Heartless Savage by Ivy Blake
Chapter One
Megan
“You girls taken everything out of the car?” My mom yelled up the stairs to us. My younger sister, Lola, momentarily glanced over her shoulder at me and raised her eyebrow to let me know that she wasn’t moving any more shit. She always looked at me this way and she always won because I hated confrontation- especially with her and it was even worse when Mom was in earshot. It was easier to just roll my eyes and suffer instead.
Without a word, I dropped my box of books on my bed and headed down the stairs towards the front door. I still couldn’t believe that I’d lost out on the bigger room and was left with the smaller one- even though I was the eldest- simply because Lola convinced Mom that she needed the bigger room for her back, which was complete and utter bullshit. I’ve always wondered if Mom always lets Lola get her way because of favouritism or because she doesn’t have the mental bandwidth to deal with a sixteen year old. Either way, for as long as I could remember, Lola has always had her way and it’s been getting worse as we’ve gotten older. We couldn’t even pretend to get on at school. This is why I have no hope for our new school, Valley High. Mom is under the impression that moving for her new job will not only get her out of a rut, but that it will magically fix me and Lola’s relationship.
“Make sure you take it easy Meg, so as not to break anything.” Mom’s voice startled me as I twisted the handle for the front door.
“Yeah, I’ll be careful,” I said for the fifth time that morning, turning on my heel to see her hanging one of Lola’s canvases on the wall. That art piece had been a rip off of one of mine, but when I had tried to explain this to my mother she’d brushed it off as a little sister simply looking to her older sister for ‘inspiration’. Fair enough we’d only been 11 and 13, but it still wasn’t fair that she never failed to hang it up proudly. Meanwhile, my pieces were confined to my room or the garage for an audience of spiders and cockroaches.
“Also honey, don’t be afraid to smile if you see any kids outside your age. Actually, I actively encourage you to smile, you could do with some friends.” Mom delivered the words in a light-hearted tone, and while I knew she didn’t intend to hurt my feelings, the familiar stabbing pains permeated through my chest and I had to clench my fist to make sure I didn’t say something spiteful.
“I have friends,” I said with a forced laugh. Mom raised her eyebrows.
“Online friends don’t count.”
“That’s your opinion.” I shrugged. “Anyways, I need to get that stuff.” Before she could respond, I turned around and walked out the door as quickly as I could.
The sun tickled my face as it drifted through the clear blue sky, completely at odds with my emotional state. I glanced up and down the street to make sure that the coast was clear, because contrary to Mom’s advice, I wasn’t in any rush to make new friends, especially since I felt like garbage having sat in the car all day as we drove to our new house.
As I sorted through our remaining possessions in the trunk, my heart dropped as I glimpsed a car driving past with two teenagers in the back wearing matching uniforms. I ducked behind the door and prayed that they didn’t see me. Luckily, they were gone by the time I looked again. Seeing that uniform had reminded me that I had school tomorrow. That barely gave us any time to settle in but Mom thought it was best to hit the ground running so we were already enrolled and ready to go.
I’d spent countless nights looking up pictures of Valley High on the internet, marvelling at the uniforms and the campus- especially the school library which looked absolutely amazing. So far, I’d only had the privilege of experiencing the school through a screen and was both anxious and terrified to see the real thing. Valley High was bigger than my old school, so I hoped that meant that Lola and I could do our separate things, which would be good for both of us. All I wanted to do was pass my classes and go to college without any drama, which seemed to follow Lola everywhere she went, I mean she’s always been the ‘it girl’ so it makes sense, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying.
As I balanced two boxes in my hand, begging the spirits above to watch my balance, another car drove past, significantly fancier than the previous one. I’m not very good with cars, but even I could tell that it was expensive. It was the guy in the backseat staring at me that almost made me lose my balance. Even though our eyes only met for a second before I looked away with shame at having stared for so long without realising, that moment had been enough to send chills down my spine. Maybe he thought I was someone else and that’s why he’d looked at me with such intensity?
I paused outside the front door to readjust the boxes in my hand and couldn’t help myself from looking over my shoulder to see the car one last time. To my surprise, the fancy car with the icy eyed boy, was reversing into the driveway at the end of my street. My breath caught in my throat as I watched the boy’s dark head of hair pop out of the door.
“I see you’ve found me some eye candy already,” purred Lola. She met my eye roll with a callous smirk.
“So your legs do work?” I said sarcastically as I pushed past her to get inside.
“Don’t take that tone with me, Megan. You’re just better at the work stuff.” She smiled sweetly and shrugged as if she couldn’t do anything about it. “While I’m better at securing those connections.”
“Can you give it a break for two seconds?” I shot back. Lola raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow.
“Give what a break?” Mom had joined us at the door as if she could sense the rising tension between her daughters.
“Megan doesn’t want me to make friends with the neighbours.”
“I never said that-”
“You basically did,” said Lola, her eyes flashing with mischief. She didn’t really care what I said, she only cared about pissing me off in front of Mom, and so far- it was working.
“I’m gonna get started on dinner,” I said, defeated.
“Already on the table,” said Mom absentmindedly.
“Pizza?” asked Lola sceptically.
“It’s the first night, it’s basically tradition!” Mom said with a smile. Lola muttered something about greasy carbs but sauntered to the dining room all the same. I pushed the boxes I’d been carrying into the corner and Mom placed her hand on my shoulder.
“Please promise me that you’ll look out for each other while we’re here?” She begged me with her pale blue eyes.
“I thought you said that this was the safest town you’ve ever seen?” I teased.
Mom chuckled. “That’s what all the websites say, but you can never be too careful. Also, you guys are getting older now, and I know you’ll being wanting to go to parties and-”
“Megan doesn’t get invited to parties!” Lola burst out laughing, obviously eavesdropping as she ate in the other room.
“Not the stupid ones you go to,” I said lamely, as I tried to hide the fact that Lola’s comment had gotten to me.
“Lola,” Mom said, but it was a false and inconsequential warning. She turned to me.
“I’m going to be at work more often, I’ve committed to more overtime so that we can cover our losses this month. But all you have to worry about is keeping an eye out for your sister, okay?”
I met Mom’s eyes. What about me? It was the voice of my inner child. Who’s going to be looking out for me?
“Sure thing, I’ll try my best.” I told my mom what she wanted to hear, and when her face broke into an approving smile I took that as a sign that I could finally have my dinner.
Luckily, Lola was too engrossed in her phone and whatever social media antics were going on there, allowing me to read my book in peace as Mom watched her TV show on low volume. This had always been the routine, oddly quiet to most but weirdly comforting for me. Trying to force conversation over dinner was too much stress for me and I was more than glad that Mom and Lola also didn’t mind. I knew that if my parents had still been together that things would have been different. Even though our Dad left when we were young, Mom would always fill in the gaps to give us more information about his character. From what she had told us, I got the impression that he would have been less than pleased about our dinner arrangements. Fortunately for us, he wasn’t here and so I couldn’t care less about the opinion of a man who had walked out before I could even get to know him properly.
