The Bully

Chapter Two

Tom Logan was two years older than me. He arrived at our school and promptly joined the amateur wrestling team becoming good buddies with the Hart brothers. He was tall and broad with a shock of golden blonde hair and pale blue eyes. Most of the girls had an almighty crush on him, but he made my skin crawl. There was something about the way he looked at me which turned my stomach. It didn't help that his dad, Tony had become friendly with my mom. I wasn't sure how they'd met; Tony owned a restaurant and Mom certainly didn't go out for meals, but it transpired she had known him when she was younger and he'd looked her up when he came to town. He was round the house a lot and then she surprised me by going out with him. This became a regular thing and I'd come home from school to find Dotty tight lipped and angry because Mom was out with 'that bastard Tony' again.

"Make no mistake, lassie. He's after her cash and that's a fact!" she would say and she wasn't any less vocal with my mom. I would cringe listening to them row and then one day she came through to see me. "I'm sorry, Angelina but I can't live here any more. Me and your mother have never got on and she's moving that bastard into the house. I'm going back to Edinburgh. I'm home sick for Scotland, lassie. You'll always be welcome with me and remember what I said. Not  long and you'll be out of here too."

I was devastated but I understood. Dotty was miserable since Daddy passed and I knew she'd lost a lot of weight, aging before my eyes, while Mom seemed to grow even more beautiful and unapproachable. With Tony on the scene she pretty much ignored me which was better for me, but I dreaded Dotty leaving. It seemed that in the blink of an eye Dotty was gone and Tony and Tom moved in. At first it wasn't too bad. Tony wasn't the bastard that Dotty made out and he was actually quite friendly. He cooked amazing food for us and Mom seemed happier than she'd been in years. She actually removed the sunglasses and her bright blue eyes would flash with happiness. And I realised she was head over heels in love. The problem was that Tom moved in as well and he was not at all like his dad.

"Well now we're brother and sister I'm sure we can get to know one another much, much better," he said the day they moved in. I went to dodge round him, heading for my room but he stopped me, a hand on my arm. "Where do you think you're going? I'm talking to you Angelcakes."

"It's Angelina," I said quietly. He squeezed my arm, just hard enough to hurt and smirked when I winced.

"I say it's Angelcakes and what I say goes, understood?" He stepped back as Mom appeared. "April I was just saying how nice it'll be to have a kid sister. I'll be able to give her a ride to school everyday and keep an eye on her for you."

Mom thought he was positively wonderful and would beam at him, ruffle his hair and treat him like the son she'd never had. She'd drop huge hints that we should hang out more, pointing out we weren't really brother and sister. But I hated him, with every fibre of my being.

School was hard. Bret had avoided me since Dad's funeral. He wasn't mean to me or anything at first, just didn't talk to me and walked away if I approached Jackie, John and him. They both noticed and asked what was going on; we'd been a foursome since primary school but now me and Bret didn't even share the same space. I just said we'd had a fallout and left it at that. I've no idea what he said, but he didn't tell them the truth. And what made it worse was I saw he was real friendly with Tom.

"Hey! Angelcakes! Get your cute little ass over here," Tom called across the yard. He was sat on a bench with the Harts, including Bret. I closed my eyes, taking a breath before I walked over.

"What do you want?" I asked, coldly. Tom raised an eyebrow.

"Is that any way to speak to your big brother?" he asked.

"You're not my brother," I muttered. He jumped down from the table, coming to stand directly in front of me, invading my personal space and trying to intimidate me.