Breaking the Arm, Healing the Heart

by Ashley Andrews

"I get you," he said, smiling and taking a step closer to her. "But come on, do you expect me to act rationally with everything that's happening right in front of me? I'm on the verge of breaking down."

  "You do know how gay that sounded?"

  "Hell yeah, and you see, I don't even care," Lucas then said, his tone a mixture of sarcasm and disappointment.

  Sicily didn't know what to do, and so Lucas and she just stood beside her car and looked at each other with sympathy-filled gazes. If it weren't for Theodore knocking on the glass window and telling them that they still had school tomorrow, they could've gone on looking at each other all night.

  "We better get going," Sicily said, her hands buried in the pockets of her jeans. "It's close to nine, and your dad might be worried."

  "I doubt that, but let's take him home just in case," he replied as he entered his side of the car.

  The drive back to the Mercer mansion was a little awkward. But before the three of them knew it, they were standing at the grand entrance of the house, waiting for the door to open.

  After a few seconds, the door was answered and one of the housekeepers greeted them with a look of shock when she saw Lucas. "Mr. Mercer, your father's not here," she said. "But he told us that if you came home we were to tell you that you should come back and live here again."

  With eyes full of confusing emotions, Lucas turned to Sicily before he said, "I know you told me to grow up, and the first step would probably be to come back here," he said, and Sicily nodded in acknowledgement. "But I'm not ready yet. Can I still stay with you?"

  "Yeah," she cut him. "You can still stay at my place. But not forever."

  Lucas grinned before he said, "Of course I know that."

  Sicily smiled in return before she turned and told Theodore goodnight. She went back to her care and let the brothers have some privacy. She heard Lucas promise his brother that they'd go out again next week. Sicily smiled.

  The teenagers went back home. Lucas sighed in relief. At least for now, Sicily's house was his home.

  * * * * *

  "Hey, how about we hang out today?" Vanessa asked, sitting in the desk beside Sicily.

  "Sure," she answered, looking up from her notebook which had all the cheerleading songs and positions scribbled on it. "What's your plan?"

  The bell rang and their History teacher entered the classroom with only a whiteboard marker in hand. She was cool like that, very professional and without needing a book or a guide to prompt her on the subject. That was why Sicily enjoyed listening to her. She was intimidating and had attitude.

  "Get together at your place. Right after school," was Vanessa's reply. "How does that sound?"

  Sicily turned her attention back to her friend. She smiled and nodded her head in agreement. But how she felt, was suspicious. Vanessa wouldn't just want to hang out at her place. Sure her house had all the entertainment facilities, but Vanessa was outgoing and would prefer a club or even the mall over anyone's house.

  "Cool," she replied, grinning. "Should I spread the news?"

  Sicily tried to read her eyes. "Sure, whatever. Just don't make it a party."

  Vanessa let out a laugh before she slapped Sicily's shoulder and said that she would never hold a party on a school night, on a Thursday. After that was done, Vanessa then turned to Zane and a few other people to tell them about the plans this afternoon. Sicily looked at Zane who was smirking in return.

  "A barbeque party at your house?" he asked, his lips curved upward. "How random."

  And in return, Sicily replied, "How suspicious."

  Zane let out a genuine laugh that told Sicily he found her amusing before he looked away and tore a page out of his notebook. In a rapid pace, he scribbled something on the blank piece of paper, crumpled it and then tossed it to Sicily.

  If I didn't know her any better, I'd say it has something to do with Lucas.

  She wrote back quickly.

  Amen to that.

  The note passing was pretty easy to do since Zane and Sicily were seated diagonally from each other. Zane had hit Sicily on the head a couple of times already, and during those instances, she would try her best not to squeal or mutter out a curse.

  Stop hitting me! What the hell? And going back to Nessa, do you think she likes him?

  She was waiting for Zane's reply when a brand new piece of paper hit her on the shoulder. She then opened it before flattening it on her desk. It read:

  So what's Nessa saying about a barbeque party at your place? It's a school night, babe, and is Mercer tying you down that much that you barely go out anymore? - Bryce

  P.S. Why'd you go to the movies with his brother and him? Sucky company.

  She was about to reply to Bryce's message but was stopped since another piece of paper, a more crumpled one, landed on her desk. She opened it but didn't read it. She answered Bryce first.

  It's not a party. Tell Nessa we're just hanging out or else she's going to be uninvited to the

  -Cough-barbeque party -cough-:) Lol.

  She turned to Zane's piece of paper and skimmed through it.

  How can I not hit you? Your gigantic body is blocking your desk! Hah:p

  Oh, so you haven't heard? Unlike you, Vanessa still hates Mercer, and she plans to bring him down and embarrass him. Maybe she's going to do it later…

  Before she could reply, long slender fingers grazed the side of Sicily's desk and when she looked up, she almost freaked out. Vanessa was smiling her ever-suspicious smile and Sicily looked away and gathered her thoughts before she put on a fake smirk.

  "Need anything?" she asked, placing her notes as far away as possible from her friend.

  "Lucas still lives with you, right?"

  Sicily nodded. "Why do you ask?"

  Vanessa smiled and started tapping her long fingernails on her friend's desk. What was up with her? Sicily thought. She looked like she was on drugs, or even funnier, she looked like she was trying to act like a Queen Bitch.

  "It's none of your business, Hun."

  Sicily tried to hide the gasp that escaped her mouth, but she couldn't. She looked at her friend. Who did she think she was? And what did she take, or do last night? Because Vanessa sporting this attitude, was not natural.

  "Then I guess you have to find something else to do this afternoon," Sicily replied, her face void of emotion. "What were you planning to do to Lucas?"

  "Oh, so now he's Lucas? What happened to calling him Mercer?" the other asked quickly with her head turned away from Sicily.

  "What happened that you are now acting like a stuck-up bitch?" Sicily questioned.

  Vanessa let out an impatient sigh as she banged her fists quietly on her desk. "You, listen, alright?" she then said as she scanned Sicily from head to toe while the former only rolled her eyes. "Ever since you started taking care of him, you've been distant from us…"

  "So you're jealous?" she asked, cutting Nessa midway. "Is that it?"

  "No," was Vanessa's reply. "You've been away, okay? And the whole school has noticed, and let's just put it this way, they don't think so highly of you anymore."

  "Whatever, liar."

  Before Vanessa could add anything more to what she said, Mrs. Bennett, their teacher, walked up and stood in between the two. She looked at the two of them, smiled and then said in, "Do you mind telling the whole class what you two have been talking about?"

  "Yes, I do mind," Sicily said, looking away. "And no, I am not sharing it with the whole class." She was too irritated with Vanessa to exert any effort into answering more respectfully. To add to that, she was thinking about what Vanessa had just told her. Maybe the snot was a little bit right.

  People were still scared or respectful of her, but her friends on the cheerleading team, not so much anymore. They’d even had the guts to start complaining to her when Lucas was watching. It never used to be like that. They used to just follow her no matter what, and just do whatever she told them to do, without questions or comments.

  However, befor
e she could think about it any longer, Mrs. Bennett nodded her head slowly and then spoke up. "Very well then. Just keep it down."

  Sicily discreetly smiled. See? The voice inside her head said. How cool and professional was that?

  "We just think that Lucas is trouble," Vanessa said in a whisper, and Sicily had to lean in closer to be able to hear what she was saying. "He has to stick to his crowd."

  "I can take care of myself, Ness."

  The other woman shook her head in disappointment. "But you can't change all the rhetoric that you’ve been spouting for years. We all have bought into the hate Mallory, hate Lucas lifestyle," Vanessa said smiling as she rested her elbow on her desk and leaned her head on her hand. "They did what you wanted them to do. They hate Lucas. They're going to hate you, too, if you change your mind."

  "I'll just deal with that when it happens, if it ever happens, okay?" Sicily said, faking a smile.

  Her friend nodded. "Then I might have to take over the school if you can’t deal with it when it comes," her friend said in response, and the smirk on her face and her shining eyes unnerved Sicily.

  She weighed the possibilities, her choices, her possible decisions…

  School or Lucas…

  A thousand haters or one…

  Her reputation or her loyalty…

  She shook her head in disbelief and suddenly realized what she had to do.

  "God, he's going to hate me," she said, stomping her foot.

  Vanessa smirked to herself. She wouldn’t be taking over Sicily's position, but she was still going to have the most popular person in school as her friend. She’d been ignored and left out lately. All because of Lucas. Well, she wasn’t taken a step back. To bad for Lucas, he wouldn't only have to cope up with a divorce, but also with finding a new home.

  When the bell rang, Sicily popped up and headed out the door. She couldn’t believe the corner Vanessa had pushed her into. She hated the options, hated what she might have to do. She needed to talk to Zane.

  Damn High School.

  Chapter 15: Adventures of the Homeless

  Sicily never thought it would ever happen. But she and Zane were having a huge argument. Zane was protecting Lucas from her. He thought that what she had planned to do was wrong. Zane believed Lucas didn't deserve what she was going to do. They were bickering, and neither of them cared at all if they were surrounded by eavesdroppers. Being egocentric and stubborn, Sicily and Zane wanted to get their own points across, and neither of the two was going to go down without an argument.

  "Why can't I do it?" she asked, her voice raising a decibel. "It's my house!"

  Zane let out an exasperated sigh before he ran a hand through his light brown hair. He then shook his head before saying, "I didn't say, 'You couldn't do it.' I said, 'Don't do it,” in what seemed to be a reprimanding voice.

  Like Sicily was ever one to give up a fight.

  "Why do you care so much about what's going to happen to him?" she then questioned, stomping her foot and resting her hands on her hip. "You hate him!"

  "I did hate him."

  "And what changed?" Sicily asked, quickly getting infuriated.

  She hated being the underdog in anything, and at the moment, Zane was making her feel like one. He was treating her like a kid by telling her what to do and what not to do, and it was as if he didn't know she could already make her own decisions. A small voice inside suggested that she wasn’t doing this because she wanted to, but because Vanessa had manipulated her into it.

  "I could ask you the same thing," Zane returned with an emotionless voice and facial expression.

  "You're not answering my question."

  Neither of the two could believe it – that they were really fighting and shouting and that a simple 'sorry' or a joke wouldn't cure anything. Who knew that it would take them one narcissistic and ignorant playboy to get them at each other's throats?

  "Just don't throw him out," Zane said, controlling himself from doing anything rash. He would never hit a girl, especially Sicily, but he could do other drastic things such as punch a locker and let his fist bleed, and right now, he didn't care. He just wanted Sicily to rethink what she was planning on doing. She just wanted to kick Lucas out of her house so that Vanessa would stop trying to act all high and mighty. It was annoying everyone.

  "Give me a good reason not do it," was her reply.

  "His parents are divorcing! What more do you want to happen?" Zane asked as if he were demanding something from Sicily. "Where do you expect him to go after you tell him he can't stay at your place?"

  "He can go back to his house," Sicily replied, tight-lipped. "We just went there a few days ago to hang out with Theodore, and their housekeeper said his dad wants him back home."

  "Well his dad is also acting like an ass, I don’t think that is a good solution."

  "Oh, so you're not only talking for Lucas now but for his dad as well?" Sicily asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "What are you? A long lost member of their family?"

  Zane groaned out loud, and it caught the attention of a few people that were passing by. He couldn't help it. How did he even get into an argument with Sicily, his best friend? No wonder no one wanted to mess with her, he thought as he rolled his eyes, she is so thick-headed and close-minded. "I told you before—my mom is his dad’s lawyer," Zane said.

  Sicily, in return, pressed her lips together and nodded, telling him to continue.

  "She's stressing about this case—about who gets custody of Lucas and Theodore, about the distribution of properties and wealth and about other equally important things. Part of that stress is that she doesn’t think Lucas’s dad is doing the right things. Not that she has said that, but I can see it on her face. Do you see now why you can't just leave him like that? He needs a friend."

  Sicily let out a grunt before she looked away to avoid eye contact as much as possible. She was on the verge of giving up the fight.

  "He needs you," Zane finished. He wanted to say something more, an observation really, that could turn Sicily's world upside down if she were still oblivious to it, but decided that it wouldn't be right if she found out through him. She would know about it sooner or later anyway.

  "Zane," Sicily said.

  That brought a smile to his face. It meant most of the argument was over. She was finally using his name, and he took that as a good thing.

  "What Vanessa said was true," she then said. "I'm losing control of this school, and if this keeps up, sooner or later, I'm going to be a, umm-"

  "A what?" Zane asked, trying to read her mind.

  "You know," was Sicily's answer. "The thing I never want to happen, especially in high school."

  "Who said you're going to be a loser by being a good friend?"

  "Vanessa didn't really say it, but I knew she meant that," Sicily then returned, looking down, and in response, Zane could only grin.

  "You must be fucking with my brain," Zane said, his grin turning into a smirk. "If there's someone in our group who's harmless, that's got to be Vanessa."

  Zane wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do, but he took the risk and enveloped Sicily into a hug. It took a few seconds more before the embrace was returned, but nonetheless, things were starting to get better and lighten up.

  "Don't believe her," Zane said, placing a hand on Sicily's chocolate-colored hair. "Bailey and I won't let that happen to you, and please, Vanessa? She just transferred a few years ago. She's the least influential among all of us. Trust me on that."

  Sicily lifted her head up to look at Zane's china blue eyes. His eyes were smiling, telling her everything was going to be okay, and she believed them.

  "You went through all this effort just to force me to let Lucas stay?" Sicily asked in a teasing fashion. "I seriously thought you hated the guy to death."

  Zane smiled and shook his head before he said, "I just hated him because you did, and since you actually like him now, might as well like him too." He then continued, "But don't worry, I don'
t like him the way you do."

  "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Sicily asked with one of her eyebrows raised up in suspicion.

  "You like him."

  "Yeah, I do," Sicily returned in a matter-of-fact tone. "He's actually a nice person to be around."

  Zane laughed quietly as if Sicily had just said a joke. "I mean you like, like him," he then responded, correcting her. “In fact, you luuuve him.” He smiled.

  That earned him a slap from his best friend, and Sicily's face contorted itself into a look of disgust before she furrowed her eyebrows in disbelief. Zane wasn't giving her lessons in life anymore but was instead making fun of her.

  "Are you on drugs? What made you think that?" she asked, looking at him with a doubtful expression.

  "You kissed the guy during my New Year party."

  "Accident."

  "You accompanied him when he got his tongue piercing."

  Sicily bit her bottom lip. She knew Zane wasn't going to stop, and so, she decided to just continue with her one-word answers.

  "Punishment."

  "You accompanied him to the beach, and you guys had a picnic."

  "Demand."

  "You drive him everywhere he wants to go," Zane then said, raising his eyebrows repeatedly in a 'what-more-can-you-say' fashion. "Now that's love."

  "And again, that's part of my punishment." Telling him to stop, Sicily punched Zane's shoulder before she pinched his waist.

  Hardheaded and stubborn just as she was, he shook his head and simply continued while Sicily could only roll her eyes and defend herself. She wasn't going to give Zane the option of having the last word.

  "He kissed you again!" he said as if he remembered something extremely essential to his being. "Remember that?"

  "And I left him," Sicily replied, sticking out her chest in mock-arrogance. "You should remember that!"

  "Well, uh," Zane said, trying to think of more things that would make her see his point. "You hung out with Mallory just to be with him."