Playing With Fire (Previously Burning The Bad Boy) (UNDER RECONSTRUCTION)

{4} One Dead, Twice Is A Lie

Anxiety over Damon's next move had me distancing myself from everyone around me and hiding out in the comfortable confinement of my thoughts

He took pleasure in tiptoeing around me in the halls, sending me quick side glances and taunting half smiles on his way down the long corridors. Wednesday morning he had even flashed me a page he had torn out of my diary and crumbled it, acting as if he were going to toss it in the disgusting trash bin before he shoved it in his pocket and continued on down the hall.

Damon's attitude about this entire situation had me tearing my hair out strand by strand. Every little reaction he got out of me seemed to fuel a fire fizzling inside him. He took each time he got a negative response out of me and made the next tease or taunt a hundred times worse.

"He's just playing head games." Rachel assured, "Oh, and don't forget about the booth we're running for the fundraiser this weekend. We signed up  early last year, I just got the email."

Tearing my eyes away from the devil at the back of the classroom, I raised a questioning eyebrow, "I don't remember that."

"It was a spear of the moment thing. Mrs. Sill asked us and we both agreed without talking it through. I guess they needed us to fill some spots."

Nodding, my mind already beginning to drift, I responded, "I have plans."

Disbelief flashed in my best friend's mossy eyes.

"Plans? Do these plans have to do with a certain incredibly obnoxious and hot idiot?" she shot me a pointed look, "You're not leaving me at the booth by myself, Mick. I'll call you with the information tonight."

I didn't get a chance to defend my reasoning; our Psychology teacher snatched the opportunity away from me by stalking into the room, the clicking of her heels echoing through the eerily silent classroom.

I waited anxiously until she turned her back to us to throw a look at Damon over my shoulder. I caught his eyes seconds later, not having enough time to realize he had been watching me before something loud crashed against my desk and snapped me out of my daze.

Twitching nervously, I lifted my head to find Ms. Shields leaning over with her hand pressed against the top of the extraordinarily large textbook she'd dropped on my desk.

I bowed my head, "I'm sorry, Ms. Shi-"

"If you are so interested in Mr. Fox, then you can tutor him. He is failing most of his classes and I have been informed he someone to teach him the material outside of school." I swear I saw a glint of amusement in her eyes over the situation she'd presented me with.

"Ms. Shields, you can't-" I started, shaking my head in desperation.

"If you would like to discuss this further, you can go visit Mr. Monahan in the principal's office." with that, the middle aged woman stalked off, her tight ponytail whipping from side to side as she walked. I propped my chin on my hand and listened in on the lesson for a few minutes before letting my head slip from it and crash against the textbook.

*

"I'm going to die." I hummed quietly to myself as I shut my locker. Turning my head a fraction, I nearly did.

Damon was leaning against Rachel locker, his perfect lips curved into a smirk. "That can be arranged."

I shut my locker quickly so the pictures on the door weren't in his line of sight.

"Is that a death threat?"

"Nope. It's a promise." He winked. I pretended to gag and leaned back into my locker, staring down at the tip of my sneakers. "Let's reverse the roles for once, hmm?"

After a moment of silence, I felt his warm breath against my cheek, "I like playing games too, sweetheart."

I knew he was referring to an entry in my diary, but it took me a few seconds to think up which it was.

The entry had been from sixth grade. I had just returned from a summer with my grandparents in Florida. There, I'd spent the night in a beach house with a few of my cousins friends and we'd ended the long evening with a game of Truth or Dare. Being only thirteen, I was used to playing the clean version. Five minutes into playing, my cousins best friend had dared me to kiss one of the high school boys there; I had loved it.

It had been my first kiss and the best I'd ever had. For the first time in my life, I had felt high, above everything and everyone else. Of course my cousin had ruined it and he got caught doing something to a girl by his parents. We had gotten grounded for the rest of the summer, but would occasionally play Truth or Dare over text. I had grown to love the game and had made sure to put everything down in detail in my diary.

"You've got some dirty secrets for such a good girl." his lips were inches from my ear, my entire body stiff.

Swallowing, I ducked from beneath his arm against my locker and started down the hallway, "You don't know anything about me, Fox."

"Do you really want to test that theory?" he shot back with a crooked smirk. I slowed to a stop and spun around to face him, my finger inches from his face.

"I don't understand why you can't stop being a child for once and just give me my damn diary, Damon!" I huffed angrily.

He caught my finger in his hand and met my eyes, a real emotion finally breaking the surface.

"I'm not the child, McKenzie, you are. I'm not the one that kept a diary in my locker where anyone could have got their hands on it. What seventeen year old girl still has a diary?" He snorted, "Not to mention you have the tendency of nearly getting me killed anytime you're around."

I glared, "What does that have to do with being a child? It has to do with being a klutz, idiot."

He snickered, dropping my hand and laughing as he began to back away.

"And to think I was this close," he pressed his index finger and thumb together, "to giving you back your diary. What a shame."

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, that would force its way out. When nothing came, he saluted me and spun on his heel, engulfed in a group of kids rushing toward the school entrance as the last bell of the day rang and echoed around the quiet hallway.

**

Walking through the front door of my house, the last thing I expected to find a blonde woman perched on the end of the couch.

"Dad!" I shouted, "I'm home."

The woman rose, a smile stretching across her face at the sight of me in front of the door.

"Micky, sweetie!" Dad peaked his head out of the hallway, "This is my half-sister Celine. Cel, this is my daughter McKenzie."

I eyed the woman for a moment before shrugging off my jacket, "You never said anything about having a half sister."

My teeth fell against my bottom lip as I tried my best to keep it from trembling. The back of my eyes stung so bad I had to blink rapidly to keep tears from rising to the surface.

It wasn't the fact that I understood what the scene before me meant that had my heart finally taking the last fracture it could before it shattered. It was the principal behind my father lying to my face and thinking I was dumb enough to believe it.

"I'm not hungry." I whispered before he could ask, maneuvering around the two of them and down the hall to my bedroom.

I slammed my bedroom door behind me and locked it, finally not fighting back the tears as I fell to the ground, my back pressed against the hard wood as I hugged my legs against my chest and buried my face between them. 

***AN***

Sorry for the short chapter guys, next should be longer! 

Let me know what you thought! I'd love to hear it! 

~ChasingMadness24