by Iris Taylor
“Well, when you’re done with her, I don’t mind your seconds.” He said it so off-handedly I just stared, and if it weren’t for the fact that he looked exactly like me, I would have trouble believing we shared the same blood.
“Seriously, bro, don’t go there.”
He shrugged again and gave me the smile that won many hearts over the years. “Your loss.”
In spite of myself, I thought about Hans' words. He was right, I was being too soft. But the point was just to have her and her mom leave so whatever took minimum effort would be fine. It wasn't that she inspired any particular hatred herself, honestly, even with her primness. It was that she made the unfortunate decision to replace two very important people in my life. And for that she had to pay.
The next day at school changed my mind about the whole minimum effort thing. The girl still had her chin up despite wobbling horribly down the school halls in her cast and crutches. My locker joke had died down and people had moved on, forgetting to make her feel like an outcast again. Her geeky friends surrounded her and she looked especially happy with the paper she had gotten back from Mr. Moore. But it was the smile that did it for me. Despite having a twisted ankle, being off the cheerleading team and being habitually abused by someone she lived with, she smiled. This would not do. I needed to step up my game. And I would start tonight.
Chapter 11
Ella
I stretched my arms above me indulgently, happy to have had a good night's sleep. Outside, the sun blessed us with what looked to be a sunny Saturday morning and I realized that it was the first time since I had arrived in Gray Lake that it wasn't so cold. I swung my legs out of the bed and walked to the bathroom, anticipating a nice, hot shower. That was when I saw my reflection in the mirror. My heart plummeted like a dead weight into a bottomless lake, despair and fury bleeding together as one. A short scream escaped me but I quickly clamped a hand over my mouth. The bastard would not have the satisfaction of hearing my pain.
The girl with the choppy, uneven hair looked back at me, horror marring her features. I had bangs now that stuck-up in all directions because of how short they were. The once-long strands were now cut in varying lengths so that I looked like I had put on an ill-chosen wig. My beautiful hair, all gone. I had never been particularly vain, but which girl didn’t have an attachment to her hair? Which human? I tamped down the sob that threatened to escape me. This was too much. Cole had gone too far. He had stepped over many lines that I had been willing to turn a blind eye on, but enough was enough. I was going to put a stop to his nonsense.
***
I left the hairdresser’s with a feeling of deep satisfaction and renewed self-confidence. My hair was styled into a sophisticated short bob that Dawn, the hairdresser, had assured me would take minimal effort every morning. I looked like a young Jennifer Lawrence. Jules - who I had brought along with me - agreed that people at school were going to do a double-take. I decided to tap into the money Melissa and Tony had gifted me for the move to buy myself a couple of new outfits. Nothing radical, just something to match my new look. It was also supposed to help me change my outlook on life: I was still Miss Good Girl – as I heard one of the girls at school call me snidely - but I wasn't going to take things lying down. A rush of exhilaration ran through my veins and I physically had to put my hand over my thudding heart to suppress my delight.
After two hours of shopping, I arrived home to find my mother in the kitchen, preparing dinner. She stopped short when she saw me, her hand over her heart. “Oh my! I haven't seen your hair that short since you were a baby! What made you decide to cut it like that?”
I could tell she didn’t like it. She loved my hair even more than I did. She hadn't seen me sneak out of the house earlier with a cap on to cover Cole's masterpiece. I trembled at having to answer her with a lie even though I had already given myself a pep talk earlier. I wasn't going to get Cole into any trouble with his father, not unless he made a serious blunder. If I were to rat on him, it would have been when he had choked me in the bathroom at school.
“I just thought it was time for something new, mom. It's been a bit of an adjustment being here and I thought a new haircut would help me change my mindset a bit.”
“Oh, honey. Is there something you want to tell me?” She looked quite regretful and I hated having to continue feeding her with lies.
”It's nothing, really. I promise to update you if anything important pops up.” I squeezed her hand for good effect.
Dinner was nothing short of torture. Marcus had insisted quite early on to make dinner a family event. However, Hans had decided to go on a date and hadn't told Cole about it, leaving Cole pissed at dinner, which he left halfway when Marcus started to bring up the wedding preparations. Sometimes I wondered if Marcus was pressing his buttons intentionally. The wedding preparations didn’t seem like they were going anywhere fast, although I wasn't sure why. My mother didn't seem too worried and neither did Marcus, so I guessed things were still okay.
Afterwards, I implemented part one of my plan. I knocked on Cole's door and waited with a hammering heart. I hoped I wasn’t going to look stupid. When he opened the door, I felt my breath catch in my throat. He was shirtless, and his skin was displayed in all its golden glory. He had a pair of shorts on that hung low on his waist. I felt my mind shut down as my thoughts turned into goo. His abs were ridged, and he had those defined, muscular shoulders that looked like they should grace magazine covers.
His eyes narrowed when he saw me. "What do you want?"
I forced myself to focus. Eyes to his face, which currently sported a scowl, making focusing on my task slightly easier. What a waste of perfection.
"Listen. We need to talk."
His eyes narrowed further, and then he slammed the door. I muttered a curse under my breath and waited, but the door remained closed. Growling, I knocked again, loudly this time. If he could throttle me, there was no reason I couldn’t bang on his door loud enough to alert our parents.
The door flew open, revealing a now-dressed Cole. He clutched my arm painfully before yanking me inside. “You’re asking for trouble.”
For a moment my heart stopped, and my eyes flew to the door, which he was blocking. Oh god, let this not be the end of me. He rolled up his sleeves and I squeezed my eyes shut, breaths coming in pants. I should have told someone I was planning to corner him. I waited for the pain, or the sound of leather as his belt came undone, something, anything. When nothing happened, I peeked through half-closed eyes.
He was silent, and although in most books I read I would expect the villain to be predatory or menacing, he was neither. In fact, he stood there, staring, as if I was the weird one, some strange specimen worthy of close scrutiny.
“Why are you all scrunched up like that?”
So I was. His eyebrows were drawn together, and he looked confused. I straightened to my full height, feeling foolish. Was it unreasonable to think he would lay his hands on me after the crap he had put me through?
He took a step towards me and I instinctively took a step backward. His eyes narrowed. “Stop wasting my time and tell me what you're here for.”
I squared my shoulders, feeling the bite of his words. I shouldn't forget what this guy had done to me, just because he temporarily looked innocent. ”Listen. I know you want me and my mom out of this place.”
”Damn right, I do.”
”...but just because you do, it doesn't mean you get to torture me like this.”
His mouth twisted into a frown. “Torture? You call that torture? That was barely anything. I was just thinking of stepping up my game.“
As if I had zero sense of self-preservation and an equal lack of survival skills, I retorted, ”Well, why don't you? Why don’t you prove to everyone that you're nothing more than a coward hiding behind the face of a big bully?”
Something in my words must have resonated with him. I watched as his taunting smile turned into a pained grimace before a mask of indifference qu
ickly slipped into its place.
”Since you're so brave, we'll see what you think about the rest of your week." The words were laced with malice, and I watched in fascination as his jaw clenched. The distance between us narrowed so quickly I didn’t have time to react. His face merely inches away, I found myself looking into his eyes, the golden brown flecks in his irises. That heady minty scent was there again. I needed to leave before my brain shut down completely.
"And if you haven’t crawled back home by then, we can talk some more."
His words hung in the air between us, and I realized I hadn’t gotten around to asking him what his issues were, which was my original intention. I knew that a discussion was most probably not going to happen, but it still rattled me to realize how quickly he was able to distract me from my plan. I mean, that's what adults did, right? Talk things through?
As my monologue swirled around in my head, I vaguely noticed that he had inched closer, so that his face was almost touching mine. He had beautiful dark eyelashes and full lips that were red and juicy. It was a curiosity, how such feminine features somehow made him an even more potent male. It was his jaw, I decided. That was what made his face so masculine. The signature minty scent I had begun to recognize as uniquely his swirled in the air around us, addling my mind further. He was a gorgeous male, and he was about to kiss me. Whoa, what?
I snapped my head backward in shock. Cole, his eyelids heavy-lidded and dazed, now appeared as horrified as I was. He took several steps back and scrubbed his hand over his face. That scowl of his reappeared. "Get out,” he growled. “And don't you dare come knocking on my door again. You and your mom have the same tricks up your sleeves that I should have seen from a mile away. Go whore yourself out to someone who would tap anything that walks.”
My cheeks heated up as if I had been slapped. Tears rushed into my eyes unbidden, and I wiped them away with the back of my hand, horrified by my display of emotion in front of this unfeeling monster.
”You can say whatever you like, but we both know it's not true. I came here purely to sort whatever issues you have with me and my mom, but it’s obvious you're not adult enough to handle it.”
I left the room with my head held high and slammed the door with a satisfying bang. Being around Cole was so frustrating. He was so frustrating. Confusing too, if his words and that near-kiss was anything to go by. I had started out wanting to learn what made him tick, but it was proving more difficult than I had anticipated. I found it hard to believe that someone could be driven to make another person's life a living hell just because they felt we were replacing a long-gone mother figure. It just didn't make sense. But then again, before I had moved to Gray Lake, I hadn't seen such animosity from anyone either. I touched my new hair subconsciously, the short strands feeling strange in my fingertips. My lips thinned remembering Cole's words about making my time at Gray Lake even worse. I couldn't even begin to imagine what that meant.
Chapter 12
Cole
The moment the words were out of my mouth, I knew they weren’t true. It was in the way her pupils dilated and how her pretty face shuttered before rage overtook her. I had hit her way below the belt, and we both knew it. But there was no way to retract my words now, and I watched as she stormed out of the room, leaving me feeling like scum. I felt guilty and I hated it. I hadn't been raised by my father to ever lay a finger on a woman, and I didn't want to start now. Yet the sense of betrayal by the man who had raised me prevailed, so I had to steel myself from my conscience. It was better for both Ella and I to be apart, so I told myself I had to inflict the lesser evil now.
My door opened and Hans strolled in, eyebrows raised in askance. “What's up with all the racket?” he asked.
“Are the parents home?” I asked by way of reply.
“Probably.” He picked up a pen from my study table and started to twirl it between his fingers. I listened for footsteps coming for me from the hallway but all was quiet.
“Why do you let her get under your skin anyway?” he queried, my pen now between his lips. I would have to remember to wash it later.
“You know why,” I answered. I didn't see what he was getting at. My head was beginning to throb and I needed some peace and quiet.
“Look. Why don't you let me handle this? You know I could get her out of this place in no time.” He straightened and pushed his chest out, looking at me straight in the eye.
I quickly shook my head. Hans knew no remorse. I had seen him hurt girls in an almost criminal manner. Ella didn't deserve that. She had come into my life uninvited, but she definitely didn’t deserve to be hurt to that extreme. A smirk appeared on Hans' face and I quickly followed up with, “I wanna have my fun with her.”
My bluff must have showed because Hans’ eyes narrowed in disbelief. “Well, if you need a hand, you know who to come to.” Tossing my pen back onto the table, he sauntered out of the room, leaving me worried. He was showing more interest in Ella now, and that was a bad thing. I wondered if I had, in fact, taken too long to drive her away. Maybe I was not as savage as I thought I was. I looked at the door again, trying to will away the worry that now seeped into my veins.
***
Her glossy golden hair graced the school hallways. That short haircut made her go from too-innocent to devilishly sexy, and she didn’t even realize it. She walked with an almost imperceptible limp now and the traitorous side of me was glad she was better. I sighed. Hans was right: I was a softie. And it wouldn't do, even though now I wanted her out of this place more than ever. What had transpired last night should never, ever repeat itself. I didn't know what had gotten into me, almost kissing her like that, but I didn't want it to happen again. Sorry, Nathan. A sinking, dirty feeling that felt like betrayal bottomed out in my chest. I won’t let a girl make me forget you.
I wasn't easily attracted to anyone. Sure, the girls at school were pretty and I had had my fair share of them, but last night with Ella had felt surreal. Ella was different from all the other girls I knew. My brain had clouded over with an emotion I hadn't felt before, and didn't want to examine now.
I watched as she disappeared around the corner and frowned. None of her classes were that way. Was she going to use some faraway bathroom again? I shook my head and turned to walk away. I needed to stop this. The strange fascination I had for her that automatically made me look for her at school. I needed my head back in the game.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hank’s towering form at the end of the hallway. My head snapped back towards him as a nasty feeling grew in the pit of my stomach. He was looking at Ella. Ella, who was oblivious to a stampede, let alone a quiet stalker. His gaze was intense, exhibiting what I could only describe as hunger. My gut twisted with an ugly, sinking feeling as I watched him disappear around the corner. I sprinted down the hallway, hoping to get to him before he could reach her. Up ahead, I saw her blond head disappear through a door, and Hank enter after her. I ran towards it only to find it locked. Damn it! It was one of the science labs – which meant that there should be a connecting room. There were the scraping sounds of furniture being pushed around inside, then Hank’s low voice followed by a loud cry. I tried the lock again and sprinted to the other end to find a door. Thankfully, it was unlocked. I ran inside and through the next door to find Hank advancing towards Ella. The sneer and his hooded eyes made my stomach lurch.
"Get away from me, you pig!" Ella was shouting. The look on Hank’s face only got uglier as he leered at her.
"I always get what I want, and today that happens to be you, you cunt. You should be grateful someone like me even wants to look at the likes of you..." His eyes snapped towards me as I lunged towards him. "You! Get your own piece of meat!" he hollered.
I felt the satisfying crunch as I sank my fist into his jaw. "That should stop you from spewing more nonsense." I ducked when he threw a punch, and managed to send him howling and stumbling across the room after I sank my foot soundly into his groin.
"Ella!
Go!"
Her eyes wild, she nodded and unlocked the door, glancing one last time before she left.
"Stay away from her," I chewed out, my mouth frothing with hatred. "Last warning."
He wiped his bloodied mouth with his filthy paw and looked at me from the floor. "Can’t stand the thought of sharing, huh? She can handle the both of us, you know. It’s a matter of whether you want to or not." That his tone sounded like he actually believed I would cave in horrified me. The mere thought of his suggestion sickened me and I stepped back before I could ram my foot into his stomach. I wanted badly to give the sicko everything he deserved, including knocking him out cold just so he would shut up. I gritted my teeth from the effort of restraining myself. Although he deserved to be beaten up into a pulp, I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of putting me in jail.
Instead, I spat at him. "Don’t you ever suggest we are the same. You and I, we are as different as night and day."
It wasn’t long before the teachers showed up and took Hank away. The principal looked at me up and down before nodding with what I assumed to be approval, and invited me to give my version of the incident. Ella must have told them about what had happened. My head throbbed, purely from the hatred that made my body shake. How dare he. Was I really the monster he thought I was? I did my best to slow down my breathing but wished instead that I had beaten him up more. I needed the satisfaction of seeing him knocked out cold.
After a ten-minute interrogation, I left the main building to head home. Ella was nowhere to be found, so I assumed she had gone home with her mom as she always did nowadays.
