Hateful Saint by Ivy Blake

Chapter Two

Ross

“Bro, can’t you see tell that Lacey wants you? I mean, she’s practically been eye-fucking you all night!” Nate slurred into my ear, trying his best to speak over the music that was blaring from the sound system. I looked over to where he was pointing at the petite blonde girl perched on the sofa opposite us with her friends.

Lacey and her friends were all staring in our direction, but of course it was Lacey who stood out the most with her perky tits and plump lips adorned with red lipstick that I had to admit intrigued me. She fluttered her long eyelashes at me and used her tongue to play with the straw from her drink while making direct eye contact. She was going to end up in my bed tonight. There was no doubt about it. But I was going to make her sweat first. I turned my back to her and wrapped my arm around Nate’s shoulder as I leaned in to be heard better over the throng of the party.

“Yeah, I noticed,” I replied coolly. “But girls always love me, so what can I say?” Nate always liked to act as if he was a matchmaker, as if I couldn’t move to girls like he did. But we both knew that I had a higher body count than both him and Austin , even if they liked to pretend otherwise.

“I’m just saying if you don’t go for it, I will,” said Nate, even though he didn’t look like he was in any state to be going for anything. I hadn’t seen him this drunk in a while, but then again, I hadn’t seen him lose so badly in poker like he had mere hours before, so I couldn’t say that I was really surprised.

“I’d love to see you try,” I said as I led him to the garden, hoping to get some fresh air and space, but of course there were even more people chilling outside, either in the hot tub or by the BBQ. Me and Nate sat on the swing and drank our beers together while we people watched. This was my third party this month, held at my house because Nate’s parents were doing renovations at theirs and it didn’t seem fair to trash Austin’s new place when him and his mom had only just moved there. I couldn’t give a shit about fucking up my house, especially since my mom didn’t care and didn’t have the capacity to. Every night she was deep in a bottle of wine and off to bed before dinner, meaning that the space was basically all mine, anyway. It was more than ideal to host parties here, and everyone loved me for it. Her behaviour wasn’t ideal though considering that she was the only parent in the house and that she seemed more interested in her drink than her son…

“I can’t believe you have so many kegs, Ross!” exclaimed a girl who I recognised from my geography class but couldn’t match a name to her face. I was glad for the interruption from my thoughts, already feeling the familiar anger and resentment boiling up inside of me, no doubt sped up by the beer in my hand and the few I’d already ingested throughout the night. The girl was holding hands with two of her friends, whose faces were equally familiar to me. They both looked eager to talk to me as well. In fact, from the way they were looking at me, I got the sense that they’d approached me in the hopes of something more. There was nothing new there, but who was I to squash their dreams? For as long as I could remember, girls had always vied for my attention and it was worse when I was with Austin and Nate. I remember the day that I had decided to sport a buzz cut. The girls had gone wild and rightly so. I had the perfect bone structure for it and couldn’t help but revel in the constant stream of comments and swathes of attractive girls that came my way.

“Anything for you ladies,” I said with a wink, felling smug at the fact that a few words from me could send all three of them into a fit of giggles. Nate murmured something, put his head back and closed his eyes.

“Ross, you wanna be on our team for beer pong?” I looked over at the table underneath the gazebo in the middle of my giant garden. It was Liam and a few of the other guys from the football team.

“Fuck yeah!” I called back as I stood up, leaving Nate to doze off. “You girls make sure he’s okay, yeah?” I said to the group of girls in front of me. Their eyes lit up again at the idea that they could do something for me and they all hurried to be the one to sit nearest to Nate.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, Nate is in good hands with us!”

“That’s what I like to hear,” I said, flashing them my killer smile before I jogged over to meet the other guys who had set up some red cups on the table in preparation for beer pong.

“Yeah man,” said Liam, giving me a high five as I joined his side of the table. Opposite us were two sophomores from the team, Jude and Alex. I gave them both a nod and could already tell that they were both impressed and intimidated by me.

“Sick party, Ross,” said Jude who was promptly nudged by Alex. “Ow! Why did you do that?” he said, turning to his friend.

“Keep it cool, man,” Alex hissed, intended for Jude’s ears, but I was pretty sure everyone could hear. I chuckled and picked up the ping-pong ball.

“Wait, the numbers aren’t equal,” said Liam. And he wasn’t wrong.

“You know I could thrash these pussies single handedly with my eyes closed, right?” I said, and I believe every single word that came out of my mouth.

“Bro, you can be so fucking cocky.” I looked up to see Austin walking towards us. A cheer went up as his presence was made known.

“That’s why you fucking love me,” I chuckled, pulling him into a bear hug.

“You’re damn right!” Austin squeezed me back even tighter. I heard someone clear their throat awkwardly beside me. I looked over Austin’s shoulder and saw Megan standing with her drink, looking slightly out of place as usual.

“Hey Ross,” she said awkwardly.

“Hey,” I said before leading Austin to the table. “Three on each side, can you guys take that?” I directed the question at Alex and Jude and couldn’t help but laugh at their stunned faces.

“Yeah, let’s go!” said Jude in a determined voice. He took a swig of his drink and set it down on the table defiantly, a little fire burning behind his eyes.

Austin took the lead and in one swift motion, his ball landed in the cup right in front of Jude, causing our team as well as the other party guests who were watching to erupt in cheers. Alex took a shot and missed, probably from all the pressure, poor guy, but that didn’t stop us from booing and making fun of him. It was all part of the sport, of course. Jude threw back the beer before crushing the cup in his hand. He might have been intimidating if he didn’t have the face of a chipmunk. Actually, scratch that, it was impossible for Jude to look intimidating.

“My turn,” said Liam as he dipped the ball in a glass of water before blowing on it dramatically, as if he was an Olympic athlete.

“You can do it, Liam,” I cheered him on, even though I never knew him to miss a shot. And of course, I was right. We cheered again, now two points in the lead, much to Jude and Liam’s despair.

On and on the game went. Our side didn’t miss a single shot, while Jude and Alex had a shaky start before finding their groove. In the end Austin, Liam and I still thrashed the other team, and we weren’t about to let them forget it. Luckily, the beers they had to drink had softened them, allowing them to take all the blows that were waiting for them at the end of the game.

“Well done,” squeaked Megan to Austin. I watched him wrap his arm around her waist and pull her towards him before bending down to kiss her on the lips. Those two were smitten. I’d honestly never seen Austin look so crazy for someone, and while it was kinda cute, it could also be kinda gross. Since he’d shacked up with Megan, he had no interest in other girls, which made sense, but that left me with only Nate for a wingman and he was nothing compared to Austin. Not to mention, the fact that I’d had a little thing with Megan’s sister, Lola, when they’d first moved to Valley High meant that things were still a bit awkward between us. When Megan and Austin pulled away from each other, Megan caught my eye and I quickly looked away. It wasn’t because scared of the girl, especially when she was literally half my size, it was the fact that even though Megan didn’t say anything, I could tell that she wasn’t my biggest fan because of everything that had happened with her sister. Or should I say, everything she thought had happened with her sister. There was no actual proof, just assumptions. Plus, Lola didn’t seem like the type to snitch, to her sister no less, or at least I hoped she wouldn’t.

“Yo, Ross, did you hear the news?” Austin’s voice interrupted my thoughts as I poured myself a new drink. He came and stood beside me, deciding to pour himself one just as strong as mine.

“What’s that?” I asked absentmindedly. My eyes flitted to the kitchen door where I could see Lacey standing, clearly looking for me. I smirked into my drink. The game was on. The fact that I had shown her I was interested before quickly making an exit had clearly ruffled her feathers, and even though she tried to stay away, here she was chasing me. Bingo. As if she could sense that I was looking at her, Lacey’s eyes met mine and a coy smile spread across her face.

“Ava’s back in town,” said Austin, forcing me to tear my gaze away from Lacey.

“What?” I growled, slamming my drink down on the table. There was no way that he’d said that name. There was no way he could mean-

“Ava, as in Ava Jackson? She’s moved back. Sophie told Megan that she’s starting at Valley High tomorrow,” Austin said. His eyes searched mine, and that annoying smirk twitched at the corner of his mouth. If my fists weren’t shaking so much, I would have smacked that look right off his face, but I had no desire to make a scene at my party. At least not this one.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” I spat, and in that moment I was only seeing red. What the fuck was Ava Jackson doing showing her face around here? Had she not done enough? I could feel my heartbeat quickening in my chest and I suddenly felt like I wasn’t getting enough air, even though we were standing outside.

“Nope, Sophie saw her with her own two eyes,” said Austin with another stupid smile. He was enjoying this too much. “It’s not that bad, man. It’s been years since you last saw her. Surely you’ve come to terms with everything that happened?” Austin let out a loud burp before taking another sip of his drink. Images flashed through my mind of that night, 8 years ago when my previously perfect life, or so I thought, fell apart. And Ava had been the catalyst for it all.

“Forget it, you don’t understand,” I spat, quickly finishing the rest of my drink. Even though my tolerance was high, I was grateful for the haze that the drink was casting over me and I wanted to surrender to it. I didn’t give a shit if it was my party. I was going to respond to this news however the fuck I wanted to and right now I wanted to get drunk out of my fucking head. I wanted to get so fucked up that I wouldn’t even remember her name, let alone her smile or the way that she always smelled like strawberries and vanilla. Or at least she used to. It had been 8 years. Who knew what Ava was like now? As I knocked back more drinks, all I could think about was how I wouldn’t even know what to do with her if I saw her in the corridor. In my school, no less. How dare she come back here?

“Dude, you might wanna slow down,” Austin said with a warning hand. I cast him a dirty look and finished my drink without breaking eye contact.

“Don’t tell me what to fucking do, man,” I growled. Even though I was definitely drunk and my head felt foggy, my chest still felt tight, and I was even more pent up than I had been when Austin had first uttered her name. My brain was slowly filling up with memories that I’d been working hard to forget.

“Alright, it’s your life,” Austin said, giving up, which was uncharacteristic of him. He shrugged before walking off with Megan to rejoin the party. It was my life, and I was going to continue doing whatever the fuck I wanted to. Especially who. I made a beeline towards Lacey, amused by the way she tried to stifle her excitement.

“Hey,” she said in a low, sultry voice.

“Let’s go upstairs,” I growled in her ear. There was no point playing the game any longer. We both wanted each other, so we might as well get it over and done with.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” she giggled nervously, turning to her friends to indicate that we were leaving together. By the looks on their faces, they were excited for her- and probably a bit jealous- but I didn’t stick around to find out more. I pushed through the guests, Lacey close behind me, ignoring the random voices calling out my name, demanding my attention.

Together, me and Lacey walked up the stairs around guys and girls either making out or about to make out. Thank fuck everyone stuck to the only rule I had when it came to parties, which was to stay the fuck out of my room. Simple enough. Whoever dared to enter without my explicit permission would be dead on sight, and everyone knew I was serious about that.

“Your room is really big,” said Lacey as we entered my bedroom.

“Yeah,” I said with a shrug, feeling impatient that she wanted to small talk. I didn’t have time for that. I just wanted to get my dick wet and go to sleep. Was that so much to ask? I sat on the bed and patted the seat beside me, beckoning for her to join me. Lacey sat down, her legs nudging against mine as she looked up at me with those big blue eyes. It was only close up that realised they were kind of creepy looking, like a haunted doll, but I was already halfway here, so closed my eyes and pulled her into a kiss.

A few minutes later, with a bit too much tongue and biting from on part, Lacey was naked, her face pressed into my pillows as I fucked her from behind. I had to force myself to focus despite the sound of her annoying moans as I got closer to orgasm.

“Oh my gosh, you’re so big,” Lacey whined, in that exaggerated porn star manner that turned me off instantly. I could feel myself going soft inside her, probably a combination of the alcohol and the fact that I’d gotten less and less attracted to her as time ticked on. Suddenly, a knock on the door startled me out of my drunken daydream, causing me to stop mid fuck, half-annoyed and half relieved. Normally, if someone tried to interrupt me while I was having sex, I’d tell them where to go, especially if I was about to blow my load. Luckily, I’d had enough so this gave me the perfect excuse.

“We’re busy in here!” Lacey called out in a shrill voice. I took my dick out of her and pulled my pants up, ignoring her annoyed sounds.

“Ross, this is important,” the muffled voice shouted over the music while banging on the door even more forcefully.

I went to the door and pulled it open, surprised to find Austin standing there, a concerned expression on his face.

“What’s up?” I asked, prepared for him to tell me that someone had stolen or broken some shit in my house.

“Your mom, man. You need to come quick!” Austin and I cringed at the same time. Why the fuck was she out of her room?

“What’s going on, Ross? Are you going to come back to bed?” Lacey came up behind me and attempted to wrap her arms around my waist, much to my disgust. I shrugged her off and pushed past Austin, adamant to end this horror before things got out of control.

Of course, when I got downstairs I realised that as per usual, any time Mom was around, and as drunk as she was now, things were never under control.

She was in her fucking pyjamas- if you could call them that. She was wearing something satin like that basically put everything on show. Her hair was a mess and yet that didn’t stop her from cozying up to my party guests who were all clearly high school students.

“Mom, what the fuck?” I yelled from the doorway. She looked up at me from where she was sitting on the couch next to some freshman that was on the basketball team.

“Baby!” she exclaimed and of course she was slurring her words. Some people had gathered around and were whispering to each other, clearly trying to figure out what the hell was going on and why this middle-aged woman had crashed the party.

“Get back to bad,” I growled at her. I marched over to her and grabbed her by the arm.

“No!” Mom screamed at me, ripping her arm out of my grasp. “I want to have fun.” I made to grab her again, but even in her drunken state, she was still fast enough to escape me. Quick as a flash, Mom had jumped up on the table and proceeded to shake her body to the music and honestly, it was hard to tell if she was dancing of having a seizure. Fucking hell.

“Get down!” I shouted, rage boiling up inside of me once again. First it was the news about Ava, but now this? Of all the times that she could embarrass me and make a scene, it had to be at this party, didn’t it? Just my fucking luck. Mom shook her head like a moody toddler and even stuck her tongue out at me as she continued swaying- out of time- to the song blasting through the speakers.

“You didn’t tell me your mom was a party animal,” Jude chuckled next to me. Rage over took me and I shoved him in the chest, making him spill his drink down his top.

“Don’t fucking talk about my mom,” I spat at him, punctuating my words with more shoves.

“It was just a joke!” Jude protested, holding his hands up in surrender.

“Everybody get the fuck out! Party’s over.” I was grateful to hear the music cut out and Austin’s voice filling the silence that its absence had left behind. People groaned and protested, but I couldn’t care less. I just wanted them out of my space. Leaving Jude alone, I turned back to Mom, who was still standing on the table, her tits nearly falling out of her nightdress. She watched on as everyone left, a confused expression on her face.

“What’s going on? Where’s the music? I was enjoying that!”

She clearly had no idea what’s she was doing or how badly this was going to affect me tomorrow, but she rarely did so there was nothing new there.

“C’mon let’s get you down.” Austin was standing in front of the table, his arms stretched out to help her. I snapped out of my trance and rushed to help her down too, relieved that she actually accepted our help.

“You’re no fun, Ross,” she said to me, stifling a yawn. I didn’t bother responding to her because her eyes were already threatening to close, so any words I had to say would simply be forgotten as soon as they came out of my mouth.

“Help me get her upstairs,” I said to Austin, avoiding eye contact with him as much as possible.

“Sure thing, bro.”

As we carried Mom up the stairs together, the embarrassment and shame truly set in. Even though Austin was one of my best friends and I was glad that he had helped combat the disaster, that didn’t stop me from feeling disgusted by the whole thing. I couldn’t control Mom’s behaviour and yet I still felt a weird sense of guilt for what had just happened.

“You think she’s gonna be okay?” Austin whispered as he watched me tuck her into her bed. Mom was already snoring loudly within seconds of her head hitting the pillow.

“Yeah, she’ll be fine,” I said, knowing that it was only a half truth. “Let’s go.”

I was sure that Austin could tell from my face that I didn’t want to talk about Mom. He was my best friend. Of course he knew that this wasn’t the first time she’d gotten too drunk and done something stupid.

“You want help cleaning up?” he asked as we reached the kitchen. My head was starting to throb and I honestly just wanted to be by myself.

“Nah, leave it. I’ll get someone to come in and do it tomorrow. You guys go home.” I nodded my head to Megan, who was sitting in the garden with Nate who was now awake and actually engaging in a somewhat normal conversation.

“Alright, we’re here if you need us, okay?” Austin had a serious look in his eyes and while I knew his offer was genuine, it didn’t stop me from feeling hesitant to take it.

“Yeah, sure. But I’m good,” I laughed bitterly. “Mom could have easily been one of us.”

“I guess,” Austin said, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Nate, Megan, let’s go!” Megan and Nate’s heads snapped towards us. I watched as Megan helped Nate to his feet and they joined us.

“I can’t believe I missed your mom-” Nate started.

“We’ll see you later,” Megan cut him off pointedly and flashed me a wan smile.

“Yeah, see ya,” I replied. I hugged Austin and Nate and gave Megan a nod before closing the door behind them. The emptiness of the house flooded over me once more. I kicked an empty can of beer across the floor and grabbed myself a new one from the fridge. Setting it down, I decided against it. Instead, I grabbed my secret stash and rolled myself a joint. Standing outside in the empty garden that was filled with people only moments ago was a really uncanny experience. As I blew out puffs of smoke, I felt much better once the comforting fog settled in my head. I knew I’d basically pass out as soon as I got into bed, and that’s exactly what I needed. Anything to stop my brain from working overtime, thinking about what would happen at school tomorrow and how I’d make my way out of this one. Not to mention the fact that I’d now have Ava to deal with. I took another drag and held the smoke in my lungs for a second longer, hoping that the pain in my chest would alleviate the pain in my head. Fuck Ava.