Page 12 of Save Me
“All right, you’re on!”
He links his arm through mine and leads us to our next two classes together, with the last one being social sciences. He opens the door like a true gentleman and gestures for me to go in first. I thank him theatrically and we laugh over our silliness, making me forget about this being my first day and the fact that I got dick-faced the other night.
However, my smile is instantly wiped off my face as soon as I notice that most of the crowd from Friday night are in here, including the Italian-looking, Captain America. The guy is looking every bit as knicker-dropping as he did at the weekend, and I blush over my attraction to him. My only saving grace is that he doesn’t appear to have noticed me yet, so I quickly slip in with Kaiden. I head over to the last few desks at the back, while desperately trying to look inconspicuous. The moment we take our seats, Kaiden instantly turns around to quiz me on my rather erratic behavior.
“You didn’t warn me this was the bitch fest class!” I whisper-shout. “These guys all hate me and were horrible to me at that party.” I then quickly explain the whole ‘dead dog bed’ and ‘dick-face’ story while he sits there looking aghast over my summary of events.
“Well, look who it is, Kyle,” Casey drawls, “it’s the Brit chick come to give you another blowy!”
The whole class burst into eruptions of raucous laughter, while I try to pretend this whole horrifying, teen movie scene isn’t happening. In fact, I cover my face with my hands and keep myself facing forward to avoid any eye contact.
“Oh, please!” Kaiden speaks up, even though I wish he would partake in my decision to act the ostrich instead. “My girl here wouldn’t go anywhere near your cheesy, diseased dick. She knows where it’s been!”
He then stares right into Casey’s eyes, knowing full well where said ‘cheesy, diseased dick’ has been. It does not go down well. Casey narrows her moss-colored eyes and begins to walk over to where we’re sitting, when, thankfully, the teacher walks in, instantly making everyone return to their seats.
Captain America remains decidedly silent, but I can feel his eyes boring into the back of my head as the teacher talks animatedly about social welfare in developing countries. As soon as the bell goes, signaling the end of the day, Captain America is practically running for the door, shoving past me as he goes.
“I gotta go, Rose, I have to look after my sister while Mom and Dad go for their weekly therapy session,” Kaiden says, dramatically rolling his eyes. He looks embarrassed by it, so I don’t attempt to question him any further on that nugget of information. He soon kisses me on the cheek before leaving and I wave goodbye, then begin packing up my bag to go.
“A word of advice,” Casey says threateningly to me, “keep your bitch under control or get him a muzzle.”
Her friends, including Kyle, snigger under their hands, all waiting for me to take the bait and do something to entertain them.
“Wow,” I reply, sounding both shocked and intrigued by her physical presence before me, “that’s amazing!”
“What?” she huffs, placing her hand defiantly onto her hip.
“Back home, when we watched American teen films, there was always the queen bitch who was the villain and no one could ever understand why this was the person people aspired to, seeing as they were always so mean and two-dimensional. Yet, here you are!” I look at her like I’m studying something really closely and with great fascination. “Popular, mean girls really do exist. What a fascinating conundrum!”
She sneers as I continue to pack my bag without paying her any more attention. She knocks my bag to the floor before huffily exiting the room, complete with her mob hurrying along after her. I’ve never met a real-life person like her before, not at home, nor in Texas. I guess she’s watched too many of those sorts of films too.
The halls are already half-empty by the time I reach the front doors to exit the building, smiling because I have managed to survive the day as well as make a new friend. However, no sooner have I congratulated myself, do I look up and spy Captain America groping with some teenage model wannabe. I can’t help but roll my eyes in quiet judgment. Thank God for Kaiden is all I can say.
I begin to descend the steps when he looks up and stares at me for a minute or two, momentarily dropping his hand away from the girl’s backside and pulling out of their kiss. She continues to kiss his neck and lick at his cheek like a possessive lioness marking her mate, while I blush over the PDA. He catches my aghast expression and smirks at me, no doubt guessing how extremely innocent I am to all things mildly sexual. It’s smug but sexy as hell, and the bastard knows it.
Seconds later, he returns to sharing saliva with her, rubbing her up in the middle of a public parking lot like a couple of randy exhibitionists. The uncomfortableness of the situation has me involuntarily shivering, so I rush away as quickly as I can.
The week continues much the same, with Kaiden being my only friend so far, but he’s a great one, so I’m happy with my lot. Social science appears to be the only bad class that I have, but only because it’s full of the worst kind of people. However, I do have Kaiden with me, so I’m sure I’ll survive it.
Captain America seems to have a different girl to fawn over every day, and it makes me…oh hell, it makes me jealous, even though I couldn’t possibly be with someone like that. He can see that I hate catching him at it but seems to enjoy taunting me with his daily PG-13 shows. Other than that, he generally ignores my existence, which is what I asked him to do. Besides, it’s for the best, I suppose. There’s no point moping after some teenage man-whore, especially when I’m strictly unavailable.
Saturday evening slowly comes around and I let myself start to get excited. I slip on my denim shorts and a black hoodie, and let my hair lay long and wavy down my back. I’m so looking forward to it, I feel high even without Bodhi’s weed because I know that for one night, I can be myself. I can enjoy the night without Dad breathing down my neck, and without any of the bitchiness that I had to endure last week. Plus, I get to bring my new bestie along with me.
“I know where you’re going.” I shut my eyes as soon as I hear Dad’s voice from the doorway. “I don’t like it.”
“I know you don’t, Daddy dearest, but I’m still going,” I reply with an air of contempt and continue to put stuff into my old beach bag.
“You know what’s at stake, Beth, and I don’t trust those people,” he growls through clenched teeth. His anger only fuels my own rage, but I decide to exacerbate his by acting indifferent. I’ve learned through many arguments over the summer, not to act up, because sounding bored and uninterested annoys him even more.
“I know, but I do trust them, so there isn’t really anything else to discuss now, is there?” I fake smile sweetly before dropping my face straight back into neutral and pushing past him to skip down the stairs.
“You know what I will need to do if I think you’re putting the family at risk!” he growls, and I feel my blood boiling over the thought of him trying to threaten me.
Something snaps inside of me, and I turn around to face him so fast it causes him to step back from where he’s standing. I narrow my eyes into venomous, little slits before snarling at him.
“Don’t you dare talk to me about putting the family at risk, and don’t you dare threaten me!” I lower my voice just a fraction. “You know what I will do if you continue. I will tell your wife everything!”
That finally shuts him up, and after a few, brief, intense moments, where neither one of us wants to back down, he finally storms off along the corridor where I hear him slam his bedroom door. I shrug it off and go to answer the knocking from downstairs, instantly dropping the attitude because I refuse to let him ruin my night.