My Beautiful King

Chapter Twenty Four Part 1

Two days. We'd spent two school days planning all the aspects of our revenge against the populars, but they still couldn't do it right. They'd even had the whole of the weekend to mull it over and perfect their techniques. All I needed from them was to spread the truth of the 'lake incident' to the teenagers among our year, and so far nothing had been gained but a few blank stares.

Was I the only one with brains within my friendship group?

"Maho, for God's sake, speak up when you're talking to people!" I huffed as I looked down on her petite frame. "And Tanasha, don't laugh, you're not doing any better. Speaking in monotone? Who the fuck would want to listen to you? How are you supposed to get people to believe the truth if you don't even sound convicted to it?"

"Maybe, we're not convicted to it..." Marcus muttered as flicked his soft brown hair out of his eyes and sat up straight in his seat. We were sitting at our lunchtime table, which was now adorned with cigarette burns from all the times I had stubbed out my Marlboro in aggressive exasperation. The plan was really not going as well as I had hoped.

"Marcus, can we stop with the stupid underhand comments, please?" I growled as I gritted my teeth and ran my hand through my stupid-as-ever hair. "Believe it or not, I'm actually dealing with rather a lot without the addition of your snide attitude."

Mum had nearly had a fit when she saw what I had done to the hair which, not so long ago, had resembled hers. She'd even insisted that I took a day off school to go to the hairdressers and get it sorted out, but I couldn't possibly do that. Not a single second of revenge time could afford to be wasted. Every moment spent in a salon or crowded round a table giving pep talks to imbeciles, could be spent actively overthrowing Zayn.

I wonder what he was doing while we were plotting his downfall. Manipulating people to buy him lunch... Fingering Becca in one of the nice free classrooms in the English department... Walking around school like he was a motherfucking star... Did Zayn ever take time from his busy schedule to let me cross his mind?

"'Stop this, start that.'" Marcus mimicked as he swished his hair backwards once again. "We're doing everything while you just sit there and complain..." He stopped abruptly when he glimpsed my snarling face.

"If you hadn't noticed," I began speaking with my voice deathly quiet. "I'm the brains behind this whole operation. None of you have brought any ideas to the table!" I slammed my fist against the wooden surface, causing Ella to jump. "And you," I hissed, swivelling round to watch her wide-eyed face. "Don't think for a moment that I've forgotten you. Where you for the majority of your truth-spreading shift? Stuffing your face with food from the canteen, yeah I saw you, Ella!"

"I, um-"

"Oh, bloody hell, don't apologise" I snapped. "Just fucking do what I tell you to do, yeah?" I forced on a sweeter voice as I wiped the slight bubble of spit clinging to the corner of my mouth. "I'm - we're not doing this just for me... Once we put Zayn, and all the others of course, in their place it will help us all... That's who we're doing this for... Us. Just start doing things properly, yeah? I know I can be a bit off but... It's just that I need you to be comfortable about doing all this stuff if well... If you're gonna be my crew."

*"It's just that... I need you to be comfortable doing all the stuff I do if well... If you're gonna be my girlfriend."

"Your what?" I whispered, throat dry."Girlfriend." He repeated happily. "I want you to be my girlfriend. What do you say, Ash?"*

Maho, Tanasha, Ella and Marcus all mumbled a weak agreement that I barely paid any attention to. Out of the corner of my eye, I'd managed to spot Zayn.

He was swaggering through the school playground, holding hands with the ever smarmy Becca, trousers low enough to give me a glimpse of the waistband of his sexy navy Calvin Klein briefs. I remembered those briefs. He'd worn them the day I ran away to his house and we'd had...