by Sam Crescent
She worked the combination of her locker, opening it up. Bare, just the way she liked it. As the day progressed, they’d have books, notes, and all manner of things to store inside.
Once she had emptied out her gym kit and removed most of her books, she closed the door.
There was no sign of Sean, and she’d told him she’d rather walk, to give herself a chance to get her bearings before being driven to school. Also, she didn’t know how the first meeting with Drake was going to go down. Last night, they had texted until the early hours, and she was still tired, but she was ready to go for the day.
She felt this hum of excitement inside her at what they were going to have to do to keep their relationship a secret. She didn’t want to think of him with other girls. That was a big no on her list, but if he had to keep up appearances, she’d have to deal with it. There was so much she didn’t know how to handle.
Walking down the corridor, she went toward homeroom and hoped to stay out of the way of seeing Drake at all costs.
No such luck as he suddenly appeared around the corner.
The moment he saw her, the glare on his face turned into a smile.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t who I was looking for.”
No one was around and he suddenly had hold of her arm and began pushing her into the janitor’s closet.
“What the hell are you doing? Drake, we agreed not to do this.”
He pressed her up against the door. “The place is empty. No one saw me and it means I can do this.”
Before she could protest, his lips were on hers, and she didn’t have time to think or process, just to feel. He sank his fingers into her hair, cupping the back of her head. She couldn’t help but moan as his tongue traced across the seam of her lips and she opened up on a gasp. Drake plundered inside and she couldn’t help but hold on to his shirt, pulling him close against her, never wanting to let him go.
“Fuck, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to cope knowing what’s waiting for me when school is over,” he said, breaking from the kiss.
“We can’t do this. We could get caught.”
“I’m always going to be careful when it comes to you. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you.” He stroked his fingers down her cheek. “Whatever happens after this, don’t believe it. Okay?”
“I was thinking of avoiding you. Staying as far away as possible.”
“If you can do that, please do. I don’t want to hurt you if I don’t have to.”
She rolled her eyes. “You do realize how fucked up this is, right?”
“I know. I wish we didn’t have to put on this charade, but we have no other choice. Unless you’ve got some bright ideas.”
She groaned. “I wish I did. Kill your parents? Run away together?”
“Now that could be an idea.”
“Killing your parents?” she asked, jokingly.
“No, running away together. We could do that.” He looked at her, seeming serious.
“I was joking.”
“I’m not.”
“Drake, you’ve said so yourself, you can’t just run away and leave. It’s not the way it works.” She cupped his cheek and quickly withdrew. There was no way either of them could get used to touching the other.
“I can already see the change inside you. I don’t want what I know is going to happen.” He pulled her close and kissed her again.
She let out a moan as he claimed her lips. It was addictive. They couldn’t stay locked in the janitor’s closet all day. At some point, the janitor would return, and people were waiting for him.
Sean would also be waiting for her, but she wasn’t going to remind Drake of that.
“After school,” he said. “I’ll come by your place.”
“I don’t know if that’s going to be possible.”
“Tell fuckface to piss off.”
“Drake, come on, don’t be like that.”
“I told you, I can’t stand Sean. You think what we’re going to be doing is fake, you should see him.”
“I really don’t want to argue with you.”
“Then don’t. It’s pretty fucking easy, really. All you’ve got to do is see me after school. You know you want to. I’m so pretty to look at. I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Now I’m curious. How?”
“I can make up for whatever shit is about to go down.”
“Tempting.”
“And true.”
“Ugh, this is … fine, I will blow off Sean if that’s what you need me to do.”
Drake grabbed her face and kissed her hard and passionately. “You won’t regret it, baby.”
“I hope not. What about your parents?”
“They don’t care. They’re only back in town because commitments say they have to be. I better go out first. I’ll slap the door if it’s clear. If not, stay inside.” Drake kissed her again and left the closet.
She couldn’t believe he dragged her in here. With hands on her hips, she waited, and then he slapped the door.
She opened the door and stepped out. Just as they were about to go in separate directions, his three friends arrived. Her stomach twisted and pulled. Marco was the first one to whistle.
“What’s going on, Drake? You ran into Fatty already. Wow, you don’t know how to leave well enough alone.”
She looked down at the floor and quickly rushed off.
Drake grabbed her. It wasn’t tight, but to anyone looking, it wouldn’t seem all that nice either.
“What? You think I’m stuck to her? Please, you’re lucky I made it out alive by passing her.”
Okay, that one hurt.
“Get off me,” she said.
Drake let her go and she chanced a look at him. He suddenly grabbed her and pulled her close. “Hit me or something. Call me an asshole and leave.” He whispered the words against her ear but she refused to use violence.
Pulling away from him, she glared. “You’re an asshole.” She shoved him, and not hard either. Hurting him was the last thing she wanted to do. This was going to be a lot harder than she anticipated.
Rushing away from him, she walked toward her class just as Sean was coming around the corner. “Hey, Pru, I was wondering where you were. I waited near your locker but you never turned up,” he said, grabbing her arms.
She glanced behind her and saw Drake with his friends. The smirk she associated with her bully was back in full force. He glanced her way and it was just a subtle change, but it was there nonetheless. He didn’t like her being with Sean.
“What’s his problem?” Sean asked.
“It’s nothing.” Turning back to her friend, she tried to get the niggling doubt out of her mind. It was next to impossible to do because Sean had been with her since day one in this town. He’d stood by her side.
Should she trust Drake, her bully, when this guy in front of her didn’t give a shit about her social standing or anything? He liked her. They did movie marathons together, studied, listened to music. He was her best friend in the entire world. There was no one else she wanted to be around more than him.
“That doesn’t look like nothing. Drake’s glaring at me. What did I do to piss him off?” Sean asked.
She saw the tension mounting in Sean and she didn’t like it. Grabbing his arm, she laughed. “What’s gotten into you? Why are you all macho all of a sudden?”
“I made a pact with myself, Pru. It’s our final year and I’m not going to stand by while he does all of his bullshit with you. If he starts, he’s going to have to deal with me. Punk-ass bastard.”
“Whoa. What have you done to my best friend?” She placed a hand on his forehead, smiling at him. “I don’t know what is going on with you.”
“Nothing is going on with me. There is nothing to go on with.” He winked at her. “I just don’t want you to be miserable for our last year. I think we’ve let Drake and his goons have at us long enough. I’m not going to allow it to happen again.”
She didn�
�t know if she liked this newfound confidence within him.
Sean had always been a bookworm, a nerd. Someone she could identify with on a very basic level, and yet here he was, talking about hurting Drake. Was it possible for him to even go through with it? She had no idea what to think or do.
“Let’s just go.” The last thing she wanted was for Drake to approach them. She didn’t like confrontations and after their kiss and the horrible words he threw her way, she just wanted to have some peace and quiet, for once. That was all she wanted. Was it really impossible to ask for that much?
Sean wasn’t budging.
“Sean, seriously, what is your problem?” she asked.
“First day of school. I’m not going to allow him to bully us. It’s time for us to take a stand.”
“You’ve been watching way too many movies. We’re not making a stand against anything. All we need to do is leave. That’s it. Plain and simple. We can go to class and forget about everything else. It’s what I want to do, and I bet it’s what you want to do as well,” she said.
At the end of this day, she was going to need a hard drink of alcohol. There wouldn’t be anything better for it. Not that she drank. Ever. Right now, she felt it would be a real good thing to take up.
“I’m not moving.”
“Sean, please, not right now.”
“No. I told you, Pru. Not this year. I’m not taking it anymore.”
“You really don’t need to do this for me.”
Sean wasn’t moving.
She wanted to walk away, but she’d never been the kind of person to do that. Regardless of Drake’s warnings, Sean was her best friend.
“Well, well, well, if it’s not the fucking nerd,” Drake said.
“Piss off, Drake,” Sean said.
The hatred was easily detected in Sean’s voice.
Pru didn’t recognize him. Most of the time, Sean was the voice of reason and yet, here he was being the complete opposite.
Marco whistled, which in turn attracted attention from others in the corridor.
Great.
Just great.
This was what she wanted to avoid on her very first day back. The encounter with Drake in the closet was nice but not worth this.
“Look at you, Sean. You finally decided to grow a pair?” Carl asked.
Drake snorted. “He probably got some cheap whore to rub him dry. I bet he didn’t last two minutes with her. Probably got her lips right near his junk and he blew all over her face.”
Pru felt sick. “Come on.”
“I bet he was fucking Prudie right here,” Nick said. “Let’s face it, the only way either of these two are getting any is if they’re fucking each other.”
She didn’t need to listen to this. “Come on,” she said.
There was no way she could look at Drake. He’d be able to easily see how hurt she was, and she couldn’t stand to show weakness.
“Pru’s more woman than any of you guys could manage,” Sean said, wrapping his arm around her.
Her face heated up. This wasn’t what she wanted and the fact Sean was doing this made her really uncomfortable. “Sean, stop it.”
Sean suddenly turned her, grabbed her face, and kissed her hard. She was so shocked that for a few seconds, she didn’t do anything. Her best friend was kissing her and she didn’t know how to make him stop.
What the hell?
Quickly, she became aware of Drake grabbing Sean and yanking him away. Before she knew what to do, he was slamming his fist repeatedly against Sean’s body. Not his face, though.
Without thinking, she jumped on his back like she had done when he would bully Sean in the past. Wrapping an arm around his neck, she tried to pull him away, to get him to stop.
“Stop it!” She yelled the words as she tried to pull him away.
When that didn’t work, she had no choice but to slide down his body and rush between him and Sean.
He raised his fist, and it took every ounce of willpower not to panic, not to scream, and not to beg for him to stop.
Holding her hand up, she waited and waited until he finally, slowly, lowered his hand. They had an audience.
Could he walk away without hurting her?
Every single time, he’d done something to hurt her. What would he do now?
She waited for him. The tension in the hallway grew. She felt sick to her stomach.
The decision was taken out of his hands as three teachers rushed toward them. Like all the other times, it was right after the problems had been done. The damage was already there for everyone to see.
Sean was a bloody mess. Drake stepped back, his fist lowering. She turned toward Sean and tried to help him up. He pushed her away and she stumbled back.
“What is going on? Our first day back, and already a fight.”
“It was nothing,” Drake said. “Or was it, Sean?”
Pru looked at Drake then back at Sean, who glared at Drake. Her heart pounded and she had never felt so afraid in her life. This was the worst kind of feeling in the world.
“It was nothing,” Sean finally said after a couple of minutes passed.
“If it was nothing, then why are you bleeding?” Mr. Wheeze said. He taught English and she knew from experience that he wasn’t the best kind of teacher. He liked to pretend to be everyone’s best friend. She didn’t find him the best person to be around and there were far better teachers at the school.
“I fell into the locker. Honestly, it’s nothing.”
“Sean!” Mr. Wheeze didn’t look happy.
“I’ll get him to the nurse,” she said, putting a hand on his chest and hoping that would do the trick.
“I don’t like lies and I know something was going on here,” Mr. Wheeze said.
With no one willing to stand up and say what was going on, there was nothing anyone could do.
“What about you, Prudence?” Mr. Wheeze finally looked toward her.
“Me?”
“Yeah, what did you see?”
The sickness had come in full force now. Licking her dry lips, she glanced at Drake before looking at Sean. Every other time, she wouldn’t think twice about speaking out against Drake. This was different. Sean went after Drake. He’d wanted to start a fight.
She didn’t know why and didn’t know where this new best friend had made an appearance. They hadn’t spent all that much time together in the summer. Had she missed so much?
“I didn’t see anything.”
****
The first day of school could have gone a million times better as far as Drake was concerned. He never wanted to hurt Sean, especially not after getting his goodbye kiss from Pru. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her and all he’d ended up doing was just that. He couldn’t win.
He didn’t know what the fuck to do anymore.
School, this relationship, it wasn’t supposed to be this hard, and yet, it felt so far from what he’d ever wanted to do. By the end of the day, he was pleased to see the back of school, and he wanted no part in it, no part at all.
Ignoring his friends, he climbed into his car and took off, driving out of town. He knew he had to see his girl, but before he did, he really needed to get control of himself.
This thing with Pru was turning into a nightmare, not one he wanted any part of, either. When had his life gotten so fucking complicated? He drove out to the middle of nowhere just so he could think. With his parents back in town, he wasn’t going to get much time away from them. They were going to want him to play the doting role of a loving son, of course, and he’d try to fake through it.
Climbing out of his car, he looked out at the view. Nothing really caught his attention. There was a light breeze, which was nice for the time of year. He could get used to the weather like this.
You’ve got to get back in the car and go and talk to Pru.
He didn’t move.
Maybe ignoring her was for the best? He hated second-guessing himself. There was nothi
ng worse. There was no way he could stay and wait this out. He had to go back and talk to her, at least clear the air between them. Their first day of school and already he’d fucked up. Seeing Sean touch her had pissed him off more than he realized. Sure, Pru thought she was friends with Sean, but Drake wasn’t an idiot. He saw what the guy was all about, and he despised him for it.
Giving up on his little tantrum, he rushed to his car and climbed inside. After starting up the engine, he took off, going toward Pru’s house. With any luck, Sean wouldn’t be around, trying to make her feel sorry for him.
Damn it.
Why did he have to let the little prick win? Why couldn’t he have just walked away? It wasn’t exactly hard to do.
Parking his car twenty minutes from her place, he clicked the button, locking it, and made his way toward her house. This secrecy shit was getting old, really fast, and he didn’t know how much more he could take. The moment he got to Pru’s house, he was happy to see there was no one home. That was what he wanted.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, he made his way up to her front door. Knocking on it, he waited. He counted to ten then to twenty before the door finally opened and there she stood. At first, she glared at him.
“I didn’t mean for that to happen today.”
“Then what did you mean to happen?”
“I don’t want to argue with you, Pru.”
“I don’t want to argue with you either but I didn’t agree to you starting a fight with Sean.”
“He fucking started it.”
“Seriously? You want to do this? You want to start throwing blame?”
“I don’t want to argue with you.”
“I don’t want to argue with you either, but you’re making it really hard for me to want to take your side,” she said.
This wasn’t what he wanted.
“You do know I didn’t want any of this to happen, right?”
“Yes, I know that.” She wouldn’t look at him.
“Dammit, Pru, look at me.”
She waited a couple of minutes before finally giving him her full attention. “What?”
“What’s going on here with us?” he asked.