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Chapter 19 (iv)
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“No…” Adam was more reflective. His eyes hadn’t left Emily from the moment they walked over. He was studying her in ways he never did his math or geography, mapping every contour…every freckle…every eyelash. He was drawn to features he recognised but could not say from where the familiarity sprung. In some ways, he was looking into the mirror, yet his brain wouldn’t let him see the full picture. “She kinda looks like me. What do you guys think?”
He reached a hand over to tip her chin upward, hoping to get a better look but I jerked her away. “Don’t touch her.”
“You’re right, man,” Cory said, now taking a closer look himself. “She&r
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For a moment, we were all speechless. Adam stared up at Jonie, trying to understand the sorcery she must’ve used to get him to the floor without him ever knowing. His friends were equally confused. None had paid any attention to the small girl, and now they were seeing the error in such underestimation.“Did you do this?” Sydney asked, her eyes widening as she questioned the girl.“You were taking too long, and he wouldn’t stop talking shit. I had to handle it myself.” Jonie was beyond any remorse that may or may not have been warranted in the situation. In her mind, she’d solved a problem and there was nothing more to it.“I can’t—I can’t feel my leg. You dumb bitch, what did you do to me?” Adam demanded.Jonie shrugged, nonchalant despite his returning anger. “It’ll wear off far sooner than anything you’ve done to Kai. I believe the words you’re looking for a
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 20 (ii)
The boyish grin and warm brown eyes chased the worry from me. Jayden signalled me quiet then began leading me further and further from the girls who’d so graciously taken me from my house that morning.When we were at a far enough distance, he turned to me.“Hi.”“You nearly gave me a heart attack and that’s all you’ve got to say?” Even as I chided him, I knew he felt no hint of remorse. The pride that shone in his eyes made that clear. The student body president was pleased as punch with himself and would do it again if given the chance. “Sydney and Jonie will freak out when they realise.”“Nah, I already told Jonie I’d be kidnapping you at some point today. When you turn up missing, she’ll know why. If we’re both being honest, she already knows you’re gone.”He was right. There wasn’t a chance Jonie didn’t know I was gone—not after the run
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 20 (iii)
I offered Emily another fry. “About…about what happened while I was still back at Jefferson—the whole thing with Adam—he was here and Jonie…Jonie flipped him, and we’re banned from the store, now Sydney’s upset—”“Whoa, whoa, one thing at a time,” he said. My ramblings made it difficult for him to keep up in any meaningful way. “I’ll ask Jonie about her stuff later; tell me about Madelyn finding things out.”“Please…I don’t want to talk about it, not right now. This was supposed to be a date,” the first I’d ever had, “I don’t want it ruined with all this heavy stuff. Let’s talk about something normal.”Jayden’s eyes searched mine for a silent moment, seeking answers I didn’t think I could give. He wanted to push; the insistence was there in his eyes, but he didn’t. Instead, we fell into an awkward silence,
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 21 (i)
Jayden waited for me to get inside before heading off. Matt was waiting for me on the other side.“Some guy’s here; he wants to see you,” he said, unimpressed by the turn his afternoon was taking.It wasn’t the greeting I expected and not something I was prepared to handle. There were occasions my mother’s friends would make special requests to see me. They weren’t very often, and she wasn’t always in the mood to acquiesce, but it seemed she was in a giving mood.I entered the living room and felt my stomach drop violently. The nausea such a sudden movement caused was enough to make my head spin as I took in the man sitting across the couch from my mother.…Dad?My father hopped to his feet the moment I entered, an earnestness setting itself on his face. He resembled a man who’d been left in the desert for days then offered a drop of water. The relief that radiated from him was enough to
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 21 (ii)
It stung to hear her say that. In the midst of the rising tension and the unspoken solidarity the three of us had cultivated against my father…I was still unwanted. My mother’s concerns weren’t for me, but for my brother whom my father was threatening to take away. What he did with me had nothing to do with her and wasn’t the sort of thing she would kick up a fuss over…but God forbid the wind brush too harshly against her precious Matthew’s skin.Tears prickled at the eyes, but I fought to retain my composure. She didn’t want me, it wasn’t news. It didn’t make my father better.“He’s my son, too, and he’ll be better off with me, you abusive bitch!”My mother shot to her feet, a new fire blazing behind her eyes. She stormed up to him as unrestrained as the wind and, when she drew close enough, she shoved him in the chest. “Try to take him then! See what happens; go ahead. I&rsqu
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 21 (iii)
Muffled as it now was, the conversation was difficult to ignore. Whether my mother decided to keep me or pass me on to the man who bore equal disinterest depended on two factors; how much would she miss torturing me and how badly did Matt want me to stay? My fate lay in the hands of the woman who was as likely to take me as she was to leave me. The home I once felt secure in was dissolving beneath my feet and brought me back to an earlier conversation with Jayden.Even in the middle of my panic about the future, there was a certain comfort in knowing it was still far enough away that it could be ignored. Now it clawed at my door, more terrifying in this new form that offered less certain outcomes.I would have to run away. If my mother relinquished me to that man’s care, I would have to liberate myself earlier than I’d initially planned. Jayden wouldn’t be an option; his parents were unlikely to feel comfortable with a runaway minor hiding under their
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 21 (iv)
Lilia took me roughly by the hand and marched me down the front steps with taunts and jeers, insisting that I move faster. It wasn’t until we got to the car that she allowed a mischievous grin.Able to get a good look at her, it was clear she’d left her house in some hurry. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun with many strands flying where they pleased. The shirt she wore was her favourite for lying on the couch and getting lost in mindless reality TV watching. The pants were likely tugged on hastily if the half-tucked appearance of the shirt was any indication.She was a woman on a mission, driving as fast as she dared and honking when others prevented her from doing so.As we pulled into her driveway, she began a restless search with her eyes.“Missing something?” I asked, unable to ignore the anticipation that welled up from inside her.“Nope. Here he comes.” She shut the engine off then gestured to a car th
The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President Chapter 21 (v)
“I do,” he said, tossing his keys onto a small table by the door before moving further into the room. “Make yourself at home. Kitchen’s that way if you’re hungry—come on, lemme show you my room.”He was at ease, an indication he truly was used to such grandeur and no longer thought it such. He didn’t flinch away from the furniture the way I wanted to, nor did his eyes linger on any one piece of elegant décor for too long.“The house doesn’t end at the door, you know. Come in,” he teased.I shook my head, adamant in my new resolve. “I don’t want to break anything.” It all looked…expensive. I wouldn’t know how to begin to explain to my mother that we owed thousands to people whose house I had no business being in. The door was fine. From there, I could see how the other half lived and gained greater insight into why he was the way he was.At the door, the
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“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
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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
