Heartless Savage by Ivy Blake

Chapter Five

Megan

When my English teacher announced that the school day was over, I’d never felt more relieved. I practically sprinted out the door and towards my car more than ready to step on the gas and get myself back home to safety and comfort. I was glad that Sophie and I had traded numbers at lunch. It seemed that she was interested in being friends outside of her tour guide duties and my loser status at school, which was surprising but I wasn’t going to question it. I waited in the car for Lola, watching the numbers change on the clock. As I prepared myself to call her, a text message flashed on my screen:

I’m going out with friends, so I’m making my own way home. See ya, Virgin ;)

I was annoyed and upset all at the same time. Who the hell was she hanging out with on the first day? Would it be worse if she actually had a group of friends or if she was spending time with Austin and his friends? Also, the fact that she was now using my new nickname meant that even home wouldn’t be a respite from the bullying at school. Great. And what’s more, Mom was going to wonder why Lola was already settling in and I wasn’t, and there was no way in hell I was going to tell her about everything that was happening with Austin, whatever that was.

I put my most recent playlist on and decided to drive back home, alone. It would have been nice to have someone to vent to, even if it was Lola. As I sat listening to Bon Iver, I realised how likely it was that my senior year was going to be depressing as fuck and had to bite down on my tongue to stop myself from crying. Sure, I had Sophie, but I couldn’t help but feel mad at myself for messing up so badly on the first day. If only I could turn back time and do it all over again, maybe I wouldn’t have brought my fucking book to school.

* * *

I realised how glad I was that both Mom and Lola were out when I got home. An empty house meant no questions, at least for a couple hours and meant that I could decompress in peace. I decided to have another shower, and played my music loudly as I washed my hair with my favourite shampoo and treated myself to Lola’s nice body scrub that I knew she’d kill me for using, but I didn’t give a fuck because I deserved it.

After my shower, I sat in my dressing gown as I looked for something to watch while the Autumn darkness took over the sky. I flinched as I heard something outside my window. Carefully, I walked over to the window and looked out to the front of the house expecting to see Mom or Lola arriving. The street was empty, except from one tall hooded figure standing on the other side of the road. The figure had quite a masculine gait, but the darkness prevented me from making out any of their features. I didn’t know if I was imagining it or not, but it looked like the hooded figure was looking up at my window. I suddenly grew paranoid and ducked down out of site. I held my breath for a few seconds but once I realised that I was being stupid, I stood upright again and the figure was gone, as if they’d vanished into thin air. Weird. But who was I to police when people took their daily walks?

To distract myself from being alone, I put on a show as I prepared dinner for the three of us. I was nearly finished when I heard the keys in the front door and Mom’s voice in the hallway.

“Megan, we’re home!” she called. I lowered the temperature on the stove and went to say hello.

“Hey,” I said, relieved to see Mom’s face, Lola’s less so. Mom held two big grocery bags in her hands and fumbled with them as Lola yawned and covered her mouth with her manicured hand. Ignoring my sister, I rushed to grab the bags from Mom’s hands because I could tell how tired she was from the look on her face and the way that she was walking.

“Lola was just telling me about her day, how was yours?” Mom asked.

“Oh, it was alright, you know- school,” I mumbled as I busied myself with packing the groceries in the fridge.

“Made any friends? Your sister’s just come back from milkshakes, isn’t that right, Lola?” Even though I couldn’t see her as I’d gone back to the kitchen, I could hear how Mom’s voice had lit up.

“Yeah, milkshakes were great,” said Lola as she joined me in the kitchen with a wink.

“Oh yeah, where did you go?” I asked Lola pointedly, “would you recommend?” Lola narrowed her eyes as she set the table.

“I don’t remember the name, it was some independent place. But I know it when I see it, and you should definitely check it out,” she shot back. “Meg, you didn’t tell us- did you make any friends?” Lola’s eyes shimmered with glee as she awaited my embarrassment.

“There’s this girl called Sophie, who’s pretty cool,” I said hotly, taking Lola by surprise. “She said I can come and practice instruments with her anytime,” I said.

“Oh that’s nice,” said Mom as she joined us in the kitchen. “Don’t forget that grades come first though, okay?”

“Yeah, I know, but I want to have fun too,” I said sarcastically, but Mom was too distracted with the cooker to pick up on my tone.

“Mmm,” she said, “you girls ready to eat?”

* * *

Austin

I opened another beer and took a long swig from the can. I’d wanted to spend a couple more hours outside of the house and decided to hang out at Nate’s after school before inevitably having to face Steven.

“What the hell are you doing, pass the controller!” shouted Ross, he always got ridiculously loud when we were gaming and the drinking didn’t help.

“Nope, I like to play rogue,” I chuckled as I held the controller out of his reach. As expected, I made me and Nate’s team lose, but I couldn’t care less. It meant that there’d be a rematch, and a rematch meant more time in my little safety bubble without them getting suspicious.

“How did you guys do on the English test by the way?” I asked, as nonchalantly as I could. Even though I hated to admit it, my failing grade had been at the back of my mind all day. I’d never failed anything before. Scraping passes was what I did and it had always worked. So what had gone wrong this time?

“I got a B,” said Nate smugly.

“A+,” countered Ross as he raised his can above his head. Shit. They usually did better than me, but this was embarrassing. I contemplated lying to them, but what would be the use in that?

“No way did you get an A+,” scoffed Nate. Him and Ross were especially competitive with each other, always battling over the position of ‘the smart one’ even though Ross usually held onto the title without putting in nearly half as much effort as Nate.

“Read it and weep, bitch.” Ross whipped out his phone and showed us a picture of his test result. How lame, I thought to myself, but that didn’t stop me from feeling angry about my own result that I was still yet to reveal.

“What did you get, Austin?” asked Nate, and from his tone I could tell that he was hoping I got the same or worse than him so that he could feel better about being beaten by Ross.

I took a longer sip of my beer, but I couldn’t stall any longer. “I flunked it,” I muttered under my breath. Nate inhaled sharply and Ross burst out laughing.

“You’re kidding, bro!” he exclaimed, not even attempting to hide the gleeful expression on his face. I wanted to punch him, but kept my fists to my side, shaking with anger as I tried to get my words out as evenly as possible- I didn’t want them to know how much this stupid grade had affected me.

“Nope, I got an F,” I spat as I started rolling another joint.

“I thought you studied,” said Nate slowly, a more concerned look on his face. I hated when he looked at me like that, like he pitied me. Like he thought I was beneath him.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said as I took a drag and blew a large cloud of smoke out in front of me. I felt the familiar haze take over my brain and I instantly felt more relaxed. “It is what it is,” I said as I pressed the joint to my lips.

“Why don’t you find a tutor?” asked Ross, and while his question had good intention, his delivery notified me that he still couldn’t believe that I’d fucked up this badly.

“Fuck that shit,” I murmured as I gestured for Nate to start the game again.

“What about college, Austin?” asked Nate. I stared at the screen and refused to engage in conversation. I didn’t want to think about something that suddenly felt so out of my control. Luckily, Ross and Nate picked up on my mood and dropped the subject, instead moving on to talk about what most guys liked to talk about: girls.

“Who was that girl you went home with last night?” asked Nate.

“Do you really expect me to remember her name?” I chuckled as I shot at the enemy team.

“Bro, she was your type on paper.”

“I don’t have a type.”

“Yeah you do- pussy is your type!” Ross laughed at his own joke while me and Nate rolled our eyes and shook our heads.

“What about that new girl, do you think you’re gonna try and tap that?” asked Nate. I froze for a moment, feeling my heart in my throat- a reaction that cost my avatar his life in the game.

“Are you asking me because you’re trying to tap that?” I shot back in the most nonchalant way I could, but Nate and I were basically brothers, so of course he saw straight through the façade.

“She’s hot but I bet she’s more into you, plus I kinda like the girl I’m seeing right now.”

“I’ll take one for the team,” said Ross smugly as he glanced up from his phone.

“Leave her alone,” I growled. Ross’ eyes flashed with mischief. But he didn’t challenge me like I expected he would.

“Fine, her sister is just as hot- hotter in my opinion,” said Ross with a shrug.

“She has a sister?” I asked, taken aback.

“The girl who was sitting near us at lunch, the one who Ross was flirting with before we left- you must have seen her, great boobs,” said Nate with a big smile on his face. I cast my mind back to lunch and vaguely remembered the girl they were describing.

“Her name is Lola, and she seems pretty easy if you ask me- I know she’s a lot of fun,” said Ross. With that comment I knew that they’d exchanged numbers and that Virgin’s sister was going to go through hell if she did hook up with Ross. While he was my friend, he could be a real scumbag- but who was I to judge?

“As long as you stay away from Megan, I don’t care who you fuck,” I spat.

“Sounds good to me,” said Ross. “It’s gonna be go time at Nate’s party then.”

“Sure,” I said. If Steven didn’t kill me first.