The Fragile Ordinary(66)
Adrenaline pumping, I marched toward the school.
Why had Stevie set her on me? I hadn’t said a word!
“Aw look at her, running off tae her wee boyfriend. Dae ye no’ embarrass him wearin’ those dodgy charity shop clothes?”
Other students glanced at us in speculation, stepping out of my way when I passed, clearly not wanting anything to do with Alana Miller. I didn’t blame them. She was scary as hell! Fear clogged my throat at the thought of Alana getting her hands on me. I turned the corner and relief flooded me at the sight of Tobias at the gates.
“Enjoy him while ye can.” Alana’s harsh laughter made me shiver. “He’s gonna get bored wi’ a wee geeky bitch like ye in nae time!”
She sounded closer so I moved faster.
Tobias suddenly pushed off the gates and although I couldn’t see his expression clearly from here, I could tell by the way he started striding quickly, his movements jerky with tension, that he knew Alana was having a go at me.
Suddenly he was jogging toward me, his gaze narrowed over my shoulder in anger. “Problem here?” he called out as he came to a stop beside me.
I sagged against him in relief and his arm instantly came around me. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not proud of being relieved to be rescued by a boy. However, I’d lived most of my life with my head buried in the pages of a book. Alana Miller had kicked and bit and eye-gouged her way through life since she was at nursery. This girl would annihilate me if she got her hands on me. Whether it was Tobias coming to my rescue, or Vicki and Steph, I would have been relieved for the backup.
“Piss off, King,” Alana sneered as she and her girls passed us. She shot me one last threatening look and I shivered, acid flooding my stomach.
“What happened?” Tobias asked, concern etched all over his face.
I placed a trembling hand to my forehead, wondering how on earth I’d become a target for the worst bully in school within twenty-four hours. For doing nothing! For dating a boy! And refusing to be around someone who was using coke. That didn’t sound unreasonable to me.
“They just appeared,” I told him breathlessly. “Started calling me a slut, making fun of me for dating you. Stupid stuff...but...” I met his anger-filled gaze “...it’s Alana Miller, Tobias. I’ve known her my whole life. She’s itching for a fight and she...she’s vicious.”
“I won’t let her hurt you.” He put his arm around my shoulder and drew me tight to his side. I relaxed marginally at the feel of his warm lips on my temple below my headband. “The guys gave me shit yesterday. I was walking home from rugby tryouts and bumped into them. They taunted me all the way home.”
I clung to his waist, hoping my nearness would comfort him. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me, too. I really didn’t think Stevie would be this kind of a problem.”
However, it turned out our former friend was going to be a massive problem. By the time we sat down in the cafeteria for lunch, we understood Stevie and his friends had no intention of letting us get on quietly with our lives without them.
“Oy, oy!” Jimmy shouted across the room, drawing our gazes as we sat down at a table with Steph and Vicki. “The lovebirds are back!”
Some of the people around us snickered while Steph muttered under her breath, “Not again.”
Tobias and I shared a stoic look. We’d already decided not to engage with any of them, in the hopes that they would grow bored more quickly if we gave them no reaction. It sounded like we had a plan, that we were strong and ready to face Stevie’s order to his crew to bully us. The truth was, however, at least for me, that it was only day two and I already felt unsettled and ill at school. Dread filled me every time I had to leave the safety of a classroom and venture down the hallways. I anticipated bumping into one of them and having to endure their nastiness, and the embarrassment of knowing my peers might think some of the things Stevie’s crew were saying were true.
I pushed the food on my plate around, nauseated at the thought of putting any of it near my stomach.
“I bet when ye bang her, King, she’s still got a book in her hand!”
That was from Stevie, and not only did it make me want to curl up in a corner somewhere to hide my mortification, it really hurt, because it meant Stevie was using what he knew about me against me. He’d been in my bedroom, my private space, seen my private things and heard my personal thoughts on all different subjects. And while I’d been threatened to keep my mouth shut about what I knew, he apparently had no compunction about doing to me what he didn’t want done to him.
“She wouldnae have a book in her hand if I banged her,” Forrester boasted.
Tobias’s knuckles turned white as he gripped his fork.
“Remember, ignore them,” Vicki advised, the only one of us who looked unaffected and in control.
The obscenities kept flying our way, a constant stream, and Jimmy and Forrester illustrated some of what they were shouting with lewd playacting at their table. Some people looked annoyed and uncomfortable for us, most probably because Tobias was well liked. But a lot of people snickered and laughed at what Stevie and his crew were shouting and doing.
“Let’s no’ forget his other wee pals er there,” Jimmy yelled, smirking villainously. “They two are tasty. Gettin’ a shot at them two tae, eh, King? Got yerself a kinky wee foursome, eh?”