The two canned juices that I grabbed were gracelessly tucked under my arm and I had attempted to steady the food on the plate.
“I’ll never understand that boy,” my father commented as I tethered up the stairs, trying to make it to my room without disaster.
That made two of us, it really did.
“I can’t stop thinking about how familiar your mother’s voice sounds,” Avery said around the food in her mouth.
I shrugged and took a sip of my drink. “Maybe you know her, who knows?”
Avery smirked at my flippant attitude and sat back on the bed. “Well, Mr. Forbes, where was I?”
“I think the part where you started shooting everything up.”
She rolled her eyes and began nibbling on a muffin. I could tell she was a bit nervous about delving into her not so glamorous past, especially with me. She seemed even more perturbed as the story went on as if she was sifting through information. I waited until she finally looked up to convey with my eyes that she could trust me.
After Jonathan had left, she was upset, confused and a little annoyed—always a little annoyed. Avery did the thing she felt right, she called Elijah over and he happily complied. I think he knew he was winning and couldn’t wait to claim his prize. Elijah ended up comforting Avery in her time of despair and any good manipulator knows that that is the way to gain a puppet.
Elijah began inviting Avery to his kickboxing classes, showing her advanced moves. Because everyone was so eager to get into the midst of a popular circle, they placed Avery on a pedestal, which made her very happy. They decided to take it to the next level soon after. All that time Avery had been hiding from Jonathan, the only person who was really there for her.
Not long after, Elijah let Avery into the darker side of his life. She felt privileged, not scared, to be privy to this information. His older brother was imprisoned which cemented the bad-boy persona really well. For some reason, he wanted to out-do his brother and before Avery moved to town, he formed a small gang led by fists and pocket knives.
At first, it was to scare people into respecting them but, sometimes, power floats to your head and stays there, corrupting every innocent thought, as few as they were, and you begin trying to out-do even yourself. They were often caught up in the law but, as it turned out, rich parents pave the right paths for troubled children.
Avery was just an outsider—onlooker—at first. Only observing the techniques and cheering Elijah on when he ‘taught someone a lesson’. She didn’t find anything wrong with that because it was all just for fun. Because you know hurting people was for fun, it was entertaining.
Pretty soon, Avery began taking classes with him to improve her kick-boxing skill.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. You didn’t have a very good teacher then because you’re defenseless.”
Avery raised a brow at me and motioned for me to get up. I complied, placing a smug smile on my face; this was going to be too easy. I’d just follow the technique I’d used at the hospital.
Before I knew it, her fist was flying to my face at an alarming speed. I ducked just in time and I breathed a sigh of relief. However, that was too soon, much too soon, she kicked my legs from off the ground. I groaned as I hit the ground. Unfortunately for me, the sheets were at the front of the bed not beside. So, my fall wasn’t at all cushioned.
“Say uncle,” Avery said, with a devious smile, pushing my leg forward.
I shook my head profusely. “No way.”
She took this as a challenge. I suppose I could’ve said uncle from the beginning but that would smash the remaining pieces of my ego. She released her grip from my leg, and it fell painfully to the floor. A rush of air left my mouth.
Avery stepped over my torso so that her feet were at my sides. The harsh look in her eyes softened. “I really don’t want to hurt you, Jason.”
“Stop being such a girl,” I muttered lightly.
She pressed her lips together before bringing her fists down roughly on my stomach. I groaned more audibly this time, but Avery had stopped considering my feelings after the jibe I made. Another fist to the stomach made me want to roll over on my side and never get up. It seemed as if she knew just where to inflict injuries. She reached down and pulled my hand back so far, it felt as if it would disintegrate into indistinguishable mush.
“Okay, I believe you.”
Avery pulled it farther, making it feel as if it was dislocated from my shoulder. “That’s not what I told you to say.”
I really wanted to roll my eyes, but I didn’t have that much control over my body. “Fine, uncle.”
She let go and I cradled my arm to my chest, looking at her with furrowed brows. “If you could do that, why’d you let me have the upper hand at the hospital?”
Avery removed the plates from the bed and shrugged. “Believe it or not, I didn’t, I just didn’t expect you to have some moves.”
I gave her a flat look before gently easing myself off the floor. Having a female friend who could beat you up was no fun.
It turned out that she also picked up a few martial arts lessons along the way and, pretty soon, she was really good at what she did. There was a certain thrill to it I guess; knowing you could easily harm someone who stepped in your way. Before long, Elijah had her fight a few long-time members of the clique. Although she left with a few scratches and bruises she always came out on top. Elijah was delighted, his personal monkey was trained and equipped to do his dirty work.
News spread around the school quickly and Avery was now known as another person to fear. Elijah’s group was rightfully feared/respected afterward. It was enough to have five badass guys, but add one badass girl and the game rose to a whole different level. However, after a while, Elijah felt as if Avery was taking his rightful place as leader of the school which, in my opinion, wasn’t a very feasible gang territory.
Avery’s voice had become so quiet that I actually started listening closely to her words. “It’s funny actually; he told me we had a match with someone really good, I was so psyched because I’d already beaten his wimpy gang. But, when I got there, the normal ‘five-person’ only room was increased to at least half the population of the school.”
I could see it: all the cheering, a gigantic crowd finally privy to seeing the depths of a much-discussed fight. And even better, a fight with the leader of the little group. That’s right, Elijah wanted everyone to know how much of a top-dog he was; no one was better than him. Avery was unsure about what was going on. She hadn’t even seen him fight in a setting like that one before.
“What are you doing?” she had asked, suddenly nervous.
Elijah didn’t respond, he just sent a brief nod to someone behind Avery who had pushed her closer to him. The crowd gave thunderous applause when Elijah kissed her roughly, she tried to push him off but he held on even together. I guess watching someone basically being assaulted was good entertainment for those watching.
Before Avery had time to think, Elijah had already begun attacking her, Avery didn’t respond though; I supposed there was some underlying loyalty she possessed towards him. She refused to fight back, I’m not sure why, but no sane guy would fight their girlfriend. He stopped the brutality only when she was writhing in pain on the floor, basically seeing stars.
The crowd was cheering for Elijah because beating up your girlfriend gave you some prestige, I guess. You would’ve imagined that it’d all be over, right? Wrong. After the crowd had dispersed, Elijah explained to Avery why he did what he did. I could imagine him stroking her hair.
“You know why I did what I did right? I just wanted everyone to know who was first in command. But the good news is you’re a fine second.”
He had then made some interesting rules, all new to the little infamous after school club. I think more than anything, he wanted them to stand out from everyone else as his. To me, he seemed power-crazed and a lot more mental than Avery was letting on.
True to his word, he took them all five guys and one
girl to get their hair dyed. The most mainstream color that was available was what he chose, but it was going to be a mainstream carbon-copy of him and his power. Another choice he made was that he would get a tattoo of the highest rank in the group and then Avery at second in command. I think, at that point, any adoration on Avery’s part had been fast converted to fear.
My phone rang shrilly, disrupting my trance at watching Avery’s stupor-like position. I slowly picked it up and held it at my ear.
“Sweetie, when you’re finished with cleaning up, can you take me some files I left on the coffee table?”
My brows scrunched in startled surprise; just how late was it? I pulled the phone from my ear and looked at the time. It was almost eleven. Thinking back, it must’ve actually been that late because Avery had indeed paused during of her story. I didn’t hurry her along, I was too transfixed by her far-away gazes and the purplish bruise on her cheek.
“Uh, yeah. I can do that. Is everyone gone?”
My mother didn’t answer for a moment and I just heard some random shuffling before she replied, “Yeah, yeah, Jade’s at her friend’s house.”
I sighed in relief. “Okay, I’ll be there soon.”
“Thanks so much.”
I hung up and glanced at Avery who was staring at me. “Willing to finish over some chores?”
Chapter
XVII
Unlike Chantal, Avery seemed annoyed that she had to help me do chores. I pretended I didn’t notice; she wasn’t going to let me do this all alone. I turned the tap off and turned to see how she was doing. She had both her hands atop the broom and was staring out of space, completely blanked. I clapped loudly and she jumped so severely the broom fell from her hands.
I chortled at her disgruntled expression; a reaction out of Avery was a cause for celebration. I began wiping the table and turned halfway toward her. “I have a feeling the rest of the story isn’t going to be good, huh?”
“It’s my life, not a story,” Avery muttered after taking a seat at the table. I sat directly in front of her. She sighed and took my hand that had been bruised from my irrational moment of hitting my van a week before. “This is infantile compared to what we got,” she commented, moving her hand over the now scarred area.
“What do you mean?”
She continued to stroke my hand. “After that incident, he decided to up the ante and wreak havoc around the town. My parents often had to collect me from the holding cell. As expected they took what was going on as a passing phase, so I didn’t get in trouble. But defacing public property was frowned upon by everyone; we almost got charged at one point. And, as you know, money talks and bull—”
“Wait, your parents paid them off?”
“No dummy,” Avery muttered, as she gave me an incredulous look. “Elijah’s did, every time we did something a bit ‘too’ wrong, they’d step in and solve the problem. I felt like a terrorist, pulling pranks that were no longer funny and scaring people so much, they cowered when they saw us. My sister had left a few months before all clean-cut; no addiction to any illegal substances anywhere.
“I just don’t understand how she even became an addict. Reena was the perfect one who everyone envied. My parents were encouraged to send me here to live with her because, of course, she was the perfect daughter. As much as I tried to hide it from Elijah, he found out somehow. He was furious; he wanted to harm my parents, which I immediately shot down.
“Then he figured out the perfect way to show that we weren’t going to be that easily separated. He conjured some elaborate plan to ensure that no one could stop him, to show that they couldn’t control me; he was the only one to do that.”
Her grip on the table and my hand got tighter and I knew we were at the climax of the story. I was almost afraid to hear what happened next.
“It was silly actually and very risky, but Elijah enjoyed the thrill of it all; it interested him. He knew I probably would’ve tried to stop him if I knew about his plan. He didn’t tell me about it until the day of and, by that point, the plan was in motion. He decided to set the library ablaze, one of the town’s most prized historical possessions.
“It was actually an easy plan to make because the library itself was a fire hazard. Before he sent the signal, I tried to at least usher everyone out. Everyone thought I was crazy, of course. And then I saw Jonathan, studying something in-depth.” I watched as her eyes glazed over as the memory replayed itself in her head. She gripped my hand tighter.
“I said, ‘Jonathan, you have to leave now.’
“He looked dumbstruck, probably surprised that I was actually talking to him again. I tried tugging on his arm to get out but he just stood there like a maniac staring at me.
“‘You have to leave, Elijah’s—’ I didn’t even get a chance to finish before he tugged his hand from mine with a sneer.
“‘Elijah? I should’ve known. I thought you would think differently after...’ And with that, he grabbed his Chemistry text-books and headed to the back of the library.”
I got chills at the Chemistry book part. I didn’t know about anything else but that was creepy. And it was certainly coincidental, that that was the one subject we had together. “Why didn’t you try harder to persuade him or something?”
Avery sighed and pulled her hand back, mine felt cold and limp in return. “I was going to, but Elijah called to warn me that it was now or never. And as selfish as it sounds, I left him there. As soon as I stepped out, I heard an explosion. I saw Elijah standing off to the side grinning happily, excited that everyone would see his power. I watched everyone exit screaming and confused. I counted every person and none of them was Jonathan.”
My surprise was imprinted all over my face; this was more than I expected. If I thought I was the only one who experienced something traumatic, I was sadly mistaken. I knew the feeling—as much as you wanted to adapt to a certain situation, it was near impossible. But this—this was a lot to swallow and as much as I wanted to say something comforting, my mouth refused to comply, suddenly gaining a mind of its own.
When Avery began speaking, this time, her voice was controlled, serene. She wasn’t looking at me; she was looking beyond the house, beyond this town. “It was a horrible fire. I left after it seemed as if I wasn’t going to see him leave unscathed, maybe walking through the fire invincibly.” She paused and her eyes snapped to mine.
“How does it feel to be popular?” she asked suddenly, her eyes intense.
I was taken by surprise; I hadn’t really thought about it. How did it feel? To outsiders, it must’ve looked glamorous, exciting, but, to us it was restrictive. You couldn’t do something without being stuck under a magnifying glass, being burned with no mercy, like a harmless leaf torn apart for a science project.
“Popularity rules,” I commented cynically.
Avery nodded and a wry smile appeared on her face. “It does, doesn’t it?” She stared at the table with the same smile. “Well, the police got an anonymous tip that we were all involved. I wasn’t even involved in the planning in any way and I still got arrested. And – get this – they didn’t charge us as minors because of the nature of the crime. Elijah’s parents got us the best lawyer money could buy. The trials were exhausting but we got off easy with probation and community service.”
I sighed in relief that the story at least ended relatively happily, no jail time. “That’s good.”
Avery stood and headed to the counter and faced away from me. I turned slightly in my seat and tried to get a glimpse of her expression but as usual, her hair was a curtain.
“I decided to put all of that behind me and move in with Reena. The day before I was planning to leave, my parents told me they were suing Elijah’s parents on a technicality. So, after those weeks of torment, they were making me go through it again.” Avery turned to look at me and I felt an intense need to stand, so I did. “I was so glad to have it all over and now it’s started again.”
I slowly inched over to where she
was and sighed. “Think of it this way, there’s no Jonathan,” I muttered, without thinking; ironic right? It wasn’t until her face crumpled that I realized what I’d said. “I’m sorry Avery, I didn’t mean it like that.”
Avery nodded absently. “I know, I know.”
“I’m going to go—”
Before I could finish, Avery was on her toes, pressing her lips to mine. I’ll admit; I was surprised, and I know she probably was only using me. At that point though, the testosterone-fueled part of my brain took over and I could care less. She was moving so quickly; it was hard to take control. I figured she was trying to wipe her mind of all memories of Jonathan.
Avery suddenly pulled away from me, making me start, my hands feeling as if they were pulled from my arms because they were pressed to her back. “Oh my God. Who is that?”
I was a bit disgruntled. “What?”
“The picture, why do you have a picture of her in your house?” she asked, practically screaming at me.
“Who?” I asked in return, turning around to take a look. “My mother?”
Avery’s eyes widened. “Forbes, your name is Forbes. This is unbelievable!”
I raised an eyebrow at her and turned, once again, to look at the picture. It was a framed photograph of my father and mother. He was gently kissing her cheek and she had a look of surprise on her face. It was pretty charming. Not to mention, everyone else who saw it had a completely different reaction, that’s for sure.
I turned just in time to see her wiping her lips with so much force that it seemed as if she thought I had given her some horribly contagious and paralytic disease.
“I can’t believe you,” she exclaimed, using the back of her hand once more to scrub at her lips.
“What did I do?” I asked, just as loudly but understandably more confused.
“You could’ve told me your mother was a lawyer. You’re so manipulative!”
My brows pulled together. “Will you just calm down and explain?” It wasn’t until then I registered her words. “How did you know she’s a lawyer?”
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