Riley~
I walked through the doors of the school i'd been going to for about three years now, and sighed as I watched all of the students filing past me, acting as if they never even saw me standing there.
I'm from Ithaca, New York, and moving to the small town of Holmes Chapel was big. There aren't nearly as many cars, so traffic isn't a problem, and it's definitely not as cold here as it was in New York in the Winter. Don't get me wrong, I freeze my ass off when I go outside here on the coldest day, it's just not as cold as Ithaca.
To say I miss home is an understatement. I had friends there and I wasn't as low on the food chain as I am here. Everyone hates me, and most people couldn't care less if I got hit by a train, and that doesn't exactly make me feel good.
Skye is my only friend in this god awful place, and she's only friends with me because we are just the same. We are perfectly compatible, except for one major setback. She is beautiful, and everyone loves her. She's not exactly 'Mrs. Queen Bee,' but she comes in a close second.
"Rilessss!!!!" I heard an all too familiar voice yelled from the other side of the hallway. I spotted Skye talking with her boy toy, Asher. They've been on and off for years now.
Skye knows I don't like attention and I swear she yells at me every damn morning on purpose.
I dodged the people in the hallway and made my way over to my best friend.
"Skye. What do you want?" I asked, brushing the back of my hair down with my hand.
"I just wanted to chat with my bestie before class, I won't see you until lunch." she said, smirking at me, like she always does when she knows she's pissing me off.
I raised my eyebrows at her, looking around, making sure no one was paying any attention to us, and let out the breath I had been holding when I saw everyone in their own little worlds, not paying any attention to us at all.
"You look cute today." Skye said, making me turn back towards her, and smirk.
"Skye, I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt." I said, laughing at her trying to make me feel better. She shrugged and popped her bubble gum in her mouth.
"You still look cute, as always." she said, pushing past Asher, making him step to the side. Asher hadn't said anything when I walked up, and that's mostly because he's one of the popular jocks, that think if they communicate with me my ugly will rub off on them.
I rolled my eyes at him when he gave me a disgusted look. I've learned now how to act like small things like that don't affect me, when inside it tears another small piece of my heart away.
Asher trudged past me and to his group of friends. I keep telling Skye he's only using her for sex, but she keeps saying that's what she's doing to him, but I know inside she loves the boy, even though she can't admit it to herself.
It's May, and I only have one more month until summer, and the rest of my life. I plan on moving back to Ithaca as soon as I turn 18, which is June 11, the day after school lets out. I've already got my stuff packed and ready to go.
I've been saving money in a pickle jar for three years now for this purpose. I work at W. Mandeville Bakery in town as of the moment. I used to work at an ice-cream parlor before this, and these jobs payed okay, but I have just enough money now to get to Ithaca and get a small apartment, but if I want food there, I better get some extra shifts.
I got my books out of my locker and slung my bag over my shoulder, heading to class before the bell rang. Mostly everyone was already in class, and I had one minute to get to mine. I ran down the hallway and stepped through the wooden door as soon as the bell rang, signalling class had started. I sighed as everyone's head turned to me, and my teacher cleared her throat.
"You know Mrs. Rathke, you can't be late another day or you'll have detention." Mrs. Connors said, in a rather sarcastic voice. I snarled at her while she wasn't looking and took my seat at the back of the class.
For some reason, teachers don't seem to like me here either. You'd think everyone here was still upset over us making our own country. I mean it isn't our fault we're beast.
I didn't realized I was smiling until Rachel Daws cleared her throat pulling me out of my trance.
"You know, you really should fix your teeth before you go smiling like that. You'll scare someone." she said, smiling crookedly at me. I wiped the smile off of my face, and looked at my lap.
Luckily she turned around and ignored me the rest of class.
The bell rang, and it was time for me to leave. I rushed out of the room and down the hallway towards Mr. Pottiff's classroom. On my journey to his class, I ran into the back of a large person, making my body jolt backwards. I caught myself, and stood up right, looking at the person who was now facing me. Bobby Jones, Asher's fraternal twin brother. He has tormented me for almost three years, and he doesn't hold back just because I'm a girl. No, he treats me like he would treat a guy his size.
"Watch where you're going, ugly bitch." he said, smiling at me, making my stomach turn. I tried to side step him, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back so that my back was slammed into the lockers.
I groaned and he put his face mere inches away from mine, and smiled showing his perfect, white teeth, and making me want to throw up. By now everyone had gone to class, and the bell had rang, leaving Bobby and I alone in the hallway.
"Why don't we go for a little walk?" he asked, not really giving me a choice. He pulled on my hair until I followed behind him out of the side doors. Even if anyone saw him, they wouldn't say anything to him, he was the captain of the football team, and when I say football, I mean soccer.
He pulled me by my hair, making my scalp burn in pain, to the woods by the school.
"Don't you just love nature? It's so quite, and if you go deep enough into the woods, you will find that no matter how loud you scream, no one will hear you." he taunted, pulling me deeper and deeper into the woods.
We walked far enough that my legs were stinging from climbing the hills. I feared what would happen next, and when he finally stopped in a clearing, he turned to face me.
"My dad's been having a little trouble selling lately, since his number one dealer got searched, and I believe you are the reason for that. Why'd you snitch on your dad, huh? Why do you have to fuck everything up?" he said, gritting his teeth to a point I thought they'd break.
"He had it coming." I said, trying to act tougher than I really was. I watched as his anger worsened and he pushed me against a tree, knocking the air out of my lungs, and slamming my head harshly against the trunk of the tree.
"Well thanks to you, we have some 'customers' loosing interest in us, because we've had the cops involved before. Which means my father is loosing money.. because of you." he snapped, putting his arm against my throat and putting enough pressure to make it hard for me to breath. I gasped for air, and was only supplied with a little.
"I didn't mean to." I said, in between gasps.
He pulled away from me, dropping his arm to his side. "What do you mean?" he asked, not really believing I didn't mean to.
"I was in the hospital for... major injuries, and they asked where they came from. The police were there, and I was doped up on morphine, so I blurted out the truth. But my dad didn't get searched for drugs. He was being searched for a contact named Britton." I said, clearing the shit up for his stupid ass.
"Who's Britton?" he asked, losing some of his anger. I rolled my eyes and pushed myself off of the tree trunk, stepping a little closer to him.
"None of your business." I said simply, not wanting to get into the gory details with my bully. He stormed off angrily, thankfully not touching me again, and I got away from that with just a few scratches on my back and a sore throat.
I felt around my throat, seeing if there was any visible bruises, and winced as I hit a very tender spot. There was sure to be a bruise there by fifth period. I bruise easily, and that's not the greatest situation for someone like me.
I picked my bag up off of the ground, where it had fallen when Bobby pushed me against the tree and walked back towards my school.
I walked through the side doors and slipped into the bathroom. I walked into the first stall and pulled my miniature mirror out of my bag, cringing when I saw the already purple bruise on my neck. It was the shape of Bobby's huge arm, and I wasn't sure what my excuse was going to be this time.
Usually I tell Skye my dad or one of his friends did it, because if she knew it was the crowd she hung out with, she'd be raising hell, and that wouldn't solve anything, it'd make shit worse.
I rubbed some foundation over it, covering it up a little bit, and took a Tylenol for my splitting headache.
After I felt like it wasn't visible unless someone was looking for it, I walked out of the stall and washed my hands and threw water on my face. I dried off with the rough paper towels in the bathroom and walked to my locker where my sweatshirt was.
It's summer, and about 80 degrees in this school, but the sweatshirt would help me cover the bruise better, and i'd much rather be question because of the sweatshirt, and not the bruise on my neck.
Lunch is my next period, and it's only about 15 minutes away, so I hung out in the bathroom until the bell rang, and headed to mine and Skye's meeting spot, under the big oak tree outside.
Most people stay inside or eat on the picnic benches, but no Skye likes to sit and eat with the bugs. I'm not complaining though because we are away from people, and I hate people.
Today, I sat quietly while Skye ate her lunch.
"You know, you really should eat lunch, you've been looking pretty thin this year." Skye said, shoving her sub into her open mouth.
"I eat at home, not here." I said, making her laugh.
"Love, we aren't even around anybody, so you know you can eat here too." she said, joking around with me.
To be perfectly honest about this, I rarely eat at all. I wanted to lose weight, so last summer I started only eating one meal a day and a snack, and now I'm only eating a snack a day. Sometimes I have a larger snack than usual, but it's just a snack.
I know it isn't healthy, but I was 174 pounds, and that's a bit overweight for my height, and i'm down to 110. I'm not underweight but since I didn't lose weight the healthy way I look a little sick. I have dark circles under my eyes from lack of sleep, and all together I really just look rough lately.
"I'm just not hungry." I said, making her mouth form into an 'o' and she dropped the subject thankfully. Lately if I eat too much, meaning more than a snack a day, I feel sick.
We spent the rest of the lunch hour discussing stupid things, like what we were going to wear tomorrow for the last day of the week, and my answer was and always will be sweats. I have a thing, where every Friday I wear sweat pants and a hoodie. Friday's should be comfy.
After the bell rang, telling everyone to head to their next class, I walked towards my fourth period class.
The rest of the day flew by, with little remarks about my hair, clothes or anything in general, and I was happy with the day. It was one of my better days. I was smiling as I was walking out of the school to my old, beat-up car. I unlocked it and heard some girls talking, two cars over.
"I heard he's coming home for a few weeks or something. I also heard that the other guys were coming with him. I can't wait!" the peppy girl squealed. I rolled my eyes, and slipped into my small car.
I rode straight to the bakery, and walked to the bathrooms in the back to change into my work clothes. After I had changed and tied my apron around my neck, I walked back out and signed in on the paper taped to the wall.
I turned around and was met with arms wrapping around my neck.
"Barbara!" I squealed, happy to see my boss. She's honestly like a mother to me and I've only been here for a few months.
"Hi sweetie. I've missed your hugs." she said, smiling her bright smile, and hugging me to her once again. I laughed and hugged her back, ignoring the stabbing pain in my neck from where her shoulder was digging into my fresh bruise.
"I've missed yours too. I promise to get more hours, so we can spend more time together. I'm just cramming for exams." I said, sighing and looking at my feet.
"Honey, you know you can always just come here and study. You don't have to go home." she said, smiling widely at me. I nodded and hugged her once more.
I have told Barbara a little about my life and my school life, so she understands if I have a bruise every now and then. Not that she likes it, but she understands.
"Thank you so much. I think i'll start doing that." I said, smiling a genuine smile for the first time since i'd seen Barbara in a week.
Just then I heard the bell ring above the door and Barbara gasped, making me turn around and see who had gotten her all riled up.
I was met with the faces of one of the most popular boy bands on the planet. I wasn't a big fan of theirs, but then again I don't get to listen to music often. I wish I could, I used to love music. I love singing, but I haven't had time for that lately.
I knew all of their names though, because Skye's a fan. Not huge, but still a fan. I smiled at the curly haired boy when he smiled at me. I walked behind the counter, watching the boy I thought was Harry, and Barbara's confrontation. She was so excited, and that warmed my heart to know she was that happy to see someone.
I couldn't remember the last time I felt like that, and I envied her.
"Oh, i'm so glad you came to see me!" Barbara exclaimed, hugging Harry close to her. The other guys were just standing awkwardly behind Harry, waiting for the hugging to end.
"I've missed you." Harry said, pure happiness in his eyes.
"Me too, me too." Barbara answered, pulling away from him and greeting the other boys.
I knew Harry used to work here, and Barbara talks about him all the time. I knew he had grown up here, and he was friends with my worst nightmares, but not much else. I certainly didn't know anything about the other boys.
"Who's the new girl?" Harry asked Barbara, but focusing his emerald eyes on me.
"That's Riley. Isn't she beautiful?" she said, making me blush, scared of his answer.
"She sure is." he said, taking me completely by surprise, making me blush even more. I wasn't expecting that. He focused back on Barbara.
"Well I need to get back home. Mum's fixing a bite to eat. We just wanted to drop by. We will be back tomorrow, and we are staying for about 4 weeks. You'll be seeing a lot of me. Lucky you." he said, giving her one last hug, and smiling brightly at her, his dimples showing.
"Okay, I'm looking forward to it." she said, smiling back. Harry and his band walked to the door waving at everyone, and leaving.
Most of the women that work here are older, so they could care less a famous boy band just walked through those doors.
"You know, I think you and Harry would be so cute." Barbara said, gaining a lot of 'mhmm's' from the other ladies in here. My cheeks had to have been bright red by now.
"You're funny." I said, turning around trying to hide my face. I have to admit, he is quite an attractive boy, but a girl like me isn't meant for a guy like him.
He's rich, famous, and extremely gorgeous. I'm poor, a loser, and look like a horses ass. We are never going to happen, and I know that, even though it was a nice thought for about two point five seconds.
"Alright, well you don't have to believe me, but get to work." Barbara said, in a joking tone. I laughed and started working.