Kay had woken up to a text from Julian.
She would be lying to herself if she said she didn’t expect the notification to be a call or a message from Clyde, but her agreeing to go out with him didn’t change the fact that he was still a busy guy with two jobs. According to Olivia, their grandmother wanted Clyde to go back to school, and Clyde had already applied to join Olivia’s school the next term.
“It will be kind of weird, but also kind of cool,” Olivia had said. “Like, I’ll be in the same year as my brother, but he’s two years older than me.”
Kay had the same feeling, but she could never imagine being in the same situation with any of her brothers. If anything, her one year older brother would be studying in university while she was still taking her GCSEs. But Olivia said Clyde was pretty smart and good at studying, so he could probably cope really well despite the three year break from school. Thanks to his better than average GCSE results and circumstances, the school accepted him despite the odd age gap between him and his new peers.
Julian: Hey Kay. [20:23]
Julian: This is a weird question, but do you have a boyfriend? [20:23]
Kay stared at the message, sort of weirded out that he’d ask her that question a day after she’d accepted Clyde’s confession. She looked at her phone and decided to ask him directly.
Me: Are you stalking me? [20:24]
Julian: What? No! [20:24]
Julian: Brooklyn told me that you had a boyfriend, and I didn’t quite believe her… [20:25]
At least it wasn’t him stalking her. Although Kay didn’t know if it was any better now that he’d sort of hinted that Brooklyn had been.
Me: How does she know? [20:26]
Julian: She said someone told her… So it’s true? [20:27]
Me: Yeah… but that’s kind of creepy. [20:27]
Me: Because I only agreed to start dating him yesterday. [20:27]
Julian: Oh, wow… that’s really creepy. [20:28]
Kay laughed to herself at his bluntness.
Julian: Well, congrats. [20:28]
Julian: I wish I didn’t hear it from her first, though. [20:28]
Julian: No wait, I didn’t mean it like it was your fault. [20:28]
Kay waited for him to finish making himself clear before she replied.
Julian: I mean, I’m pretty sure hers was just an assumption that happened to be true. [20:29]
Me: Yeah, haha. It’s all right. I would’ve told you if you asked but I guess Brooklyn beat me to it. [20:29]
Their conversation ended there, and Kay had a strange feeling in her gut. If Brooklyn knew that she was dating, or could even assume that she was dating, Kay felt that Brooklyn wasn’t going to let her have an easy time. With that girl, she constantly felt like she was paying back an unknown debt. Her phone received another notification, again a text from Julian, that wasn’t helping Kay’s speculations.
Julian: I’m not sure what goes on in Brooklyn's mind, but can you just be careful in school for the next few days? [20:31]
Me: Sure. Thanks for the heads up. [20:31]
Kay flopped backwards onto her bed, wondering how bad of a time she was in for. Considering Brooklyn's physical strength, Kay had nothing to fear. The slap was probably the furthest she could go being physical. And Kay believed Brooklyn wouldn’t resort to murder, as she was merely an immature teenager. She expected something more on the verbally attacking side, especially since Brooklyn's strongest suit was her influence in school. Or maybe her mere aura was enough to make everyone in school turn their backs on Kay.
Well, there was no use contemplating the countless ways Brooklym could harm her, when there was undone homework to rush.
~
It was the first time Kay had guessed something correctly.
She was discussing about the recent basketball match with Vince at his locker when he suddenly froze in the midst of shutting his locker. Kay followed his gaze down the corridor to see Brooklyn Sargent and her posse heading towards her. Unlike the last encounter, it seemed that Brooklyn was taking a more public approach this time.
“Sorry, Vince. Let’s continue this conversation tomorrow?” she said to the boy, who looked too shocked at the sight of Brooklyn to respond. However, he snapped to his senses and nodded to Kay.
“Bye then, Kay!” he said, waving, and took off in the opposite direction, as if Brooklyn was after him.
Kay stood rooted to her spot and leaned backwards against Vince’s locker, half of her hoping that Brooklyn wasn’t going to slap her again. The other half of her was more realistic, and she was prepared enough to grab Brooklyn's raised hand when the girl attempted to pull the same stunt.
Brooklyn struggled against Kay’s grip on her wrist, her annoyance at being predicted written clearly on her face. Her last resort was to hiss, "You bitch."
Fortunately, Kay never cared about that kind of meaningless insults, especially if it came out of a stranger’s mouth. But since she had been mentally preparing herself for such an encounter the whole night before, she thought she would make good use of it and get answers out of Brooklyn. She smiled sweetly at the older girl. “Would you please elaborate on that?”
Brooklyn visibly got more pissed off, and Kay almost smirked at the sight of her fist curling at her side. Brooklyn shook her wrist free of Kay’s loosened grip. Where Kay wasn’t confident in living up to her parents’ expectations, she was fully confident that she could take down the ten centimetre taller girl if she tried to do anything.
“You know Julian likes you, and you gave him hope while you ran off to play with some other guy. If you’re not a bitch, what are you?” Brooklyn said, her voice raised, attracting a crowd. Kay was ninety-nine percent sure that she meant for people to hear that.
Kay answered in a levelled tone, not caring if the onlookers could hear her or not, “Sorry, from where did you gather that I gave him hope?”
“I know you did! Stop being such a sneaky bitch!” Brooklyn shrieked.
Kay wanted to slap the girl just to shut her up, but she also wanted to be civil. And she knew violence would probably make Brooklyn noisier instead. It was pretty evident from the previous punching incident.
The crowd was a lot bigger now, considering that school ended and rarely anyone had consultations with their teachers. Kay was amazed at how nosy people could get, but she couldn’t blame them—Brooklyn was making quite a scene. It would be hard not to look.
For Kay, the crowd also meant that she couldn’t lay a finger on Brooklyn, even if the latter was being unreasonable and hit her first like last time. She couldn’t be so obviously violent in front of so many people who could tell on their parents, teachers and the headmaster. She would get expelled straight away.
Kay raised her hands and took a few steps backwards. “All right, suit yourself.”
Her plan to take to her heels was ruined as Brooklyn stretched out a long arm and yanked Kay back sharply. Her grip wasn’t strong, but her nails were probably at a disallowed length and dug deep into Kay’s skin. Brooklyn glared down, literally, at Kay and hissed, “You’re not going anywhere.”
Kay wanted to kick the nearest locker because of the pain, but she resisted and rubbed her affected skin. “All right, then. What do you want from me?”
“I want everyone to know that you’re a bitch!” she yelled.
Kay rolled her eyes. “Haven’t you already done that?” she asked.
Brooklyn breathed out angrily, most likely because Kay’s reaction wasn’t desirable. She raised a hand to slap Kay again, and once again Kay stopped her, saying, “Not happening.” But that turned out to be a distraction, for Brooklyn stuck out her leg and kicked Kay hard in the shin.
Kay stumbled backwards, barely managing to keep herself from collapsing to the ground. She held onto the injured area of her leg and glared at Brooklyn, her patience finally wearing thin.
Brooklyn responded with a satisfied smirk.
***
Thanks for all the support!!!
Also the book is ending and I'm worried because I have no other works to put out.