***
It killed me to get up out of bed early on Monday morning, but I really needed to finish that essay for English. I had gotten a start on it before work on the weekend, but there was still a lot to do, and school was the only place I could work without my mother needing me to do something for her every five minutes. I should probably have felt guilty for running away from her so much, but Tom seeing her had mortified me enough that I wanted to avoid the house as much as possible.
Base showed up a few minutes after I did, noisy as ever, and I watched his broad back as he rummaged in his locker. He turned quickly, caught me looking, and grinned. Stunned, I gazed at my essay, my cheeks burning.
“I could send you a photo,” he teased.
“Get over yourself. I was staring into space. I barely even noticed you.”
He snorted. “Whatever makes you feel better.”
I opened my mouth to give an indignant reply, but footsteps caught my attention.
That boy again. Great, he must have enrolled in our school the first time I saw him. I supposed that kind of made his hanging around less creepy.
He walked over to stand in front of me and stared down. Even Base turned his head to watch, a sardonic smile curving his lips.
“I’m Sully,” angsty pretty boy said in a low voice.
“Good for you.” I looked back down at my notes. Maybe home would have been better for essay writing after all.
“Good weekend?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “Now do you mind?”
He actually had the gall to sit on the floor next to me. I inched away in revulsion.
“My personal space? You’re in it.”
He took off his sunglasses and stared at me.
“Sit with me,” he said, and his words wrapped around my mind. I stared at him, not really seeing him, and stopped trying to back away on the floor. Maybe I did want to sit with him. I drowned in his unexpectedly colourless eyes, and the rest of the world fell away. I moved closer to him, desperate to be near him, next to him, with him.
Something cold touched my wrist, and it was as if a spell had been broken. I glanced down to see his fingers on me, as if he were checking my pulse, and I pulled back in revulsion, leaving him with a confused expression on his face.
“Get lost,” I snapped, angrier at my own actions than his. What the hell had I been doing?
I grabbed my things, left both idiots in the hallway together, and went to find a new place. What did it take to get a little peace?
Obviously not going to school. At least not while Deco and Shauna were on a mission to ambush me.
“You’re overreacting,” she said when they found me in an empty classroom, giving me her best smile.
“Really.” I observed them both, her smug grin, and his apologetic one.
“Of course you are,” Deco said, trying unsuccessfully to wrap his arms around me. “You’ve got it all wrong.”
“Didn’t sound like that to me in the toilets.” I stared at Shauna pointedly.
“We were just joking around because we saw you run in there,” she said. “Seriously, would we ever do that to you?”
I huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, actually. I’m pretty sure you would.”
They were both in my first class. Two free seats. One next to Deco. One next to Base. I couldn’t believe Base was actually the lesser of two evils for a change.
“Don’t even say a word,” I hissed at him as I sat down.
“Chill out,” he whispered back, his knee nudging mine under the table, sending a shiver throughout my body.
“Are you really that desperate for a chance to touch me?” I arched a brow in challenge.
He choked on his own laughter. “Not full of yourself at all, are you?” But his eyes twinkled with amusement which just reminded me why I used to like him… which just reminded me why he was evil.
The day could be summed up in a flurry of pleadings, accusations, avoidance, and dull classes. At lunch, I was too tired to even face Deco and Shauna, so I sat alone, twisting the cap on a bottle of water. Maisy joined me warily, but I shrugged my indifference as she took her seat.
“Gonna be mad for much longer?”
“Yep.”
“Was I wrong?”
I sighed heavily. “No. Glad I had a heads up, to be honest.”
She heaved a sigh of relief. “Good. I don’t want to fall out, but he was acting like a creep, and she practically put him up to it.”
“She’s saying you were lying in the toilets. That it was a joke you all came up with.”
She held my gaze steadily. “I wouldn’t joke about stuff like that. You know that, right?”
“Doesn’t matter anyway. It’s done now. I would have seen him with her at some stage during the night. And Shauna’s been a massive bitch since I moved here. Why would I expect any different now?”
She started on her lunch, glancing at me every now and then in a way that made me sure she wasn’t finished questioning me.
“Why didn’t you tell us you were working there?” she asked a few minutes later. “I mean, why hide it?”
I shrugged. “Nobody’s business, is it? I need to work. It’s no big deal.”
“You’re right. It’s not a big deal. That’s why it’s odd when you hide stuff.”
“I’m not hiding stuff. I’m just not chatty.”
“No shit, Sherlock.” She grinned at me. “The party didn’t go as planned for Shauna either, if that makes you feel any better. Her date stood her up. Guess who it was?”
I stared at her.
She sighed. “Fine. Don’t. Remember that fountain of hotness we saw outside school that day?”
A chill ran down my spine. “The creepy one?”
“You say creepy; she says hot. Point of the story is she saw him again and invited him. As a date. But he didn’t show.”
“He did, actually. But later on. When the party ended.”
She gazed at me in wide-eyed shock. “Seriously? But why?”
I opened my mouth to reply when Sully, a.k.a. the creepy one, took a seat at our table and just stared at me.
I inched away, an old saying popping into my head uninvited. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. And again with the sunglasses.
“You smell really good,” he murmured, sniffing the air like a hungry dog. I stared at him, aghast, before breaking into peals of laughter.
I tried to calm down when I saw how taken aback he was.
“Is this a bet or something?”
He shook his head, confusion marring his features. But then he twisted his lips into a grim smile that left me cold.
“I would never be interested in something so… base.”
I exchanged glances with Maisy, but she seemed enthralled. Which was beyond strange, considering how off the wall Sully was coming across. And what a peculiar thing to say. Base had acted as though he liked me for a bet, and then Sully seemed to bring it up. Or maybe it was my imagination running away with me. How could Sully possibly know about my past already? Unless Shauna told him, which probably shouldn’t have surprised me.
“Okaaay. Listen, we were in the middle of a conversation here, so…”
“Maisy doesn’t mind. Do you, Maisy?”
She shook her head dumbly, still staring at him with her chin resting in her palm. Her eyes clouded over. I snapped my fingers in front of her face, and she jerked back to life.
“Earth to Maisy. You mind, right?”
She shook herself as though trying to clear her head. “No. Yeah! Uh, I mean… privacy, give us some.”
Sully leaned over and brushed a lock of hair behind my ear before drifting away, ignoring my kneejerk reaction to flinch away from his touch.
“What is his deal?” I stared after him, half-bewildered, half-amused.
“Who knows? He’s quite cute though. Very angular.”
“But did you hear what he said? He made it sound like he knew,” I lowered my voice, “about years ago, with
Base.”
She stared at me blankly. “What did he say?”
I made a sound of frustration at her terrible memory. Had she been paying attention at all? “Maisy, you were right there! I asked was this a bet. You know, the screwed up way he’s acting, and he said he wouldn’t do anything so base. Emphasis on the word, base. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
She shrugged. “Not really. It’s just a word.” She caught sight of my expression and sighed. “Fine. Maybe someone’s been gossiping.”
“About stuff that happened a lifetime ago? If someone was going to gossip about me, there’s plenty of new stuff to say, right?”
“I suppose,” she said slowly. “Maybe it was Shauna, trying to make you sound bad. I mean, he seems interested in you, even though she already asked him out.”
“She can have him. He makes me want to vomit.”
She giggled. “Not me. I think he’s delish. I’m thoroughly enjoying the whole mystery man vibe he has going on. Anyway, what should I tell Deco and Shauna if they ask me about you? I mean when they ask.”
“Tell them they’re dead to me.” But I was grinning.
“You’re a mean girl,” she teased.
After school, Maisy strolled home with me, and I discovered I liked her a lot better without Shauna around.
Sully’s car slowed down next to us, and Maisy gave a little yelp as Sully took off his sunglasses and peered out at us. His eyes were screwy, somehow reminding me of earlier when I had gone temporarily insane and actually wanted to be next to him. I looked anywhere but his eyes after that reminder.
“Need a ride?”
“Yes, please,” Maisy said breathlessly, preparing to jump straight in.
“Um, no thanks,” I said.
“Just you then, Maisy?”
Sully winked at me as Maisy clambered into his car, ignoring my protests. It was as if she were hypnotised by Sully, as if she would do anything he asked of her. And that was a stark reminder of my mother. How that was her reaction to every bad man in her life. She did what they asked because she was desperate to please them, desperate to be loved.
And maybe that was why I pulled Maisy out of the car and refused to let her get back in.
As if he knew what I had been thinking, Sully glared at me warningly, but I kept my hands on Maisy, refusing to let go.
He pulled away sharply, tires squealing, and Maisy slackened in my arms.
“Maisy, what are you thinking? You don’t even know him.”
She shuddered. “I know. I wasn’t thinking. I need to get home, Dev. I’ve a massive headache.”
She looked pretty pale, all right. I walked her home, just in case. At her gate, she surprised me by giving me a quick hug.
“Maybe we could hang out tomorrow?” she said hopefully.
“Maybe. If I can get away.”
“Get you playing hard to get.”
“Shut up. Fine. I’ll try my very best to get away.”
I walked home after that, wondering why Maisy would even want to spend time with me. I wasn’t a great friend. Then again, maybe even I was better than Shauna.