Exposed

8

I take another swig, the liquid no longer burned my throat, just soothed it. I giggle.

"Want a smoke?" Graham offers again, handing me the joint, but Jack pushes it away.

"No, she doesn't" He says, which surprises me.

The bell rings and I groan, attempting to get up but once again Jack stops me.

"We have to go to class" I tell him and his friends laugh.

"We can't, especially not you" Jack tells me. "We'll get caught"

"Then what?" I ask "We can't stay here while class is on"

"You come with us" Says Jack "We will drive somewhere"

"I'm not coming with you guys" I laugh

"It's either that, or getting expelled" Graham chimes in and I pout.

"Fine" I growl, pouting more when Jack and his gang start to laugh at me.

We sneak out the back gate and into a black van.

"This is my car!" A guy with dreadlocks proudly declares.

"Uhm, cool" I mutter, hopping into the back of the carm a window seat next to Jack.

Jack puts his arm around me and we drive slowly out of the school gates. I have no idea where we are going but I decide not to ask questions, I wasn't sure if dreadlocks was old enough for drive and I didn't want to distract him and get pulled up only to discover he didn't have a license.

We drive along a motorway for a bit and turn off onto a small street, Graham leans over Jack and starts drumming on the box between the two driver seats, dreadlocks starts to thump his steering wheel as he pulls up outside this old wooden house. I notice a pair of old converse dangling from one of the power lines.

"Open the door" Jack breathes into my ear, his breath is hot and smells like alcohol but for some reason it gives me goosebumps.

I slide open the door and hop out, Jack and Graham not far behind me. We walk up to the house and I follow everyone around to the back of the house. Dreadlocks opens a gate and we walk through, he pulls up the mat at the back door and pulls out a key. Jack breathes out, it sounds like he is breathing out in relief.

I follow them through a hallway, taking notice of the yellow peeled wallpaper and into a big room with a few old couches, the lounge most probably.

"Come sit" Says Jack.

I take a seat with him and everyone else lounges around on the couches, Graham stretches out and starts to sleep within seconds of lying down. The others laugh at him but leave him to sleep.

I felt like them hanging out with me was some kind of trick, it all seemed so dodgy, but for some reason I trusted Jack, even though my instincts were telling me not to go near him. I look over and dreadlocks has fallen asleep too, as well as the quiet guy who I hadn't associated with at all.

"You don't talk much" Says Jack

"Nothing to talk about" I reply

He pauses for a minute, "So, where'd you come from? Why'd you move?"

I had planned to keep all business from Australia to myself and blame the move on my parents work, but the alcohol I had drunk seemed to have a mind of itself.

"I pushed my best friend in front of a truck" I say flatly, staring at a particular stain in the wallpaper.

"Whoa really? Then what? Do you guys still talk?" He seemed to be interested in my slightly twisted life story.

"No" I continue to focus on the wallpaper, "She's dead."

If spilling the secret to someone I barely knew wasn't bad enough, I then turn into him, throw my arms around him and started bawling my eyes out. I realise what I am doing and pull back, I expect him to act disgusted and kick me out but instead he pulls me back in for a hug.

"It's okay, I'm sorry I asked" He says. I don't know him but it feels good to be close to someone who wasn't my parents, the last time a friend had held me was when Annabelle had comforted me, about an hour before her death. I shiver.

"Are you cold?" Asks Jack

I shake my head but he gets up anyway.

"Let's go, I can drive you home and your parents won't even know you didn't attend you final classes"

I jump up suddenly, I forgot all about school.

"Won't they call my parents?" I say, worry clear in my voice. Jack laughs.

"It'll be fine, that school is slack. You need to be away a week for them to actually notice" I nod, hopefully he is right.