Partners In Crime

Chapter 8

~Valerie~

“The one with all the mean girls”

It all starts off like one of those slow motion scenes in a movie. Where I’d probably say something along the lines of ‘you’re probably wondering how I got here’. As the person getting a smoothie poured on her, I’m asking myself all the same questions. Cause I don’t know how the hell I got here.

The bright pink smoothie dripping down my face, clumping at the top of my dark blonde hair. Giggles erupting all around me, you’d think that I’d punch the person who did it. But I don’t think you fully understand how I can’t. A single hot tear falls from my eye, heating up as it made its path down the pink goop that covered parts of my face.

My breathing becomes unsteady, “Why?” I whisper, my nose turning a bright red.

“Look, she’s crying. How pathetic!” Britney exclaims, pointing and laughing at my embarrassment that she caused.

Her minions Beth and Alyssa have evil smirks on their faces. I can’t believe this actually happened to me. The day when I just wanted to sit next to Duncan on the rare occasion he was at school. He hadn’t been here for a good three weeks, since the detention the last time I saw him was while babysitting Demeter. But again he would only be there when I left, he hadn’t even tried to talk to me. I thought we were doing good, that we were friends. I guess he’s as cruel as everyone thought he was. They were right, and I was a fool to not believe them.

I run off to the bathroom, hot tears making contact with my smoothie covered face. I had nobody here today to be with. Camille was with Hayes probably, Blythe was at the library, Phebe was sick, and Laurel Wreath was working on a project with her group mates in one of the rooms upstairs.

I hear heavy steps following me fastly. Coming after me, while my whole body filled with uncontrollable shaking. I couldn’t think of anything but my anxiety and my embarrassment, there was no stopping this anxiety attack. A hand reaches out and grabs my wrist, surprisingly with the softest of touches.

“Let’s ditch.” The voice says, his shoes were tattered and black. There was something familiar about this touch, but I couldn’t put a finger on it.

“Kitten?” He questions, turning me to face him. When I heard the nickname, all I could think was it had to be Duncan. I thought he didn’t care, but I was wrong. I gave him a strong nod, looking up into his blue eyes, more clearly now with beautiful green speckles in them.

Duncan led us through the back exit of the school. His black car was sitting there, like he had planned a robbery escape. Except we were escaping from school. He brings me to the shotgun seat, giving me one of his spare jackets to pat off the smoothie bits. He hops to the driver's seat, making his way to his house. Not even a couple of miles away.

“Are you feeling a bit more calm?” He asks, his face actually slightly panicked but caring. He was the only one who saw the signs of an anxiety attack. I wanted to ask him how he could’ve understood, but that was not my place to ask. Not to mention it would sound ungrateful.  

“I guess, just a little confused now.” I say, the shakes turning into the something that resembled a shiver. I was sticky, I guess that smoothie had a lot of sugar in it.

“I don’t know why Britney would do something like that. She doesn’t have some claim on me, we were never a thing.” He says, running a hand through his blonde hair. He looked somewhat frustrated.

We walk towards the back door, which leads to the kitchen. As we enter the kitchen David is standing in there with a bright lamp pointed at us as we walked in. I swear all he does is interrogate everyone who walks through the door. I felt the need to cry again, looking at David sadly. Tears welling up in my eyes.