Popularity Rules

by Shamika Lindsay

  “So coincidental that I’m in her kitchen snogging her son,” she muttered to herself before giving her lips one more wipe. I probably failed to mention how bruised my ego was getting so far. Before Avery came along, that didn’t seem possible but, now, it was something I expected. “She was Elijah’s lawyer.”

  My eyes widened for a moment. “What?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Remember when I said his parents got only the best? She was one of them.”

  I folded my arms over my chest and tried to contain my surprise. I was baffled. My mind flashed back to the morning my mother saw her. The look on my mother’s face was pure terror and recognition. I hadn’t given it much thought, but it all made sense. I just didn’t understand why she’d fear Avery.

  “What did she do to make you hate her so much?”

  Avery turned her back to me and I could see how tense she was. “She smeared my family’s name through the dirt, not leaving anything in the wake. She even dug up the case with the library fire. She made it out as if I had done it, as if I planned everything and Elijah was some innocent bystander. The worst part, though, was that he sat there with a smirk on his face because he knew he always wins.”

  For lawyers, the job wasn’t so hard – find a story and stick with it despite the repercussions it would have for the opposing party. My mother was good at her job for a reason. You had to be a good liar or else, your story would burst into irrefutable flames.

  Avery continued, “I threatened her. I didn’t know what else to do. She believed me though; I guess she knew what I was capable of. I told her I’d find her…”

  I thought back again to how jumpy and nervous she was that morning. At that point, Avery probably didn’t recognize her because she was too dazed. That’s when it clicked, she must’ve seen Elijah that morning but if he was here from then, why was she just talking to him and why weren’t the police involved? I think we were at an impasse, unwillingly too.

  “…her kids,” she finished, nonchalantly.

  That exact moment lightning flashed, making her jump. The coincidences surrounding this girl were far too eerie. Our eyes met and I chuckled, running my hand through my hair. Here this girl was telling me how she told my mother she’d hurt us, and I was laughing.

  “Well, that was strange,” I commented lightly.

  Avery rolled her eyes. “Stop thinking what you’re thinking. There is nothing out of the ordinary wrong with me.”

  The impending rain started just that moment and I smirked knowingly, it was fun pushing Avery’s buttons without a risk of her snapping at me. It was a nice little moment, even nature decided to coincide with it. Moments like these were short – brief, slightly bittersweet. And not surprisingly, I had to ruin it.

  “Was Dylan a substitute for Jonathan?”

  Avery’s face contorted into a look of sadness and I immediately regretted what I had said. If I had the ability to erase that look from her face, I’d have been happier. I didn’t think she would have that reaction out of anything. A lot of developments were coming out today into our non-existent relationship. But I was still an ass for bringing Dylan and Jonathan up.

  “Dylan is probably the nicest person I ever met and look what I did. He was actually when I first saw him, I was surprised. He just seemed so much like Jonathan, then he asked me out. I just had to say yes. It was as if it was starting all over again and I had to choose between the popular guy and—”

  “Wait, I was a choice?” I asked in surprise.

  Avery bit her lip and gave a sheepish grin. “You weren’t. You have a girlfriend—”

  “Had,” I interjected, “I had a girlfriend.”

  She rolled her eyes but conceded. “Okay, okay you had a girlfriend.” I watched as she silently traced her hands over the patterns on the counter. It was interesting to watch her silently mull over thoughts. “I resented the fact that you were popular though, I just—”

  There was a brief beeping sound from her pocket and she held up her finger, motioning for me to wait. After taking out her phone, which was rather expensive-looking, her eyes bulged and her breathing stopped. I pried the phone from her immobile fingers and scanned the screen.

  ‘S.O.S. Come home now.’

  The message was short but a whole lot of meanings could’ve been taken from it. The sender was her sister. For some reason, I didn’t want her to go, something seemed odd about it, a little too forced, a little too reminiscent of the previous. But Avery had already gone out the door.

  Chapter

  XVIII

  “Avery,” I called in exasperation while grabbing my keys just in case. I followed her out the door and noticed she had already left the backyard. “Avery wait,” I tried again.

  It would seem as if I was just a figment of her imagination and I wasn’t even there. Avery crossed the lawn quickly as if she was in a trance. I jogged up to her and placed my hands on her shoulders, stopping her.

  “You’re being very irrational,” I said slowly, gauging her dazed look. “Just calm down.”

  Instead of retaliating like I assumed she would, she just grabbed my forearm tightly, trying to steady herself. I could see she deemed Elijah as powerful and dangerous, rightfully so. But I could see it was bait. Usually, when a fish wouldn’t take the less destructive bait, a stick of dynamite was used to blow them out. Of course, that was the harsher way, but Elijah had a reputation for being cruel.

  “I have to go,” she said in a detached whisper.

  This time, I didn’t try to stop her because if she didn’t go, he’d come find her and I knew that whatever the consequences they would be worst. And maybe because I was insane or something else, I decided to go with her. I couldn’t be mean enough to let her go alone. I just couldn’t.

  I almost wished we could walk all the way to Aspiration Park just to stall the inevitable. Avery made her way over to the van and leaned against it lifelessly. I gently nudged her out of the way and opened the door for her. I almost lifted her and buckled her in, but she fluidly jumped in, almost as if she wasn’t scarily disoriented a second ago.

  Instead of stalling like the other times I started it, my van actually decided to chortle right away. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous and a little antsy, I was but I knew I had to present a strong front for Avery. I didn’t try to make any conversation though. The strained silence was hard enough to breathe through, much less to attempt to slice with words.

  The dingy town of Aspiration Park drew near a whole lot more speedily than I was ready to accept. Pretty soon, we were stalled in front of Avery’s house. For some reason, it looked different; slightly more eerie as if all of Elijah’s menace permeated it until it becomes devoid of any other possible quality. It turned out that while I was examining the dilapidated house, Avery had already gone ahead, almost tripping over her feet in her hurry to get to the front door.

  Just as I was about to chase after her, the grey, tattered door swung open wildly and, in its midst, stood Reena, with her eyes wide and darting everywhere. I hurried out the van and up to where Avery was, staring cautiously. Reena was abruptly pulled back and Avery hurried after her.

  I had no choice but to follow as well. Inside the house was different from the last time I was here. It was unlike the exterior; it was crisp and clean and no longer cloudy with pillars of smoke. Elijah and two bulky men stood off to the side with Reena. He still looked like an indie-punk band member in his early twenties, as I previously surmised. It was hard to believe he was roughly the same age I was.

  His eyes widened upon seeing me, probably remembering me from Marc’s cousin’s house. I attempted a somewhat flippant look as if I wasn’t jittery.

  “How did you—” he started to mumble towards me before his eyes snapped to Avery who was already in the defensive position. “Who is this?”

  Avery’s eyes flickered to mine and I could clearly see she was going to try and protect me. What kind of sick, twisted world was this anyway, where the girl protected the
guy? That wasn’t the way things worked, despite the recent sexist stereotypes.

  “I just asked him for a ride,” she said innately, not even blinking.

  My brows furrowed and I shook my head infinitesimally. “Cut the crap Avery, you know you told me everything.”

  Avery’s expression grew livid and I swore if she had the power to, she’d have ripped my head off and played basketball with it. I mean, maybe I was being unnecessarily idiotic, but I could protect myself. I didn’t need her to protect me.

  Elijah, however, looked surprised. He continuously glanced between Avery and I. After a moment, though, he grinned gleefully. “She told you everything, huh? I’m surprised you aren’t running in the opposite direction.”

  I frowned at him. “Why’d I run? From what I heard you did everything.”

  Elijah’s brows furrowed for a moment before he burst out laughing. He laughed for quite a while too, wiping at his eyes. “Is that what she told you?” he asked a bit breathlessly.

  I nodded and averted my gaze to Avery dubiously; she was facing away from me, staring at the wall. She wouldn’t lie to me. Elijah was just being unduly manipulative, right?

  “Yes,” I replied confidently.

  Elijah snorted and wiped his eyes slightly from the remnants of his raucous laughter before turning his amused gaze to Avery. “Why would I go out of my way to seek out a high school student?”

  My brows furrowed. “But you went to high school with her?” I said, my mouth twisting the words into a question.

  Avery stiffened and I grew more confused. Elijah rolled his eyes at me and still sported that cocky grin. “Just for some clarity, she sought me out. I wasn’t a student at her high school,” he said simply, matter-of-factly.

  “What?” was the only coherent thing my mouth could utter; I couldn’t hide my astonishment at his words. That meant that Avery didn’t go to school with him and he was an older guy. The mere fact that she wasn’t denying it cemented the fact that it was true. She spent all that time feeding me lies. I didn’t need someone who claimed to be clairvoyant to tell me this wasn’t the last time she’d lie to me. I just couldn’t understand why.

  “Is there a reason you lured me here?” Avery asked emotionlessly.

  Elijah lounged easily on the sofa and smiled lazily at her. “Yeah, but this is way better.” I didn’t miss the wickedly amused look he had on his face. “You can go now if you’d like—for now.”

  Avery glanced at Reena, who spoke up for the first time since we showed up, “I’ll be fine, just go.”

  Despite that obviously being a very irrational choice, I conceded because I couldn’t breathe the same air as these people anymore. They were far too twisted, Avery included. I probably should’ve cared that Avery was leaving her sister with some lunatic, but what difference did it make? Avery was a lunatic herself. I did find it odd that Elijah was just letting us go, quite similarly to how he had let Avery go the previous night.

  I refused to even spare Avery a glance even when she sighed loudly. Instead of going straight home, I headed into town, finally remembering my mother’s small request. Although I didn’t have the documents she wanted, I just needed an excuse to get her out of the vehicle.

  The shopping mall was bustling with large throngs of people. I wasn’t surprised—it was a Saturday after all. It would’ve just been harder to remain inconspicuous when hordes of people from school hung out around here. I stopped at the drop-off area and stalled the car expectantly.

  “Listen, Jason I—”

  “I have things to do, can you just get out?”

  “Wait—”

  “Get out!” I said again, this time actually meaning it.

  After a moment, Avery finally relinquished and got out of the vehicle. I was taken aback at how proud she managed to look despite how awful I was feeling for getting angry at her. But, for all I know she could’ve been the one to coerce Elijah into causing that library fire, if there was even such a thing. And maybe that Jonathan guy was a figment of her imagination.

  I watched as she crossed the street and disappeared from view. I just couldn’t stop myself from being stupid. How do you care about someone who has no qualms about treating you like a rag doll? Just as I was about to back out a vehicle pulled up behind me, trapping me momentarily. I watched as a group of girls filed out, giggling and talking excitedly. I recognized them as a couple of persons in the years below us. I sighed involuntarily—I was going to be here for a while.

  I caught a glimpse of the last person I wanted to see, well really—second to last. Breanna stood watching me. I’m not sure how long but she was staring at me with a blank expression on her face. As soon as she noticed that I saw her, she began approaching me, almost menacingly. I really couldn’t handle the nasal sound of her voice at that moment. The car behind me was slowly inching away, the mother of one of the girls calling something to one of them. I honked loudly, noticing that Breanna was almost at my window.

  At the last moment possible, she pulled away and I narrowly managed to escape an interrogation from Breanna. I wasn’t prepared for school Monday because as I told Avery, popularity rules.

  My nose wrinkled in frustration at the warm smile everyone greeted me with. I knew they were elated because I decided to walk the school hallways instead of the scantily occupied routes I had decided to use for the past week. At first, I was a bit apprehensive at coming this way. I half expected girls to pounce out of the ceiling at me. Everyone stood off distantly instead as if they were afraid that stepping unto my path would burn them.

  I was already on the lookout for anything suspicious or Avery-related. I wasn’t going to hide from the entire student population. But from her, on the other hand, I was more than willing to. I was halfway to my first class when Dylan appeared in my field of vision.

  Naturally, my first instinct was to be hostile toward him, but this time my face fell into a frown and I immediately had picturesque images of Avery and I kissing. I guiltily ran my hand through my hair. And because he was smiling widely at me, I had no reason but to smile sheepishly at him in return.

  “Hey Dylan,” I muttered, uncomfortably, running my hand through my hair yet again, acutely aware of everyone in a 5-person radius watching us intently. “What’s up?”

  He seemed oblivious to my unjustifiable frustration. “I’d just like to talk to you about a fundraiser we’re having for the science club.”

  I motioned for him to come along, so we could walk and talk. Why was he coming to me about science? I wasn’t necessarily the brightest bulb there was. “Uh-huh? What do you want me to do exactly?”

  “Well,” Dylan began, fumbling with his glasses. “We were thinking about a little swimming competition.”

  I snorted. “Sorry to burst your bubble but swimming doesn’t exactly scream science.”

  Dylan quickly amended. “I know that, but it would get more revenue if you go since all the girls would go and, by some extent, the guys.”

  I wrinkled my nose as we came to a stop at the door of my first class. “So, you’re basically using me?” I asked rhetorically.

  Dylan shrugged. “I wouldn’t call it that per se but—”

  He was interrupted by Avery who bounded over to us and pulled roughly on my arm. “Will you just listen already?”

  Dylan, the nice guy he was, was oblivious to the tension swarming us. He smiled widely at Avery and leaned in to kiss her cheek. Avery blinked in response as if just noticing him. She raised her eyes to meet mine guiltily and I averted my gaze in response. There was a sizable crowd growing behind us, but no one asked us to move, everyone was too transfixed. By what?... I had no clue.

  “What’s up?” Dylan asked casually, automatically assuming she wanted to speak to him.

  Avery cleared her throat uncertainly. “Uh, I actually really wanted to say something to Jason really quick.”

  “I really, really, re-e-e-ally would like to hear,” I muttered sarcastically, “well actually I don’t care
what you have to say.”

  The crowd inhaled deeply, simultaneously as if their next breath depended on Avery’s reply. Dylan, on the other hand, was confused. I didn’t blame him. When you paired someone as monstrously manipulative as Avery and someone as condescendingly stupid as me together, the outcome was never good. And right now, this had been blown way too far out of its proportional range.

  “I’m sorry, it’s just—” Avery began in a detached whisper but stopped as she realized her life was now a double-scripted drama. She turned her fiery gaze upon the nearest person, and they cowered away in response, naturally afraid.

  I leaned casually against the doorframe (as casually as I could) and gave her a long stare. I knew I was using this coveted position I held to a wrong advantage, but it was just so tempting to make a liar squirm. And squirm she did. On her face was a barrage of emotions. Fear. Anger. Betrayal. More anger.

  “Is there something I should know?” Dylan meekly asked from the corner.

  “Not now,” Avery snapped, refusing to take her eyes off me. She wanted to get into my head, I know but I had the upper-hand and there was nothing she could do about it.

  “Listen, Dylan,” I muttered over Avery’s head. “I’ll think about it.”

  Dylan nodded, no longer smiling widely at me but his gaze was suspicious. “Maybe you can find the right girl there, huh?” he hinted loudly, before sauntering down the hallway. Sometimes his callousness was more than a little irritating.

  I turned to look at the crowd behind me. The girls’ eyes widened as the realization hit them. Somehow, they assumed I was looking for someone new based merely on Dylan’s somewhat cryptic words. This was not good. Avery smiled glumly and started walking backward, leaving me to fend for myself.

  I sighed heavily and stepped into the classroom ready for the teacher not to help me. He’d find it amusing, turn a blind eye and continue teaching; it had happened before. As much as I was struggling not to be narcissistic, those girls were making hard. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing remotely special or interesting about Jason Forbes.