I get home quite late on Saturday after spending the day playing computer games at Danny's. Thankfully my mums not home until Sunday night, I can't face any sort of questioning until I know what's going on in my own head.
Now I'm alone, I let the thoughts of Shane flood my brain. I still don't really understand what happened last night, but I know I've got a crush on him that is refusing to go away. At least until I figure out what his game is, I hope it goes away then anyway, because I feel like an idiot right now.
Who fancies their bully? Seriously? There's got to be a name for people like me and not a complimentary one!
I hear a noise outside, like something large being knocked over and Molly starts barking, running towards the sound. Reluctantly, phone in hand and 999 already ent
Where am I? I wake up in a strange room, it's dark outside so I can't see very well and my brain's too foggy and painful to remember what I did. My arm feels heavy and I glance across to see a mass of red hair sprawled across my skin. Aurora? The shock makes me jump. Oh no, what did I do? "You're still alive then? How're you feeling?" She murmurs, my movement disturbing her. She yawns and sits up, sliding out of my arms, leaving me feeling cold and alone. "Barely, I feel like death. What am I doing here?" She grins down at me, the moonlight lighting her skin and I fight the urge to run my hand down her back. "I have no idea but I'm pretty sure I've been asking you that for at least a fortnight." My voice croaks a laugh and I grab my head, splitting pain rips through it. She offers me a glass from beside the bed, a box of painkillers in her other hand. "Here." "Thanks." She watches me swallow them down before speaking
I lie nervously on the chair in the tattoo shop, my jeans pushed low and my top on the chair underneath me. I grip Shane's hand as the guy, Marcus, traces the tattoo onto my skin. "Hey, you'll be fine." Shane whispers, kissing my fingers. The gesture is confusing and distracts me momentarily from my fear, but then the machine starts in the corner and I jump. Marcus comes towards me with the needle, buzzing like a thousand angry bees and I squeeze my eyes shut, crushing Shane's hand with mine. He whispers something in my ear, but I'm too stressed to take it in. Marcus's fingertips press into my skin and it's a matter of seconds before the needles touch me. Oh wow! I can handle this! No problem! It's nowhere near as bad as I was expecting, not even as bad as when I stabbed my finger with a pin at cadets the other day. I relax my hand, releasing the breath I was holding and opening my eyes to see Shane smiling at me. Even covered in cuts and bruises he's probabl
We stop off for fish and chips after the walk and I notice the lights are still off in her house when we get back. "Do you live alone?" She laughs, shaking her head. "Pretty much. Mum's away a lot, she travels about the country most weekends now I'm old enough not to kill myself if I'm left alone for too long." "What does she do?" "Um… just teaches courses and stuff." I know she's being deliberately evasive, but there must be a reason she doesn't want to say and although I was only asking to be polite, now I'm actually interested in what her mum does for a living. I store it in my brain to ask about another time and hurry around to take the bag of food from her when she goes to carry it indoors. "I'm not totally without manners." I say when she stares at me, pleasantly surprised when she leads me towards the living room. "I thought you'd be a meals at the table kind of girl." "I don't know how to respond to that." She switches on
"Morning darling, you look like death, why not stay home today?" My mother places her cool hand against my forehead, checking for a temperature. Then swats around my head, telling me I have dark spots in my aura that need removing. Despite the unexpected and surprisingly great day I had with Shane yesterday, I've woken up with the sick feeling of dread in my stomach. Maybe it was all a joke and today's the day I find out. My thoughts have been suggesting helpful things like this since I woke up this morning and felt like something bad was going to happen today. I fiddle with an apple, contemplating whether my stomach could handle even this small amount of food today. Deciding against it I put it back in the bowl and head towards the door, turning back to look at my mum. "I'm ok, I'll be ok. Can you drive me though?" "Of course darling, I'll be there in a second." She finally emerges about fifteen minutes later, forcing the ap
I'll try to forget about her. I'll go back to how my life was before I went to that stupid party, before I got drunk and turned up at her door. Before I spent time with her and actually thought we could date and the past wouldn't matter. Seeing Ruby bullying her and her reaction was horrendous. She can't handle it and that's all she'd get if we got together. I need to leave her alone! "What was that today?" Ruby screeches at me the minute I walk into Luke's living room. "It was humiliating." "Fuck off Ruby, I'm not in the mood." I drop down into my chair. "You still trying to bang that boff?" Billy asks, his arm around Stacey. I shake my head. "Good, she's too much effort." "Yeah." I say, although I think
Molly starts barking and dancing on the spot when the doorbell goes. Shane's standing there, school bag in hand, a deep frown on his face. "Before you say anything, I know, I'm sorry. I was going to back out but I wanted to see you." He stands on the doorstep waiting to be invited in or sent away. "Are we studying?" I ask, he's not met me after school all week, hasn't spoken to me at all apart from that weird, brief encounter at lunchtime today. "We don't have to?" "Do you want to?" "I never want to." He laughs, brushing his hand back through his hair. "But I need to." "Better come in then." I step back, letting him cross the threshold, more confused now than I was on
After a while, she pulls away from me while I'm kissing her building herself a little pillow barricade to keep us apart and grabbing her plate, focusing a little two hard on the food so I know she's trying not to look at me. As we finish eating, we steer to safer topics, like school, family, university. Something I'd never considered before, but as she talks about what she's going to do, where she's going and how excited she is. I realise that I should have been thinking about what I'll be doing when school ends. The idea of moving somewhere completely different, maybe even living abroad for a while, suddenly becomes an amazing possibility. She starts clearing the plates away, piling the rubbish high on top of one and attempting to carry it out. I stand up, lifting the plates from her hand and following her out. Watching in amusement as she meticulously separates everything into various tubs in the kitchen. "My mum's really into recycling
I wake up screaming from a nightmare that is almost certainly related to the horror film earlier. Shane jumps up out of bed and stands in the centre of the room, looking around for the reason for my scream. He looks so funny crouched there in just his boxer shorts, that I burst out laughing. "Sorry." I whisper, reveling in seeing him almost nude again. "Bad dream." "You know, my mum always said if you tell someone about it, then it won't happen again." He sits at the end of my bed, shivering but concerned. My heart's still beating fast from the nightmare and having him so close somehow makes me feel it pulse all over my body. He shivers again and I flip the quilt back, patting the mattress beside me, he slides in quickly, staring at me the whole time as if I'll change my mind or he's got it all wrong.