Beyond The Music

Chapter Thirty Six - Steven

When the gym door silently shut behind me with a click, I blew out a long breath and walked past the others quietly without further talk and headed over to the punch bowl. I closed my eyes and braced my hands on the table carefully and shook my head before opening my eyes. I reached out and poured myself some punch before downing it quickly and throwing the empty cup into the bin after crushing it in my hand.

"You're an idiot, you know that? The biggest one here actually."

I turned around and ran both hands down my face as Malcolm and Lincoln both stood in front of me with the same expression Mika had worn when I stormed into the music room earlier to confront her about the deal.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Mills? Do you have any idea what you've done by your little show over there with Becca? I would have thought that you of all people know that hurting Mika is the stupidest thing you could ever do. And the most dangerous one too, in fact, but clearly you don't care because otherwise, you wouldn't have let her get close enough to kiss you in front of everyone. And what the hell was that back in the music room? What were you and Becca whispering about, right in front of the red-headed she-devil."

I ran a hand down the side of my face slowly and groaned softly under their glares.

"I wouldn't let Mika hear you refer to her as that, if I were you."

He gave a small shrug and continued talking.

"Instead of kissing Becca and then storming into the music room like a crazy person, you could have just pushed Becca away and calmly asked Mika what happened. She was already pissed by the time you got into that room and what you said only made it worse. I'm actually surprised that she didn't hit you as soon as you opened your mouth."

I dropped my hands and shook my head slightly before looking at them both. "Okay, look. I don't know what happened with Becca but it's not my fault she kissed me, okay. I didn't want her to kiss me, let alone ask to dance, alright. I just wanted to stand against the wall and ignore everyone around me but obviously that didn't happen the way I planned. So do not come over here and have a go at me for making her angry and whatnot when she did the exact same thing to me, okay. I did not ask for any of this and I certainly don't want it. Now, if you would both excuse me, I'm going to go sit down, by myself," I went to move around them but they blocked my path and refused to move.

"When did she do the same to you, Mills? It couldn't have been just because she said no to coming to the prom with you?"

I shook my head and sighed softly. "This has nothing to do with that, okay. It doesn't matter anyway. Move!" I pushed past them both and marched over to the nearest empty table and sat down. Lincoln and Malcolm were right behind me.

"Then what does it have to do with then? Is this whole thing some kind of revenge or something?"

I shook my head and leaned back in my hair slowly. "No. I hate revenge. It never turns out good for anyone."

"So, it is about something but not as some kind of revenge?"

I closed my eyes and frowned before nodding slightly. "It's about everything but I really didn't want Becca to do anything, okay. I would have been perfectly happy if she and Stacey just stayed away from me but clearly I was out of luck with that."

"So, what else then? Is it about the deal she made with Stacey? The one about letting Becca dance with you or the one about cutting off all contact?"

I balled my hands into fists and restrained myself from slamming them both down onto the table. "Both, okay. It's about both. Why would she possibly be able to actually cut off contact and forget me that easily? I mean, I get that Stacey had stuff on her and all but why not just blackmail her back? It would have been a hell of a lot easier and way less troublesome on my part. I only knew about that whole thing because when Becca and Stacey came back, Stacey had this stupid smug look on her face and Becca was watching me like a hawk. When Stacey left her alone, she came over to me and admitted what Stacey did and voila. I got mad, stormed to the music room and you already know the rest." I didn't hear anything for a while until Malcolm pulled something out of his pocket and started fiddling with it while Lincoln whispered quietly to him for a few seconds before they both turned back to me.