BOOKSDRAMA Chapter 17
School was over. People were rushing out and although I hated to admit it, I was rushing out with them. I couldn’t remember the last time I was this
eager to get out of school. Oh, the things a bad day can do to a person.
I had woken up feeling tired. More so than when I went to bed. It was a relatively normal occurrence for me every few months or so. It was nothing
new but it still sucked. What was the point of sleeping if I was only going to wake up feeling even more tired than I did before going to bed? That,
added to the cameo of daddy dearest’s alter ego last night, was doing a great job of making sure I was having a bad day. More accurately, I was
having a shitty day. The shittiest.
My mom couldn’t have picked a worse time to travel. My dad was nowhere in the ballpark of a good mood with the city council exerting pressure on
him to catch the culprit of the downtown robberies. I was constantly walking on eggshells around him. No matter how drained I was, I had to be extra
careful and pay extra attention to him.
On top of that, I had school to worry about. I was becoming increasingly bored by it which, for me, was big and bad. According to the education board
adviser, people with my IQ needed to always be challenged academically or things could go really bad for us. The last time I found school boring was
back in elementary school and truly, that hadn’t ended well. I had tried to drop out. Granted, I was a kid then but who knew what rationalizations I
would feed myself this time.
I needed less on my plate so I could concentrate on figuring out a solution to the school issue. It was a bad time for my mom to not be around to curb
my dad’s tendencies although, granted, she was unaware of them. I tried hinting once that she should keep her cases within state and it blew up in
my face. She took it so personal that I got lectured on how women should support women and how I was no longer a child and if Olly who was
younger was fine with it, then I should be as well.
I ended up crying. That was how bad she made me feel for even suggesting it. I didn’t have the guts to explain that missing her wasn’t the problem. I
hardly saw her when she was in town anyways, asides from mandatory family dinners and the occasional breakfast. I couldn’t explain that unlike Olly,
I wouldn’t be overlooked by our father. I’d be evaluated, appraised critically and found wanting no matter what. It would be that I didn’t put the keys in
the right place. Or heat the food up to his perfect taste. Or most recently, that I had my earphones in. There would always be something that I hadn’t
done well enough.
I couldn’t tell her that though. What good would it do? Neither of them believed in divorce. I’d only make things worse for myself. Like when she told
him what I said about not taking out-of-state cases, to ask his opinion on the subject. During her next trip, I paid dearly for that.
I sighed wearily, forcing a smile for the benefit of the seemingly endless horde of acquaintances who needed to wave me goodbye. They all thought I
was so cool. Freakishly smart yet social and fashionable. Have-it-all Avy.
I snickered under my breath.
“Bye, Avy.” A junior whose name I didn’t even know called out.
“Bye,” I replied, smoothing my features into a bright smile.
The smile featured too much teeth. Anyone who really looked at me would’ve easily figured out that it was fake. Luckily, no one paid attention to
things like that anymore. Even if I had tears in my eyes and said I was fine, I was almost sure everyone would believe it. After all, I was Avyanna
Johnson, the ‘perfect everything.’ What problems could I possibly have?
I scoffed inwardly.
Ranting, needing people, wallowing and indulging in bouts of self-pity were for the weak, the voice in my head chastised.
I finally made it outside, passing through the wide open double doors that led to the exterior of the school building.
“What the actual f--” I swallowed the rest of my statement, forcing a more believable smile unto my face as the curious eyes of a group of juniors
turned my way.
You picked the wrong day, Masked Idiot.
I drew in a deep breath and sent up a quick prayer for patience and self-control before marching over to the idiot leaning casually, basically draped
against my car. In a parking lot full of people who could carelessly mention it to my parents. The only redeeming bit about the image in front of me
was that his bike was nowhere in sight or he might as well as have just gone directly to my parents and said, “Look me up, there’s something
suspicious and bad about me.”
I couldn’t even bring myself to care that this was the first time he was showing up post our dinner turned declaration of war. I came to a stop a foot
away from him.
“Sometime between right now and when I last saw you, did you perhaps lose your damn mind?”
The venom generously lacing my tone, however, made it unmistakably clear that if we had been in a place with less prying eyes and twitching ears, I
wouldn’t have shown half as much restraint.
“Good to see you too,” he muttered drily, straightening up.
Clearly, he was here to test my limits.
“Good? When, pray tell, did I give you that impression?” Before he could manage a response, I continued, “If you were to fade from existence right
this second, I’d be all the happier for it.”
After our charity ball escapade, he disappeared for a full week. Not a single word. He didn’t so much as drop by the library or sneak into my room
which he used to be oh so fond of. The fact that his disappearance coincided with the reappearance of the malicious gaze wasn’t doing him any
favors either.
“I didn’t bring my bike.” He said it like that was supposed to make it okay. Like I was supposed to be grateful.
“Good. For. You.” Each word was accompanied by a sharp poke from my finger.
He had a sturdy chest which really shouldn’t have come as a surprise since he was, after all, an underground fighting champion but my brain wasn’t
at its finest so it did. My finger hurt as I lowered the hand. I swallowed the pain in favor of protecting my pride.
“Good for me?” Annoyed incredulity coated his tone. His expression made it clear that from where he was standing, he’d done me a favor and I was
being ungrateful. Cue my infamous eye roll. Favor my black ass.
“Yes,” I ground out, holding his gaze. “Good for you because otherwise, I’d have killed you.”
“Nothing pleases you, does it?”
“Nothing you do,” I snarled. “But by all means, seize to exist. That should do the trick.”
He started to snap back a reply, his mouth already open to do so but he inexplicably stopped, slowly, almost comically, closing his mouth. A deep
crease appeared between his brows as they furrowed.
“That was harsh. Over the top. Even for you.”
A completely irrational impulse to avert my gaze filled my mind as his eyes seared into mine. The resemblance between the color of his irises and a
cup of black coffee was uncanny. I loved my coffee black and suddenly wanted some.
“Something’s wrong,” he said. “What is it?”
If this was the universe’s answer to my craving for someone who could instantly read my moods, then I take the complaint back. No thanks, I’d rather
go through life alone than with Masked Idiot for a confidant.
“Noth...” I didn’t get to complete my denial. The word died on my lips as three girls closed in on us.
My already ridiculously shitty day was about to take another hit.
“Claire, do you need something?” I demanded as nicely as I could manage.
It was not very nice.
“Not particularly. I just figured we should take care of the problem now before it gets any worse.” She smiled sweetly.
The statement, as well as her winsome smile, was directed entirely at Masked Idiot, never mind that I was the one the words were actually intended
for.
I was great at not getting in trouble but the creature before me was great at getting everybody to believe she had their best interest at heart so that
they all loved her even when they didn’t like her. I would’ve admired her for it if it all wasn’t an act.
“Very predicative of you.” I rolled my eyes before pasting an absolutely charming smile on my face.
I could act too.
She flashed me her patented ‘I have your best interest at heart’ smile.
“Emily,” was all she said.
“What about her?”
“You know what,” she hissed.
My smile wobbled for a second, a testament to how horrid the day had been thus far and worse, Masked Idiot caught it. I practically saw his line of
thought go from ‘oh, they’re friends’ to ‘ahhh, I see what’s going on here.’ My hands fisted at my sides. My facial muscles conjured up the most
amicable smile in history.
“Call her over.”
Even my tone was all hearts and flowers.
best, mainly from our connection to the debate club. She had done nothing to deserve what was happening to her, what I was about to do. It was just
unfortunate that Aidan picked her over Claire and although all her ‘misdemeanours’ were petty things that had been orchestrated by Claire, I was
going cut her off anyway. Rules needed to be followed no matter what. I hadn’t missed a single meeting or leaked any award categories despite all
the shit I had been going through so even though it wasn’t her fault, it was her fault.
I was the one thing that let Claire get away with deceiving everyone with her ‘Mother Theresa’ act. Since everyone knew I never let emotions get in
my way, it was almost always up to me to handle any such messy situations because apparently ‘thanks to my clinical approach to things, I would be
fair and just.’ It was my job to enforce the rules. I wasn’t the judge, just the executioner and at the end of the day, the executioner is the only bad guy,
especially since it was almost always a closed trial where the judge wouldn’t be made public. Claire was very good at capitalising on my unbending
principles and reputation to take out whoever she felt like.
If only anyone was brave enough to bring a case against her, I’d be more than happy to execute her too but people automatically considered her
untouchable. The princess of the school.
I heaved a sigh.
“Hey guys.” Emily smiled brightly. “You know I appreciate your hel--”
“Em,” I cut her off, the contents of my stomach taking a nosedive. If my guess was right and it pretty much always was, she was about to thank us for
a problem we -and by ‘we’ I meant Claire- created. “You’re off prom committee. You shouldn’t have tattled to your boyfriend about his award category
or missed so many meetings without notice. And do yourself a favor, don’t sit anywhere near us tomorrow.”
In other words, lay low until this blows over but I could tell from the way her eyes widened, rapidly turning glassy that she took my advice as a
sentence. One important thing about Claire Anne High social hierarchy was where you sat for lunch. Like all private schools, we had our quirks and
seating arrangements was one of them. Everyone knew that. Just like everyone knew that being demoted from the popular kid’s table was a huge
smear. A scarlet mark. A black stain.
“What?” She blinked wide doe eyes.
You have to set standards and stick to them, Avy or people will undermine you, my mom’s voice reminded me.
“You heard me. Have a nice life.” In other words, stay out of my orbit.
Swift and cold. I was in my car and peeling out of the lot before she could pick her jaw off the ground. Masked Idiot had enough sense to jump in
before I zoomed off.
My rear-view mirror showed Claire giving Emily a comforting squeeze while wearing a vindictive smile the latter never saw. My stomach churned.
I floored it.
I have known Claire since she transferred to Claire Anne in middle school and she has hated me since the minute I scored higher than her on her first
quiz at Claire Anne merely a week later. The feeling has only intensified since then because I kept doing it. Beating her. Claire came from money and
was smart. She was used to having her pick of whatever she wanted. Being the best in our year was one of the few things she longed for but didn’t
have under her belt.
“I think you hate that girl. You don’t hate me that much even though you think I’m a criminal and I don’t think she likes you either. But you just did her
dirty work,” Masked Idiot commented unsurprisingly. The surprising part was that he managed to keep his mouth shut until I pulled onto the highway.
“I’m confused,” he finished.
“I don’t care for your analysis or the commentary on my life. You are neither my therapist nor my friend so can it.” I hissed, eyes trained on the road.
My mother’s voice hummed her approval.
“You have a therapist?”
I shot him a flat look. Like my parents would ever go for that. How was that even the only thing he picked up?
“You were pissed. Really pissed. Even before Charlie’s Angels showed up.” Frown lines creased his forehead.
“Charlie’s Angels?” I arched a brow
For some reason, it sounded ridiculously funny and I found myself tamping down a sardonic smile. In my defense, my brain wasn’t exactly at its best.
My shoulders relaxed unconsciously.
‘They have the right hair.” He shrugged unabashedly.
A reluctant smile tugged at my lips. They did have the right hair colours, if nothing else.
“Bad day?” he asked.
“Something like that,” I answered.
“I know a place. Take the next left.”
I glanced at him, sizing him up, then nodded.
“Fine, but if you take me anywhere illegal, say an underground fighting arena, you’re a dead man walking. I will personally murder you.”
I felt, more than saw, him roll his eyes. My lips tugged into a grin.