Fear is Power

5

A few hours later
Phoenix's POV

I was jolted awake by the loud ringing of my phone that was beside my bed. Getting up slowly, my eyes still partially closed and adjusting to the light in the room, I looked at the caller ID. Hesitantly I picked up my phone. Much to my annoyance, It was stepfather Malcolm, but I knew he would get mad if I ignored his call. Wrapping my hand around the soft leather of my phone, I wondered why he couldn't just come up the stairs and yell at me instead? Then I remembered why, he hadn't come home. Where the hell was he?

Bringing the phone to my ear, I spoke.
"Hey Malcolm. Is everything alright? You didn't come home last night." I asked, being as polite as I could without it sounding too forced.
"Yes I didn't. You got a problem with that?" He replies in an aggravated tone. Jesus, what is his problem? I've spoken to him for literally a few seconds and already he is annoyed with me.
"No...where are you? Do you want me to come and pick you up?" I questioned, really hoping he answer was no so I could have some time to myself.
"Where am I huh? Don't be so nosy Phoenix. I do what I want when I want. And no I don't want a ride, well especially not from you."
Well isn't he just a ray of sunshine. And anyway, what was that supposed to mean? I was just trying to be nice. If no one else was going to do it I thought I might as well. Even if he isn't really the nicest person I know, his wife is still in a coma and he is human, so he must feel something. Plus he seemed pretty drunk. And although he's not my favourite person in the world, I don't want him to end up in jail for drunk driving or something. I wouldn't wish that upon anybody. Especially since he could hurt himself or someone else.
"So why did you call me? Have you got something on your mind?" I asked.
Clearly he has, he was always known for drinking his problems away. But to be honest neither of us have ever been good at expressing our emotions, we were both very inclusive, I guess that's the only thing we have in common. After all, I've learnt that showing emotion makes you vulnerable, and that's a position I don't want to put myself in under and circumstances, especially when I'm in the presence of Malcolm.
"No. I called to tell you that I am not gonna come home for the next week." he said, irritation clear in his voice.
I frowned again and sighed deeply, desperately hoping that he didn't hear me. But something was off. For some reason I didn't believe him. He always loved to mess with my feelings, so I needed to find out his reasoning behind his behaviour. And for that I needed to push him further.
"You're...gone? For a whole week?"
It doesn't make any sense. This is way too good to be true. What's the catch? What am I missing? Surely he couldn't be serious.
"YES. That's what I just said! Can you not listen to me for once?" he growled at me.
I didn't answer because I was simply afraid of giving him a reason to come back home.
"Okay well wherever you are have a great time, see you in a week." I smiled, hoping he couldn't sense the eagerness and excitement in my voice from being left home alone for a whole entire week.
"Yeah....." he groaned and hung up on me.
Oh this was fantastic! I had the house to myself for a whole week! I could just lay on my bed engrossed in a book and listening to music for hours without being interrupted. This would be heaven.

***

Once I calmed down, I heard my phone ringing again, this time with a BTS song as the ringtone. I reached again for my phone, and answered another call. Not from my stepfather Malcolm but from my best friend Danny who lived conveniently 10 minutes away from my house.
"Oh hey Dan-" I attempted to say before I got cut off by him screaming at me from the other side of the phone.
"OMG GUESS WHAT HAPPENED JUST NOW!!!!!" He said clapping his hands.
I laughed at his sudden enthusiasm.
"What's up Danny?" I asked, curious as to why he would be calling me at this time.
"OhMyGosh have you seen the new BTS music video??!!"
Oh god here we go. I could only keel delaying this conversation for so long, and plus it wasn't fair, he always listened to me rant about some annoying middle aged lady at the grocery store or something.
"Ok no I haven't." I swallowed, breathing in heavily for what I knew would be a long conversation.
"Um well IT'S AMAZING THEY'RE ALL SO TALENTED AND....WOW! EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM IS SO AMAZING!!!!!" He screamed again, banging his fists on his desk.

As you can probably tell, Danny loved BTS. He has even been to Korea just to see them on tour for a couple of days, and still talks about them all the time, but because of his previous tase in music, I was absolutely fine with that. He used to really like Justin Bieber's music and have posters of him and everything when he was around ten, but I was much happier when he moved on. Because let's face it. Justin Bieber? Really?

After about ten minutes, although I don't mind BTS, Danny was getting to a rather unhealthy level of fangirling, leaving no space for me to talk at all.
"Danny-"
"Yes but I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanna go to see them again in concert. Will you go with me? Trust me it will be awesome I guarantee-"
"DANNY!"
I could feel him roll his eyes from the other side of the phone.
"I was doing it again wasn't I?" He asked, sighing to himself from the other end of the phone.
"You mean getting carried away in your Jungkook fantasies again? Yes yes you were." I said, trying very hard to muffle my laugh.
I knew he was now embarrassed, as I could hear him making weird strangling sounds.
"So how you feeling about school tomorrow?" He said, trying to change the subject before I make fun of him again. Wait. What did he just say? School? Tomorrow? How could I forget? I should have at least put a notification on my phone or something. But then again, I am an idiot so it's not unusual for me to forget to do something as obvious as this.
"SCHOOL IS TOMORROW?"
I screamed, scaring myself and probably the people five blocks away.
"Oh Danny I completely forgot. I..." I trailed off, remembering the harsh memories from last year.
Danny was with my the entirety of last year, so he knew what I endured from the stuck up people at school.
Danny seemed to have sensed my discomfort, as he added, "Don't freak out on me Phoenix. Seriously it's gonna be fine! Just remember, keep your head down, hood up and don't make any eye contact with stupid people okay? Be invisible to them. Only talk to people you know you can trust."

He was right. I really couldn't trust many people at this school. Especially after last year.

A.N. Pleeease vote if you like my book!!! It's basically my motivation to keep writing.