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PE is straight after lunch, and the only reason I look forward to it is because Abby is in my class. It’s no shock that the class conversation continues to center around Nyx. What the girls usually gossip about isn’t an interest to me, but today I find myself doing my stretches a little closer to them so I can listen.
I even agree with what they say on this occasion, the boys are running track, and Nyx in a tight vest and shorts is hard not to notice. His thighs are thick like his arms, the muscles in them straining tight as he sprints around the track.
More rumors come in as the lesson goes on. Apparently, he’s been expelled from every school he’s attended. There’s a theory being thrown that he’s in the witness protection program. And my personal favorite is the story about him recently coming out of juvie for almost killing a kid from his last school.
By the end of the lesson, I’ve decided that one way or another I want to find out what his real story is. I know it’s not gonna be easy but I do like a challenge now and again.
When school finishes, I head straight out to my car. Nyx is on the other side of the parking lot, walking towards a bike. It’s a classic sort, not like the racer bikes Luke and his friends brag about owning and tear through town on at the weekends.
No, Nyx’s bike is rustic and rough. It suits him perfectly. I watch him balance a cigarette between his lips, then use a zippo to light it up. When his eyes flick up from the flame, they focus on me, and even with the vast distance between us, I feel the intensity in his stare.
All sense wills me to look away from him, and yet my eyes continue to participate in the stare-off, watching him straddle his seat and grab the handlebars. Suddenly, I realize how pathetic I must look, and shake myself back to reality before hopping inside my car. Even then I find myself angling my mirrors so I can still see him.
“Whatcha doin’?” Abby startles me when her hand slams against my window.
“Jeez, you scared me.” I breathe slowly to calm myself back down.
“You weren’t gonna leave without me, were ya?” She laughs.
“Of course I wasn’t. I was just…” I give up on trying to explain. “You know I wouldn’t have left without you. Come on, we're hanging out at yours tonight.”
I start the ignition and pull out of the parking lot, noticing how Nyx’s head moves to follow my car as we pass him, his lips parting just enough to blow out a long stream of smoke.
“That guy is something else,” Abby rolls her head back in the seat.
“I don’t get what all the fuss is about.” I shrug, pretending to concentrate on the road while I tell my best friend a blatant lie. “And if the rumors are true, he won’t be with us for much longer. So it’s pointless getting yourself excited.”
“Well, one person will definitely be glad to see the back of him.” Abby raises her perfectly plucked eyebrows at me. “Luke hates him. Whatever that new hot bod did the past two days has really rubbed him up the wrong way.”
“Well, then I guess the guy’s good for something after all.” I smirk, pulling out onto the main street and driving us back to Abby’s so I can avoid my parents right up until curfew.
Ella almost knocking herself out wasn’t exactly how I planned on making the first verbal contact with her. Still, I grabbed the opportunity by the balls and went in.
The blood that seeped out of her wound was the sweetest shade of red I’ve ever seen, glistening like a ripe red apple as it trickled down her temple. Somehow I’d managed not to get distracted, keeping our encounter brief. But I still analyzed it over and over in my head after, wondering if she’d picked up on the tension in me. The last thing I’d wanted to do was scare her, or have her thinking I’m a weirdo.
I’d almost forgotten how shit high school could be, the same, pathetic hierarchy system is still in place, the one that I have no real place in. I’ve quickly, and without even trying, become the kid everyone avoids again. Not that I’m bothered, I ain’t here to make friends.
Ella goes straight to her friend’s place after school.And even though Prez doesn’t expect a report on her every night. I follow her there anyway.
I wait across the street, hiding out of sight the entire time she’s there, then I follow her back home, keeping a safe distance. The whole time telling myself that I’m just doin’ a thorough job for Prez.
When she pulls up on her drive and lets herself in. I know she’s safe. I could leave, but instead, I find myself repeating the same actions as the night before. Leaving my bike out of sight, and sprinting around the back of the house to climb the tree.
From the thick branch on the other side of the wall, I watch Ella move around her room. She gets some homework done. Which reminds me that I have fuckin’ homework to worry about too now. She searches through her wardrobe, deciding on an outfit that she hangs on the door. I assume it’ll be what I see her in tomorrow, and already I can’t fucking wait.
It isn’t long after she finishes that she turns the light out, and satisfied that her balcony doors are shut tight I prepare myself to leave.
As I go to jump back to the ground, I notice another light on downstairs. It’s over on the other side of the house, and much dimmer, but the pitch-black surrounding me allows me to see him clear enough.
The judge, sits at his desk, reading through what looks like a file, completely unaware that he’s being watched. Judge Jackson is a large man, with a stern face and thin blonde hair that sweeps back from his forehead. I watch him sip from his crystal tumbler until it’s empty and then top it back up again.
Looking at the house from back here it reminds me of the Dolls house one ofmy foster moms had.We were never allowed to touch it, only ever to look. That never bothered me, I didn’t want to play with it anyway. It was far too perfect.
Instead, I’d sit and stare at it for hours. Making up in my head the normal family that lived inside it. A Dad who came home from work and cut the lawns, a Mom who fussed and made sure you ate all your greens before you got dessert.The family my head invented had three kids. Two older brothers who fought like shit, but the minute someone else turned on the other, they unleashed hell. And a sister who wound up her older brothers tirelessly. I feel stupid when I think of the hours I’d wasted making up stories for them. I haven’t thought about that family in a long time. Not at all since I’d found my own fucked up family at the club.
And on that thought, I leave Ella in her perfect little house and get back to where I belong.
I wake up in a shit mood. When I got back from Ella’s last night, the club was busy and I ended up working the bar till early hours after all the girls got occupied. Usually, I don’t need much sleep, but lately, I’ve been feeling exhausted.
