A Dance with the Devil

Chapter 6

I had never been glad to take a shower in my life.

Not before today.

It took forever to wash all the sticky stuffs off my body. I scrubbed and scrubbed until I felt like a plucked chicken. With all the efforts, evetually I got rid of the smelly disgusting stuffs. I managed to survive the whole day at school after the arrangement in Tyler’s office. No one talked to me when I came back to the classroom. They’ve been wise enough to leave me alone.

Zeke, Clyde and Nic didn’t go back to class.  No one really cared. Not a single teacher questioned their absence.

After the long shower I put on some comfortable clothes and went down to join Tyler for dinner.

I found him just as he was setting up the dishes on the table. We had steak and eggs.

“Hi, babe.” He flashed me a smile. “Had fun in the shower?”

I rolled my eyes and took a seat. “They should try that prank on you. Bet you’d take a day off after.”

Tyler sat across from me, chuckling. “That’s the first time I saw you being bullied. How’s the experience?”

Oh brother. One look from Tyler and I knew I’d be a laughing stock for a week.

I started to chew on my steak and ignored him. As much as I hated Tyler that day, I couldn’t bring myslef to hate his cooking. No matter how simple a dish was, he could make it taste extra special.

“We should really practice not to treat each other cassually at school, you know.” Tyler finally said after the teasing worn out.

I looked at him and smirked. “You should take a mental note on that. “

“Hey, you were the one glaring at me the whole time.” Tyler said defensively.

“You were the one talking like we know each other. You even made up that student volunteer thing just to cover it up.” I countered.

For awhile we had a childish glaring contest. It had been a habit of us whenever we had arguments. The one who looked away first loses. So far, it’s always my win. Tyler had never been good at it. He couldn’t stay mad at me for even a minute.

As I expected, he just sighed and continued eating after a moment. I did the same.

“Let’s just be careful next time. They can’t find out that we’re siblings.” I said, breaking the awkward silence.

Tyler didn’t respond and there was another long pause.

I was really starting to get anxious. Was he seriously mad at me?

“Hey.” we both chimed at each other.

“You first.”

“No, you first.” I insisted, averting my eyes away from him.

Tyler heaved a sigh. “I know you’re up to something, Raven.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“About being the discipline head. I gave you that job for a reason so please don’t mess up.”

“I have my own reasons, too.” I replied coldly.

“Selfish reasons, yes. I can’t let you get in trouble again. The last time, you almost got---”

“That’s an accident, Tyler!” I yelled.

 He was reminding me again of that night. He pushed in the memories I’ve been trying to keep off my head all this time. The police…the accident…the hospital…Trevor.