"What did the headteacher say?" Theo asks as I sit down at the table at lunch. I begged Charles to take me home, but he refused. He said I already miss more than enough school, and that I can't afford to be off anymore than what's necessary.
"He said he will speak to Ella." I say quietly, not making eye contact and resting my elbows on the table. He furrows his eyebrows at me.
"Are you not eating your lunch?" He asks, gesturing towards my backpack which is on the floor next to my feet. I shake my head at him.
"Why not?" He asks, with slight concern in his voice. I take a deep breath and look at him.
"I'm not hungry." I say, smiling at him slightly before reverting my gaze back to the table. He sits there, looking at me.
"You have to eat something. Here, you can have half of my sandwich." He offers, handing me the uneaten half of his ham and cheese sandwich. I push his hand away gently and refuse to take it.
"I'm not in the mood to eat right now." I say quietly, resting my head in my hands. He sighs silently.
"Ok. It's there if you decide you want it." He smiles, placing it on top of his lunchbox lid and pushing it towards me slightly.
"Thanks." I smile back at him, looking at the sandwich and then into his eyes. He's so pretty. I could look at him for hours.
"You know, Em. You don't deserve a boy like Archie. He's not good enough for you. I think you deserve someone much better." He says, looking at me, a small smile plastered on his face. I smile at him, feeling my cheeks flush red. I'm blushing.
"How's you and Charlotte going?" I ask him, and his face quickly changes. He looks sad but also angry.
"We aren't together anymore. She cheated on me." He says, shrugging his shoulders slightly as he looks into my eyes. I feel so bad for him. He's such a nice person. I would never cheat on anybody, especially Theo.
"Who with?" I ask, sympathy laced into my voice. He shrugs his shoulders at me once more, breaking eye contact as he does so.
"She didn't tell me who." He says quietly, his eyes darting around the table, looking at anything but me. I think he's lying. I've never seen him act like this. It must be someone bad if he won't even tell me.
"Ok, I'm so sorry Theo. You don't deserve her. She's horrible." I say, reaching my hand towards his and placing mine on top. He looks at me again and smiles before rubbing the top of my hand with his thumb.
"Thanks Em." He whispers, smiling at me and looking into my eyes. I want to kiss him so badly, but that would probably ruin our whole friendship. I doubt he feels the same way.
•~•~•~•~•~
I left school a few minutes before the bell rung, to avoid the crowds and so I can walk home. I don't want to talk to Charles. He didn't let me go home earlier.
I walk out of the gates, a few groups of kids are already out of lesson. I feel like I'm being watched. I've got an uneasy feeling in my stomach.
I walk down the pavement, deciding to take a short cut down an alley way. I'm pushed from behind, me catching myself before I fall over. I turn around to look at who pushed me. It's Ella. A small group of friends are stood behind her.
She punches me in the face and I stumble backwards, holding my face. My nose starts bleeding and I try to stop it by pinching the top and tilting my head back slightly.
I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. Ella pushes my shoulders and I take a step back. I turn around and run through the alley way as fast as I can in these stupid school shoes.
I take deep breaths while trying to prevent myself crying, holding my nose to stop the flow of blood. I quickly look behind me, to see they aren't following me. I let out a relieved sigh as I slow down to a walk.
My phone rings again and I get it out of my pocket, seeing Charles' name on the screen. I've got lots of text messages from both him and Max.
I ignore it and put my phone back into my pocket, pulling my hood over my head. I can feel my face beginning to bruise.
I slowly walk down the driveway, taking a deep breath before opening the front door and walking in. Charles' car is now parked in the driveway so I assume he is back at home. Max's car is parked next to Charles'.
"Emilie?" Charles shouts as he hears the front door open, quickly walking down the hallway towards me with Max following behind him.
"Where have you been? We were so worried." He asks, looking down at me, a scared expression on his face.
"Walking home." I mutter, keeping my head down so he can't see my bloodied nose and black eye.
"Let me see your phone." He states, holding his hand out in front of him.
"Why?" I ask, keeping my head down, looking at his hand which is in front of me and reaching into my blazer pocket for my phone.
"So I can see why you didn't answer my phone call." He states firmly, grabbing my phone and pulling it out of my hand. "You could've been in danger, and we didn't know where you were because you didn't answer your phone." He adds, unlocking it and searching through it.
"Why have you got your hood up? It's not even raining outside." Max asks, furrowing his eyebrows and stepping closer to me. Charles moves out of Max's way, his eyes still glued to my phone screen.
"Yeah, why is your hood up kid? Are you alright?"
Charles asks, glancing at me.
"Yeah I'm fine." I reply quietly, still not making eye contact with either of them.
"Put your hood down." Max states, taking a step closer to me and reaching up to pull my hood down for me. I take a small step backwards to get away from him.
"Max I'm fine!" I raise my voice, looking up at him out of pure anger, not caring about what he sees. Charles snaps his head up to look at me. He has an angry look on his face, clearly disapproving my outburst.
"Emilie." Max says sternly, his face holding a look of worry and sympathy. I look away. Charles takes a step closer to me and pulls my hood down, revealing my bloodied nose and black eye.
I just want to sink through the floor.
"What happened?" Charles asks, turning my phone off and putting it into his pocket. I keep my eyes fixed on the floor, not saying a word. I stand there silently.
"Em?" Max says, trying to get my attention. I keep my head down, refusing to look at either of them.
Charles places his finger under my chin, lifting it up, forcing me to look at him. I look in his eyes, and take a shaky breath while trying not to cry.
"Where did you get hit? Was it your nose?" He asks, placing his other hand on the side of my face and gently squeezing the top of my nose to check it isn't broken.
"Here as well." I whisper, rubbing my fingers around the bottom of my eyes where it hurts the most. He presses his thumb on the area around my eye and I wince in pain slightly.
"Don't touch it." I complain, pushing his hand away and trying to move my head out of his reach. He grabs either side of my head and pulls me back to where I was before.
"Quit moaning about it." Charles states, examining my eye and nose. I place both my hands on his forearms in an attempt to make him let go.
"Charles, get off." I say, pulling my head out of his hold and taking a slight step back.
"Come on, let's get that cleaned up." Max says, gesturing for me to follow him. I sigh before throwing my backpack down on the floor and following him into the living room.
He gets a first aid kit out of the kitchen, brining it into the living room. Why does Charles also have a first aid kit? It's so random.
I sit down on the sofa, Max sitting on my left and Charles standing up in front of us.
"Why are you here?" I ask max, looking at him and furrowing my eyebrows slightly.
"Because you weren't answering your phone. We were worried about you." He answers, digging around in the first aid kit for some wipes.
He gets an antibiotic wipe out of the box, getting it out of the packet and gently wiping my face. It stings my cheek and I move my head away in shock.
I've got a cut on my cheek I didn't even know was there. He wipes my nose, getting rid of all the blood.
"So what happened?" Charles asks, crossing his arms over his chest and looking down at me while raising his eyebrows slightly. I take a deep breath and think before answering.
"Fell over." I mutter, not making eye contact. I hope he doesn't realise I'm lying.
"What actually happened?" He says, sounding slightly more pissed off. I look up at him, an angry but also worried look plastered on his face.
"I just told you. I fell over." I state, raising my eyebrows and sighing slightly. He scoffs quietly and shakes his head at me.
"Ah! What the fuck? That hurts!" I shout at Max, moving my head away as he squeezes the bridge of my nose. He holds his hands up in defence and moves his hands away.
"Emilie, tell me the truth." Charles says firmly, looking at me angrily. I just look at him before breaking the eye contact between us.
"Ella hit me. On the way home from school." I mutter, looking down at my lap and fiddling with my fingers. Charles sighs.
"Keep your head still." Max says, pulling some butterfly strips off a sheet of them and putting a couple over the cut on my face to hold it together. He places his hand on the back of my head to keep me still, smoothing the strips over with his thumb.
"We'll see how your eye and nose is tomorrow, and decide whether or not we should go to the hospital." Charles says, nodding at me and looking closely at my face.
"No hospitals." I state loudly, my head shooting up to look at him. He furrows his eyebrows and looks down at me.
"If your nose is broken, we are going to the hospital. There's no opinions about it. I decide." He states firmly while scowling at me slightly.
"Come on, let's get a drink and a snack." Max says, putting all the stuff back into the first aid box and shutting it before standing up off the sofa and walking into the kitchen.
I reluctantly trail behind him, dragging my feet slightly as I traipse into the kitchen. He puts the first aid box into a cupboard and gets me a glass out.
"Juice?" He asks, looking at me. I nod my head at him.
"The apple and pear one, please." I say, giving him a small smile looking at him. He grabs the bottle of juice out of the cupboard and pours a bit into the glass, filling it with water afterwards. "Thanks." I add, as he hands it to me.
"Why haven't you eaten your lunch?" Charles asks abruptly as he walks into the kitchen hold my lunch box in his hand. I shrug my shoulders and take a sip of my drink.
"You need to eat. I'm not having this conversation with you, again." He says, placing my lunchbox on the kitchen counter. I feel like eating chocolate. I open the fridge and grab a small bar of galaxy chocolate.
Charles narrows his eyes at me, holding his hand out in front of him and shaking his head slightly. I look up at him, slowly beginning to open the chocolate bar while keeping full eye contact with him.
"Emilie. You need to eat some actual food." Charles states, reaching forward and trying to take my chocolate away. I shake my head at him and step backwards to get away from him.
"Give it to me." He adds firmly, growing more and more annoyed by the second. His hand wraps around my wrist, before taking the bar of galaxy chocolate out of my hand and putting it back in the fridge.
"Let me eat it." I whine, letting my shoulders slump and sighing angrily at him. I look at Max in hopes he will back me up, but he just shrugs his shoulders at me. Charles ignores me.
"You must be sick to do that to a person." Max says, his voice laced with sympathy as he stares at my face. I look down at the floor.
"I'll do it back to her." I state quietly, anger in my voice as I avoid eye contact. Charles' head snaps towards me as he furrows his eyebrows.
"No you're not." He scoffs, shaking his head slightly and looking straight at me.
"Yes I am." I say to him, a smirk on my face as I meet his eyes. He raises his eyebrows at me.
"Do it and see what happens." He states, glancing at Max for support. I shrug my shoulders and nod my head, a small smile on my face.
•~•~•~•~•~
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Charles shouts, closing his car door and resting his hands on the steering wheel. I'm surprised he kept calm for this long.
"Do you not remember what happened yesterday and how fucked up your face was?" He continues, not letting me get a single word in.
"That's why I did it! She fucking deserved it, don't you think?" I shout back, an angry look on my face as I look at him.
"You shouldn't have hit her!" He states loudly, staring at me with anger prominent in his eyes.
"She deserved it! You would have done the same thing!" I reply, my voice angry and loud as I look him dead in his eyes.
"No I wouldn't! Its childish to react like that!" He says, giving me an annoyed and angered look.
"I am a fucking child! So you're telling me that if someone hit you, you wouldn't want to hit them back?" I shout as he starts the car.
"I would want to, but I wouldn't actually do it! You need to grow up a bit and learn how to control your temper!" He replies. I've never heard him shout this loud before.
"Just fuck off! This is why I never want to speak to you about anything, because this is the way you always fucking react!" I yell as he drives down the road.
"Emilie. Stop it. Now." He states, looking down at me with anger in his face. I break eye contact and look away from him. "You're grounded." He adds, his voice slightly quieter than when he was shouting a second ago.
"You're grounding me for sticking up for myself?" I shout, throwing my arms out to the side and looking up at him with slight shock on my face.
"No, I'm grounding you for the way you are speaking to me right now." He reprimands, a slightly degrading tone hinting in his voice.
"I'm not even doing anything!" I argue, sighing angrily and looking down at my knees as he pulls into the driveway. Max's car is parked there. For god sake. Can these grown ass men not do anything without each other?
"Go inside, now." Charles states, his voice slightly calmer now. I can tell he is struggling to not shout as loud as he can at me.
"Fuck you and fuck Max as well. Go fuck each other. You're good for one another." I state, flinging the car door open, getting out and slamming it behind me, forcing the car to shake slightly with the amount of force I put behind it.
Charles slowly gets out of the car, sighing as he does so. I storm through the front door, slamming it shut behind me before throwing my backpack on the floor and walking upstairs, making my footsteps heavy.
"Em?" Max calls after me, his voice laced with slight concern. I slam my bedroom door shut and flop down on my bed, taking a deep breath and trying not to cry. I hear some angry footsteps ascending the stairs before my bedroom door flings open.
"Slam this door again and you're loosing it!" Charles shouts, pointing at my door and looking at me with nothing but pure anger on his face. I ignore him and he walks out, leaving it open. I sigh loudly before getting off my bed and walking over to my door.
"Fucking close it!" I shout before slamming it shut once more. I immediately regret it when footsteps ascend the stairs less than a minute later. Max opens my bedroom door and looks at me sternly.
Without saying a word, he begins to unscrew the hinges using an electric drill. I look at him confusedly but he keeps his focus on my door. He puts all the screws into his trouser pocket before pulling the door away from the frame.
"What the fuck are you doing? Put my door back on!" I shout at him, looking up and meeting his eyes.
"Enough with the foul mouth. You need to think about your behaviour and your attitude towards us. Then maybe I'll consider giving you your door back." He says calmly, walking away with my door and somehow managing to get down the stairs without falling.
I sigh and lay down on my bed, closing my eyes. I fucking hate this. I didn't even do anything wrong. All I did was stick up for myself.