Blackmailed

3

When she arrived, he was there waiting for her.

That year 10 asshole.

He had a cruel smile on his rosy cheeks.

"Mercy, mercy, mercy," he muttered and smiled.

She gritted her teeth and hid her head behind her long blonde hair. How was she going to make him quit it?

It wasn't like she could tell him to f**k off. Could she scare him? Embarras him? Bribe him, maybe?

Instead, she ignored him, completing her tasks around the classroom with a red face.

The next lesson went better because Callum was in. He asked her for a rubber and then launched into a diatribe about his Dad sleeping with too many girls, and he heard them having s*x.

She took a seat beside him and listened as he chatted - but a teacher overheard and made them pause.

They exchanged wide-eyed glances.

"We need to make up a lie," she whispered. "The school cant know what we were talking about - I 'll be fired."

He nodded, but she wasn't sure he grasped the gravity of the situation.

"Please lie," she whispered loudly, lacing her fingers in a plea. "Please listen to me, we need to come up with a story. I'll owe you. Anything."

"It's calm," was all he said before leaving her in a state of utter panic.

Her sour-faced boss stormed in moments later.

"Don't talk to that kid anymore - he will get the wrong idea. He could accuse you of anything." Amy said in her usual condescending sneer.

She knew for a fact that he would never do such a thing, but nodded, silently playing "Rise against the machine - Killing in the name" in her ears the entire time.

"f**k you, I won't do what you tell me!"

She nodded in agreement, feeling her cheeks burn with shame.

That b***h.

"God, I hope she dies," she thought. She hated her boss with a fiery passion. That controlling, busy-bodied, stupid cow was always harping on at her.

That night, she sat talking to Damien - arranging another date.

He said he would cook her a meal and even brought her a rice cooker to do the rice - even though she said the cheap microwave version would be fine.

The following morning she didn't have work but she saw Callum taking his little sister to school as she walked into town to meet her mum and sister.

She tapped him on the shoulder. "Please remember what I said, okay?"

He promised he would before changing the subject to something about himself, then grabbed his little sister and flung her onto his shoulder. He dropped her, took a puff on his vape and offered it to Angel.

She hadn't smoked a vape before but nodded and took the massive tank from his hand.

It tasted like strawberries and dry ice, but it wasn't too bad.

"If any of the other staff saw me do that, I'd be fired in a shot," she said, passing it back to him.

He laughed, which made her smile because it was so hard to make him laugh.

"Later," he said, crossing the road with his little sister's hand in his.

"What a good big brother," Angel thought, smiling to herself. She didn't get why the school feared and hated him so. They were threatening to throw him out for inciting violence and antagonising the teachers, but Angel would not let that happen. She would murder the head before she let him do that.

She said as much to her mum and sister Jane as they sat at their usual spot - the armchair section of Costa Coffee.

Both had parented "problem children" of their own so agreed with the general sentiment.

The topic changed to other matters - her mum moaning about something or other. All she did was moan, and it was starting to piss her off. She knew it pissed off her Dad too but he would never say so for fear of upsetting her.

After the day's episode of moan-fest winded down, Angel headed off home to prepare for her date by trying on a plethora of outfits, each more extravigant than the one before it.

She wondered what he would prefer and landed on a sexy 40s housewife.

But she needed weed to survive this date night, and she only knew one place to get it - Kai.

She messaged him asking for weed.

After a few agonising hours, he replied, "I saw you with that other guy."

"Oh, s**t," Angel muttered.

"I went on a date," she admitted.

"1 - you said you wouldn't sleep with anyone else. And 2 - I was sleeping in a car, and I could have been with you, but you were too busy on a date with some random guy you fucking."

"What?!" Angel cried. What the hell was he blaming his homelessness on her for? And why couldn't she sleep with other guys? Surely he saw other girls plus his ACTUAL GIRLFRIEND?

"I'll give you 60 quid for 3 tiny joints?" she offered.

He agreed because he needed the money. He was poor and always smelled bad—like stale cigarette smoke and rainwater.

He passed it to her on the doorstep, which was annoying because she had nosy neighbours. The pervert would leer at her and invite her over to watch DVDs. DV-bloody-Ds as if it was 1996.

With a creepy smile, he asked if she was okay, as if they were friends or something.

"Yeah," I said.

"So you got a boyfriend then or what?" he asked, looking down at the floor. The guy struggled with eye contact.

"I just went on one date but year I am seeing him again and I am going to keep seeing him," she told him.

"Right," he muttered, getting on his bike to leave.

"What a dork," she muttered once he'd left.

After smoking for a bit, she got into character—Jenny Christ. She was the coolest character—funny, confident, sexy, always prepared for a fight but hiding her strength from everyone. The only thing she wasn't good at was golf, which resonated with Angel since Angel had failed PE and hated all forms of physical exertion.

She put on her sexy outfit and sexy underwear and made up her face to look spectacular, then sat and smoked as she awaited her man.