The Truth About Marie

danger II

DANGER 2

MARIE -before

It was now Thursday, and I hadn't heard anything more from Andrew since his first text.
I guess he was occupied.
I couldn't help looking behind me at the empty seat where he should be, in Mr Slopes's Maths.
My eyes darted to the table him and his friends would usually quickly eat their lunch at before leaving, to go out of school.
On my way to Economics, I take the long route to walk past his Geography class he's in when I have Economics.
Of course he isn't in any of these places.
It makes me realise how much I take notice of the out of bounds bad boy.
I didn't realise how much I'd been paying attention.

After my mother and I finish eating our dinner, I get a jam tart and a glass of milk and take it upstairs to my room.
Careful not to get any crumbs on my bed I eat the tart with one hand, the other scrolling through my phone.

Come to your window, pls!

It's from Andrew. My heart starts beating in my ears and I rush to my window, forgetting my tart.
I push open the curtains, and it takes a few moments for my eyes to find him, but he's stood there half hidden by the trunk of the apple tree.
Light from downstairs casting weird shadows on him, and I can only see the outline of his head, and half his body.
I push open the window and lean out.
"Andrew? What are you doing here?" I whisper-shout.
"Can you come down?"

I tell my mum that I'm just taking Pingu out in the garden, shove on my converse and close the door behind me.
Pingu goes running off, and I walk cautiously towards the tree.
When I'm about a metre away, he comes out of the shadows, clad in tight grey joggers, a dark hoodie and his signature black puffer coat, he's always wearing.
I'm too busy looking at the tightness of his joggers, that I don't notice his face for a moment.
When I finally do, my hands fly to my face.
His right eye is so badly bruised it's swollen shut, there's a cut on his forehead that looks like it's been bleeding pretty badly, and his bottom lip is busted.
"Andy what the fuck." I step closer to him, with the intention of touching him, but he flinches at my movement so I resist.
"It's fine, it looks worse than it is." He tries to smile, but it looks painful and he ends up looking like he's grimacing. "I just fucked up, but I've sorted it now."
"Who did this to you?"
"Don't you worry about that." He says his good eye looks sad and tired, I really want to pull him in for a hug. "I just - I wanted to see you." My mouth feels really dry, but my palms suddenly feel slick with sweat.
"You did?"
"Rie, you're all I can think about." Somehow despite my heart stopping, my hand reaches out and finds his in the dark. His skin is cold, and rough, his fingers gripping mine tightly, but it feels good.