BEAUTIFUL MONSTER

9 : The Monsterous Lies We Tell

"Get the door, will you?" I asked Ellie as we approached my bedroom. I was dragging Kelly by the armpits, her heels were clunking noisily on each step and I just hoped Mum wouldn't wake up and hear.

Ellie had this look on her face which showed me as soon as I was done with Ms Lightweight KO, she would be interrogating me. It was not something I was looking forward to, but it was better than being caught by Mum.

I finally got Kelly on my bed, slipped off her heels and then threw my duvet over her.

"So," I forcefully smiled, "night, sweet dreams, Ells."

Ellie scoffed, "Um, no." She shut my bedroom door and I groaned.

"Can we not do this in the morning?"

"Yeah," she smiled grimly, "if you want Mum to find out. What happened?" She gestured to Kelly.

"We went to a party, there were drinks, we drank and she passed out." I explained vaguely.

"Who was that man?"

"What man?"

"Don't kid me, Bea." She scowled. "Who was he?"

"He was just some guy, okay."

"If he was just some guy why was he with you?"

Thinking fast, I replied. "Cause...he - he wanted to make sure we got home safe. He helped with Kelly, y'know."

"Yeah? What was his name?"

I swallowed, gritting my teeth together slightly. "His name? Oh, erm..."

"You let somebody you don't know follow you home?! He could've been a rapist, a murderer, a-!"

"Chill Ellie. I didn't say I didn't know him. His name is, um," my mind went completely blank as I tried to think of an alibi for Deacon, "Des..." whatever came out of my mouth turned into a low, scrambled mess.

"Huh?"

"Des-Declan!" I jumped slightly as a name came to me, and I was pretty sure my face was red and flaming.

"Des-Declan?" Ellie shot me a weird look; one that showed she thought I was nuts and she didn't believe me.

"Declan, his name is Declan." I said firmly, before standing up. "Not to be rude Ells, but can you get out? I'm knackered," I added a yawn to the end of my words, hoping to look convincing.

"Sure," she went over to the door before looking back at me. "Y'know, if Mum was awake, she'd kill you for looking like something off the corner of a street."

My mouth dropped open as Ellie shut the door behind her and I sighed, getting up and opening my wardrobe to look at myself in the mirror.

I reeled back, making a face and wincing. "Echk! I look like the cheapest prostitute ever."



** ** **

"Ugh," I blearily opened my eyes, holding up whatever had hit me in the face before throwing it away with a yell. It was a foot.

A surprised shriek was followed by a heavy thump.

I shot upright, fighting with the tangled duvet and then gingerly peeping over the bed to see a scowling and sprawled Kelly. "Christ, Kelly. You scared me," I flopped back down, sighing and closing my eyes.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she hissed sarcastically. "Poor you - the one who didn't get pushed off a bed!" Her yell caused her to wince and she groaned, massaging her head. "Ugh, what time is it? And why the hell am I in your room?"

I turned over, stifling a yawn as I looked at my small alarm clock. "It's seven thirty, shut up, my Mum's probably up now."

As I said that, someone knocked on my door and Mum popped her head around. "I'm going to work, Beatr- oh. Hello Kelly,"

"Hi Mrs Daniels," Kelly raised a hand, forcing a small smile on her face as she tried picking herself up quickly and straighten herself out.

Mum quirked an eyebrow. "I didn't know you were having a sleepover, Beatrice."

"Yeah," I grimaced and mumbled. "Sort of last minute, y'know,"

"Well, you girls have fun, I'm going to work now, so I'll see you later for dinner, Beatrice. Oh, and Kelly, I'll tell your mother where you are, she must be worried."

"You don't have to, Mrs Daniels. I'm going home now." Kelly had a panicked look on her face and she looked around for her heels.

"Oh, it's no problem." Mum replied cheerfully, shooting me a stern look when I sniggered. "Bye girls!"

"She knows we've been up to something," I said as the door shut and Mum's footsteps went some distance away.

"I need some clothes, I can't go home like this. Help me," Kelly gave me a shove to get off the bed. "If I hurry, I can get home before my mum wakes up."

"Forget it, Kells. They work together, they're gonna see each other so your mum will find out either way."

"I'm so dead," Kelly groaned, sitting down on the bed, she sniffed at her clothes. "My head hurts, I stink, and I'm stuck in a room with you. My life sucks."

I rolled my eyes at her dramatic sigh and ignoring the jibe, I said. "Go get some clothes out of my wardrobe, and have a shower. Bathroom's down the hall. I'll go cook us something to eat and we'll put our dirty clothes in the washing machine. Simple,"

** ** ** **

"Y'know," Kelly began after finishing her plate of greasy rashers, runny eggs and buttered toast. "I had this crazy dream where I was peeing in the forest and I said something, can't remember what but this man came out of nowhere and he - are you okay?!"

I began choking, a piece of egg had went down the wrong way and feeling my eyes watering, I coughed like I was trying to throw out a gut. "I'm - I'm fine," I wheezed, reaching for my mug of milk and taking a long sip from it. Letting out measured breaths, I looked back at Kelly and asked. "So, uh, what - what happened next?"

She shrugged, her fingers nimbly ripping off the edges of my toast. "No idea, you distracted me and now I've forgotten."

I rolled my eyes, "Well, it was a dream so-"

"Yeah, but it felt real, y'know? And I had this déjà vu feeling, like it actually happened before."

I laughed and then winced; it sounded extremely fake. Standing up, I collected both of our dirty dishes and ran them under the flowing tap. "It was only a dream, Kells. You're thinking way into it...but um, what did the man look like? Did you see?"

"Nope, it was all dark and scary." She shuddered dramatically. "Anyway, I'm going. Got things to do, people to see."

"It's Saturday morning," I pointed out.

"So?" Kelly placed on the sunglasses she had swiped from my desk, wiggling her fingers at me. "Toodles,"

The door slammed shut and I turned, leaning against the sink and throwing the cleaning towel over my shoulder. "Well, that was close," I said aloud, sticking my bottom lip up and making a weird 'beh-beh' sound. "Good thing Kelly isn't Einstein or I would've been dead."



** ** ** **

"And here I thought you weren't going to come," Deacon said from behind.

I turned to see him cocking an eyebrow, a smile on his face and his arms crossed. "Hi," I greeted, feeling weird as I felt a lot happier than before - and that was just at seeing him.

"Couldn't get enough of me and this?" He lifted his top, swiping a hand down his toned chest and grinning.

I glanced down once before saying flatly. "Don't get cocky."

"My milkshake brings all the girls to the yard," he flexed his arms, kissing the biceps before he frowned, looking around, "or I should probably say forest...but anyway, you should probably get yourself checked out,"

"Why? Cause I'm not fainting at the sight of you?" I crossed my arms, jutting out a hip as he approached me.

"Exactly," he began prodding my forehead and turning my head up and down. "Aw, my little didums has a few screws loose,"

"Hey!" I slapped his roaming hands away. "Stop that,"

"Although maybe a bit more that that. Hmm, looks like you're going to need a bit more than just Sellotape to fix you." He knocked on the side of my head, bringing his ear down to pretend to listen. "Christ, it sound so hollow, all I can hear is wind."

I brought my head up, hitting his in the process and he grabbed his chin, swearing loudly. "Son of a-!"

I laughed, "Aw, has my little didums got a boo-boo?" I rubbed at his head, and he slapped my hand away, scowling.

"First of all, you're rubbing the wrong place, Dr Phil. Second...that was totally done on purpose."

"Discovery of the century," I patted his chest. "Here, have a gold sticker, Newton."

He stopped, raising his eyebrows. "That was actually a good one, huh, I'm impressed."

I smugly smiled and lifted my shoulders in a small shrug. "I do try,"

"Being cocky is my forte, not yours." He flicked my nose.

"Yeah? And what's mine?"

"I'm not going to say. I have a strong haunch you won't like it." He smiled in a way that only set to infuriate me.

"Just tell me."

He began walking off, ignoring me and humming to himself.

"Seriously Deacon?!" I yelled after him, "you're really going to walk off? Ugh, you're such a..." He didn't look back and grumbling to myself, I took after him.

He stopped suddenly and I bumped into him, his hand latched onto my arm to stop me from falling backwards. "Yours is being easy, extremely easy."

I felt my jaw drop and then I glared hard at him, giving him a shove. "And yours is being a dick-head."

He shrugged. "I can live with that...aw, damn. You're not really angry, are you?"

I turned away from him, still keeping the glare on my face and the ice in my eyes. "C'mon, Doll, you know I was joking, don't you?"

I didn't answer.

Slowly and almost hesitantly, I felt arms circle around my waist and bring me flush against Deacon's chest, his head dipped and he murmured. "It was a joke. I didn't mean for you to get offended, Dolly."

"Yeah, well, I did," I tried stepping forward out of his embrace but he hugged me -if you call it that- tighter. "Deacon..."

"Shall I say sorry? Will that make you forgive me?"

I picked his arms up and away, stepping forward before turning around and crossing my arms across my chest. "No, you'd only be doing it because I ask, not because you actually want to and mean it."

He opened his mouth to speak, but I quickly said. "I'm not angry, okay?"

He was still for a moment before he nodded once, twice and then said. "Sure. So uh, you coming?"

I contemplated for a second before nodding. "Yeah, lead the way."

Once we were settled down, backs against the trunk of a large tree and food in our hands, Deacon turned to me. "What's with your sister? I mean, she's, y'know," he made a face.

I felt my chest tightened at his tone and his stupid, unknowing eyes. I grounded my teeth together, flicking my cold eyes at him. "She's what?"

"Is she ill!?"

Slowly and cautiously, I said with underlying and blurred warning in my tone. "She has cerebral palsy."

"Retarded then." He quirked an eyebrow, his lips lifted into a small smirk, almost as if he expected me to join in the fun, the mickey of Ellie.

"Fuck you!" I hissed, and catching him by surprise I threw my Yazoo bottle straight at his face. I jumped up, intending to barge away but his hand latched onto my wrist and he pulled me onto him. Not expecting the action and blind with anger, I toppled sideways on to Deacon.

There was a tussle and a complicated tangle of bodies where I didn't know what was happening but I tried to remove myself from him. After a long two minutes of scuffling, Deacon let out an annoyed grunt before grabbing my arms, flipping on top of me and sitting down on my torso. "Now..." He drew in a ragged breath before releasing it with his words. "Why the hell did you throw your damn drink at me?"

"Get the hell off me, Deacon!" I spat, glaring up at his face as I struggled to release his strong hold on my wrists.

"Tell me why-"

"Why don't you go fuck yourself with a pineapple, bitch?!"

He slammed my wrist down, his face almost skimming the surface of mine as he gave me a dirty look. "Can you at least tell me what the fuck I did before going crazy-ape-bitch on me?!"

I moved my mouth as if I was chewing for a moment before letting out in a hard voice. "Don't diss my family. Don't say anything about them...bitch."

He looked at me for a moment, his eyes searching mine before he let out what was something between a sigh and an amused snort. His head dropped on my shoulder blades and I stared down at him in disbelief.

"Are you...are you laughing at me?" I asked outraged.

"No, no," his shoulders shook as he blatantly lied. "I would never-"

I punched his shoulder, keeping the glare on my face. "You little bitch!"

He got up, holding a hand out to me to help me up but I ignored it as hoisted myself up, dusting down my jeans and t-shirt.

He raised an eyebrow. "Okay, okay, I now know not to say anything about your family. I didn't know it was such a sensitive topic for you."

"Is being a dick-head a talent or do you get paid to do it?"

"Hey," he raised his hands. "It's not my fault you jump on me like one of those desperate ugly and fat feminist who find out their husband cheated on them with their sister."

Wanting to wipe the grin off his face, I said with smug conviction. "Y'know, Kelly remembers you. She was asking about you earlier on and told me to come with her to the police station in..." I looked down at my wristwatch. "Half-an-hour,"

The blood drained from his face and I saw the way his eyes widened and his body tensed. "You're lying,"

I slowly smiled. "Am I?"

He was suddenly right in my face and I felt myself being thrown and hitting a tree. "You're lying!" He roared furiously, fire dancing in his eyes and his nostrils flared however I could still detect some fear in his eyes and that made my curiosity flare up.

"What's going to happen to you, huh? When the police come in here, swarming with tazers and guns, what's gonna happen, Deacon?" I tauntingly whispered, adding a small laugh on the end.

His hand latched onto my throat, and he tightened, lifting me up into the air as he said quietly, his voice emotionless and freezing cold. "What's going to happen is they'll find your dead body and no remains of me for I will be long gone."

"Deacon!" I spluttered out, fearing for my life as I saw the dead eyes staring back at me. I grasped at his hands to release the hold they had on my tender and bruising throat. "Dea-con...don't!"

"It's a pity..." He murmured quietly, "I was actually beginning to like you."

"I li...I lied, okay?" I got out after some difficulty.

He cocked his head to the side, his dark eyes closely observing me to see if I was telling the truth. "What?"

I repeated myself, desperately begging him to let go off me, as I felt my life being drawn away from me in quick seconds.

"I swear if you're lying to me..." he warned gravely.

I shook my head, turning a horrid shade of blue and purple mixed.

His hand slowly loosened and he slowly brought me down so I rested against a tree. I rubbed at my throat, taking in large breaths of air as I coughed and slowly regained my normal state. When I looked up through slightly teary eyes, Deacon was opposite, watching closely but with a large distance between us.

"Don't lie to me. Not even if its for a joke. I will kill you." He said, "I won't say anything about your family or disrespect them." He looked at me one last time before leaving, slipping between the trees, and eyes full of sorrow and something else, something that looked a lot like a warning signal, something that told me to get the heck out of there.

----------> vote :)