The Curse of Thelonious [✓]

three

CHAPTER THREE

The girls arrived a little later than planned, party in full swing. Evidently Bobbie had let word out and many of the teenagers remembered them from their childhood years. There weren’t many people in Clearford and so, everyone knew everyone’s business. Lera didn’t really like that though, she much preferred anonymity. ‘Here you can’t even fart without everyone knowing about it!’ she thought with a roll of her eyes. 

They mingled a bit, answering everyone’s questions about city life until the novelty had somewhat wore off. Anya had been wandering back and forth to flirt with a random boy, leaving Lera to fend for herself much to her dismay. She roasted some marshmallows along with a smiling girl beside her and participated in some small talk. However, it wasn’t until she was getting in the swing of it that she heard some whispered gossip from her right side. Her grey eyes widened considerably when she realised who the girls were all talking about.

Atlas Sinclair stood there, his face completely devoid of expression. His head was tilted slightly as though he was surveying the scene in front of him critically. She felt a shiver run through her at the way his dark eyes hardened from the insults thrown about him but her sisters’ tight grip on her arm brought her out of her daze.

“Bloody hell! What a loser! He looks awfully scary now doesn’t he, Lera?” Anya remarked, loud enough for probably the whole town to hear. Although he didn’t make any move to face them, Lera knew Atlas had heard from the way his broad shoulders tensed up very slightly.

“What the hell, Anya?” she chided her twin, astounded that her sister could be so tactless. “He used to be our friend!” 

With a swig of the beer can in her hand, Anya shrugged indifferently before wandering off to suck faces with Callum again. “That was years ago and we were only kids, I doubt the freak even knows who we are now.” 

Under any other circumstance Lera would feel pathetically alone whenever her sister walked away from her at a party in which she barely knew anyone but this time she was too busy analysing Atlas to notice. 

The last time she had seen him they were in primary school and back then, all the parents would consistently warn their children to stay well away from him in fear of his evil father. He was always avoided and treated as though he was a contagious disease by everyone except for the twins who were far too stubborn for their own good. They had befriended him despite the other childrens’ alienation and although he had rarely ever spoken to them, he had become an important part of Lera’s short life. She had barely thought of him since they had moved to London but now, she felt as though she was being transported into the past as the memories flitted through her mind. 

But the young man in front of her was nothing like the little boy she could remember.

His once chubby, round face had defined over the years and was littered with faded scars she knew were caused by his complete bastard of a father. Atlas had become so tall, definitely towering over her pathetic height of 5’3”, which was almost comical because she could specifically remember gloating being a tiny bit taller than him at the age of six. His brows were perpetually furrowed with his inky eyes much colder than she remembered and his hair was longer, pin straight and the deepest black as it brushed over his ears, matching the stubble on his chin. 

He turned to face her, evidently feeling her critical gaze and Lera wanted the ground to swallow her up in embarrassment.

She bit her lips in order to control her blush and tried not to think about how mortified she was that he had caught her staring. The way he just looked at her was unnerving; not because she thought he was a monster like everyone else did but because she could see the recognition flicker across his face. She wanted to go and talk to him, to apologise for leaving him alone and for the way everyone treated him in this stupid town but she was too scared. She wasn’t quite sure what she was scared of but had an inkling it was of rejection.