"We need to hurry up." Jeff rushes around the house and I groan.
"Jeff can you please shut up for like twelve seconds? It might solve climate change, poverty, and world hunger." I look at him and he shakes his head.
"That's not possible, Margo."
"We won't know if you don't at least try. Now shut your mouth and go bully someone." I shove him away from me and he leaves the room, allowing me to be alone with Noelle.
"Are you ready for the award show?" Noelle asks quietly as she does my makeup.
We've been preparing for tonight all week and I don't know if I'm nervous or if I have food poisoning.
"I'm nervous." I shrug as I close my eyes, allowing her to finish the eye look.
"You're never nervous for The Brit Awards, are you sure it's because of the show or the person that's going to be escorting you?" She asks quietly as I look down at the bracelet that Ashton got me.
"I don't know. I don't think I'm nervous because of him, because I shouldn't be, but I could be. I just don't want anything to be weird between us after what you mentioned last week." I shake my head and she sighs, grabbing a different palette.
"If it helps, he's nervous too." She whispers, a smile evident in her voice.
"Really?"
"Oh most definitely. He was pacing around the house this morning like a tweaker outside seven-eleven." She reassures me and it causes me to laugh.
"Hey, I need to know which colour tie I need to wear tonight." Koleton runs up behind me as my eyes are held shut.
"Red." Noelle and I answer at the same time.
"Red is Margo's signature colour." Noelle adds and I hear Koleton leave the room hurriedly. "See, he's definitely nervous."
"How could you tell from that simple question?" I furrow my eyebrows as she tilts my head upwards with her pinky.
"Because, both of those ties had the tags on them. He really went out and bought brand new ties to wear tonight."
———
The entire night has been filled with aimless small talk. We're finally headed back to my house and I couldn't be happier to get out of this dress.
Thanks to Koleton though, the night hasn't been all that bad. Him being here had made it bearable.
"Did you have a good night? You seemed to be upset at the award show." Koleton asks and it drags my attention from the street lights outside the window to him.
"I'm sorry?" I check to make sure I heard him clearly and he shifts in his seat so he's facing me.
"You just seem to be in another place tonight. I'm making sure you're not planning to murder me or something." He tries to lighten the mood and I smile slightly at his concern.
"No, not yet. I've got to spare you a little while longer." I feed into his narrative before becoming serious again. "On a real note, I'm just tired after talking to all of these people that expect so much from me. You're lucky you had your hand on my thigh because I would've-"
"My hand was on your thigh?" He quickly asks as a look of shock and confusion wash over his face. "Like, the whole night?"
"Yeah..? I didn't expect it at first, but it helped stop me from wandering off mentally." I nod, confused as to why he seems so shocked.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to- I really just- I'm going to make sure it doesn't happen again." He hurriedly apologizes and I feel as if I did something wrong.
"I'm sorry if me saying that upset you. I didn't think it was a big deal." I furrow my eyebrows and he lets out a sigh. "I was okay with it. I would've pulled it off if I wasn't."
As soon as he opens his mouth to respond, the driver pulls into my driveway and I notice a figure standing on my front porch.
"That better not be Calum." I growl, unfastening my seatbelt and getting out of the car as Koleton hurriedly follows.
"Margo, get back in the car." Koleton stumbles out of the car as I stomp up towards the figure.
"Hey, dick-head! I told you to leave me the fuck alone!"
As soon as the figure turns around to respond, they pull out a gun and aim it directly at me before I can figure out who it is.
"Woah!" Koleton pulls me behind him as he pulls out his own gun. "Drop the gun and get on the ground!"
My heart is pounding in my ears and I can't believe the scene that's unfolding in front of my eyes. "I said get on the ground!"
"It's nice to see that Margo's adapting nicely to this life. Its almost as if she was never a poor bitch to begin with." The voice laughs and I recognize it immediately.
I step in front of Koleton and come face to face with the piece of shit excuse of a person.
"What are you doing here? Who gave you my address?" I step towards him and he reaches out to tap my face. "Don't fucking touch me."
"Come on now doll-face, don't treat your poor dad like that." He pouts before a smirk replaces the sad expression. "You visited your mom and didn't even think about coming to see me. I'm hurt, truly."
He places his hand over his heart and I reach under my dress to grab one of the knives strapped to my leg.
"Don't do that. I know your every move, and I can promise that one will get you killed."
"What do you want? Money? Drugs?" I snap at him and he lets out a bitter laugh that sends a ringing through my ears.
"I want my baby back. You left Australia right when I was going to come back to visit. Its almost as if you didn't want to see me." He explains his poor intentions as he steps closer to me, Koleton stepping closer as well.
"You tried to fucking kill me, you insane freak! I back away from him and trip, falling to the ground.
As he steps closer, I reach into Koleton's pocket and click the alarm that he received on his first day, sending a signal to the closest police.
As soon as I pull my hand out of his pocket and get back onto my feet, he has his gun aimed towards me again and a few shots ring out.
"Margo get in the fucking car!" Koleton yells, but I grab one of my knives and throw it at my port excuse of a dad, hitting him in the shoulder. "Do you never fucking listen?! You have got to be insane!"
"Yeah, well I just fucking saved our lives you asshole! Go fucking handcuff him or something!" I yell back, but he doesn't move.
I groan and reach into the backseat of the car, grabbing a few zip ties from the night I ripped my shoe and walk up to the man lying on the ground.
I pull the knife out of his shoulder and roll him over. "I suggest you sit still unless you want this knife going into your tailbone."
I put the knife in between my teeth after wiping it off and pull his hands behind his back. He lets out a growl as I tighten the three zip ties as tight as they can go as Koleton pulls out his phone to call someone.
"Oh, shut up. Grow a pair and maybe you won't get tackled by your own daughter." I pull the knife out of my mouth and roll him back over onto his back and sit on his legs so he can't move them.
"Noelle and the others will be here in a few minutes. Until then, we need to find out what to do with him." Koleton sighs, placing his phone back into his pocket.
"If you can hold him down for a few minutes I'll be right back." I propose an offer and he nods, walking towards the body and helping me up.
I approach the guys' house and nearly break the door down I knock on it so hard. "Open the door!"
After a few minutes of me continuously hitting the door like I'm out of my mind, it finally swings open.
"What are you-" Ashton yawns, rubbing his eyes as if he just woke up.
"Do you have really strong tape? Like, duct tape?" I ask as I push past him.
"In the hall closet. You have blood on your- are you wearing a dress?" He begins asking questions as if he's trying to understand everything as I begin tossing stuff around in the closet.
"Who was at the door?" I hear Calum's voice ask, but I decide to ignore it. "Margo, are you bleeding?"
"No, and it's none of your business, but I need the tape." I come out of the closet and hold up their duct tape. "I can't promise that I'll bring it back."
I leave the house as they decide to follow me and I jog over to Koleton who has taken it upon himself to begin arguing with my dad.
"Margo, tell your boyfriend to stop being a bitch and let me go." My dad groans and I roll my eyes, ignoring him.
"Boyfriend?" Calum and Ashton ask at the same time, but I ignore them as well. I refuse to explain myself to anyone tonight.
I use my knife to cut it and wrap the tape around his ankles and knees before moving up to his mouth. "You're not seriously going to wrap that around my mouth?"
"No, but I am." Koleton speaks up, taking the tape from me and squatting down.
I lift his upper body up so Koleton doesn't have to reach that far and he decides to head-butt me as hard as he can. I stumble backwards as Koleton drops the tape and reaches around my back before I hit the ground.
"You fucking bitch!" I yell through the pain, spitting blood from my mouth. I grab the knife and stab it into his opposite shoulder and kick him in the back. "What did I fucking tell you?"
"Margo, come here." Koleton pulls me away from my dad and turns me so I'm looking at him. "Oh my god, this looks bad."
"He fucking broke my nose of course it's bad!" I yell, wiping the tears from my eyes. "Great, now I'm crying. This makeup took hours you fucking-"
I begin to pull my foot back so I can kick my dad, but Koleton stops me. He puts his leg in front of mine and turns me away from the scene.
"Go inside and get something of the freezer and place it on your face to reduce the swelling and bruising." He orders me and I shake my head.
"I'm not leaving you out here with them! What if he gets up and runs away or they decide to jump you? I'm not letting you get hurt because I decided to get my nose broken." I argue and he stops me.
"He's not going to run away, they're not going to jump me, and you're not going to be gone for long. You just need to grab a frozen food and come back out here. Besides, I think you're forgetting that I was in the military and you didn't exactly choose to get your nose broken." He reassures me and I roll my eyes. "Also, I'm your bodyguard, remember?"
"Fine, but if any of that happens, I get to kick all of y'all's asses. I don't care who's fault it was." I pull away from him so I can turn to Calum and Ashton. "If I find out the two of you were pricks I'm killing you."