The Serpent Queen

Ace Degenerate | Part Four

The next morning, Phoebe paced in her room while unpacking yet a few more boxes. She placed her phone up against the wall while speaking to Demetri once again, but this time they were video chatting each other.

"Hey, Demetri. You remember mentioning a Kyler last time you were on the phone yesterday afternoon?" She slid a sharp knight down the tape of a box, before glancing to the screen. By what was in the background behind her cousin, she figured he was in his bedroom. Then he wasn't. He was in the hallway if she remembered what the wallpaper looked like.

Walking down the stairs with his phone in his hand, Demetri replied, "Yeah. Why?"

"No reason..."

"Stay away from him, Phoebe." He warned. "Don't let yourself appear on his radar. Once you're on it, that's it."

Phoebe scoffed, "It's too late for that."

"What do you mean too late?"

"Well....I had a run in with him last night. He shoved me over a bush. It hurt." Like her cousin, Phoebe had a golden trophy. She held it in her hands. A shiny golden figurine of a girl doing a backflip. She had competed in two gymnastics competitions and had won the Junior British Nationals twice, the most recent one being a year ago. She set the trophy on her small white wooden desk and then unpacked the second one and put it next to the other one.

"Kyler pushed you over a bush?"

She scoffed, "Yeah, Kyler, who hangs out with three other dickheads. That Kyler. He....uh...also wanted me to do something for him of a disgusting nature, shall we say?"

"That asshole." He seethed.

"There's nothing we can do about it now. Let's hope he forgets all about me and leaves me alone."

"I don't think there's a good probable chance of that happening."

"Why do you say that?"

"No reason." Demetri replied vaguely.

A series of knocks sounded on the front door. Phoebe turned her head in the direction of the door after hearing it. Who was at the door? She was home alone. Her parents were out shopping for plates, bowls, cutlery and other household essentials that they desperately needed, but luckily she had locked the door when they left. "I gotta go, Demetri. Someone's at the door."

"Goodbye, Phoebe." The video call ended and the girl went to the door. She felt quite tense and slightly scared as she was alone, but all of that disappeared when she took a look through the peep hole when she found Miguel standing outside.

Opening the door, she smiled, "Miguel. Hey."

"Hey. Sorry for disturbing you, but I wanted to check in with you and see if you're all right after last night."

"I'm fine. My back has a small bruise. What about you? You took quite the hit."

"Yeah..." he lifted up his jet black t-shirt with thin double red lines running horizontally all the way down it, revealing the large purple bruise that had formed where Kyler had punched him savagely in the stomach.

"Ouch." Phoebe winced. She stepped out of her apartment and closed the door behind her. "What did you tell your mum and granny about the pink medicine?"

"That you poured it over me."

"What?!" She exclaimed. Her face a mixture of hurt and anger at why Miguel would just blame her and make her the bad guy.

Miguel chuckled, "I'm kidding. The look on your face was priceless."

She glared at him for a second then calming down and hitting his arm playfully, "What did you really tell them?"