C H A P T E R T H I R T Y F I V E
quick edit:
Thanks for all the awesome comments and showing your support in the previous chapter :)
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Mum and Dad were far from impressed when they got back.
It took a lot of convincing to get them to believe that their daughter went to a party after the ball, and that was why she ended up with the massive bruise on her forehead.
Well, things had started out well.
I spent the majority of my time hiding out in my room, crying every so often, falling asleep for a few hours, waking up and reapplying the foundation on my head whenever I had to go downstairs, and then repeating that process over.
Managing to evade looks from the family the entire morning and afternoon despite my eyes looking quite a deal puffy from all the bawling I'd done,"I think I was allergic to one of the eyeshadows we used," I lied, feeling relieved they bought that one.
To keep up with appearances, I showed my parents a select few photos on my mobile from the school ball. When Mum tried to grab my phone, tutting on about why I hadn't bothered to take more pretty photos that night, I told her to wait for the official photographs to be uploaded on the school website. Surely with the amount of photo taken, I was bound to be in at least one of them.
What I was really protecting, incase she scrolled too far up, was a photo of Mandy I'd taken under the flower arch during sunset. Only she was really blurry in it.
Because standing a bit away behind her in clear view was Jasper, looking off to the distance. The sun was setting in the trees behind his head, sending his hair alight with warm golden rays. His eyebrows were furrowed slightly, as if he was lost in thought, but his jaw had been relaxed. It was the last time I ever saw him looking complacent, but looking himself.
I hadn't noticed he'd been there at all until I looked at the screen and was ready to click the capture whilst a smiling Mandy, stood posing with a peace sign in front of me. My phone ran on auto focus, and it seemed that he was in was the perfect position that everything, down to each stand on the top of his hair was in crystal clear focus.
And when I finally saw him, he took my breath away. With my fingers shaking, I remembered my heart pounding so fast out of my ribcage to secure the photo. And when I did, it was like a dirty little secret. It felt so wrong to do, like I was creeping.
But I told myself I would just delete it later, or one day show it to him and we could laugh about it. Now that I know it's not a possibility, I couldn't bring myself to look at it since. It would only make my day worse.
So I was pretty much left alone to my own devices in my room. Mum and Dad knew that there had been a lot on my plate with school, so they thought I just wanted to sleep in more, like every other teenager during the weekend. Little did they know, I had been out till late... like every other teenager – at least in this town.
What had been downfall was that afternoon, after my shower I'd forgotten to blow-dry my bangs out to cover the lump when Mum walks into the bathroom whilst I was in the process of putting my clothes in the washer. With my towel was still draped around my neck and my hair dripping wet and clumped to my face, her eyes zeroed in onto the ferocious lump.
Then she opened her mouth to yell.
"MY GOD, WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED TO YOU?! YOUR FACE!!! I SHOULDN'T HAVE LET YOU GO AT ALL! BILL COME UP HERE NOW!!!"
I was in big trouble and at that point I'd rather she saw me naked.
When they demanded to know how I even got in the first place, I made up the story of how some drunk kid elbowed me really hard in the face on accident during the pandemonium... you know, when the police came to shut down the party – that last bit I had to repeat slowly as I watched their eyes widen from shock.
Dad started to see red, demanding to speak to Max's family whilst Mum almost fainted on the spot taking it all in.
"That bloody kid, I'm going to rip him a new one! I don't care if his Dad is a bloody ex-cop, I'll shoot him on the spot! Burry him in the yard! He broke our contract, I said straight home, 10pm!"
"Dad! He wasn't the one who did this to me, plus it was just an accident!" I yelled to my friend's defense.
"I don't care! He still took you to that damn party in the first place instead of back home here with Mandy. Where is she anyway, did she go home already?"
Shoooot!
I forgot Mandy was 'supposed' to have stayed the night!
I tried to explain a bit of what happened, to make it seem like it was all okay. Just a relatively chilled party where some kids were doing the wrong stuff – not all of us.
"Who took you home last night then if Max was held up at the party?" Dad beckoned.
"It was another friend from school," I try to say before I was sent to my room. It'd been half right.
As much as they feared for me, thinking that attending an unsupervised teenaged party was a step too fast in my recovery, it was much easier on the ears compared to the truth. I don't think they would want to hear about how their daughter willingly went to the house of her rapist, who then gave her the lasting present on her head, where she kissed him in return, and then was left her crying her lungs out on the floor next to the kitchen.
I definitely couldn't have escaped from telling them about the after party anyway as later that evening, the phone rang whilst we were having dinner.
"Hello, Carol speaking." Mum spoke into the receiver, leaning against the countertops right where I had been cleaning Mr Green's wounds the night before. I tried to put the thought out of mind incase it made me tear up again. Hmm... Which was worse? Crying some more over him or the fact that we have brussel sprouts for dinner?
"Yes... Yes, I am aware. Rose had confessed." She looks straight into my eyes as she spoke accusingly with a hint of hurt in her voice. I know she was only concerned about me.
"Did she now? Oh... No, we haven't seen Mandy at all today. Yes, our girls tried to pull a fast one over our eyes didn't they? Well that's the last time we're trusting them. Yes... You too darl. Thank you for the call, goodnight."
I gulped the rest of my food down quickly and returned back to my room to because I was now placed under house arrest for an unforeseeable future. As the tears came, I reminded myself of how much I hated brussel sprouts. It makes my pee smell.
-
What had gone down was, last night Max's parents had rang Luke's parents after he'd failed to return home by 12am. They couldn't imagine what their precious, obedient son was out doing that late when he'd told them my curfew had been ten.
Much to the shock of Luke's parents, Mandy also emerged from their son's room where they both eventually confessed that they'd gone to a party and could confirm that Max had been there with me. This then forced Luke's parents to call Mandy's parents, who in turn contacted mine today.
Since Cassie's the house had basically been on lockdown, nobody that was caught was allowed to use their mobiles for a while during the time the police conducted a search of the house for any more evidence of alcohol, party drugs and other illegal activities. Once parents were eventually contacted, word had already gone around town. Most of the parents were wide awake, and worried sick. Their kids chose the wrong house to be committing unlawful acts in.
Cassie's parents, the Middletons, had a terrible reputation of suing people – and winning, as if on whim.
The issue was made worse when the school sent an official letter out to parents the following week about how incredibly serious the matter was, especially since it had tarnished the school's reputation right after the charity ball which was meant to be the highlight of the year.
The media were having a field day.
The party made headlines in the press when it should have been about the ball, and the things they said weren't exactly the nicest. The writer who wrote the title obviously thought they were funny with their pun as they crossed out the word 'PROM' and replaced it with another inappropriate alternative.
In the article, they also poked fun of the location of school and where Cassie lived, calling us rich snobby kids who caused an evacuation of the entire street due to the amount of supposed 'toxic fumes' emerging out of the house, among other things which were entirely not true.
As for the actual article that the school had previously arranged to publish with news outlets on the charity, well that got pushed back to a small section on page 23, next to the old people's crossword puzzles that nobody does. Oh, they also slandered Cassie's family name. Cassie's pretty face was across the cover with two devil horns poking out her head, crosses over her eyes and a devilish smile drawn in. Her famous lawyer parents pictured behind her, scowls on their faces. This only made her more famous at school and she earned two weeks of in-school suspension.
Though the Middletons had been 'super gracious' about letting this incident slide without taking it further up into court, the school was adamant that from now on, any pupil caught attending any gathering containing illegal activities would immediately expelled on a zero tolerance policy. Not to mention that all other social activities organised by the school would be blacked out for the year, potentially jeopardising future social events for future students.
Furthermore, the last commitment the school took to show us all how severe our actions were, was to signed us all up for a term long, after-school police educational programs on underaged drugs and alcohol, and juvenile detention prevention programs. We were all collectively required to part-take in these after-class activities, twice a week, including all year groups from the school. Yep, the entire school copped it too as a way to deter anybody's bright mind in the future from throwing another of these wonderful parties.
And if anyone missed a session because they were sick, tough luck. They had to sit in the class with the younger kids the next day who made it a point to shoot deathly glances every chance they could under their snotty nose which they wore tall.
The younger years hated our guts with passion, and I couldn't blame them. They had to suffer the boring powerpoint lectures and pointless games ran by these educational counsellors who's humour were as dry as chalk-dust, when it was us older students who messed up.
And that was how the past month at school had been. The most boring, silent and longest month of my schooling career.
My bruise had long faded away normally, and the physical memory of that night had been gone and dusted. Sometimes I wondered if it had happened at all, I felt so starved.
It'd been a whole month since I last saw him.
A whole month of hearing nothing besides a single, generic email sent to Mum, along with all the parents of kids he taught piano to.
In the email Mr Green stated that he could no longer continue with lessons as he would be moving away for personal reasons. All prepaid lessons had been refunded, and he was sorry for the inconvenience caused. That was it, totally out of the blue.
He was uncontactable.
I faked a laugh and pretended to Mum that I already knew. I said that he'd already mentioned it in passing during the last lesson I had so it wasn't a complete shock.
Only it was, and I was starting to get mad.
Was this what the coward was doing, running away without so much a word to me?
-
"Ugh, didn't they know they used that last joke two weeks in a row already?" Mandy grits her teeth as we walked out of the gymnasium after finishing this week's drugs and alcohol lesson. "They need to get better lines god damn it, my Grandpa sounds funnier when he snores. "
I nodded at her, partly listening. I was now focusing on the conversation that two girls were having behind us.
"Serina saw him coming in with boxes last week. I think he's packing up and leaving the school, she over heard him talking to one of the teachers in the corridor" one girl says. She was the one with the blonde hair and freckles, I think her name was Liz.
"Well, we've been having Mrs Lynn for substitute this whole time. It's been weeks since we had Mr Green teach us," The other brunette girl replied with a pouty whine. "It's probably official. I can't believe it, the only good thing about this school is leaving... At least we're graduating next semester."
"Oi, at least you got to have him as a teacher for half a year. Some of us got stuck with old Mr Albert" Liz says, giving her friend a light-hearted nudge and faking a gag. They walked off behind the corner giggling and chatting before I could hear anymore of their conversation. Darn.
But it didn't matter, I'd heard enough.
So, he was still here... He came to the school last week? Shit, where was ? Could I have seen him then?
Why hadn't he said anything, why wasn't he making contact?
The more I pondered, the more I got fired up.
Bloody Jerk.
"Uhh Rose, are you alright?" Mandy stops in her tracks to ask me.
"Huh? Yeah, why?" I turned to look at her.
"You're kinda really killing my hands here," she says, raising her eyebrows at me and trying to slide her fingers out of my hands that had been squished white and red.
"Oh shit, sorry!" I quickly let go of my deathly grip around her hands a bit embarrassed. "I got a bit cold from the breeze."
"Yeah, it's been getting shit colder nowadays. Winter's practically here, I just hope it would snows this year, somehow."
We both swapped glances. There was no chance of it happening where we lived in Melbourne but it was nice of one of us to keep an optimistic view.
Mandy and I continued to walk towards the bus stop, this time with arms linking around each other. Luke and Max were just out in front of us.
Mandy and Luke were still together of course, stronger than ever despite her parents initially forbidding her from seeing a boy. There was no stoping it really, they'd always been glued to the hip so I guess they thought better him, someone they knew, than some other guy. The exception was that they were both grounded until the end of time like most us in our year group were, and also there were no more "sleep overs" at mine. Our parents finally knew better than to trust us kids.
As for Max and I, we both had a bit of an awkward chat one afternoon after being stuck with the younger kids for a lessons. The both of us happened to have missed school the day before and thus were the only seniors there in their session, feeling as unwanted there as ever.
He didn't speak to me right away, just a slight nod before his face cheeks went a bit red, and even then he seemed a bit afraid to even say hello, so I initiated contact. It would've been weird if I hadn't since we were the only ones there, and he was still very much my friend. Max didn't do anything wrong really.
Though I could understand why he was hesitant. He wasn't sure what I was thinking about the whole thing, especially since he basically professed his feelings for me...
I on the other hand had a lot of questions for him, in particular how did he know specifically what happened to me?
Yes, Annie and Max had both seen me on the oval four years ago, but they left while I was still headed to the back of the shed. Annie said she knew once I didn't turn up for school ever again until this year that I'd ran into trouble... Was that even enough for them to know for sure? A gut instinct? Or did Max's Dad being an ex-cop have something to do with it? I can't imagine that he would be going around telling his son sensitive confidential information. It was unlikely anyway, because otherwise how would Annie have known too? It was however possible for him to have accidentally overheard something...
In the end, I decided it wasn't important. It was in the past. They didn't know who I met behind there or else they would've said something by now.
And neither Max or Annie would be the type to tell other people my story. They'd already kept it for so long, I know I could rely on them to keep my secret – our secret – to the grave. I was sure Jasper would appreciate that too.
In the end, I told Max that while I acknowledge his feelings, I was unable return them, nor was I ready to be with someone at this point. And he was totally understanding, just a little humiliated by the whole thing.
We came to the conclusion to try and not let this come between us as friends.
But I still think that he harboured some uncertainty on how to act around me, I could still sense the hesitation in our interactions even today, a whole month later. He did however let me know that it could be like this for some time, while he learns to accept the situation... I'm just thankful that he'd backed off for now, and for his sake, I hope he meets someone soon who he could turn to. Max really is great guy, I let him know that.
"Kay, I've already already looked at the menu at The Bridge Craft and it didn't seem to bad once I saw the price, plus the pics on their Instagram looks yum." Mandy says to me as we reach my bus stop. "So what do you think, The Bridge or SaltMalt?"
I shrugged, "I dunno. Any is fine with me really."
"It's your birthday next week, you gotta choose!" Mandy insisted.
"Well, in that case..." I thought for a little while and taking a seat on the bus stop. "I'd choose The Bridge since it's a little bit closer to Annie's place? I don't want her to have to travel so far, she's still recovering."
"Yeah, I s'pose you're right. Sounds good with me. Anyway, fingers crossed Mum lets me go to the bowling alley after dins as well as I'm still technically grounded until I die, but you know. Catch you tomorrow chickadee."
I wave goodbye to the three of them as they headed home and smiled wistfully.
-
Days pass and the end of the week had arrived bringing along with it a moody and cool, winter's morning. I stared out the window by my desk in Mrs Yan's history class towards the tall oaks outside that had long lost their fluttering coat of leaves. The brown decomposing matter lay wet along the footpaths, waiting to be trodden once school was let out.
The white frost that line the window slowly crept up the pane, tiny ice crystals growing in numbers. That was the closest to snow we were going to get.
As Mrs Yan went on in the background with teachings of Ghekis Khan's cultivation, I leaned on my my arms on the desk and watched in awe the ice crystals grew their fingers out, stretching up as if to reach the ray of shining sun that was too far up to reach.
Hmm... Did they not know that the only reason they existed was because they weren't in direct contact with the light? Or were they so set on wanting to disappear into steam to join the rest of their water molecule friends in the atmosphere that they'd abandon the very spot they were grown and nurtured in.
Huh, I felt a bit like that some days.
I shivered in my little seat.
It was about time the school fixed the ducted heaters, apparently the mice had made a nest in the systems and the school had found out three week ago when turned on the heater systems for the first time this year and every class started to complain about the waft of burnt barbecued sewer coming out of the vents... turns out it was the little baby mice getting cooked.
Mrs Yan pulls down a map of the Mongolian empire and I turn my attention back to the window. Slowly, I notice in the distance a small fuzzy white object moving coming closer to the school. A moving snowman...?
As it came closer into view I see it is a small car.
A white Toyota Corolla.
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