This library is the quieter of the three we have in school and is only manned by one staff member. It’s mainly used for class releases like we are doing, not the busy ground floor catch-all where they keep most of the school's books. This one is more like a computer lab with a few bookshelves.I pick a table in the far corner, the most distant from the door, next to a row of four computers with their secluded desks. We can browse the net if needed, but no one will bother us over here.“Ummm.” Elisa draws my attention with a weird noise and then subtly waves her finger at the door behind where I have sat, and I automatically turn to see what she’s spotted.Tyler walks in with one of the girls Charmaine sits with normally while Dane wanders in behind, holding Charmaine's hand as they peruse the room to look for a seat. Charmaine is all push-up cleavage and the shortest of skirts, practically dry-humping his side. The sight of them that way winds me, and I swallow down a heaving lump tha
I walk up the steps after parking my car in our sweeping drive, focused on finding my house keys when I hear the telltale thrum of Dane’s bike pulling up into his spot behind me. I don’t turn to see his black deathtrap sleek machine pulling up, but I would never mistake that awful sound.For once, he’s come home directly from school at the same time as me, and I stiffen and ignore it. I wonder why he’s broken his daily habit of taking off with Tyler after class and instead decided to grace me with his presence. I locate my keys, open the front door and shove inside the heavy oak, knowing the house is empty. He knows it too, as it’s not like we hadn’t been told.We are all alone. Our parents work late almost daily, and today is Monique's scheduled day off so she can see her sister on her birthday. She reminded us before she left this morning at breakfast, we had to make our own dinner, and my parents would be eating out.I’m tired, so I plan to cook, do my homework, shower, and have an
“Stay still and be quiet. If you want it to blister and hurt, then fine… if you don’t shut up and let me help.” His arms around me have me caged, and I admit defeat and stop fighting him.“Dane?” Charmaine's whiny voice breaks in, and it’s obvious she does not like how he’s pandering over me. I don’t think I would like to see my boyfriend this way over another girl. “I’m sure she can manage fine. Our food is coming. Let’s go upstairs.”“In a second.” He dismisses her with a low tone, still honed in on holding me captive, and I close my eyes and try to regulate my body and breathing. He’s got me hot and panicky, aware of every inch of him around me, and pressed in so tight I can feel what he has in his pants between my butt cheeks.How he cannot judge how weird and inappropriate this is, is beyond me. I am stiff and afraid to move because I can clearly feel every lump, bump, and muscle.Do dudes have no self-awareness? They walk around with that on the front of their bodies and lean it
Elisa and I stroll along the upper walkway above the school's main hall as we head for the study rooms, casually linked arms as the day is almost over, and we're both tired. We have a free period to do as we please for nearly an hour, and we decided to compile everything for the English essay to finish it. Once it’s done, I can stop sitting with Dane and won’t have to keep interacting anymore.Tyler and Dane, at some point, contacted some of our interviewees and got a lot of good quotes, so all that is left is to write up the sections we took and give them to Tyler to add to theirs. Dane has actually been contributing in small ways, which is so unlike him, so my decision to extract him from the credits has died a silent death. Especially after taking care of me yesterday.I rub my bandaged hand as I think of him, nowhere near as sore as it was, and carry on walking behind my girl. A few more days of the gel, and it won’t leave a single mark, and thanks to his instant care, it hasn’t g
There’s no way it can be Charmaine, as she has alone made out with half the boys in our year this semester. He’s probably asking himself who he grabbed in the dark. I swallow hard, nervous fear hitting me low in the stomach as I realize he might now go absolutely ape shit when he figures out who he was just making out with. He’s still close enough that his warm breath is fanning my mouth and chin, but his breathing has slowed and become almost non-existent as he thinks and questions internally.I should say something, but I am rendered mute and paralyzed by a sense of ‘I shouldn’t have kissed him back.’ This was so dumb. I know he is going to go crazy at me after the kitchen incident.My face flames, his hand on my throat slides up to my jaw and becomes searching fingers as he traces my cheek, then eyebrow, and I am assuming he can tell by touch this is not Charmaine's face. He’s trying to figure out if he’s imagining it and is probably confused about who else would be in here with hi
My face is sore and swollen from crying like an idiot for the past two hours, sitting on my bed, and rubbing in a moisturizer to minimize the mess I made after washing my face. I know my skin is blotchy and pale, my nose red, and my eyes are puffed up. I’m washed out, yet it felt good to cleanse my soul and give into everything that’s been eating at me for days. I am physically lighter, as though a huge weight I was unaware I have been carrying this past couple of days is lifted from my head.So much for controlling my ability to cry over the past years. I don’t think I have ever sobbed like that for that long in my life, and I feel so stupid that Dane triggered it. I guess crying that first time broke the off switch, and now my emotions are a free for all anytime I get sad.For what, really?Yelling at me, making me feel repulsive? Or because I got to kiss him, and he made it clear that this weirdness growing in me was so one-sided, and a small spark had held onto loose hope that it
“I have all those reasons too, but it didn't stop me feeling something for you……. I wouldn’t be mad at you for it. You can’t help who you like! You said that yourself! And deny it all you want and say you don’t care about me, but your actions say differently sometimes, so you confuse me all the more. I have never felt like I was your sister but at times ….. you make me think I’m something else to you.”This has always been the confusing thing about us, and maybe it’s where our constant bickering stems from.“Who said I don’t care about you?” he turns his head on me in a snap, eyes narrowed and a low simmering anger building. He seems outraged that I would say something like that, yet he’s been trying to make me believe it for so long. It’s grating that he only heard that in all those words I threw at him.I glance away from the intense gaze and return to pulling at my pillow. Pondering that by now, Dane would usually have walked away from me as the conversation was steering to somethi
“Oh, Hello…. How’re things going at school lately? It feels like I haven’t seen you in weeks,” My mom asks Elisa with a soft and warm smile at her sitting beside me at the breakfast bar as we share a plate of tacos that Monique made us. It’s early afternoon, after school, and we’re home to study together.“Good, Mrs. Masterson.” Elisa is always the model of politeness when it comes to my parents. “We’ve just been busy with some schoolwork. It’s only a few days till break, and I think we need it.”“Mom… Lees is staying here tonight. If that’s okay?” I ask as my mother wanders around the kitchen, looking for something, and gives another perfunctory smile as she tilts her head back to us. It’s obvious she is not fully invested in us and is distracted. She wanders to the cupboard where we keep the first aid and medicines and rummages inside, reminding me of that idiot Dane when I catch sight of the green box in full view, and my stomach sinks into my lap, churning up my nerves and anger o