Jaded (16 page)

It was our usual lunch period and when we got to Café Diner, we saw our normal crowd lingering at the table. They greeted Bryce with high fives and slaps on the back.

Each of the guys gave me a friendly greeting while the girls just glared hatred. Like always. Becky Lew seemed even nastier than normal because she didn’t hide the loathing when she looked at me.

That was different.

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Corrigan was already at the table and he looked up, met my gaze, and traveled to Bryce. Whatever he saw there didn’t agree with him because he shoved away from the table and stalked out of our section to sit at another table.

Of course, he chose appropriately. The table was full of blushing sophomores who revealed a little more of their scooped necklines in front of Corrigan’s gaze.

Bryce didn’t say anything, but sat in an empty booth in the back corner.

“Are you serious?” I asked.

Bryce shrugged and ordered some drinks for us.

Annoyed, I turned and walked over to Corrigan’s table.

He quieted when he saw me coming.

“Hey,” he said, guarded.

“Hey.”

He nodded behind me, “He’s still mad at me for absolutely
nothing
.”

I shrugged. “It’s not my problem.”

“Whatever,” Corrigan cried out, louder than he had intended. He quieted his

voice, “It’s because of what happened with you. I was sleeping—I’m sorry.”

“Look, just apologize to him.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Apologize

and

we’ll all be fine.”

“Not me,” he retorted.

The sophomores were a captive audience.

“Do it for me.”

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“Wha—” His initial protest died in his throat. He looked at me with renewed eyes as he remembered and asked, “How are you? Are you okay?” His smile flashed, “You want a piggy-back ride?”

“Good,” was all I said. I pushed it to the back of my mind—once more.

“Okay.” He didn’t believe me, but I knew he wouldn’t push it.

“Apologize for me?”

“Fine.” It was wrenched out of him, painfully and slowly. Corrigan sounded like he was being tortured.

“Good!” I sent a beaming smile his way and turned back to slide into Bryce’s booth. Chet, Harris, and a guy named Seth Haugen had taken residence around the booth.

They were chatting with him and continued when our food orders were taken.

When our food and drinks came, they departed only to be replaced by Becky Lew and Mandy Justice. Mandy was alright by my standards. She was one of the smarter girls in our class and she’d refrained from joining the cheerleading squad. She’d been the Senior Editor of the yearbook last year and everyone knew she’d be the same this year.

Plus, she was loyal and funny. The only downfall: she was friends with Becky Lew for some insane reason.

Becky said warmly, “Hi, Bryce. We missed you in class this morning.”

Gag.

“Hi, Becky,” I said loudly and sent her a sweet smile.

She managed to restrain a look of disgust, but smiled back and replied in a bland voice, “Hello, Sheldon. How are you? You haven’t been around that much this week.”

“Parent’s divorce. My house was broken into. I kinda had a lot going on.”

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She froze in surprise, but with an eye blink, it was gone. Only to be replaced by the robot cheerleader façade once more.

No sympathy for me.

Instead she turned to Bryce and cooed, “No wonder you’ve been exhausted this week. You’re such a good friend, even loaning Sheldon your clothes.”

Bryce gave a full smile and remarked, “I like Sheldon in my clothes.”

I coughed back a laugh.

Becky scowled, blinked, and smiled. She ran a hand down his arm and gushed,

“I’d love to wear your shirt.”

“There’s a requirement,” I stated matter-of-factly. “You gotta satisfy him first.”

Bryce choked back the laugh this time. He failed and had every table in the back section glance towards us in curiosity. It was known that Bryce Scout did not laugh.

“I think I could manage that,” she said, meltingly.

I choked back the vomit.

The urge to kick her was really tempting. Her shin was in perfect position. I could kick and smile like it never happened.

“Ow,” Becky complained and glared at Mandy. “What?”

Mandy had beaten me to it, but with an elbow to Becky’s side.

Mandy nudged her again and indicated towards the front entrance. She moved

aside and we all saw Chad Yerling stroll into the diner. If he had looked awful after Bryce’s beating, he looked like he survived a bomb this time.

And the crazy look in his eyes didn’t help.

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He had bruises everywhere, two busted lips, only one good eye, and the way he walked—at least three broken ribs.

As he neared Corrigan’s table, the two eyed each other in shared hatred.

Yerling passed by to enter the back section and he stopped when Chet, Seth

Haugen, Harris, and a half dozen other guys stood up. A moment passed and then they all walked out.

It was another surreal moment.

A rift had occurred among the best of the best. Chad Yerling, second only to Corrigan and Bryce, had now been ostracized by
all
the guys in his grade. If he looked for friends underneath our grade, good luck to him. I highly doubted it.

He only stood with five or so friends behind him and they’d never be mistaken as one of the ‘best.’

When I looked at Bryce, he was staring at Corrigan who was staring back at him.

They shared an unspoken message and I saw approval flicker in Bryce’s eyes.

Becky abruptly left with Mandy trailing behind anxiously.

“Did you know?” I asked underneath my breath.

Bryce didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. I saw that he had. He probably

participated.

“Why?”

Bryce shrugged and finished eating his food.

Sometimes my two best friends pissed me off. Sometimes they did things and

wouldn’t tell me. And sometimes I knew I should love them for it. Then and there, I Tijan

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knew it was a battle that I wouldn’t win so I dropped it and finished my orange juice. I left the rest of my food. I’d lost my appetite that rarely reared its head.

When we were done, most of the ‘good’ students had left to return to school.

Corrigan and some others remained, content to skip, sit, and chat.

Bryce and I stopped by Corrigan’s table as we passed to leave.

“Hey, uh…” Corrigan cleared his throat. “You were right, man. I’m sorry.”

I was happy again.

Bryce gave him a stiff nod in response and both visibly relaxed after that.

“So…” Corrigan started, shifting between me and Bryce. “What are you guys

doing now?”

“I need to go home,” I told him.

“Hey, man,” Corrigan threw in. “You wanna head to my place for the afternoon?”

Bryce nodded and we left as if there’d been no rift between the two.

The sophomore girls were disappointed, but I flicked them off behind my back. I felt perversely satisfied now.

I heard Corrigan bark out a laugh just as the door closed behind me.

Bryce dropped me off at home and I showered, changed, and looked around for

damages. Officer Patterson had left a message on my machine that they’d searched the house and cross-referenced their list of damaged property with mine. She had the full report for me to look over, if I felt it was warranted. She also had a few follow-up questions, but those could be handled at a later date. All in all, I was given the okay to clean-up.

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I first started by ordering a different alarm system. When they got there, I went downstairs until they were done. After I’d gotten instructions for setting the alarm, I showered again and laid down in bed, but only after I grabbed my dad’s Colt.45. I slid it inside a shelf in my nightstand. With my bedroom door locked, I curled under the blankets and fell asleep, hoping I wouldn’t wake to another AnnaBelle reincarnation.

When I woke up, I realized that I’d slept for seven hours.

Violated security was more exhausting than I realized.

And then I heard what had woken me up in the first place, someone was ringing the doorbell.

For a girl who lived alone, it was pretty hard to get some alone time.

With a face-stretching yawn, I made my way downstairs and checked the window first. It was Mena and she looked frantic. When she lifted to poke the doorbell again, I threw open the door and gasped, “Please no more.”

Mena flushed. “Sorry. I knew you were here, but probably asleep since you didn’t answer right away.”

“Or I was hoping to ignore you, but you annoyed me to death,” I deadpanned and Mena followed me inside.

I grabbed an ice tea and hopped onto one of the counters. Mena sat on a stool as I dangled my feet over the counter’s edge.

“Uh…so are you still going to that party?”

“What

party?”

Self-conscious, Mena clarified, “That party that you were supposed to invite me to…remember?”

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Harris’ party. Friday night. Corrigan had asked me to bring her.

“I guess so,” I sighed. I’d forgotten about it.

“Um….,” She bit her lip, unsure of what to do or say. I was used to the expression so it was pretty easy to pinpoint. Leisha looked at me that way a lot. The only two who didn’t were Bryce and Corrigan.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” I made my decision.

“It’s, like, ten already.”

I’d slept longer than I had realized. I almost slept the entire day.

“Fine. I gotta get ready.”

As I put my glass away, Mena stayed in place and glanced around the room.

“You can come with me.” I indicated upstairs.

“Oh.” She sent me foolish smile. “Sorry, I didn’t know.”

I waved her off.

“So you weren’t in school today,” Mena murmured, conversationally.

“No.”

As we passed the library’s door, Mena gasped, “Oh my god. What happened?”

“That’s kind of personal, don’t you think?” I teased, but when she flushed in embarrassment again, I relented, “I spent a day destroying my papa’s things. I’m not all that happy with my parents right now. Plus, my house was broken into last night.”

Instead of the usual ‘what?!,’ Mena was quiet.

“Don’t worry. I don’t think they’re trolling the neighborhood. The cops said that they singled my house for a reason.” I drawled, “Let me tell you, not real settling to the stomach.”

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Mena relaxed a little, but fiddled with her hands.

I was beginning to agree with Bryce. She was weird.

In my bedroom, Mena eyed the bed warily and perched on the littlest amount of bed possible.

I burst out laughing as I pulled out a translucent chiffon wrap. “The sheets are clean. Trust me. I’ve had a maid in here since the last time Bryce spent the night. She comes in once every two weeks.”

“Oh.” She didn’t look reassured.

I showered quick and pulled on a pair of khakis jeans that hugged my hips. I wore a pale pink chiffon top that crossed between my breasts. I left the bra behind, but that was alright. Even though the top didn’t look like it, my breasts were firmly supported in place and tucked from escaping.

As I did my hair, I murmured, “So where were you? You missed some days of

school too…right?”

“Uh…yeah.” She fidgeted with her hands some more and finally sat on them.

With a flush in her cheeks, she said brightly, “I wasn’t feeling that well.”

“You looked fine when we saw you at the coffee place.”

“I know, but Denton was right. I was a little nauseous that day. The coffee didn’t help.”

I noticed the glitter that shimmered off of her curls.

“You look nice,” I said honestly.

Startled, Mena looked up and I saw a flicker of guilt flash in her eyes. It was quickly gone and replaced with appreciation.

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“Thanks,” she mumbled.

She did look nice. She was dressed in a white cashmere sweater with a bow-tie that circled the bottom swell of her breasts and tied in the back. Though her jeans were simple, they were stylish and rich. The girl looked like she came from money and she did. Her lips were frosted pink and her eyes were highlighted by white eye-shadow that gave her an innocent, yet knowing look. The boys would go crazy.

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When we arrived at the party, Harris stumbled over to us. He wore a shirt with eight vertical strips of blue tape on it. After he greeted us drunkenly with beer-sloshed arms and a slur in the eyes, I regarded him, “Let me guess. The eight pieces of tape are for the eight drinks that you’ve had.”

His smile exuded booze, but it was still blinding. Harris was a very good looking boy with ruby-red lips that would never need to be touched-up by a camera. His golden locks were misted almost perfectly with sweat. The drunk look worked for him.

“No, no. Eight beer bongs.” That was said so matter of fact.

“Where’s the rest of the gang?”

Harris shifted and gestured towards the backyard.

“Thanks, Harris.” I patted him on the arm and winked at Mena. Harris was busy skimming her figure up and down while she stood in place, self-conscious.

She looked about to say something, but I was quickly swallowed in the crowd.

Harris’ entire backyard was crawling with other students. Most stood in smaller groups and cliques, talking and drinking. Some couches had been placed around a bonfire near the patio and I saw Corrigan sitting there with Bryce beside him. Collette Chantal sat Tijan Jaded

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on the arm of Bryce’s couch. Her legs weren’t crossed over his, but her knee rested against him.

It should’ve enraged me, right?

It didn’t.

“Sheldon!” Corrigan’s face lit up as he threw his arms in the air. “Come here, girl!”