The rest of the day passed by fairly normally. Annie took us home from school, Chelsea fell over a few times and Nina acted like the huge pain in the butt she has always been. The only major difference was my father's absence, which wasn't to abnormal as to throw my life off balance, but left a sense of hollowness all the same.
I was seated in fifth period English the day after and unlike before, the first thing I did was feel for the familiar smoothness of paper beneath the desk. A gasp of air, shot from my mouth at the shock I felt from seeing the words that had taken residence in the once-blank spot:
'You want to know the truth? I'm telling you this in confidence and if you tell anyone I will make you regret being born. Considering this is anonymous, I'll tell you... My parents died on my eighth birthday so now I'm stuck living on my own. Happy?'
To say I was speechless was an understatement. I couldn't believe that anyone would trust a stranger with something that personal; especially a stranger that had done nothing but insult him. I hadn't expected an honest answer or a reply at all, however I could see where he was coming from.
Perhaps he had a point; the anonymity of not knowing each other would mean there would never be the fear of them telling someone our secrets. It might feel good to talk to someone without judgment, fear or limits... almost like therapy. Though I knew deep down that these secrets wouldn't stay that way forever, I was overcome by a sudden wave of desperation, forcing the tip of my pen to the paper. Before I could stop myself; the words flowed out of me:
'I didn't mean to offend you. God, I feel awful. I hardly see my parents. Only my friends at the school know, but I'm actually rich. Unfortunately it's like they say; it comes at a price. They are usually away on business trips.'
For the first time in a long time, I felt a sense of relief. I may not of told him everything but this was a start. I wasn't so ready to open up about everything, especially when I know next to nothing about him.
I pushed aside my second guesses, trying to force me to scrunch up the note and end this before it even starts, and instead, I slid the note back where it belongs. After that moment, my brain failed to work. I kept thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong, but every time I reached for the note... I thought of something that might just go right.
"Mel...Me-ell... MEL!"
"AH!" I screamed at the sudden voice that had boomed from beside me. Before I had time to catch myself, I felt my butt collide with the ground; my chair flinging into the desk behind me. It was in that moment that I looked up to see Annie chuckling at me. After a moment she spoke through her giggles, "oh my gosh, you should have seen your face."
I raised my hand to my cheek and wiped off a bit of drool that must have formed sometime in the last half-an-hour. "Was I asleep?" I asked, a yawn emitting itself from my mouth without permission.
"I think so, unless of course you have the boogie fever," She nodded, confirming my suspicion as another wave of laughter fell from her lips. "Did I sleep-talk again?" I wondered, internally begging that her only answer would be 'no.' As luck would have it, the opposite left her mouth causing me to pout.
"Great," I rolled my eyes, before I picked myself up off the ground and marched out of the room, my backpack slung over a shoulder. As always, a small glance proved that Annie was hot on my heels in pursuit, keeping her mouth shut though the small smiles showed her amusement had yet to diminish.
I travelled the hall in the direction of my locker, the spot where Chelsea would normally appear; however, I was unpleasantly surprised when my eyes locked with the one person I didn't want to see now or ever.
"Shite" I muttered as I approached my locker, pulling my books out and ignoring the shadow that was looming dangerously close to me. Mark's ever-witty response greeted me with the words, "well good morning to you too, sunshine."
I slammed my locker shut, finally coming to terms with the fact I'd have to talk to the he-devil; and with that I turned to face him head on with the question, "what the hell do you want?" slipping past my lips. I had been unfortunate enough to have a locker placement only two down from his own as our last names both began with an 'M'.
It was quite ironic how two people who couldn't stand each other had somehow ended up with the same initials.
In time with my thoughts, he too slammed his locker closed with equal- if not more- force. "I want to have a polite conversation where you don't go all PMS," he claimed what was sure to be nothing but a lie. My lips curled up in a snarl at his insinuation, but rather than pointing it out, I returned his insult, "you don't even know the meaning of polite."
"I do too," He stated, quickly becoming annoyed at me, "if you weren't such a b*tch all the time, you may have seen me be polite, like I am to everyone else." I accepted the challenge which had yet to be vocalised and with a roll of my eyes, I begun, "really? You're polite to everyone?" He left his response to a simple nod, and with this I continued, "Well I'm sorry that I don't believe sleeping with a girl just to dump her the next day is very 'polite.'" I had used air quotes to emphasize the last word, further getting on his nerves.
"I don't do that!" He claimed, though his eyes left him an open book and almost anyone could have called him out on his lie. The universe had clearly been on my side today because if his body language had not been enough proof, the short brunette that walked up to him was.
It was almost cliché with her perfectly manicured hands, big boobs, revealing clothes and made up face. Just Mark's type, my brain had sneered involuntarily, throwing my thoughts out of wack for little more than a moment.
I was brought back to reality in time to see her hand veer a little too low on his chest as she nibbled on his ear. "Hey baby," she had greeted in a voice I could assume was meant to sound seductive but to my ears made her sound like a dying whale.
Not allowing myself to get too caught up in my disgust, I smirked and with the knowledge that I had won this round, I commented, "what happened to blondie the other day?"
"Shut up," He muttered almost silently before reaching for the brunette's hand and stomping his way out of the building. With him out of sight, I looked to Annie with barely controlled laughter to see that she was suffering from the same problem.
"What did I mi- WHOA!" Chelsea squealed as her face collided with a locker door that had just swung open. If it was possible, our laughter increased even further, gaining the attention of a few students who were passing by. Chelsea rose to her feet with a rub on her reddening forehead. "Stop laughing!" She had demanded, once again kicking our fits up a level.
She let a short chuckle pass her lips momentarily before she regained her serious demeanour once again. "Come on; we have math," she tugged one of our arms and dragged us along in her pursuit to the room.
I felt it necessary to issue a warning in advance with the threat, "if you guys leave me with Mark again, I will rip out your hair with my bare hands." through my peripheral vision I saw Annie cringe with the knowledge that I was far from kidding as I had done it once before.
"We won't," they promised with the fear evident in their eyes. This had been enough to restore my hope that this day could still be salvaged, but clearly my brain had built up to much hope as Mr Williams announced that we would be doing group work once again. I felt my heart drop but kept my head high with the knowledge that I was unlikely to be with Mark again.
"No!" I squealed quietly to myself, happy that it had appeared no one had heard me due to the fact the room had erupted in cheers. I could not fathom the amount of people who enjoyed group work, while I could barely survive it.
Mr Williams looked down at the roll, before announcing, "considering there are twenty-five of you here, get into five groups of five and then you can come collect a sheet from my desk." I immediately rushed over to Annie, Josh and Chelsea, knowing I had but a second to waste and decided we were a group, not giving them the option of saying no.
"I guess i'll go get the sheet," Chelsea bounced up to the desk and came back within a matter of seconds. I noticed Josh's head rise up, a confused look present on his face until he shook it away turning back to us, "there are only four of us," he had said, "we need another person."
I my eyes scanned the room in search of the person who had been left without a group. I came up short until my gaze locked on the only person standing alone, and I saw my discovery had not been made alone when the rest of the group had spotted the very same person I had.
"No," came my firm and immediate opinion on the matter, however I knew my fate was sealed as soon as three looks of sympathy were shot my way. In perfect time, the masculine voice called out an obnoxious tune of the words, "Sup, groupies." I shook my head as if it could shield out his annoyance in my life, "we are not your 'groupies' nor are we in your group."
He looked around dramatically as if to prove a point, "well considering there is four of you, and I am the only person left, I'd say I'm in your group." With all things said and done he took a seat beside me, looking smug and self-satisfied.
"I thought you were meant to be popular; or so you claim to be. Where are all your friends?" I interrogated, eliciting a shrug from him as, with confidence, he explained, "none of the guys really like me because the girls are all over me."
"So you don't even have friends?" I chuckled at the revelation and couldn't help the bubbly feeling in my stomach at knowing there was something that made him that much less perfect to me. No, I didn't just call him perfect; 'oh gosh,' I thought, 'I'm becoming delusional.' He had to protested, claiming, "I do have Luke."
I'd known Luke for as long as I had known Annie and Chelsea; we had all gone to the same primary school. He had been our friend for the longest time, but when puberty hit he got more invested in entertaining girls than in our friendship and I guess we just drifted apart. I knew deep down that this was far from the reason our friendship had been annihilated, but to face that fact would unlock demons I was not ready to deal with.
I had heard that he was then a 'player,' much like Mark himself, however he was far nicer and more considerate of the feelings of girls he slept with. Quite a few times, I had spied him around time on dates with various girls but I doubted it lasted more than a week or two before a new girl was running her course.
"So, who are your friends?" Mark asked, pointing at my companions now that his friendship had been established. I was almost choked by his ignorance; he had been at school with us for five years and he had never bothered to discover a single one of their names. "Are you serious?!" I screamed, trying to keep an 'inside voice.'
He put his hands up in surrender as if it wasn't his fault, "If you had shut your trap once or twice, I might have been able to ask." Annie was the first one of my friends to find their voice in our argument, but unfortunately she chose the wrong side with the statement, "he has a point."
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"Thank you, Blondie," He pointed at her while his eyes stayed locked on mine. Anger filled the pit of my stomach, bubbling over the edge until it exploded with the words, "she has a name!"
He smirked, detecting my dismay over his obvious disrespect for others. choosing to further aggravate the situation, his mouth started formulating words which I had never thought would have been directed at anyone in contact with myself. "Is it Angel?" he asked, playing dumb, "because I think you fell from the heavens."
I went to the automatic reaction of rolling my eyes until I heard a small sound from my left. A soft, almost non-existent giggle. No, no, no; this cannot be happening, I had thought, internally screaming at my friends response. I had expected her to flip him the bird or at very least scowl. It was bad, It was very, very bad.
I decided to defuse the situation before it could unravel any further with a slap across the imbecile's face. My action must have shocked him by indication of his shocked expression, so to make myself clear, I said, "there is to be no hitting on my friends. Got it?" My eyebrow rose waiting for him to even dare to argue with my decision.
"I'll hit on whomever I want to," he claimed, lifting an eyebrow of his own, accepting my unspoken challenge. Wrong answer, I'd thought, my eyes narrowing once again as I leant in for another punch. "I said, got it?" I spat through gritted teeth, this time leaving no room for negotiation.
He gulped with a nod, finally succumbing to my will. I could only think that hit must have hurt him more than he had cared to let on. If the red mark was any indication, he'd be sporting a dark bruise by tomorrow morning.
"Good," I smiled lowly, finally content with his answer, "now to answer your question; that's Annie, the one in the middle is Chelsea and of course the boy is Josh." My fingers glazed over each friend as I introduced them one by one. I didn't get a close enough look, but I could almost guarantee that Annie had batted her eyelashes at her introduction. I couldn't help but remember feeling that that was bound to end badly.
"Well hi, everyone. I'm Mark but I guess you already knew that," He smirked pompously and despite my warning, sent a wink in Annie's direction, gaining a similar response to the last. Just like her response, my own repeated with a loud 'smack.' He thought it smart to play dumb and had the audacity to ask, "what was that for?"
My eyes narrowed in to slits, silently calling him on his bullsh*t. "You winked at her," I explained regardless, giving him the benefit of the doubt. "So?" He then responded, barely holding in the look of smugness that broke his face.
"So? So?" I repeated, "that is basically hitting on her!" I had attempted to keep my voice low throughout our banter as to not catch the ears of a nosy student or our teacher alike. Ruining my resolve to not disturb the class, Mark defended his 'honour' with the three words, "no it's not."
"Ah, yeah it is." I denied his statement with one of my own. This opened up the gate for the most childish argument I'd had in months which consisted of the following:
"Nuh-uh."
"Yah-hah."
"Nah."
"Yeah."
"Is not"
"Is too"
"Not."
"T-"
"Enough!"
It wasn't hard to guess who was saying the positives and negatives but the voice that cut through had startled us both. Upon identifying the source, I found it more difficult to mask my surprise at the girl who never got angry due to her fear of confrontation.
More unexpected than the interruption were the next words to pass he lips, consisting of, "don't I get a say on if he hits on me?" Her question left me baffled however, in all fairness I nodded my head slowly as if afraid she'd snap if I moved too quickly. The look on her face was that of a tiger that was ready to pounce.
Satisfied with my answer, she relaxed from her previously rigid position and sat back claiming, "I don't mind if he hits on me." My screech of terror drew the attention of the entire class, not a single head left unturned.
"Miss Hughes, you are meant to be working." Mr Williams scolded with a look of discontent, though he likely would care less if a rabid bear ran into the room and began hula dancing as long as our work got finished. With a mumbled apology, he returned to his task and I took it upon myself to do the same as I resituated myself in my chair. At the same time, the prying eyes turned away with only a few weary glances here and there.
"What do you mean, you don't mind?" I asked getting back into my previous train of thoughts. My voice had come out slightly lower than intended, likely making me sound more threatening which I'm ashamed to say I liked in this situation.
"I-I just," She paused as if gaining the courage to continue, "He's Mark. He'll do whatever he wants anyway and I can take it, so I don't mind." I had a feeling there was more to it than that, but my head swivelled to Mark who leant back in his chair looking nothing shy of amused at our situation. expanding on her point, Annie uttered the word, "see?"
I gritted my teeth and let out a little grunt, concluding that I must now admit defeat. "Fine, but keep it PG," I snarled at the pairing, resting on the fact I can ignore it if it does continue.
From there we got on with our work; my grunts of discontent an indication of my internal struggle not to tackle Mark to the ground at his insistent egotistical comments. Somehow we all made it to the end of the lesson without any external damage, especially to a specific male's facial region.
"Let's go!" I commanded, the second the class was dismissed, not wishing to stick around for so much as a second longer. I grabbed Annie's arm and quite literally dragged her away from the room, the others following shortly after. Once we were out of hearing distance I turned to Annie and placed my hand across her forehead, measuring her temperature. Concluding her to be in no kind of life-threatening situation, I asked the question that had been resting on my chest, "are you insane?'
"What?" She laughed at my 'odd' behaviour which was actually quite standard for me when it came to encounters with Mark. "What the hell was that all about?" I continued to expanded in a high pitched tone that only appeared when I was freaking out.
She looked at me like I had grown another head; more confused than ever before. I stomped my foot to stop the pacing I had been doing prior to turn to her and clarify, "I meant all the giggling and flirting."
"I wasn't flirting," She denied my accusing without a seconds delay. Josh decided that was his cue to join the conversation with the statement, "you kinda were." She snapped towards Josh who took a step backward at her cold eyes. She tried (and failed) to keep calm as she retorted, "well you kinda were an idiot so just shut up." The hurt flashed across Josh's face, causing her to flinch almost dropping her façade before the walls were rebuilt.
"Annie, Mark is not the kind of person you flirt with at all, let alone if you're a virgin." I practically screamed, attempting once more to get through to her. As if that had snapped her out of her daze of hatred, she rushed up to me and covered my mouth with her hand. "Don't yell, people could hear you," she demanded, searching around the almost-empty hall for any stragglers.
"So? It's not a big deal," I claimed, pointing to each of our friends, "we're all virgins." Josh quietly butted in with a soft, "I'm not," earning glares from the girls as we screamed "SHUT UP!" in unison.
A soft hand brushed my shoulder in comfort, "I may or may not flirt with him but I promise you I won't sleep with him ok? It just feels nice to have someone be like that around you. It makes me feel pretty." With a sigh, I dropped the argument that now seemed stupid and apologised, saying, "I'm sorry I got mad, it's just that he is bad news."
She nodded, "I know, but I promise nothing will happen between us ok?" I returned her gesture as we closed in for a hug. "Aww, I feel left out," Chelsea pouted, lightening the situation at last, eliciting a goofy smile from me as I yanked her into us for a group hug. "What about me?" Josh then pouted, copying Chelsea's girly movements precisely. I chuckled at his mocking movements and utter stupidity but pulled him into the group hug anyway.
This was one of the biggest fights we'd had which may appear stupid, but at that point our largest fight had been over who got to play with the purple barbie.
"See, this is nice," Josh gestured between us all, once we had pulled out of the hug causing a hum of agreement across us. Too soon, the moment ended with Chelsea pointing to an object behind me with the sentence, "unfortunately all nice things must come to an end." I turned around to find Nina approaching us quickly, increasing her speed to a run when she recognised my face. "There you are!" she said victoriously, "I am not being deserted again today. It sucks catching the bus and it is totally uncool."
"Sorry little sis," I apologised in advance for the plan running through my mind. Not understanding my out-of-context words, she tilted her head and looked at me like I was off my rocker.
"NOW!" I shouted out of the blue causing Chelsea, Annie and I to break into a sprint heading in all different directions, all bound for the car. We had done this to Nina several times before and it surprised me that she hadn't caught on sooner. It also help that she was an extraordinarily slow runner.
With laughter filling the halls, I tilted my head back, grinning at her unamused face. I remember thinking, that was how it's meant to be. Simple.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't know yet that was about to get much more complicated...
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A/N: Yay, yay, yay. Chapter four.
I have dedicated this chapter to imaginator1D because of her awesome trilogy 'After.' I'm not a giant fan of One Direction but I still found the books interesting and very well written.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
-Bella