Blackmailed by a Bully
23

Freida felt the phone ping in her pocket. When she swiped the screen open, she saw that it was from the same number as before. The mystery number.

She had already decided to ignore it and not text it back. Whoever was messing with her was not going to get any fun out of it if she didn't respond.

Freida looked up from her phone with a frown, not recognising the houses on the street. She had lived in her new house for a good few weeks now but was still getting lost on an almost daily basis.

On her way home, she would go into a daydream, look up at her surroundings and then realise she had no idea where she was.

Her house was located firmly inside the zone of town known only as 'the bad side.' There were a couple of parks--both filled with broken equipment and really badly drawn graffiti--and she could not tell them apart. One was next to the shops where the creepy druggies loitered about, and one was a few turns away from her house.

'This is not the one by my house,' she realised, feeling a sinking in her chest as she walked by the chip shop and laundrette.

As usual, there were a group of guys on the benches outside the chip shop. One of them recognised her, and it took her a few minutes to place his face.

'Oh crap,' she thought, turning red. It was one of Jayce's friends--the one who had been leering at her the other night.

"Hey--stripper girl!" he shouted. "Come here."

When Freida put her head down and ignored him, he jumped up from the bench and started chasing after her.

'Should I run?' she wondered. 'Or will they chase after me?'

Not knowing what to do, Freida froze. Whatever this guy wanted to say to her, she was pretty sure she did not want to hear it.

"Hey, I'm talking to you," he said as he and his group caught up to her. They looked at her like she was a piece, eyes narrowed and scanning her body, staring at her breasts and legs.

"What?" she asked quietly, barely above a whisper.

"You're not as friendly as you were the other night," the guy said. "Why don't you come and give us a little show?"

"How about no," Freida muttered before she could stop herself. The sarcasm was her natural response under pressure.

Her breath caught in her throat as the guy's face changed from pervy to angry.

"Oh, think you're too good for me, eh?" he huffed.

Then she felt an arm drape over her shoulder.

At first, she felt relieved, thinking it was Damon who had saved her. He did live around here after all.

But when she turned her head she saw it was Ben who had come to her rescue.

"Hello, stranger," he said, smiling. "What's going on here?"

When Ben turned toward the angry guy, he backed away, muttered something and left with his mates.

"Thank you," Freida said as Ben guided her away, still draping an arm over her. She didn't feel comfortable walking like this with him, but didn't want to offend him by pushing him away after he had helped her. "They seemed like they were scared of you," Freida commented. It was strange, being that Ben wasn't big or scary.

"Hah," Ben scoffed. "They are worried because they know who my dad is."

"Oh?" Freida asked.

He looked down at her and smiled. "My dad's the Chief of police."

"Oh," Freida said, eyes wide.

Ben laughed at her reaction, then changed the subject.

"You know, I can get Damon to leave you alone if you want," he offered.

"Erm, actually..." Freida said, unsure how to explain herself. "I know it sounds weird and messed up, but I think I'm falling for him."

"What?" Ben asked. He looked appalled. So appalled that Freida felt herself blushing.

"Well, I don't know, I guess I just like him. I can't really help who I fall for," she explained.

Ben let go of her, stepped in front of her and grabbed her by her shoulders.

"How can you possibly like him?" he asked, staring at her as if she'd just professed her love for Ted Bundy or Hitler. "He's awful. He's ugly. He smells. He doesn't have good hygiene. He can't hold a conversation. What are the upsides to him that I'm not seeing?"

Freida frowned. "I like how he smells."

Ben dropped his arms to his sides with a slap, giving up.

"Besides... he's your friend. You must like something about him," Freida pointed out.

At this Ben started to laugh. He laughed so hard that he looked like his sides were going to split. Then he stopped and shook his head.

The walk continued in silence, which was only broken when Damon ran out of the house and asked what was going on. "That weird friend of your brother's started on me," Freida explained. "Lucky thing Ben was walking by at the time." "Yeah." Damon frowned and rubbed his nose. "Lucky."

He walked past Freida and spoke in hushed tones to Ben for a moment, before inviting them both inside.

Damon sat on the sofa and grinned up at Freida. "Put the kettle on, love."

She knickered, but obeyed, going into the kitchen and grabbing the cups from the shelf.

As she searched for the sugar, she overheard Ben and Damon talking about the guy who had stopped her. She hoped it wasn't going to cause problems between Damon and his brother, since he was friends with the pervy guy. When the phone beeped again in her pocket, she let out an involuntary sigh.

"For heaven's sake, what now?" she muttered.

This time, she took a look at the message.

It was a single line of text and a picture message.

In the picture, a pretty looking blonde girl was kneeling, staring up at Damon, in tears and completely naked.

She read the words underneath.

"Aww... did you think you were special?"