Ruin Me

25. Hear me

I woke up at 1pm the next morning, I mean afternoon, I had never been a morning person. The evening was more my domain.

Mom was always awake at the crack of dawn, but then she was neither a morning nor night person, she just wasn't a sleep person.

"There are just too many things to learn," she'd tut as I lay in the bed of whatever hotel we were staying in that week. Her head would be leaning over a book and teeth chewing absentmindedly on a pencil.

Mom was obsessed with always being better, if she wanted something she'd work hard for it. That was why she was the best. Okay, maybe when I was younger I'd sit under the table and feed her whatever cards she needed to win, but still that required skill and planning. Something the others were too dumb to think about or notice. Whether it was fair or not, more likely the latter, she still outsmarted them. She was still the winner and in her mind that was all that mattered.

Whereas, I wasn't a winner, I was a sleeper. But to be fair to me I'd had a late night, after finding out none of the Silent Boys had ever watched Mean Girls I had to rectify that and give them the essential teenage experience. I was even more surprised to find how completely absorbed they were by it.

***

"Is that seriously what girls are like?" Mitchell asked as he stared dumbstruck at the credits rolling down the screen at the end of the film.

"Loosely," I shrugged nonplussed, I'd been called a slut enough times to know, "obviously a Hollywood version with some extra hair pulling and luxurious mansions thrown in but more or less I guess. Girls are cruel."

"I'm so glad I'm a boy," Nico decided to murmurs of agreement.

"Boys can be horrible too," I reminded, "maybe not in the same way as girls but not to say they're not just as bad."

"You're very insightful today," Grey observed.

"I think you mean always," I corrected, I made my tone playful to lighten the mood a little, "I'm always insightful, it's just something you're born with, or you're not."

"Are you suggesting I'm not?"

"I didn't say that," I smirked pausing or effect, "but I was just just about to, you took the words right out of my mouth.

"Glad to save your breath," Grey batted back easily. We had our little repertoire now, we dealt in teasing and sarcasm. Like Mitch and I exchanged serious conversations and Nico and I had our jokes and Sawyer led the thoughtful conversations with me.

"You're always so considerate," my turn for sarcasm, I knew my role almost as if we had our own scripted routine.

"Did a compliment just come out of Cara Collins mouth? Someone take a photo!" Grey taunted.

"You should do, it will be the last one you're getting in a while," I warned.

"Shit," Mitch interrupted our fight before Grey had the chance to spit back a comeback. I smirked at him across my room, the Collins' always won. "It's 2am we should probably get going, there's a swimming practise in the morning."

"This isn't over Collins," Grey pointed a warning finger at me. I only grinned innocently back.

***

They'd all still be at practise now then, except Sawyer. I wondered what he did while they were all out throwing a ball and barging into each other, for fun or swimming laps in a pool.