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Chapter 12 (iv)
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2024-10-29 19:42:56A chorus of laughter erupted before a sudden and suspicious silence enveloped the second floor. Matt’s door creaked open but never closed. Soft footsteps made their way to my door, pulling my attention from the ceiling and the thoughts that held me captive there. My bedroom door began a slow creep open, alluding to a mission of stealth. My heart dared hope Jayden had managed to sneak away but it was only Kaden, the boy with one whole strand of facial hair.
He stuck his head inside, nearly jumping out of his skin when our eyes met. The boy paled, losing the courage had seen him down the hall.
“What?” his presence was disappointment enough without any attempts at lingering.
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The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 13 (i)
The door to my room creaked open slowly. It was turning out to be the most action the bloody thing had seen in ages, and I was beginning to think that wasn’t a good thing. “Go away, I said I’m not giving you my underwear,” I said without ever turning to look another pimpled-faced try-hard in the eyes. The embarrassment was sufficient without that unnecessary bit of intimate connection. It was just like them. Seeing the others head next door, I suppose I was meant to lower my guard, fall asleep as they’d hoped. Then, they would make their move again. I wasn’t an idiot, and I wasn’t amused. “Fine, I’ll just get Jonie to take a pic and send it to me.” I whirled around so quickly that it caused my eyes to prolong their motion. I ignored the moving room, more concerned with the entitled boy who’d let himself into my room. “Don’t you dare.” With anyone else, in any other situation, I may have been able to laugh it off as a cheek
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 13 (ii)
“…Jayden.”“We can start with the small stuff,” he encouraged.“I can’t.”“Why not?”I shook my head, wanting desperately to dispel the thoughts that crept in from the corners in the wake of this change in topic. “I can’t,” I repeated, as much a reminder for myself as it was a response to his request. Jayden said all the right things and knew the right expressions to melt my heart, but it was too much of a risk. I didn’t know—didn’t remember what lay dormant beneath the mask and couldn’t risk such a reveal. “You won’t like what you see…”
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 13 (iii)
“Her father taught her well. The trick is getting to them before their fathers have a chance to give them the talk about the horror of boys and their raging hormones.” “Oh. How old are we talking? Seven?” Jayden sputtered, realising only after my brother’s response that perhaps he needed to be more careful with the reckless advice he’d been slinging since he first got there. “NO! Absolutely not—you trying to get arrested? They lock ‘em up as young as you, you know.” Matt paused, giving it a moment’s thought before shrugging mildly. “You’re right. I’ll go back to older girls—lots of ‘em don’t have fathers, so I’ve still got wiggle room.” “We…are gonna need another talk,” Jayden said, appalled at how his message had been so far distorted. I watched the two engage in causal conversation, waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Matt to start making his demands. It wouldn’t be a happy ending. My brother had struck gold when he walked in
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 14 (i)
Day after day, I was forced to watch Matt walk around with my iPod. When asked where he’d gotten it, the boy was ready with the excuse a friend had recently gotten a new one and had allowed him to have it. There weren’t any questions after that, there never were for Matt. Mom didn’t care where he got it, not truly; she’d simply been curious about the newest addition to his collection.Like everything else he owned, he treated it poorly. Sometimes it was left sunken into the couch where someone could sit on it. There were times it lay on the ground, forgotten and primed to be stepped on. He would break it before long, then neither of us would have it.I wanted to take it back, to yank the earphones from his ears and lay him flat for how careless he continued to be. It was wishful thinking and little more. Nothing would justify such an act in my mother’s eyes, not even learning it first belonged to me. She would pop it into the dishwasher or
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 14 (ii)
“Why don’t you invite him over for dinner tomorrow?”Mom scrolled the length of the document on her screen, paying no particular attention to me or my brother. She nibbled on the cap of her pen, her eyes glazing over from their tedious work. “Isn’t your school dance coming up? Remind me I still need to get you a dress for that.”I gaped at her words, considering for the first time that I may have fallen asleep back up in my room and that this nearly pleasant conversation was little more than a figment of my most starved imaginations.She wanted to have Jayden over for dinner and wouldn’t be subjecting me to my scraps of clothing for the dance. I wanted to ride the wave of her sobriety and the neutral mood that came with it, but I knew there was a cost. There was always a cost. Soon enough, the work would end, and I would be made to pay for her passing acts of kindness.“Cool, Jayden’s coming over!&rdqu
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 14 (iii)
I was still working through the math on Jayden’s earlier statement when I realised they’d both turned expectant gazes to me. Somehow, I’d ended up in the middle of a standoff I’d rather watch from a distance and it brought the most unpleasant churning to my stomach. If I said no, it would unnecessarily offend the boy who’d approached me in good faith. If I said yes, I’d offend the boy who still hadn’t learned I wasn’t his property.My stomach hurt too much for this mess.“Um…thank you. It was very sweet of you.” I smiled, trying to soften the blow of the rejection Jayden had offered on my behalf. I relaxed only after he mirrored my smile with one of his own. Josh wasn’t angry—at least, he didn’t seem to be. He’d been disappointed by the outcome, but his reaction was not the world-ending catastrophe I’d convinced myself it would be.The boy waved his goodbye then head
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 14 (iv)
“Mom wants you to come by for dinner tonight if you can,” I said, breaking the silence as we approached the door to room 31.“Tonight’s a bit short notice for me. Got a date with Alyssa…or was it Erica? Seira?” He rubbed at his chin contemplatively, lost in his own musings.The deadpan expression he’d managed to elicit with his words only served to amuse him. A wide, boyish grin took shape before my eyes, attempting to coax movement from my lips. I remained resolved in my disapproval; my lack of amusement was hard to miss.“I’m kidding. I’ll be there at six.”I rolled my eyes, nudging him aside to walk by him into the classroom. There was only so much of Jayden Pryce’s humour that I could tolerate before my eyes went permanently inverted.I spent the day on autopilot, my mind preoccupied with thoughts of the sanctioned dinner to take place in the evening. Conversations f
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 14 (v)
I felt the unpleasant sensation of blood draining from my face at the sight of the knife he’d had all along. The danger had been worse than I understood and was growing worse still. If Matt got hurt, it would be my fault. My mother would be furious that ‘a guest’ of mine had hurt her son, and I would be in for worse.“Adam, ple—”“No, you get lost,” Matt said. “You can’t just come to my house, order me around, and hurt my sister. Don’t make me have to say it again or I’ll get my mom’s pistol and put a bullet through your fucking skull.”Adam scoffed, raising the knife higher in show he meant business.I watched in abject horror as my little brother pulled my mother’s pistol from his back pocket. Before I could begin to wonder what on earth he’d been doing with it, he raised it toward the stubborn boy. The metal glistened in the light of the setting sun, giving
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The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 37 (ii)
“There’s…there’s something I need to tell you.” I only needed the courage to find the words.Jayden’s brows creased as he took me in. “What is it…?”“You’ll be angry.”“I won’t.”“You can’t promise that; you don’t even know what it is…”“And you can’t be sure I will be until you’ve told me and given me a chance to react.”We sat at a silent stalemate as several minutes trickled by. I knew he was patiently waiting for whatever bad news I would spring, and I knew it would hurt him. The fear I harboured had nothing to do with ending the new fairytale I’d taken on and everything to do with the hesitation I felt following everything he’d done for me and now my brother.He didn’t deserve what I’d done, and it had been all for naught. I never got pregnant and didn’t h
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 37 (i)
Three weeks later, my brother and I dutifully attended our mother’s funeral. There were only a handful of people in attendance and even then, they were mostly family. The genuine friends my mother had made were no more than a handful and only one of them shed any tears.Aunt Rebecca was the only immediate family member to cry with even Nana maintaining a wall of stoicism while the pastor carried on with his final sermon. I didn’t hear most of his words. My eyes locked on the casket waiting to be lowered with a detached sense of disbelief. At any moment, it would open, and my mother would come out barking her laughter at all the fools who’d thought a single bullet would be enough to keep her from her children. She would hug Matt and promise she would never leave him then offer me a plastic smile as she assured me we would talk about it all when we got home.I’d spent the better part of the earlier service with my eyes fixed on the woman while the
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 36 (v)
It was another seven minutes before the paramedics arrived and when they did, there was a race against time to get me stable. I’d already lost too much blood and kept slipping in and out of consciousness. I learned later that the police had also been called but in the haze I’d fallen into, I couldn’t say when they arrived on our usually quiet street.I was loaded into the ambulance with my brother and an officer accompanying us. It was Detective Charles, the man who’d promised my mother he would find out the truth about her ex-husband’s sudden, tragic death. He didn’t know what to make of the scene he’d come onto but knew there was a deep well that buried secrets so dark that two children had no business holding onto them.Conversations carried on around me, but they were too muffled by my fading consciousness for me to hear. The next time I awoke, I was on a hospital bed with my brother asleep on the chair that sat in the corn
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 36 (iv)
“No!” I answered quickly. I hurried to hold the note I’d written up for her to see but she gave it only the shortest of cursory glances before pulling back then throwing her entire weight into the smack she landed on my cheek. The force sent me toppling to the ground faster than I could right myself and by then, she’d begun kicking.“I bet you think you’ve found something, huh? HUH? Think you’ve got the upper hand now; that you can blackmail me because of what you’ve seen? Do you know who I am, little girl? Don’t you know that I will kill you?”I shook my head frantically as I curled into a protective ball. “I didn’t—I didn’t see anything, I swear!”“Don’t fucking lie to me!” Her next kick landed in my face, causing blood to gush from my nose.“I won’t say anything; I won’t, I promise!”“I shoul
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 36 (iii)
I set to decline Adam's offer but, in a flash, he was on his feet pulling on his own pants. “The bus might be a while. I don’t want you standing out by the bus stop waiting for however long.” He pulled for his shirt and slipped it on. “You hungry? We can hit up a drive-thru on the way.”The rumbling of my stomach betrayed any answer I could’ve given. Adam nodded his understanding then led the way from the house. He got me my usual off the menu then dropped me off in front of my house.Adam had tried to fill the ride with small talk, in what appeared on the surface to be a sincere interest in catching up, but I’d already begun to shut down. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to feel, to see, to be.“Hey,” he said as I set to walk away from his car. “Remember what I said, alright? I’m here for you.”I nodded, seeing no need to argue and not wanting to prolong the conversat
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 36 (ii)
I swallowed my pride, understanding the role I would have to play. It wasn’t an unfamiliar one and would require no great effort for me to slip into. I dropped the pitch of my voice, forcing it into a sultry invitation I knew he wouldn’t refuse.“Your pay’s built into this favour.” I hated myself.Adam pulled away to look at me, his eyes glistening hungrily. “I’m listening.”I took a deep breath to steady myself. “Emily’s…dead.”“Who?”A surge of hot anger rose in me at his ignorance, but I was forced to swallow it. Adam’s lack of knowledge was in large part my fault. I’d never allowed him to meet her, nor had I ever told him anything about her. She may as well had been a stranger to him—as she truly was—and in that moment, I realised the small stake he had in the decision I’d made…how…insignificant my plight was been for
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 36 (i)
“Hey, Kai.” Madelyn stopped me on my way down the hall. “Wait up.”Reluctantly, I brought my feet to a halt then offered her a forced smile. “Hey.”She began rummaging through her bag as she drew closer before pulling out a pastel pink toddler shirt with a crown printed on the front. Madelyn extended it to me with a sheepish smile. “I saw this when my mom took me shopping and I thought…you know…it’d look really cute on your daughter. It’s probably a little big; we didn’t know her size, but she’ll grow into it, right?”I didn’t think I had any heart left until I felt another piece of it break off. She wasn’t wrong, Emily would have looked amazing in it, but she would never have a chance to grow into it, nor would she ever wear it.The strained smile I’d been forcing dissolved. A lump lodged itself into the back of my throat requiring me to take several m
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 35 (iii)
I considered writing him a note asking that he take care of them, but much like everything else, it didn’t matter. What would I care if he ripped through my room like the Tasmanian Devil after I was gone?The air inside my mother’s room was still. It was the first I’d been in there—the first I’d been in any of her rooms since my father left. Matt was welcome to cuddle and watch movies from time to time, but never me. There was an air of reverence that came with the subtle warning I shouldn’t have been there. I was walking on holy ground as a tainted sinner. Such a transgression would normally fill me with fear but that particular feeling couldn’t have been further away.I took the time to sweep my eyes across my mother’s room. How foreign it seemed, as if I’d been transported to another world. Nothing was out of place and the bed had been well-made. The blinds were half open, allowing light into the room while blott
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 35 (ii)
Uncomfortable and uncertain, the nurse returned to her desk. Seeing her whisper about me with her colleagues brought the laughter to the next level. My insides hurt from how hard I laughed, and I could feel a pressure building inside my head, but even then…I couldn’t stop laughing.Those around me grew unsettled by the persistent nature of my unprovoked laughter. One by one, they rose from the chairs closest to me and made their way to stand at the wall at the opposite end of the waiting room or by the nurse’s desk.Their evasion tickled my insides until they screamed. Those people had nothing to fear; I wasn’t the murderer.By the time I was allowed to see Jayden, the laughter had died. It was replaced by a subdued silence that stood in stark contrast to the boisterous half-cackle half-wail I’d carried on with earlier.I didn’t have the energy for it…didn’t have the energy for anything. I’d been dra
