luckless

- vi -

The school day dragged on. As expected, my late excuse had been rewarded with a detention. Only the first of this month! At this rate, I was on the road to being the president. By third period, I regretted chugging the travel-sized Evan Williams. The slightest of buzzing surrounded my head. It made everything fuzzy. Concentrating was impossible. Damn that high alcohol content. Of course, today was the day Kim decided to poke the bear.

She came up to me at lunch. I didn't see her approaching, my forehead glued to the table attempting to find some solace in sleep. When she cleared her throat, I slowly sat up. Kim looked worried, the same expression I had seen Sunday night. She glanced around, as if some shady person was going to eavesdrop. I was confused.

"Was...was Jared home this morning? Kayla said you to school came with Paul...?" I grinned internally. I finally had a one-up on Kim. Granted, Jared hadn't told either of us personally, but I still knew who he was with. And the general location of where he was.

"Uh. Yeah. Jared wasn't home. He took his car somewhere. And left his phone at home. Pretty sure he snuck out in the middle of the night." I debated telling her what he was doing, but decided against. If I acted like I didn't know where he was, maybe I could stir up some more issues. Trouble in paradise would be wonderful.

"Oh. He didn't tell you where he was going?" I shrugged in response.

"I saw him last night for a little, but he left right after I got home. He got all hot and heated when I mentioned I ran into his ex." That part was a blatant lie. I hoped it wasn't too obvious. I may be the devil, but I wasn't a good liar. The look on Kim's face told me I had hit home. Her face screwed up. When I saw the beginning of tears, a faint pang of remorse nipped at my soul. Maybe I'd gone too far. Oh well, damage was done. I knew Jared's ex was a sensitive subject. Possibly because she had been older and more mature than us and a hell of a lot prettier than the girl standing in front of me. To be honest, I'd liked Jared's previous girlfriend a lot better. I would always be partial to her because she had introduced to my best friend, her little sister. Little angel Tatum Lorch became my infatuation after Tori had introduced me to her.

Jared and the eldest Lorch only just broken up at the start of school, after dating since eighth grade. It was still fresh in Jared and Kim's memory, I suppose. Right after they'd parted ways, Jared had his weird sudden disappearing "sickness", resulting in his change. He got with Kim right after. I called that part of his life 'The Suffering, The Death, and the Resurrection of Boring Jared.'

I didn't think too much about his random and sudden change of personality and physical appearance. Some people just handled break up differently. Jared had dealt with it by working out like crazy and becoming a self-declared cop. Not long after, he had scooped Kim up, much to her enthusiasm. My memories of the past few months were snapped when Kim reappeared in my field of vision. She was accompanied by her friend, Kayla.

Kim was red-eyed and looked upset. Kayla shot me a deathly glare. If I was anyone else, I was sure that I'd be shaking in my shoes. But Kayla wasn't scary. I didn't find many people scary in the small tribal school population. The year before, I would have said Paul. When Sam and Leah were still at the school, they had been a formidable couple. I had been daunted by them. But now, today at least, none of those characters in question were present. So I suppose the only person I could be afraid of was myself.

I left the cafeteria before the bell rang. If I got any more stares from Kim's table, I knew I would get confrontational. A part of me wanted that, like it always did. There was something inside me that loved the thrill of getting angry and physical. When I threw my weight around and got up in someone's face, their look of fear was something that made me happy. I liked being the scary one. I liked being intimidating and tough. I liked being a she-wolf cloaked in the appearance of an angel. Not that I considered myself to be attractive enough to be an angel.