A life in the Dark

C h a p t e r T h i r t y F i v e

F r i d a y 2 5 t h A p r i l
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So... Finley's birthday party. I guess. Is it a party? Or just a sort of 'hang out' time? Am I going to be the only one there? I went into school with a big box of homemade all-butter biscuits, dusted with icing sugar. Also, wrapped in brown paper was a small parcel I took in for him: I hope he likes it.

As the bell sounded for the last lesson of the day, I quickly packed my books into their designated spaces in my bag and made my way over to the history room that Finley's lesson was set to be in. Turns out he was already waiting outside my classroom.

"Ready to go?" he smiled as I nodded and began to head towards the exit, clutching the box to my chest protectively. "How was History?"

"Not bad, I guess," I replied, turning my head to look at him, and our eyes held contact: his soft and gentle, when I felt my foot being yanked out from underneath me; the floor came hurtling towards me as I took a sharp intake of air and the plastic of the tub slipped away as my hands reached out to soften the blow of the floor. There was a crashing sound as it hit the floor followed by many softer ones as the lid opened and the biscuits that I'd spent ages perfecting rained out and crumbled upon impact.

Staring at the floor, I sat there for a moment, regaining my breath as I wondered what had just happened. Was I really that clumsy that I'd tripped over my own feet in front of Finley? Urgh... I want to die.

Then someone chuckled, their voice echoing from behind me. I turned over to face them. Jadyn. Of course. "Oh, whoops, my bad," she laughed. She was leant up against the doorway of one of the classrooms, which was empty, arms crossed and eyes piercing.

Finley gave me his hand and helped me up, for which I was grateful, as I'd been just sitting there like an idiot for a solid minute and a half. "What do you want, Jadyn?" he spat, glaring at her.

"Oh, nothing," she replied with that suicide-provoking tone, batting her eyelashes at him innocently. "I was just standing here when Lettuce here walked over my foot. Can I help it if she doesn't watch where she's going?"

I rolled my eyes and was about to respond with some witty comeback when another voice answered for me.

"You can't get out of this one, Jadyn: I saw the whole thing," the female voice said calmly, footsteps approaching me from behind so to be polite I stepped sideways to let them pass me. "Don't even try to tell me that you didn't trip poor Lettice on purpose."

"But Miss Evergreen, you don't understand-" the black haired bitch began, but Miss wasn't having any of it.

"No, no, don't argue. As punishment you can stay here until you've cleaned up this mess you've made."

"But, it was Lettuce-she dropped it!" she cried, exasperated.

"Thank you, you two. You can go," she nodded to Finley and I, and we made our way out of the building.

*****

"So, what d'ya want to do?" Finley asked me, leaping onto the downstairs sofa, which was a red, retro-looking thing placed in front of a huge flat-screen TV. He had changed into a loose fitting T-shirt and skinny jeans and I'd changed into plain black leggings and a comfy crop top with 'j'adore' sewn across the front.

"I don't mind," I replied, joining him by sitting cross-legged on the other half. "Up to you, it's your birthday."

"Yes, but you're the guest," he reasoned, flopping against the pillows as if he was annoyed by my reply, but with a huge smile on his face. "It's your call."

"No, I insist. What do you usually do after school?"

He considered this for a moment before answering. "Play on the Xbox," he shrugged. "But I guess you don't want to do that-" he added hastily before I interrupted.

"And why is that, McClaine?" I pretended to be offended, crossing my arms and looking away.

"Well I just assumed-"

"What? Because I'm a girl I wouldn't like your video games?"

"No, no-"

"So because I'm a 'nerd'?"

"No! Just that I thought you'd think it was stupid to always do that... You probably think it's boring and a waste of time anyway..."

"Yeah... But I'll still try, and it's not so boring when you don't play every day," I smirked, satisfied with my subtle dig at him.

He grinned. "Okay, what do you want to play?" he asked, tossing me a controller that he'd gotten from a shelf.

"Bet I could beat you at murder mystery," I challenged with a smirk, unwrapping the wire that was coiled around the grip.

"Oh you're on."

*****

It was around nine when I decided to take a short break from staring at the screen. In hindsight, that really isn't good. I can't believe people can do that everyday! It had gotten colder and I shivered, him asking if I was okay. I explained that I was just cold and tired. Yawning slightly, I headed upstairs to the bathroom and did my teeth and went to the toilet. Then I wiped off the small amount of make-up I was wearing and returned to the room downstairs, finding my oversized hoodie and slipping that on before unclipping my bra underneath it. Then I joined him back on the sofa, still playing some game that I didn't really care about but pretended to know what I was doing.

We continued playing for a while when I yawned again and rubbed my eyes, which hurt from the screen against the relative darkness of the rest of the room. "You okay?" he asked. "Tired?"

"Yeah, mostly," I yawned. "I'll survive."

~~~~~~

Wow, what is this? Two updates in two days?

Really tired myself atm. Goodnight everyone.

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