Greenridge Academy

Chapter two

"Okay, I put in all the returns about forty five minutes ago, and wiped down all the tables and chairs around fifteen minutes ago. A few kids came in not long ago and are in the kids den, but other than that we've been pretty slow all day." I spew out to Sheila. She enthusiastically nods her head while walking around the corner. "Thank you ma'am! Now get out of here! I heard you have exciting plans today." She gives me a knowing look. I sigh and nod my head, grabbing my purse and leaving with a small wave. It's noon and I'm supposed to meet Haley back at my house at twelve thirty. After turning my car on, I turn the radio on and blast a song talking about a 'Stick Season'. It's actually pretty good, after turning my car off in my driveway I add the song to my phone. "I have a surprise!" Haley's voice shrieks through the warm quiet air. Without saying anything I turn my head toward her and smile. She pulls out a small black cloth bag that is zipped up, she's shaking with excitement. Today might be the death of me... but she's been waiting three long years for this day. I can't ruin it for her, so I return her giddy smile and follow her inside.
"Hey girls, what are you up to today?" My dad says from the kitchen. "Hey dad, what're you doing here?" I look around for my mom but remember she worked overnight and will be sleeping. "Jessie has practice until two today, so I told your mom that I would come over and keep Lily and Augs company." He looks around the small area before whispering, "Lily is convinced she doesn't need anyone to babysit her. So I told her I'm just here to keep them company." He puts airquotes up around the word babysit. "Woah, my little sister is growing up so fast. She'll be a big fourteen year old in a few months." The words tumble out of my mouth before I realize. My dad must at the same time, because he pulls me into a tight hug and sighs. "We won't let anything happen to her Livvy. She has a great big sister like you to protect her." His voice quivers. I give him a short nod and follow behind Haley to mine and Lilac's room. We live in a three bedroom one bathroom house, the same house I've lived in my entire life. I had my own room for four glorious years, once Lilac started sleeping through the night she moved into my room. There's two small beds across from each other, a small closet and two small dressers. There's only one bathroom so my dad hung a full body mirror on our closet door a few years ago. I haven't worn makeup in years, but Lilac loves it. She started experimenting with it around the time I stopped wearing it. I gave her all my makeup after I caught her staring at it collecting dust. Mom doesn't let her wear it out of the house, but she will spend hours in front of the mirror practicing.
"Okay, so I know you gave Lilybug all of your makeup years ago, so... I went through all the makeup my mom bought me a few weeks ago and brought you all the necessities." She pushes the cloth bag into my hands. "I'll help you, don't worry." When I unzip the bag, I can tell that it was expensive. The cloth is thick, and the zipper doesn't snag. The makeup practically falls out because she has so many products stuffed into it. Not a single thing is opened, everything still has the wrapping on them. I give her a knowing look, but she just shrugs her shoulders and begins opening everything. She spends over an hour doing my makeup; showing me where each product goes and how to blend them. She hasn't let me look at myself the entire time, now she's working on my hair. Straightening my platinum blonde hair, that's one thing I haven't changed about myself. I go with Haley once a month to get it redone, blonde has always been me... I don't know how else to describe it. I always try to pay, but she always says "Don't worry, it's on Kathy." Her and her mom normally have a good relationship, but Kathy likes to play favorites. Lindsey, Haley's younger sister is the opposite of Haley in all ways really. Where Haley is loud and always smiling, Lindsey is quiet and doesn't like to draw attention to herself. Haley gets C's and D's and Lindsey gets straight A's without trying. She's two years younger than us, and Lilac used to be best friends too. Something happened at the end of the school year with them, but Lilac won't tell me so I don't push.
"You ready to see the new... or old you?" Haley says with a giant smile plastered across her face. I blow out a breath I didn't realize I was holding in and turn toward the full body mirror. My eyes keep jumping around my face, unable to land in one spot for long. My skin looks airbrushed, the black mascara makes my green eyes pop, I look like I just spent a month in Fiji. The shade of blush she used makes my cheeks look cheery and alive. My full lips are shining with the lip gloss covering them. I forgot that I could look like this, my clothes are still baggy and hanging off my body but that's going to change... and soon. "You're so beautiful Livvy. Thank you for letting me be here with you today. I can't wait to help you regain your confidence." She squeaks. There are tears forming in her eyes, but I can tell she's trying to keep them at bay. She's been the best friend I could ever ask for, she never asks too many questions... yet always makes it known that I can go to her with anything. "Okay, let's go shopping before I ruin my face. I'll drive." She says while fanning her eyes.
After twenty minutes of driving we pulled into the mall, that must be why she was so adamant she drove us. "Haley! You know I despise this place... I just wanted to go to a thrift store or something." I blow out an irritated breath. "I don't need brand new clothes or anything fancy, I don't have a lot of extra money to spend. I'm saving up for college." I say through a sigh. "No no, don't worry. I told Kathy about our plans today and she said she's happy to pay for our day. Just be glad I talked her out of renting the place out like she wanted." She says with a small laugh, like she's really not joking. I hesitate, I really don't need anything fancy. Just a few pairs of jeans, and a few shirts. Maybe some skincare and haircare items but that's it. I look at Haley and she's giving me her pouty lips. "Fuck. Okay, you get to pick out one outfit. But that's it!" I say giving in. She holds her pinky out to me, and intertwines it with mine. We walk through the big glass doors and my heart starts beating uncontrollably. I've avoided this place like the plague since I switched schools, this is where all the popular kids used to come hangout every weekend. I didn't want anyone to ask questions, or bully me more than they did. My breaths begin to quicken while I take in the people around me. I don't know what I expected... people sitting at the door waiting for me to wall in and start laughing at me? Of course they wouldn't do that, I'm invisible. Haley twists her fingers through mine and pulls me into the first store she sees, I look around and already know I can't afford anything here. I pull my hand from hers and start looking through the racks of clothes. Everything feels expensive, but I'm afraid to look at the price tags. "Come on, in you go." A voice says as I'm pushed into a fitting room. A few seconds after the door shuts a stack of clothes is lifted above the door. I grab them, my arms weighing down. There must be ten outfits here... we're going to be here forever. I slide the hangers onto the hooks that are scattered along the wall. There's a bunch of different types of clothing: skirts, jean shorts, leggings, jeans, crop tops, etc. Okay, so first things first... decide what kind of style I like. Simple enough, right? I pull on the first outfit, which is a soft black skirt and a matching halter top. I feel like I'm suffocating, like I need to claw my way out. I snap the rubber band on my wrist a few times while breathing through the panic. I can do this, they're just clothes. I step out of the fitting room to an expecting Haley. She claps her hands enthusiastically, "You've been hiding this hot bod under those baggy clothes! You've been holding out on me Livvy, I knew it!" She says with a small smirk. Great, if that's the first thing she says I know what everyone else will think. She pushes me back in the fitting room, this goes on for over forty five minutes. I decided on a pair of high waisted black leggings and a fitted long sleeve crop top. It doesn't show any skin, but it fits my body. Haley is making me get the first outfit I tried on, even though I felt the most uncomfortable in it. She said that was the point of this, to get outside my comfort zone. We walk through the alleyway through the fitting rooms toward the checkouts. When a soft voice stops me in my tracks.
"I don't know guys. Do you think he'll like it?" I turn my head from side to side until I see who the voice belongs to. Libbiann is standing on an upraised podium on the other side of the room, with a group of her friends surrounding her. Her cheeks have color in them, and she's smiling. She's wearing a bikini, it's white and has a few pink flowers spotting around it. The girls around her nod their heads erratically, like it's a floor length wedding dress they're looking at instead of a small piece of fabric. She's looking at herself in the floor to ceiling mirror, and our eyes meet. As soon as we make eye contact she turns her body swiftly until she's looking at me, her face contorts into an emotion I can't decipher. I don't stick around, I hand Haley the clothes I was holding and my purse mumbling something about the bathroom. I'm close to the door when I stop dead in my tracks. There's a black fitted dress hanging off a manican. It has silver sparkles, and when you move around it, it looks like it's sparkling. It's beautiful – I peek at the price tag and keep walking. Five hundred dollars, for something that could probably be made with twenty dollars. I think I'm done for the day, we got a few outfits and that's all I needed anyway. I wait outside Haley's car until she gets there. We hop in and head to my house without much chit chat, all I can think about is Libbiann. I'm glad she is the same as she's always been, that what happened didn't change her. Didn't destroy her. Or maybe she doesn't remember... I should have left a note, so she was aware and so she could stay away from him. Maybe I stopped Miles that night but because I didn't leave a note he got what he wanted anyway... just a different night. Maybe not though, I heard the twins got in trouble for having the cops called on their party and I didn't hear about any more parties at their house over the summer. It's not like they were grounded or anything, I saw Lachlan and Libbiann post pictures from France and Brazil, luckily trouble never actually means trouble for them. It must be nice to never have to be accountable for your actions, I mean that was one party I was at and I witnessed a sexual assault. I'm sure it wasn't the first time either.
"If this gets out you're dead." The words have been on repeat in my head the entire summer. Miles cruel icy blue eyes staring right into my soul, do I believe that he would actually kill me? I mean, I don't know. Normally I would think it as just a threat, but Miles Davidson is one of the richest people in the city. His dad owns half of the state damn near, so I guess I took his words as a promise. Why do I never tell? Joey was just some poor idiot, and I never called the police on him. Even if he did deserve it, I was scared that he would come back. I didn't want to give him any reason to look my way again. So I kept quiet... After a few months I told mom and dad what actually happened. Dad tried to leave right then and there and go to the police, I had to beg both of them to see it my way. That if I told I would have to see him in court, I would have to deal with everyone talking about me again right as it finally died down. That was when I applied for the scholarship for Greenridge Academy. Luckily I had always taken school seriously, and had the highest GPA in my entire school. I took online classes from Christmas break until the beginning of sophomore year when I started at Greenridge. I started therapy a few weeks after that, even though I knew we couldn't afford it. Mom told me I needed it to get better, that I was depressed. That's when mom and dads marriage went down the drain. They keep telling me it wasn't my fault, that it had been happening for years. But I know it was my fault, if I hadn't told them the truth... they'd still be together. They never fought, were always kissing and dancing in the kitchen when they thought everyone was asleep. I ruined them... just like I ruin everything else. Everything that happened was my fault, mom tried to stop me from going that night. I snuck out, and walked to the party after everyone went to bed.
I spent the rest of the night in my room, Jessie tried to coax me out a few times. He even sent Auggie in to try. I'm in a mood and I don't want to bring anyone else down with me, I don't want to ruin the happy go lucky sister they think they have. I refuse to let them see me that way, I won't ruin my siblings life anymore than I already have.