Ugly girl

Chapter 18

The rest of the week thankfully went by uneventfully, except for the rumors that quickly spread. I’d hardly made it to lunch before the whole school knew more about me than even I knew about myself. The rumors took off like wildfire and just as they always do, the story got twisted.

At first, it was pretty straight but by the end of the day, Lucien had a whole army of children hiding in his basement and Blake and I were the lucky ones who got out.

I’ve now made it to late Friday afternoon and rumor has it that the SWAT team is executing their raid to free all the kidnapped children tomorrow. You got to love high school. There’s nothing quite like it.

Slade hasn’t spoken a word to me since the whole basketball court thing and to be honest, I feel disappointed by it. I was waiting for some sort of explanation or even a snide comment, but nothing. It’s as though he’s completely shut down and I don’t understand it. I could be going insane here, but I think I miss his taunts. I miss the way he keeps me looking around corners and over my shoulder. I miss the adrenalin of my heart racing whenever he comes too close.

Slade was my drug to avoid thinking about the pain, but this week, my drug has been out of commission leaving the pain to shine through bright and clear. Though I have to give it to him, he’s worked some kind of miracle within me because the pain doesn’t seem to hurt so bad anymore.

Shay and Ben went out to visit friends who just had a baby boy and after Blake strides out the door without so much of a wave goodbye, I retreat to my bedroom. I’ve been doing heaps of art this week. It’s been my only escape and I’ve never been so thankful for it.

I push through the door of my room, more than ready to put this week to bed when I find a body sitting in my desk chair. Maze stares up at me and my face instantly falls. “Before you say anything, just hear me out,” she begs, holding her hands up. “I came to apologize properly, and well, despite how tough you think you are, you need a friend.”

“Okay, sure. Well, let me know if you find anyone who matches that description.”

“I can be a friend,” she tells me with a pout. “I fucked up so bad, but I miss you. What we had going was cool and I hate that I screwed it all up for a bit of dick. You know how chatty I get, especially when I’m nervous and when tequila is added to the mix, I couldn’t stop myself. You’d only just told me about your parents and it was heavy, you know. It was sitting on my mind for ages and then it all just splurted out at the wrong time.”

“You betrayed my trust,” I tell her, realizing that she’s right. I do need a friend. I’m freaking lonely here, but I’m not sure that she’s the one to fill that role. Apart from having Damian winking way too often and Blake being his usual self, I’ve got no one.

“I know I did and it makes me sick,” she says with big puppy-dog eyes. “Haven’t you hated me enough? Or maybe you could still hate me but let me make it up to you? I promise, I really do mean well by you.”

I look at the girl who caused me so much pain and question if I’ll ever be able to trust her again and quickly realize that the answer is no. I never will, I’ll never be able to share pieces of myself with her again. She’ll never be that tight friend I was hoping she’d be, but she could be something. She could take away the sting of the loneliness, at least until I find someone worthy of true friendship.

I swallow back, wondering if I’m going to regret this decision, but hope to God that this doesn’t come back to bite me on the ass.

“Fine,” I let out a groan, “but you’re on probation. One tiny little fuck up and you’re out.”

“Oh, thank God,” she says, visible relief taking over her features. “I was so sure you were going to make me squeeze back out the window or perform some ridiculous task as punishment.”

My brow raises in interest. I’m down for ridiculous tasks.

“You know,” she continues as though this is a two-way conversation. “When Slade and I…you know, the second you barged in and barged back out, he practically threw me aside. It’s almost as though he got what he came for and then was done. Neither of us even got close to finishing.”

I narrow my eyes on her. “Bullshit.”

“Yeah,” she scoffs. “Trust me, I was disappointed too. That boy has a reputation for all sorts of things but not finishing what he started wasn’t one of them. I had to go home and finish the job myself.”

I scrunch my face up. “I don’t want to hear about what you get up to when you’re all alone. You’re probably into some weird fetish.”

She grins wide. “I mean…”

“Stop. I don’t want to know.”

Maze shrugs her shoulder and gets up from the desk chair. “Your loss,” she chuckles, making her way across my room and rummaging through my clothes. “Oh, you’ve gone shopping.”

Maze throws a handful of clothes over her head and they fall to the bed behind her. “What are you waiting for?” she questions, looking back over her shoulder. “Get dressed. It’s Friday night, we’re going to a party.”

“Seriously?” I groan, studying the choices she pulled out of the closet and cringing at her awful taste.

“Yes, seriously,” she says, walking back to the bed and looking over the outfits she picked out with a proud smile. “No offense, but your badass, can’t touch me reputation that you worked so hard on has gone way down this week. Everyone thinks you’re this broken girl who needs a big cuddle and the only way to show them who you really are is to go out there and prove to those bitches that you’re the motherfucking boss bitch.”

My body straightens as my chin raises. I may never be able to trust this girl again and I may also be extremely salty about her betrayal, but the girl ain’t wrong. “Yeah. You’re right. I am a motherfucking boss bitch.”

“Exactly, now get your ass dressed and this time, at least spend a whole thirty seconds on your hair.”

I grin back at her, wondering how over the past three minutes she’s gone from the girl I want to hate to the one building me up and making me feel something again. I walk toward my closet, disregarding everything she pulled out and start fresh.

Four minutes later, we walk out the door, Maze looking fierce and me feeling like I’ve finally got my groove back.

----------

We pull up at the party to a small house and I’m somewhat pleased to see that it’s not as packed as the last party we went to, though that could have something to do with the fact that it was at Damian’s place and apart from Slade, he’s the most popular guy at school.

“Whose place is this?” I ask as Maze hooks her arm through mine and pulls me along to the open front door. “It’s Nessa’s. I think someone said it was her birthday or something like that. She hardly ever has parties so it’s kind of a big deal. All the snoops are showing up.”

“I bet,” I laugh, glancing around the front yard to see a handful of kids from school who generally keep to themselves. I guess not a lot can be said about curiosity. It’s plain and simple; if you dangle something in front of someone’s face, they’re bound to go for it.

As we walk through the small home, it becomes pretty clear that the majority of the guests here are all seniors but there’s one junior who stands out like dog’s balls. Blake stands out the back, drinking among a bunch of the guys on his team. Slade and Damian aren’t with him so I’m not too worried, but I still have a hard time watching him write himself off like that.