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A Week Later
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"It's snowing." Iris commented, looking out the window at the white flakes falling from the sky.
It'd just rolled over to December and it was snowing heavily, meaning one of two things.
Christmas would be with us soon and so would my birthday.
Most boarding schools would send their students home for Christmas, not this one. If the parents agreed to it the girls would stay at Rosehill, getting a temporary break from all their studies.
I'd called Mum and Dad, asking if I could come home, they'd said no.
I'll be staying at the school with two hundred other girls that didn't get to go home.
Iris had called her grandparents that she usually lived with and they told her she should stay here instead so at least I have someone to hang out with.
It was strange walking around the school now, it was a lot emptier than it's been before. Most of the time I could see at least ten students at once, now it was unusual to see two.
It's lonely.
That's the only way I can put it.
As many problems as I had with my parents, the grounding and the arguments, I still missed them.
On most Christmases we'd go shopping, visit some family, eat a whole bunch of meals. I even missed going to church with them, just a little bit.
When I talk about going to church though I mean the one near my home, not the one a couple of hundred metres away from the dorm.
I don't like the priest.
I really don't like him at all.
"When did you say your birthday was?" Iris asked and I looked up at her from the homework I'd spent the past half hour working on.
"The eleventh, seven days." I muttered, completing a math equation that was surprisingly easy.
"Are you going to do anything?" I rubbed out a mistake and sat up straighter, trying to focus on my work.
"No, I really don't want to do anything. Besides it's not like I have anyone to hang out with other than you." I shrugged, I'd never enjoyed my birthday that much and I don't know why, I guess I'm just weird.
"We could go shopping," she suggested, "and there's a movie theatre in town." I shook my head.
"Na, I think I'll settle with hanging around here, call home, listen to some music." God I sound boring, I'm not gonna even bother denying that.
"Come on, I thought you were the fun one out of the two of us." I was, I just didn't feel the perkiest of perky at the moment, I felt tired and drained.
"How about a birthday party?" I almost laughed at the thought of someone throwing me a birthday party.
"Who'd do that? Who would be invited? Where would it be held?" Iris realised she didn't have an answer to any of my questions and frowned.
"I think I could do something." She mumbled and I smiled at her, feeling bad for coming across as mean even though I was only being honest.
"Alright, if you think you can throw me a birthday party then go ahead, I won't stop you." I laughed just a little bit, no one would want to come to a party for me.
After all my time here I hadn't spent much of it with anyone and the few people I had talked to I'd done a very good job at making enemies with.
So far I was in a hate/hate relationship with Tiffany and all her friends, plus I wasn't on the best of terms with Father Way who I've ignored since he walked me to my room after the bar.
I'd slammed the door in his face, locked it then went to bed without saying another word.
Of course Iris had managed to drag me to mass the next day, Gerard had tried repeatedly to start a conversation and each time I'd give him the cold shoulder.
I wasn't sure but I think he's given up, he'd stopped me after classes and tried to talk but he didn't try today which was nice.
I've just had enough of him, how he'd play with my head, never making up his mind how he'd want to treat me. At first he'd been really nice then became a jerk for a while and gone back to nice. It was too confusing.
I'm not the kind of person who enjoys being jerked around, I liked my reality in plain black and white, not a colourful spectrum.
"Do you wanna go outside?" She asked and I did a once over of my homework before closing the book next to me and putting my pencil down.
"Sure, I haven't got anything else to do." I caught my jacket when Iris threw it to me and put it on before standing up, brushing biscuit crumbs off my lap.
It's been snowing for three days straight so the whole landscape of the school was covered in white like it'd been sprinkled with icing.
The snow out here was so pretty. It was pretty in America as well but not even close to the natural look of England.
America was so false, it didn't look normal but here everything was in the right place, perfect.
As crazy as it might sound I was actually happy out here.
"Do you make igloos in America?" Iris said, leaning down and packing snow into the shape of a brick.
"No, what's an igloo?" She didn't seem to understand that I was using sarcasm so I had to explain it to her before going onto another story.
"I remember this one time back home when I was hanging out with Quince and Jelly, we built an igloo and they convinced me to get in," I started laughing, thinking of my best friends, "and the bastards jumped on it while I was in there."
Iris giggled as I told her more about my mates and our stupid and irresponsible adventures.
"Once we were hanging out at this party and Jelly was flirting with a guy she liked then she leant in to kiss him and vomited all over his shoes. She wasn't even drunk, she'd been feeling sick the whole day." Jelly has never forgiven me for convincing her to go to that party and hated me even more for repeating the tale.
Iris and I managed to build the igloo within half an hour since we both had a lot of experience around snow. Like a normal pair of teenagers we were joking around and laughing the whole time.
After finishing we climbed inside the rather spacious room of ice, zipping our jackets up to deal with the predictable cold.
I stretched my legs out as much as possible and dug a hole in the side so I could see the world outside.
My eyes went wide when I saw a familiar pair of boots trudging through the heavy layer of snow, walking right past the igloo.
I didn't think there'd be anyone around since we were out the back of the dorm but apparently my beliefs were proven wrong.
"Shit." I whispered, please God don't make him be looking for me, I'm in no mood to chat with him.
"What?" Iris tried to look out but there wasn't enough room for both of our eyes so she moved back.
"It's the priest." I said ominously, suppressing a giggle that threatened to escape.
"Oh good, I've been wanting to talk to him." She started to move towards the exit but I stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Please don't tell him I'm here." I almost begged her and she nodded then left, calling out his name at the same time.
"Father Way, can I ask you something?" The crunching of snow ceased and he turned around to face my friend.
"Sure, Iris. What's the problem?" She went silent for a moment, appearing to think over her question before asking it.
"I was wondering if I could speak to you about it in private?" More silence and I assumed he nodded since she mumbled a response about needing to get something from the igloo.
Iris popped back and I moved my legs away so she could get further in than her shoulder.
"I'm gonna talk to Father Way, I'll find you when I'm done." She whispered before leaving and I mentally swore, now having nothing to do but if she needs I talk to him then she should.
I faceplanted in the snow and groaned loudly before realising just how cold it was I sat up, wiping the white powder off my face and putting the hood on my jacket up.
My plans for the day are now wide open, now there's my one thing for me to consider...do I want to spend it annoying people.
Yeah I kinda do.
I slowly moved towards the entrance of the igloo, my but having gone numb from the cold a long, long, long time ago.
"Hello!"
"Aah!" I jumped back, not expecting who burst through the opening of the igloo just as I was about to leave.
"Luka, you scared the shit out of me." I took a deep breath and fell back, landing in the snow.
We'd hung out a more often after meeting last week and I could say we were friends so I forgave him.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, I knew girls had been talking about seeing him at the school but I thought he'd be doing something more serious than just walking around.
"I wanted to talk," he tapped me on the thigh, signalling for me move, "scoot over, I wanna sit down." I inched to the side and Luka lay down next to me.
"So what do you wanna talk about?" I wondered and he out his hands behind his head, using them as a makeshift pillow.
"Can I ask you something and know you'll have an open mind?" I want get naked with a priest, I don't think my mind can get any more open than that.
"Sure."
"I've got this problem and you seem to understand problems the most." I've already told Luka about how I got here so he knew how well I could screw up.
"I think that I might be...gay." He said the word oddly and I turned to look at him with a frown, thinking it might just be a joke.
"What do you mean?" That was a stupid question to ask, the whole world knew what gay meant.
"I like guys, maybe. I don't know, a girl here asked me out earlier on today but the only thing I could think about was a guy in my class." Luka shrugged as if it was no big deal at all and I pursed my lips, considering what I should say or do.
"Could you could look at me for a moment?" Luka turned his head and before he could flinch or move away I kissed him, nothing grand or serious, just a little peck on the lips.
"Ew! Why would you do that, that's gross." He jerked away from me as if I'd been trying to pour acid on him and I laughed.
"Yep, you're gay. Either that or you have yet to realise girls don't have cooties." I giggled and watched as his face went bright red, it wasn't hard to tell that he was embarrassed.
"Do you really think I'm gay?" I nodded and chewed on my lip, thinking some more.
"I can kiss you again if you want more proof." He cringed and held up his hands, stopping me in case I tried to.
"Please, please don't." I gave him a reassuring look and said I wouldn't which got him to relax.
"How am I supposed to tell my family?" He asked, his voice rising slightly, "my family's christian, they won't support this."
"Maybe they will, you never know." I told him, trying to look on the bright side of things as much as possible.
"The other day my aunt asked me if I was going to be asking you out." Okay, it might not be that easy then, and why on earth would Miss Coping want him to go out with me?
"If they refuse to understand then make them, I've never taken no for an answer." It was true, when I wanted someone to hear me out I'd force them to sit down and listen whether they liked it it not.
"Have you ever had to reason with your parents on a topic they find unacceptable or unnatural?" I thought of Father Way, I bet my parents wouldn't like my interactions with him one bit.
"They hate my taste in music." That was the best excuse I could offer and it wasn't much compared to the situation he was in.
"I wish my problem was as easy as that. I think I'll wait a little until I tell them, get accommodated with the thought." He mumbled to himself but the only thing on my brain was how I'd like liked him for a couple of days.
"Are you planning to tell Iris about it?" She should be back by now, I've been out here for a while and my butt is beyond numb.
"No, I'd just like to keep this between us if we could. Where is Iris anyway?" I wasn't sure exactly but I went with the most likely option.
"I think she's in the church, she told Father Way that she wanted to talk to him. Oh, did you know she's now planning to throw me a birthday party?" Luka grinned at the last half of the sentence, finding it entertaining apparently.
"What's she gonna do?"
"I don't know, I don't even want a party but she insisted." I shrugged, whatever happened I'm fine with, unless she gets a male stripper, that's where I draw my limit.
"Why wouldn't you want a party?" Why does everyone want to know why I don't want a birthday party? I just don't want one.
"It'd be a waste of time."
"Aw come on, no it wouldn't. You could have lots of fun, eat cake, maybe bash a piñata." That accurately describes none of my birthdays, I've never had a piñata or fun and the birthday cake I was supposed to be having was a cupcake.
"Dance." A voice said behind me and I screamed, freaking out and almost having a heart attack.
Iris had pressed her voice to the hole I'd dug in the igloo and been listening to Luka and I chat.
Everyone was deciding to jumpscare me today and it was really mean, I preferred to scare others.
"I'll take it you've finished your chat with priesty." 'Yep' was her response and I started to ask her what it was about.
"I can't tell, don't bother." So this was how it's gonna work, Iris, my shy friend was keeping secrets from me, alright then.
"I almost forgot, Father Way wants to talk to you." She added and my soul died ever so slightly, I didn't want to be around him at all.
"Ugh!" I groaned loudly, not wanting to move, especially for the likes of him.
"He seemed pretty adamant about it." Of course he was, I crawled out of the igloo, Luka following me.
"Did he say what it was about?" I stood up and brushed the snow off my arms and legs.
"Nope, he said and I quote 'could you please get Lainey from that igloo and tell her to come to the church, we have a problem I need to address.' That's all he said." He's about the only person I've ever met who thinks he can order everyone around like he's the master of the universe.
"Fine, I'll catch up with you guys later," I smiled at them then looked at Luka, "you should talk to Iris about 'it.'" I murmured to him before walking off.
I pushed the hood of my jacket down then stuffed my gloved hands into my pockets.
I'm so tired of his problems and he's dragging me into them once more. I wonder what he's gonna do this time, give more detention?
Is a priest even allowed to do that?
I kicked some snow away as I walked up the church stairs, mentally cursing the person inside.
"Alright bitch, what's your problem?" I pushed the church door open and my eyes immediately snapped to Gerard who was sitting on a pew.
"And hello to you too." He said sarcastically, standing and turning around.
Much unlike the night last week he was now wearing his collar and looked much better groomed.
"Get to the fucking point, I haven't got time for all your cryptic bullshit." I told him, putting my hands on my hips and adopting a bitchy pose.
"As you remember I also work as the school councillor so the mental stability of students is very important as is their physical wellbeing..." He better get to the point quickly or I'm going to walk out while he's talking.
"I've noticed that you've been spending a lot of time hanging out with a boy from another school, Luka if I remember his name correctly." Ooh, Father Way's jealous, this should be entertaining, especially since I now know that Luka likes boys just as much as me.
"I'd like to remind you of the rules of Rosehill which is no fraternising with students of linked schools." I started smiling, he really had no idea that I didn't want to 'fraternise' with Luka at all, well not anymore.
"For yours and his sake I suggest you stop whatever is going on between you two before I have to bring it to Miss Coping's attention." He walked down the aisle and stopped in front of me, crossing his arms.
"There is nothing and when I say nothing I mean nothing, going on between Luka and I. Are finished yet? I have some things I need to do." I asked, raising an eyebrow, I really didn't" have anything I needed to do but he didn't know that.
"No, I have a few more things to say. My friend Frank who you met is over twenty one and you are sixteen thus under the age of consent so I'm going to ask you to crush that relationship there as well." Hmm, here's an interesting question, does Gerard actually listen to himself?
He's twenty four years old for heaven's sake.
Will he ever shut up?
I groaned, dropped my arms by my sides and flung my head back, trying to show just how bored I was.
"When I'm talking to you I expect to have your full attention." He said crossly which had no effect on me at all.
"Fine you have my full attention." I sighed, trying to look at him and give a fuck for once in my boring short, teenage life.
Gerard moved closer to me and I took a step away, it was hard to maintain an attitude when you couldn't think properly.
My back met the wall and we were standing inches apart.
His green eyes seemed to blaze a shade brighter and his black hair fell across his face.
"Good."
He bent his head down and I flinched before his cool lips brushed against mine, making my brain go numb.
"Now I'm finished."