Heartless Savage by Ivy Blake
Chapter Four
Megan
What a fucking asshole. Why did I take instructions from Austin of all people, the guy who had clearly demonstrated his hatred of me from the moment we met only mere hours ago? Of course he’d sent me to the wrong place, making me look like even more of a fool in front of a sophomore English class consisting of some students who’d clearly seen the interaction earlier. I’d wanted the ground to swallow me up when I heard whispers of the cruel nickname that Austin had baptised me with and unflattering retellings of the morning’s events. I didn’t even wait for the teacher to finish directing me to the right class before I made a hasty exit out of her classroom.
Why hadn’t I double checked where all of my class were with Sophie? To be fair, Valley High was huge, it was literally ten times the size of my old high school, it was more like a college campus or fancy art museum than a school.
Seeing that I only had a few minutes left of my Algebra class, I thought it best to skip and take the consequences rather than face even more embarrassment. I just had to get through lunch and one more class and then I could be free. Free to go home and escape into Netflix before my mom could ask me how school was. I just had to stay out of Austin’s way as best as I could.
I brought my hand to my jaw as I remembered how he had held me and forced me to look at him. His hand had been warm and his cologne had been intoxicating and overpowering. In that moment, as he towered over me and held me still, I’d been completely powerless to Austin for the second time that day. I hated myself for not saying anything, for not fighting back especially after he’d literally made me the subject of ridicule when I hadn’t done anything to him. All day, I’d tried to work out what he wanted from me and despite our interaction in the hallway, I was no closer to figuring it out.
My stomach growled, notifying me that it was time to eat. I thought about texting Lola to see if she wanted to sit together, but thought against it. Word about my mishap would have definitely reached her by now, and if she didn’t want to publicly associate with me before that, there was no way she would want to be seen with me now.
“You ready to eat?” I jumped at the voice and looked up to see Sophie smiling sweetly at me. I needed to stop letting people catch me off-guard like that. Seeing Sophie’s face was a massive relief and I almost wanted to hug her, but knew not to because that would be weird considering we didn’t actually know each other that well yet.
“How did you know where to find me?” I asked. I’d been hiding in an alcove, hoping no one would find me, and yet here she was.
“Lucky guess, I suppose,” Sophie shrugged and gestured for me to walk with her to the lunch hall. Students started to fill the hallway as they made their way to lunch too. A few of them looked our way, but I tuned out the looks and any mutterings I heard and focussed on putting one foot in front of the other. “How’s your day been so far?” Sophie’s smile wavered as she glanced sideways at me.
“It’s been a lot,” I sighed. “Everyone seems to have heard about what happened this morning with Austin.”
“Yeah, shit travels really quickly here, especially if it involves those three.” I followed Sophie’s gaze and saw Austin and his two friends sauntering into the lunch hall ahead of everyone else. Luckily their backs were turned, meaning that I was safe, even if it was only for the time being.
“Why?” I whispered to Sophie even though they were out of earshot. It was better to be safe than sorry. Sophie chuckled bitterly.
“They’re from the three richest families around here and as you know, money makes the world go around.” We both picked up a tray and made our way down the line of servers who presented us with an array of hot and chilled food that seemed excessively fancy for a high school. I was slowly, but surely, growing accustomed to the extravagance of my new school. I selected something with pasta that looked really nice and accident-free before following Sophie to a table in the corner by one of the large windows.
“Nate and Austin have been friends since kindergarten, they’re basically brothers.” Sophie subtly gestured to the guy with the floppy blonde hair and sapphire eyes. “Then Ross joined them some point in middle school and they’ve been terrorising us all ever since.” I glanced over at Ross, the one with the buzz cut and cringed as I watched him throw his sandwich at a table of freshman boys sitting opposite them. Ross, Nate and Austin burst into voracious laughter as their victims cried out with annoyance, clearly too afraid to retaliate because they were aware of the possible consequences.
“And the teachers don’t do anything because-“
“Most of their parents are funding the school in some way,” Sophie cut me off before taking a bite of her meal.
“That’s crazy,” I mused as I forced myself to tear my eyes away from Austin and his friends out of fear of getting caught and drawing more attention to myself. “Have you ever like, spoken to them?”
“I’ve been to a few parties with them and been in a couple classes with Ross and Nate, but I can’t say we’re close or anything,” said Sophie with a curious look in her eyes. “The best thing you can probably do for yourself is to stay away from them. They’re unpredictable jackasses, as you’ve seen.”
My eyes landed on Austin once more, and I couldn’t help but watch as he laughed and joked with his friends- even though it was at the expense of others. Now that I wasn’t the butt of the joke it was interesting to watch the sheer pleasure he got out of making others miserable. Surely, there had to be more to him than that?
“All the teasing will die down in like a week,” said Sophie, when I failed to respond. “They’ll find a new target and all the attention will be on them.”
“I hope so,” I said, but deep down I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen when Austin decided that I was no longer worth antagonising and how I would feel about that.
“Anyways, enough about those assholes, tell me about you, Megan!”
I chewed on my food slowly, delaying answering the question I hated most. I hated talking about myself because I felt like I either came across as too pretentious or boring as shit, and now the added pressure of possibly forming a friendship with Sophie was making me even more nervous.
“Erm… I moved here yesterday, we moved because of my mom’s job—”
“We? Do you have siblings?” Sophie asked excitedly.
I swallowed hard. “Yeah, actually. I have a sister.”
“You’ve been really quiet about that!” exclaimed Sophie. “Are you guys close?” before I could answer, I glimpsed Lola’s bag out of the corner of my eye and lo and behold, as if the mere mention of her name had summoned her, I spied my sister making her way towards Austin’s table. I groaned internally as I watched her beckoning two girls- both blonde, super model looking- to follow her as she sat at the table directly opposite Austin, Ross and Nate.
“Is that her?” Sophie had followed my gaze and I couldn’t help but notice a bit of shock taint her features.
“Yup, that’s Lola. We look nothing alike,” I said as I busied myself with the rest of my meal. What the fuck was she doing getting close to Austin like that? Was she doing it to spite me or make a point?
“She’s cute,” said Sophie, “and very confident.” A tinge of jealousy stabbed at my chest. I would have loved to be known as the confident one, but no, Virgin Loser it was for me.
“So urm, you tell me something about yourself?” I said, quickly moving the subject away from Lola who I could see casting flirtatious looks towards Austin’s table as she chatted with her friends and laughed a little louder than necessary. He’s not yours, so why do you care? My conscience taunted me.
“Well, what can I say?” started Sophie, but I was only half listening. “I’m a senior like you, I’m hoping to study Music Philosophy at college next year. I’m the school’s band captain too, but don’t get me wrong, I do love to party- and we have some pretty good ones here.”
“What do you play?” I asked, as I tuned back in, once I realised that Austin wasn’t paying Lola nearly as much attention as she hoped he would.
“What don’t I play?” Sophie chuckled and began listing instruments on her hand. “Piano, violin, guitar, drums, saxophone, clarinet and a bit of cello too. And I sing, of course.”
“Of course,” I echoed, nodding. I was impressed and also a bit envious.
“I wish I could play even half as many instruments as you!”
“Well, why don’t you try? It’s never too late to start!’ said Sophie enthusiastically.
“With the move, I’m not quite sure we can afford it…” I said, even though it was a half-truth. There was no way Mom would let me spend money on music lessons, hobbies weren’t a priority to her.
“Megan, and I mean this, you can literally come to the music rooms with me any time. While I’m not the best teacher, I’m sure I could show you a few things.”
“Really?” I said, bemused.
“Of course!” Sophie beamed at me. I smiled back at her and for that moment I relished in her kindness, something my other peers had denied me of all day.
“I’ll be sure to take you up on that offer soon,” I said.
“Awesome,” said Sophie. “Oh before I forget, and you get lost again, do you want me to take you to your next class after lunch?”
“Yes, please!” we both laughed as we finished our meals. In my peripheral vision I looked up to see Austin leaving the hall out the back door, Nate by his side. Ross lingered behind him and was to my surprise was talking to Lola but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Ross turned as Austin called his name and him and Lola shared a smile before he followed his friends.
What could that have been about?
