Chapter 5
The next day, I was feeling a lot calmer and incredibly embarrassed about the whole incident with Gabriel the day before. As I entered school, I couldn’t help but look around to make sure Gabriel wasn’t anywhere near me. If I happened to catch sight of him, I probably would’ve jumped into the nearest classroom or something equally cowardly.
I didn’t really have much time to think about it though because about a minute after I walked in the doors, Francine and Chrystal were on me. I hadn’t seen the girls this morning as I had left one of my text books at Jam the night before and had left early to go pick it up.
“You are in so much trouble,” Francine said, gripping my elbow hard enough to dig her perfectly manicured nails in a little bit.
“You were out all night weren’t you?” Chrystal asked, barely concealing the excitement in her voice.
I sighed. After I’d flipped out at Gabriel yesterday, I’d gone to practice and screamed my lungs out. The band had stayed later with me, liking the heavy metal vibe we were getting and probably sensing that something was the matter. After practice we’d grabbed some pizza and just hung out until past midnight. By the time I got home, everyone was already asleep.
“Was my mom worried?” I asked ignoring the question.
“Your mom?” Francine echoed, looking at Chrystal for a second before continuing, “Not really. She trusts you.” She grinned like the cat that caught the canary. “We, on the other hand, don’t trust you at all. We heard you’ve been hanging out with Gabriel lately.”
“We also heard that you went over to his house yesterday to work on a ‘school project’.” Chrystal made air quotes as if no such school project existed.
“So, what happened with you guys that made you stay out all night? And aren’t you wearing the same clothes as yesterday?” Francine eyed my outfit and scowled.
“This isn’t the same outfit,” I replied. “And I didn’t stay out all night. I just stayed out late with some friends. Not Gabriel,” I added.
“Really?” Chrystal asked sounding disappointed.
“Yes.”
“So you didn’t go to his house after school,” Francine asked pouting.
“Well, I went to his house,” I began.
“What!” the girls exclaimed at the same time and each gripped one of my arms uncomfortably.
“O-M-G, what was it like? Does he live in a trailer?” Chrystal asked.
“I heard he has his own penthouse paid for with all his drug money,” Francine said sotto voice.
“Really?” Crystal asked, shooting a curious look at her sister before her eyes lost focus and a dreamy look crossed her face. “That is so much better than a trailer.” Her gaze snapped back to me and with a probing look, she said, “So what was it like, Evie? Was there a rooftop pool? I’ve always wanted to swim in a rooftop pool.”
For a second I just stood there with my two delusional and clearly somewhat dim sisters hanging off of me waiting to hear the dirt on the school’s bad boy who just so happened to be not nearly as bad as everyone made him out to be. In fact, from everything I’d seen, he was a good guy.
I felt revulsion churn in my stomach at the thought of being one of those girls that believed every little rumor without bothering to consider whether or not it was true. It was like a game of telephone played by the entire school and right now, I was the operator.
“No matter what I say, you guys are going to twist it into something it isn’t, aren’t you?”
They both expressed their outrage at not trusting them to keep it quiet. They promised not to tell a soul which was probably the truth. After all, cheerleaders didn’t have souls, right?
I sighed. “I didn’t actually go to his house. I lied. We stayed here after school and baked the cake in the staff room.” I pulled up my cardigan to reveal my bare wrist. “Oh look at the time. I’d better get going,” I said and detangled myself from my stepsisters. Just before I turned a corner I saw at least four other cheerleaders appear from their hiding spots to hear the juicy details.
I reached my locker and started grabbing the books and supplies I would need for my first period class.
“So, did you tell them everything they wanted to know?” Gabriel asked as he leaned against the locker beside mine.
My heart rate picked up slightly, his appearance surprising me but I recovered and let out a quiet snort. “I doubt it. My story was definitely lacking. Still, try not to be shocked when it gets back to you that you spent the evening showering me in your drug money while I made a cake laced with weed at your request.”
He grinned at me and looked down at said cake. “Now there’s an idea. I bet we’d get an A+.”
I laughed quietly feeling at ease in Gabriel’s presence, even though I’d originally planned on avoiding him at all cost.
“Listen, Evelyn,” Gabriel said in a more serious tone. “I’m really sorry about what I said yesterday. I didn’t mean to offend you. I wasn’t really thinking when I said it and I definitely didn’t mean it. I don’t think you’re a princess. Not like your sisters. Not even close.” He ran the hand not holding the cake through his hair.
I met his gaze and saw the sincerity there. I’d already realized that I’d taken his words too seriously anyway so he’d been forgiven before he’d even apologized. Now I was just embarrassed for acting so overly dramatic.
“I’m sorry too. I never should’ve...freaked out like that. I was being too sensitive so don’t worry about it. Let’s just forget it, okay?”
For a second he just stared at me until finally, he spoke. “You’re really not like other girls, are you? Most girls would be pissed at me for at least a week but you...” He trailed off and just stared at me as I tried not to shift uncomfortably under his scrutiny. Why could I handle having hundreds of people in a club staring at me when I was performing but when just one guy looked at me for any length of time, I wanted to bolt?
“Yeah, I’m a strange one,” I replied nervously plucking at the hem of my cardigan. I briefly wondered if I would behave the same way if I was wearing Rocker Evie’s clothes. Would I nervously pluck at the hemline of my midriff baring Guns n’ Roses t-shirt?
I think not.
I lifted my gaze and opened my mouth to say something but stopped when I saw the look on his face. His mouth was curved into a lopsided smile and his eyes were such a deep blue that for a second, I was lost.
Then he seemed to shake himself out of whatever trance he’d fallen under and I came crashing back to earth. “Listen,” he said, moving back a step, “I’m just going to go to shop class before first period to check on a few things. I’ll see you in home ec.” Then he was gone.
I leaned against my locker and smiled ruefully. It figures, I finally talk myself into having a direct conversation with a guy and he disappears.
Straightening, I was about to take a step when a girl appeared in front of me.
Okay maybe she didn’t exactly appear but she definitely hadn’t been there a moment before.
“Hey Bitch.”
What a lovely greeting.
Deciding that I was in a fairly good mood and suddenly intent on keeping it that way, I took a step to the right in an effort to walk around her as if she’d never appeared in the first place.
Unfortunately, she didn’t enjoy being ignored and instead of passively watching as I sidestepped her, she grabbed my arm and forcibly hauled me into the nearest bathroom.
“Trying to ignore me?” She asked as she yanked my arm painfully until I was seated on the floor in a corner of the bathroom. From my lower vantage point I took in my harasser. She was beautiful. Her skin was dark from the sun and her dark brown eyes had an exotic tilt to them. Her legs were long and lean and her stomach was flat. Her long brown hair held the perfect amount of wave and hung to her waist. In short, she was what every high school girl wanted to be.
“So,” she continued, stepping on my fingers with the toe of her pretty high heeled shoes. They were purple and I was glad she wasn’t using the heel part to squash my fingers but at this point she wasn’t exerting enough pressure for me to panic. “How did an oversized kitten like you manage to get close to Gabriel Halen?”
“Not by choice, that’s for sure. For either of us,” I said and tried to subtly wrap my fingers around her ankle in order to remove the weight from my trapped hand.
“Stop that,” she said, kicking out at my other hand giving me the chance to free the trapped one and place it behind my back. She put her foot painfully down on my ankle, crushing the bone against the hard cement of the bathroom floor painfully but at least it wasn’t my hand. I could play the guitar without my ankle. With a broken finger, that was another story.
“It may have started as a forced partnership but I saw the two of you in the hallway together. He apologized to you. He doesn’t apologize to anyone. Not ever. What makes you so special?” She exerted a little more pressure on my ankle and I smiled, thinking that it would’ve been so much worse if she was still stepping on my hand.
“Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think you do,” I replied, my hands safely clasped behind my back.
She moved too quickly for my eyes to follow. It was after all, eight thirty in the morning. Before I knew it, I felt the sting of a slap across my left cheek and my head jerked to the right only to connect with the sink that I was sitting under.
“Ugh,” I said.
“I don’t want to hurt you, bitch.”
“Really? Because you’re kind of giving off the wrong impression with all the hitting.”
“Shut up. I don’t give a shit about you. You’re nothing. Clearly,” she smirked down at me, “I could squash you easily but today I’m going to be nice and let you go. Just stay away from Gabriel. Girl’s like you think you can have everything because that’s how your Daddy raised you. People like me and Gabriel have had to work for everything we have. Set your greedy little sights on one of your trust fund friends and piss off.” Her voice dripped with malice as she released the pressure from my ankle and pivoted on her pretty heels to walk out the door.
Once the click clack of her footsteps was far enough down the hallway, I made my way out of the bathroom. As it turns out, it was a boy’s bathroom which made me quickly duck into the girl’s where I gave my hands a thorough wash. I’d heard horror stories about what guys did in their bathrooms and I couldn’t help imagining what I’d been sitting in while I nearly got my ass handed to me.
As I walked out of the washroom, the bell rang signaling first period. Well, at least she didn’t make me late. Who was that girl anyway?
And what was up with the people in this school thinking we were remaking the movie The Outsiders?
The more I thought about it, the more upset I got. By the time second period rolled around, my good mood had completely vanished. What did it matter how much money either of us had? What gave her the right to stomp on my hand just to prove a point? My hand!
I rubbed my fingers together, liking the feel of the calluses there from sliding across the guitar strings. I shifted in my seat a little and felt a twinge of pain as I jostled my ankle and my anger tripled.
If I were Rocker Evie, I would track that girl down and explain to her that it was a big mistake messing with a girl who was nearly six feet tall. Then I’d probably get my ass handed to me because I knew absolutely nothing about fighting. The idea of getting just one or two good hits in made me happy though and I thought about my imaginary fight with that bathroom bitch until the bell rang for lunch.
I made my way to the library the way I always did but I didn’t have any homework to finish so I wasn’t looking forward to sitting in silence for the next forty five minutes. As I walked down the hallway I passed the music room. The door was slightly open so I walked in. Seeing no one there, I shut the door behind me and moved towards the piano in the corner of the room.
The piano had been painted black sometime in the last century and the wood was so chipped and old that it looked like an antique even though it probably had very little real worth. The keys all had chips in them and some were at different levels than others.
I played a few chords, testing out the tuning, deciding that it wasn’t too bad. I was about to play a melody when I saw movement from the corner of my eye. I looked up to see Cynthia enter the room. Her eyes were wide as she caught sight of me sitting in front of the piano.
I snatched my hands away from the keys and shoved the bench so hard as I stood that I nearly knocked it over.
“Evelyn? What are you doing here?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. I just...got lost.”
“Do you play?” she asked, gesturing towards the piano.
The piano? The instrument my mother played? If my sisters somehow got wind of this and my mother found out, I was dead.
“No.” I shrugged and made my way towards the doorway.
“Oh well, maybe you wanted to learn? I could-,”
“Nope. Gotta go.” Keeping my gaze on the floor I scurried around her towards the door.
Just as I was passing her, Cynthia reached out and lightly grabbed my arm. Startled at the contact, I looked into her bright blue eyes darkly lined in black once again. “This might sound weird coming from me.” She gave a crooked smile and glanced down at herself. I looked too. She was wearing three layers of shirts, the lower layers revealed through strategic tears in the upper layers. Her pants were dark purple corduroy with holes and words scrawled on them in pen. Her hair was dark and messy, half in, half out of her pony tail.
I recognized the outfit for what it was: her image.
She looked exactly how an angsty poetic type would look in the movies. Just like I looked exactly how the nerdy, quiet girls would.
“If you ever want to talk,” she continued, once again meeting my eyes, “I’m always there, right next to you in chemistry. If you ever, you know, want a friend.” She shrugged.
I didn’t say anything, not sure how to reply. This was the first time since I’d entered this high school, so far from the one I’d expected to go to before my mother married, that anyone had extended their proverbial hand to me.
I was shocked that this goth/art girl was asking me to be her friend and for a second I wanted to. The hours at school would often drag on and having a friend would help make it more bearable.
“Thank you,” I said quietly, meaning it. “I really appreciate that, Cynthia. I’m just,” not sure how to get rid of this character I’ve created, not sure I really want to get rid of her, “really shy,” I replied lamely.
“Okay.” She laughed. “I feel like I’m forcing you to be friends with me.” More laughing. “I just wanted you to know that school doesn’t have to be completely boring. I think you’ve started to realize that with Gabriel.”
“What are you talking about?” My voice came out louder than I’d expected and Cynthia’s eyes widened before she smiled up at me.
“You two just seem to get along, that’s all.”
Oh shit. If Cynthia was noticing us “getting alone” then that explained why the crazy bathroom bitch had tried to kill me that morning. People were starting to notice me now that I was forced to hang around Gabriel more often.
“We’re home ec partners.” I deadpanned, keeping my voice cool and level. Detached.
“Oh.” She frowned. “I thought maybe...well, nevermind.”
Because I had no desire, none whatsoever, to know what she thought about me and Gabriel, I simply nodded and exited the music room.