Twisted Devil by Ivy Blake
Chapter Seventeen
Ruby
I came back from detention, ready to pass out on my bed. My school days were long enough as is, so staying any longer than usual was taking the actual piss. But I guess having Tyler as my detention partner hadn’t been the worst thing in the world. Who would have thought? What had been frustrating was not being able to do anything about the messages he sent me and the suggestive looks he kept casting my way.
Damn, was that boy trouble. And I meant in more ways than one. He’d landed me in my first detention as well and on CCTV in nothing but my towel. Sitting in front of Principal Higgins had been humiliating to say the least. I was just glad that our interaction had been brief.
In all honesty, it had been very satisfying to beat Tyler in yet another test, but even though my pride was adequately satiated, my body was not. My mind was still reeling from everything that had gone down between us at the party. Even though I’d spent most of the day with Bella, keeping her mind off things as she’d asked me to, every time I’d caught a glimpse of Tyler, my mind replayed the words that he’d said to me.
The way he’d commanded me to cum for him as he’d pleasured me with his hands, pinned me down and called him a slut. I pressed my thighs together as I felt the familiar pulsing sensation between my legs, a pulsing that I knew only Tyler could deal with. I wanted him to deal with me just as much as he wanted to; it was just a matter of time before the situation rose again, right?
My phone buzzed beside me and I picked it up quickly, half expecting it to be Tyler responding to the energy that I must have been putting out into the universe. Instead, I had a notification that read ‘Message Request’ so I clicked on it half expecting it to be spam from some random Instagram account that wanted me to be their new brand ambassador or some bot pretending to be a ‘sexy lady’ who’d try to steal all my money.
I opened the message and was surprised to see that it was from Amber. How fucking lovely. My face dropped as I read what she’d sent.
You must think you’re so special fucking Tyler, well you’re not. He’s going to fuck and chuck you, just like he does with everyone else. He’s just using you and couldn’t give less of a shit about you. Trust me, I know babe ;) Don’t start thinking you matter to him, because you’ll always be a fucking pauper in his eyes (and my eyes too) xxx (PS. A pauper with a pedo for a Dad… who doesn’t love alliteration? Haha!)
I instantly hit block because there was no way in hell that I was going to stoop so low as to engage in a war over any boy let alone Tyler over text with Amber fucking Carmichael of all people. I don’t know what she expected to achieve from sending me that, especially punctuated with so many kisses, but if her intention had been to throw me off and make me feel insecure about Tyler, she’d failed. At least… mostly.
One part of me was adamant to ignore what she was saying, I was more annoyed that she’d taken the time out of her day, out-of-school hours especially, to torment me some more just because it seemed that Tyler had given up torturing me for now. She must have seen us walking off together at the party, and that had been enough to piss her off again.
The other part of me, the more defensive part, was a bit shaken by the message- it was never nice to see someone put you on blast like that but to put Dad on blast too? That was a whole other fucking level and even Amber had to know that she’d gone too far.
Considering the fact that there was an actual teacher at our school who’d be more than worthy of that accusatory title, the fact that she continued to peddle this lie was starting to grate on me even more. In fact, I was starting to get worried that she was going to spread that shit around- at least more than I assumed she already had.
I heard those whispers, even if I tried my best to ignore them, and that was the type of shit that could get innocent people in trouble. It was funny how that worked. People were more likely to believe rumours than the concrete truth, especially if the rumours sounded juicer and had greater dramatic potential.
I heard the front door closing downstairs and exhaled sharply, annoyed that I was no longer alone in the house.
“Ruby, I’m home!” Dad called up the stairs.
I knew by the way he said it that he was expecting me to come down, even though that was the last thing that I wanted to do. How could I face him knowing what I did about the kids at school, knowing that I couldn’t even defend him against what was being said because I already didn’t agree with his dating choices?
“I’m putting the kettle on,” Dad sang, his voice travelling up the stairs and through my open door.
“I’m coming down,” I called back, barely bothering to hide the annoyance in my voice.
I got changed out of my uniform and into my comfy sweatpants and oversized hoodie. I dragged my feet down the stairs and into the kitchen where Dad was dancing alone- poorly, might I add- to the radio.
“Hey bud, how was your day?” he asked brightly as he turned the volume down on the radio.
“It was fine,” I said, pulling up a chair at the breakfast bar.
“Just fine? Why the long face? Someone being rude to my little Ruby?” Dad asked in a patronising voice that made my skin crawl. I shot him a dirty look and glanced at the coffee. “Fine, coffee first,” said Dad, raising his hands up in faux surrender. He whistled as he prepared our drinks, and often his whistling didn’t bug me, but today everything he was doing was getting under my skin.
When he was done, he brought our drinks over and sat opposite me, tapping the sides of his cup absentmindedly as he waited for me to fill him in on my day. I sipped at my drink slowly, my eyes narrowed over my cup as I watched him fidget in his seat.
“Obviously something is up with you. Can we just cut the shit and you tell me what’s got you in such a foul mood?” Dad said in a sterner voice.
I set my cup down with a thud and looked across at him, at his friendly face and well meaning smile. Amber’s message floated into my head, as well as the comments she’d made to me at school.
“Why are you dating Zoe?” I asked suddenly, the words tripping out before I had a chance to stop them. Dad raised his eyebrows and his eyes widened in shock at my random question that to him seemed to have come out of nowhere.
“Lots of reasons,” Dad chuckled, and ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “I think she’s a very kind person, she makes me laugh, I find her very attractive-”
“No,” I cut him off. “I mean, why are you dating her, of all people? Like don’t you think it’s weird that she’s basically the same age as me?” The words came out harsher than I intended, but they’d clearly been stewing around for a long time and I was more interested in getting some sort of answer, no matter how unsatisfying it was.
Dad cleared his throat and sat back in his seat. My question had clearly made him uncomfortable. There was no way that he was as uncomfortable as I had been when he’d first brought her home and had continued to bring her home every day.
“I guess it is a bit odd, but it’s just the way things happened,” he stammered nervously. “I didn’t set out to make you uncomfortable or to date someone so close in age to you I just…”
“You just what?” I snapped, catching him off guard once again. “You just thought I wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t care?” My thoughts were running a mile a minute and my mouth was working harder and faster than my logical brain.
“I wish you’d spoken to me about this earlier, Ruby,” Dad said gently in an attempt to placate me.
“Would you have listened to me then?” I shot back. Dad paused and took a long sip of his coffee. “My point exactly.”
“Ruby, where is this all coming from?” Dad’s face held a mixture of concern and confusion.
“You want to know where it’s all coming from? Having to hear the kids at school call you a flipping pedophile,” I whispered the last word as if it were a dirty, illegal word that was going to get me in trouble.
“For dating Zoe?” Dad asked, taken aback. “Why would they-”
“You know how it looks, but you don’t seem to care!” I burst out. “She looks young enough to be your daughter, Dad, and everyone else can see that, but not you, apparently.”
“I just don’t think about it that way. Who are these kids saying these horrible things?” he asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, defeated. “It’s not like you’re going to change your mind.” Me and Dad sat in silence for a moment as we contemplated what had just gone down between us.
“I’m sorry that you’re getting the flack for my dating choices, Ruby. I didn’t know that kids at school were giving you a hard time about it.” One in particular, but that was beside the point. “I honestly don’t know what to say to you. I’m sorry I’ve been insensitive to your feelings. I didn’t mean to. I guess I just got swept up…”
Dad stopped as he heard the door open. The she-devil was back home. I drained the last bit of my coffee and practically threw my cup into the dishwasher.
“Hey, Zoe,” Dad said lightly, in an attempt to diffuse all the tension that had accumulated from our conversation.
“Hey, you guys,” Zoe said, beaming as she joined us in the kitchen. I shot both her and Dad dirty looks before I barged past them and went upstairs to my room.
“She’s stressed about school,” I heard Dad say lightly just before I closed my door. I guess love made a liar out of a lot of people, just sucks that it happened to be my dad who’d been caught in that trap this time.
I rolled out my yoga mat and plugged my earphones in, ready to get lost in the voice of my soothing yoga instructor and the calming music she played in the back of her videos. I’d aired my grievances with Dad, and now I needed to let all the tension in my body go. A long day required a long yoga session and even though I knew I didn’t feel like doing it right now, I knew it was better than doing something destructive like obsess over Zoe and Dad or even worse, Tyler .
