Popularity Rules Page 7

  Avery had a smug look on her face which made me even angrier. “What is your problem? You’re just a crazy, entitled brat; why don’t you just go back to wherever the hell you came from?” I spat, menace and disgust seeping into my voice unintentionally.

  The entire class was silent, watching with cautious eyes. I hadn’t even realized how loudly I was speaking until I looked around. Mr. Pierce looked at us curiously. Avery’s expression was worst of all, she looked very surprised and a little hurt, and I could see she was trying to look unaffected but failing miserably.

  “Fine, I’ll leave,” she stated snapping off her gloves and goggles. True to her words she packed up her books and pens. I would’ve missed the tremor of her hands if I wasn’t so encompassed with her movements.

  “Avery wait—”

  She swung her bag over her shoulder and gave me a scathing look. People looked at her pitifully as she left where we sat and headed to the door. Because everyone got strength from what I said, they were all throwing comments to her. Some called her a mutant and others worst. I immediately felt guilty. I could’ve stopped them if I intervened but something was holding me back, I couldn’t make myself speak.

  Avery left with her head held high as if she’d heard worse and I sincerely didn’t doubt that she did.

  Chemistry class had just ended and I was packing things in thoughtful silence. The class was almost deserted when Marc reached for a pen that had fallen on the ground. He handed it to me wordlessly.

  “Thanks,” I muttered, not really looking at him.

  “Sorry I got you into trouble.”

  I snorted. “You didn’t get me in trouble. It’s fine.”

  Marc narrowed his eyes at me. “Feed that crap to someone else, Forbes. I saw how you were looking at her.”

  I sighed and faced him. “I don’t know why everyone keeps saying that bec—”

  “Because it’s true,” he interjected. “I think Gina notices it too but she’s ignoring it.”

  Marc was starting to slightly get on my nerves. “If you people haven’t noticed, I’ve just met her and that love at first sight thing is insane.”

  Marc grinned at me, happy that I had taken the bait. “I didn’t say anything about love,” he remarked happily, leading the way out of the classroom. “I know Gina’s the nicest person around and you don’t want to hurt her but stringing her along won’t be good either.”

  I wasn’t stringing her along but I couldn’t force myself to respond. If there was anyone else to tell me this, it was Marc—they were surprisingly close and very civil.

  The hallways were deserted by the time we left class. I wasn’t even interested in learning for the rest of the day. My mind had reached its full learning capacity.

  “Hey, where’s your van?” Marc queried after a moment.

  I slowed my pace to match his, after all I was in no haste to get to class and we were already late enough anyway. “It’s at your cousin’s house still, why?”

  “Well, I’m feeling a bit tired at the moment and that’s the only excuse I can think of to cut class.”

  He was now talking my language. We looked towards the brass doors that blocked the exit in unison and we seemed like spies from an old movie or at least that’s how I hoped we looked but I sincerely doubted that. There were, thankfully, no stray teachers milling about. We managed to quickly open and close the door without much problem.

  The harsh glare of the sun was somewhat appetizing and I couldn’t wait to cross the short distance to where Marc’s car was parked. Something was to be noted about this school, the security guards could really care less about who comes on and off the school compound. A gruff security guard saw us and regarded us with raised eyebrows before going back to his crossword puzzle. I felt more protected in Aspiration Park and that was saying a lot.

  The smooth purr of the engine was the only thing that filled the outer crevices of my mind but inside was a storm of past conversations, present thoughts and future expectations. I’d have never thought I’d be thrown headfirst into an emotional whirlwind.

  The white house looked different when it wasn’t swarmed with the undeniable marker of underage drinking – somewhat better, more refined.

  “Is anyone here?” I asked Marc.

  Marc shook his head slowly. “Nope, everyone’s out. Go get your car. I’ll be waiting out here.”

  I nodded and got out, not wanting to be loitering on these people’s property. High shrubs surrounded where I parked and I fought my way through the first row of green leaves. Once between the first and second rows of shrubbery I paused, hearing gravel crunch from somewhere nearby. I was about to call out to Marc about finding a path but I hushed up quickly. Marc wasn’t that tall and his hair was nowhere near that color – blue-black.

  My brows furrowed, this guy’s hair was the same shade as Avery’s. Odd because where we lived, people weren’t fond of really dark colored hair, everything was bleached and dyed. I guess that’s why we could all be classified as artificial. The strange guy was just looking around as if he was painting a mental picture in his head. I was positive Marc’s aunt and uncle wouldn’t appreciate a stranger snooping around.

  The strange guy turned suddenly and I ducked out of sight, a sort of reflex. I almost expected him to have the same strange eye-color as Avery on account of the similarity of hair but his eyes were a dull brown that seemed to jump in and out of focus.

  I expected him to turn directly to where I was and call me out for spying on him. Just watching him was giving me odd chills, even worst because he seemed to ooze danger. He reached out and tapped the window as if checking its durability, he nodded to himself.

  Before I could do something remotely stupid like calling out to him, he pulled the hood of his grey sweatshirt over his head and hurriedly walked off. As soon as I found the strength to leave my ‘hiding spot’ Marc walked up, looking impatient.

  “What’re you doing? I thought we were going to just get your van and leave.”

  “Yeah, sorry… um, are you sure there’s no one here?”

  Marc’s brows furrowed. “Yeah, why?”

  I shook my head, mostly to clear it, to see if what I’d just seen was probable. “Nothing…nothing.” Because if I wasn’t sure of anything else I was sure this wasn’t the last I was seeing of him.

  “Okay, can we leave though? This place has always given me the creeps.”

  I agreed this place with its lion-like gargoyles weren’t very appealing.

  Marc had to leave after a while of milling about doing nothing in particular, something about a big, important test. I, for one, couldn’t handle another minute at that abysmal institution. I had had enough for one week. All my mind kept going back to was the image of the guy; something was definitely weird about him. I was driving around aimlessly when I realized I was actually going back to the house. The place seemed even creepier now, now that I was alone, the gargoyles seemed to be watching my every move as I approached their domain.

  I left the car idling while I went to take a closer look at the house, the aura of class was still there but it was creepy, nonetheless. I managed to find the cobble stone path to where my van had been parked. I looked around for the same strange guy again but I saw nothing. There was only the wind whistling until—

  “What are you doing here?” an unfamiliar voice called.

  I turned slowly, unwilling to make any sudden moves. My brows raised as my eyes met the same guy that was there before. Remember when I said he looked dangerous? Well, when he’s facing you, it’s much worst. It seemed that if he blew on me I’d be on the ground writhing in pain in mere seconds. He just looked that frightening.

  “Uh, I left my keys here at the party last night.”

  His brows raise considerably. “Oh you go to Emerson?”

  I nodded slowly, my eyes drifted to his arms; they were roughly the same size as mine. Instead of being bulky, he looked lanky and kind of awkward but I could see that he had skill just looking at
the kind of defensive stance he had. “Yeah,” I answered slowly.

  He looked thoughtfully at his shoes before looking back up at me. “Okay,” he said, eyeing me strangely.

  “Wait, what’re you doing here?”

  For a moment his eyes flashed a bit and I balled my fists. His face broke into a smile. “I’m the new gardener.”

  My brows pulled together while I tried to analyze if he was being truthful or not, and the smile was beginning to get somewhat creepy. This guy looked as if he was in his twenties and maybe fit for an indie pop band rather than a gardener. I mumbled a quick okay and turned to walk away from him although I wasn’t sure turning my back to a guy like this was a good idea.

  “Oh yeah,” he called, making me stop. “Do you know someone by the name of Avery?”

  I turned to see his expression, he was eager for what I’d tell him, I know. Thinking better of it, I shook my head briefly. “No, I don’t; why?”

  His face fell a bit and I felt relieved that I hadn’t told him yes. “Nothing, just wondering.” I nodded at him and turned to the cobble-stone pathway, trying to hurry away from him; when he thought I was out of earshot he mumbled, “Can’t expect a nerd to know anything.”

  I snorted, if he only knew the half.

  Chapter

  IX

  I knew I should’ve probably gone to visit Gina or something as ardent as that but I couldn’t handle the guilt and I was positive her mother didn’t want to see me either. So, due to that crappy excuse, I ended up driving along to the dingy town of Aspiration Park. I knew it wasn’t particularly a good idea to be showing up there, especially since I was trouble-prone.

  The sky seemed to immediately darken as I approached the outskirts of the town. The men on the street eyed me suspiciously as I sped past them, I did my best to hide my face so they couldn’t hunt me down. I remembered the direction we had taken the previous night, it made me feel like some creepy stalker—remembering the exact direction to her house after just one night taking her there.

  The few large raindrops had begun pouring by the time I pulled up to the house. It looked even worse in the daylight if that was even remotely possible. The rain was coming from the sky in large portions and I hurried up the broken stone path and up to the front door. I punched my fist on the door and tried to shelter under the small roof covering that prodded itself over my head. The door was pulled in so suddenly that I almost fell headfirst into the room.

  The smell of warm brownies wafted up to my nose and my brows furrowed, I expected to see people polishing guns, not serving brownies. I looked over to the person who’d opened the door, she had a striking resemblance of Avery, and she was way shorter than her with cropped brown hair and red-rimmed eyes.

  “Who are you?” she asked, closing the door in the process. I guess I passed the ‘Is he a creep’ test if there was even one.

  “Uh, Avery’s… friend?” I said a little unsure.

  She seemed delighted. “Avery has friends? That’s really great!”

  To me, she looked really high strung and really young, so I figured Avery hadn’t been lying about the older sister thing. Before I could respond, the person in question walked down the stair-case and gave me a look of disbelief.

  “Get out!” she exclaimed, pointing to the door. “Reena! You can’t just let complete strangers into the house.”

  Reena looked flustered and she looked back and forth between us uncertainly. “He said he’s your friend.”

  Avery turned to me and raised a brow. “I thought I made it clear we aren’t friends and we never will be.” She inclined her head to the kitchen then looked down at Reena. “Your brownies are burning.”

  Reena scrambled off into the distance and Avery pulled her sweater closer, folding her arms over her chest tightly. “I’m just trying to be a friend,” I told her.

  “You’re trying so hard to make me accept you. Is it so hard to believe there’s a girl oblivious to your ‘charm’?” she replied, air quotes around charm.

  I gritted my teeth in frustration. “Is it so hard to believe that I actually care? I don’t want anything from you.”

  “Then leave,” she exclaimed. “Get the hell out of my house.”

  Reena rushed past from the kitchen with a tray of brownies in her hand. She pushed it under my nose and pointed eagerly at it. “It’s better hot.”

  I reached to take one but paused as Avery raised a brow at me. “Let me guess—weed brownies.”

  Avery rolled her eyes and muttered, “Bingo,” the same time Reena said, “Only the best.”

  I pulled my hand back and smiled at her. “No thanks,” I mumbled, wiping my hand into my pants.

  Just as I thought the small room was stuffy enough, the door swung open roughly and hit me squarely in the back. I turned and looked around, seeing two men enter with huge joints in their hands. They pushed past me as if I wasn’t even there. They both sat on the small sofa, seemingly breaking all the springs, they blew large puffs of smoke into the air.

  Avery’s lip curled in disgust and she grabbed my hand and pulled me up the deteriorating staircase that creaked dangerously under our weight. There were closed doors lining the walls and she stopped at the second door and flung it open, shoving me inside and closing the door behind her.

  I looked around the room and noted the way it was arranged, it was clean and crisp, a comfortable difference from what I’d just seen. I looked over to Avery and noticed she was wringing her hands nervously.

  “You weren’t supposed to see that,” she muttered, almost inaudibly.

  I rolled my eyes. “Why not? I feel like I’ve just had my daily dose of druggie soap opera.”

  Avery sat on the bed and looked up at me. “Shut up. I still want you to get out.”

  “One of these days, I’m just going to stop caring and then—”

  She pulled in a shaky breath. “What are you going to do? Hit me?”

  There was silence while I tried to process what she had said. “What?” I just meant I hated the feeling of rejection and was aware of how those girls at school probably felt, not that I’d become violent.

  “Go ahead, hit me. If it gets you to leave, then fine.”

  I stared at her in shock, still wondering if I’d heard right. She appeared to be awaiting whatever blow I was going to deal out. I raised my hand to run it over my face and she flinched noticeably, there was no going back now.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, a short distance away.

  Avery shook her head furiously. “Don’t say that because you will.”

  I rolled my eyes to the ceiling in frustration. “At first you’re all ‘I hate Jason’ and now you’re afraid of me? Make up your mind, crazy.”

  She sighed. “It’s a bit of both actually. I’m trying to convince myself that liking you is a bad idea.”

  I grimaced, all resolve to find out what her problem was had vanished; now she just needed a friend, someone who wouldn’t judge her for being different or who wouldn’t mind her being a murderer I supposed. Her lunacy was starting to rub off on me.

  “As a friend,” she continued, eyeing me weirdly. “Don’t be getting googly-eyed over me now, I’m over popular guys.”

  I smiled at her. “I don’t mind that. So, do you take part in their drug run?”

  Avery nodded seriously. “Yeah, there’s a new one that I can’t get enough of.” As soon as she saw my expression she laughed. “You take me far too seriously.”

  “Oh yeah,” I muttered, finally remembering something. “Someone asked me if I knew you today.”

  Avery looked confused. “Who’d ask about me?”

  I decided to choose my words carefully from then on. “A guy, he had hair like yours and…,” I trailed off, seeing how drastically her face had changed. Something bigger than I could comprehend was going on, I could tell.

  “Oh my God,” she said staring off into the distance. “Did you tell him you did?”

  I shook my head slowl
y. “I didn’t, why? Is something wrong?”

  “He’s just very bad,” she said, staring off into the distance. “He’s close, I can’t run anymore.”

  “What did he do?”

  Avery shot up from the bed and rubbed her hands together nervously. “Listen, I’ve got to go make some calls. I’m sorry.”

  I watched as she flung open the door so forcibly it banged against the wall roughly. I stared after her in bewilderment. For a moment I was partially paralyzed, although I was partially expecting her to react that way I was still surprised. The room seemed bigger, more spacious now that she’d left. Her sheets were clean, her floors were spotless and her books were well-arranged. I took that to mean Avery was an organized person.

  I knew I shouldn’t snoop around in someone else’s belongings but the temptation was mostly overwhelming since the house was quiet. The first thing I noticed was the heaps binder notebooks on a side table. I glanced toward the open door and headed over to them. The first one I picked up read ‘Case Notes’. I frowned in confusion and flipped through it. The elegant script breezed in front of my face.

  A page caught my eyes and I stopped abruptly, reading the heading:

  ‘June 16. 2012. Day 5’

  My eyes scanned the page and noted more than a couple times the name Forbes. I flipped through until I got to the 20th. A brief citation was at the bottom:

  ‘Although this is for actual notes, I must say Forbes is going down.’

  My brows furrowed as I tried to decipher what this all meant and why my last name was written all over the book. Before I could flip to the next page, I heard footsteps coming toward the room. I slammed the book shut and threw it on the table. It was practically hard to look natural with all the unforeseen developments. Did that mean she came here for a reason? Or maybe that’s why she hated me that much. Or perhaps I was next on her ‘hit list’.