held my ground. Landon Brooks wasn’t going to get the better of me today.
“I’m not interested,” I said, my tone biting.
He raised an eyebrow, as if surprised by my reaction. “You don’t have a choice, do you?” He smirked, stepping closer. "It's either now, or I'll make it impossible for you to ignore me.”
I didn’t know whether to be angry or terrified. Maybe both. “I’m not scared of you anymore, Landon,” I muttered under my breath, though even I wasn’t sure if I believed it.
He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a softer, almost dangerous tone. “We’ll see about that.”
The bell rang again, signaling the end of the lunch period. Mia grabbed my arm, pulling me away from him before I could say anything else. “Come on, Isabella, let’s go. Don’t let him get to you.”
But as I walked away, his presence seemed to follow me, lingering like a shadow. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t the same Landon who had once been my worst enemy. There was something different in the way he looked at me now—something darker. Something that made me wonder if this was all part of a game, or if he was actually here for something else. ---
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