RYOT GRL

Chapter 7

At lunch, Georgina and Stella make me come sit with them. Truthfully, they're not all bad. They wouldn’t be my first choice if I was to pick who would I be friends with, but they haven’t said a bad word to me so for now they’ll do. I notice the trio of Westgate bad boys walk in, Hames and Georgina’s eyes lock and she’s the first to look away. “Do you two have history?”, I ask seeing as his eyes are still on her. “What?”, she looks up from her salad in surprise. “You and the boy who can’t stop staring at you”, I gesture towards Hames. She looks and her eyes widen as do his slightly and both parties look away. “No. Why would you think that?”, she says doing a bad job at hiding it. “I was just curious”, I explain, and she plays with the rings on her fingers flustered. I watch their table, noticing how their the loudest, yet no one’s looking at them, they're all too afraid. I must admit, I am impressed on how they’ve intimidated everyone is this school. The girls are talking to them and flirting shamelessly. With Hope Mathews sitting on Jordan’s lap.

“Where are you from Dodo?”, Stella asks and for once I’m stumped on how to answer. What can I even say to that? “Around”, I say eventually, and she frowns but doesn’t press further. “When did you move here?”, Georgina asks. “Two days ago,”, I deadpan. “Why did you move here?”.

“What’s with all the questions”, I snap, and she recoils. “Nothing I’m sorry. I just wanted to get to know you”, she says quietly. “Well, don’t. I won’t be here for very long”, and I stand up dumping my uneaten lunch in the bin and walking out.

Lunch isn’t over so instead I put my headphones in and walk around the school, scowling harshly at anyone who dares look in my direction. I see the principal coming my way and I quickly walk into an empty classroom at an attempt to avoid him, standing in the doorway watching him. He’s smiling to himself, walking around in his plush suit that's two sizes too small. Someone needs to tell him, just because he’s the principal doesn’t mean he owns the school.

“Can’t stay away from me can you”, I turn around to see the last person I wanted to run into Castle Maddox, sitting by an open window smoking a cigarette. “Stalking much”, he says as he lifts the cigarette to his lips. An action I follow with my eyes, remembering our kiss. “I’m not stalking you”, I retort harshly, and he smirks. “Why are you in here?”, I ask as he takes a long drag from it. “Couldn’t wait till you got home”, I ask with a raised eyebrow. He shrugs his shoulders. “This is a good a place as any”, he says his steely eyes watching me. “I tend to not listen to authority”, he replies and I role my eyes at how cliché he is. “I kind of got that. When I saw a security guard chasing you”, I remark and his eyes light up making me realise my mistake. “So, you do remember”, his says haughtily, taking one last drag before flicking his cigarette out of the window, taking a step towards me. “That could fall on someone”, I spit, in attempts to cool down my raging heartbeat. “Then they should watch where they're going”, he retorts, and I raise my eyebrows. He takes a step further towards me and I keep my back pressed to the floor. “Why did you pretend to forget?”, he asks, and I clutch onto the door handle. “You could take someone’s eye out throwing it out the window”, I mutter in a desperate attempt to steer the conversation away from our kiss. “Maybe if we had another one you wouldn’t be so quick to forget”, he says softly, and I feel my heart fall out of my chest. My icy demeanour slowly melting. I’ve never felt this way towards anyone before. He keeps moving until we’re in touching distance; I can’t compute the words to speak. He bends down and I feel like my whole body has been zapped with energy and my heart is about to explode. His eyes are gazing intently on my lips and it weren’t for his eyes holding me hostage I would have run out of here a long time ago. “Now”, and I feel his cold breathe on my lips. “Could you move. You’re blocking the exit”, he says standing up straight and walking back so there is more space between us. I feel like an i***t. I’ve just shown him I’m affected by him. I open the door and close it harshly behind me, hoping it slams in his face and stride towards my next class, bashing into anyone that gets into my way. My next class is Maths and it’s the only other class except for art that I can blag. I can write numbers. I sit at the back, my face sour. Georgina is in this class and so is Hames. I notice how every so often, he throws paper balls at her when the teacher isn’t looking and kicking her chair, making her jump and go scarlet red. I can tell she’s angry but isn’t saying anything because she’s scared of what he might do if she does. So, when he leans forward to throw something at her, I pull his chair with my foot causing him to fall with a thump on the floor when he goes to sit back down.

As I expected no one laughs when he falls, knowing the consequence for them would be much worse. Georgina turns around and catches eyes with me. I wink at her and she smiles. I look at him, who’s face is thunderous as he looks at me, his eyes blazing. I stare innocently back at him. He sits back down but doesn’t bother Georgina for the rest of the lesson which I can’t help but gloat about. When it ends, he comes over to me grabbing my arm. “You’re going to pay for that”, he hisses. “I look forward to it”, I retort back pulling my arm out of his grasp and getting out of the classroom pulling Georgina along with me before he can talk to her. “Spill”, I say before she has a chance to say anything. “How long has he been harassing you”, I interrogate, and tears start to form in her eyes as she looks down to the floor. “Since last year. He won’t leave me alone”. “Why? What happened?”, I ask as tears slip down her cheeks. “I don’t know. I accidentally bumped into him one day and ever since then I’ve been his number one target”, she cries. “You need to learn to stand up for yourself”. I don’t mean to come off cold, but I’ve seen the same story play out too often. Helpless girl gets bullied by the guy who’s secretly in love with her. She deserves better than that. “It doesn’t matter what I do. He won’t leave me alone”, she sobs. “The best thing you can do is ignore him. Completely. Pretend he doesn’t exist. When you see him coming look the other way. Trust me it will drive him mad”, I say, and she frowns. “Won’t that make it worse?”. “Do you want to be pushed around by him?”, I ask her, and she shakes her head. “Then grow a backbone”, I say rather coldly, and I can see she’s shaken by my words. But she nods, wiping her tears away from her eyes.

The bell rings for the end of the day and I walk her to her car. Seeing that he’s parked near her, sitting on his bonnet and when he sees her coming, he jumps up, standing right in front of her. She looks behind at me and I hold her gaze, telling her to be strong and hold her own. She turns away. “Go away Hames”, she mutters coldly, and side steps him. “Don’t walk away from me”, he spits and grabs her arm, too which she pulls away from him. “I said leave me alone”, she retorts harshly, and he drops her in surprise, watching her as she gets in her car and drives away. I watch his eyes flash a look of hurt and it’s what he deserves. I cast my eyes away from him, as he walks back to his friends, all parked together. I look at Castle who’s got his arm slung around some girl, whispering into her ear. He looks up, winking at me and I scowl. Telling my heart to slow down, at the jealousy spiking in me seeing him talk to another girl. She’s exactly what I expected his type to be. Petite, thin, looking like she’s walked out of a magazine and completely infatuated with him. I watch as they both get in his car and he drives off, flicking his cigarette out of the car causing it to land at my feet. I flip the bird at his car and start walking. It’s only a short walk to our new house. When I get home, I’m not surprised when I see my mum’s not home. She’s probably off somewhere, finding the next man to fall in love with her, so instead I take Ruben for a walk. My mum neglects him when she’s home so he ends up staying in my room until I come back. It’s sunny, and the type of day where everyone wears shorts and halter tops. Before we left, I applied a thick layer of smoky eyes and black lipstick and I can feel it starting to melt on my face, so I have to stop in a cafe on the boardwalk for some fresh air. I tie Ruben around the railing promising to bring him back ice cream. I’m not worried at someone taking him, he’s so big and sluggish they wouldn’t get very far with him. I walk in, joining the queue. It’s so long, I’m right by the door. As the line lessens, I see the person taking the orders. I spot the familiar light blonde hair and hear her chirpy voice and look to see it’s my mum. I’m rendered on the spot speechless and rush out before she turns around and sees me. She’s never had a job before, she’s never needed one before. Why now? Maybe it’s her way of proving to me that she can stay in one place. I rush back home lugging Ruben with me. I don’t bother making dinner instead watching the telly on the couch until she comes home.

She comes through dressed in her white shorts and pink tank top, sitting on the coach next to me. “Where were you”, I ask suspiciously. “I went shopping”, she says quickly. “What did you buy?”, I ask, and I watch as her eyes widen for a moment. “There was nothing there worth buying”, she blurts clasping her hands together. “How was school?”, she asks. “Fine”. “Did you make any friends?”, “No”, I retort, and she sighs. “Have you eaten dinner?”, I shake my head and she get up. “I’ll make something”, and she walks off to the kitchen. I can’t help but feel a pang of hurt at her lying. We tell each other everything within reason. There would be no reason for her to lie about having a job. It’s not like it means anything.