Blazing Inferno

5. Broken shards

"I still can't believe you said all that!" Olivia squealed for the umpteenth time as both Angelina and I rolled my eyes, tired of hearing it.

It was Sunday and we had all gathered at my house for movie night and since Angelina and I weren't going to attend the party, Olivia decided to ditch it too.

"And to think I had been proud of myself," she muttered, also for the millionth time.

"Do you think I should slap her?" I whispered to Angelina.

"Definitely," she nodded.

"I can hear you," Olivia whined.

"You were supposed to," Angelina retorted and I laughed softly.

We watched Big Bang Theory for a while in silence before Angelina spoke up again,

"But honestly? I'm scared. I'm scared of what he'll do. Not just to me but to you," she said, gesturing to me.

"Me?"

"You're the reason both of us had the courage to speak up at all," Olivia explained. "He's not going to let that go."

I shrugged. "He can hit me with his worst, I really don't care."

"How do you do it though?" Olivia asked, leaning on her elbows. "How do you look him in the eye and not bat an eyelash in fear or any response at all?"

"I know how it feels to be taken advantage of."

Angelina nodded understandingly and thankfully, they didn't push me in explaining any further. We watched the rest of the show in silence, broken occasionally by the crunch of chips and sips of cola. It was past 2 in the morning when a nodding off Olivia and Angelina finally left. I couldn't muster the energy to push myself up to my room so I just slumped on the couch and fell asleep.

I woke up with a sore neck and the sounds of Josie screaming,

"Dad! She's not here! She's been kidnapped by aliens!"

And then the sound of footsteps thudding down the stairs and my father's panicked face appeared in my field of vision. I raised a hand lazily in a wave as I sat up.

"Get ready for school. You're already 10 minutes late," he told me, quickly hurrying to the stove to make us some breakfast. My eyes widened before his words finally hit home.

Oh crap.

In a frenzy, I slipped on an off-shoulder leopard printed top and paired it off with blue shorts. I grabbed my sachet of books and bounded down the stairs. Snatching a sandwich right out of my sister's hands, I grinned at her and stepped outside.

The drive to school was short and hurried.

I was running through the glass doors towards my English class when I crashed into someone. His arms came around me to hold me steady as I looked up into his bedraggled features. A grin spread across his face when he finally recognized me.

I shook myself off of him, about to push past him and walk away when his hand landed on my arm.

"Do you know how lucky you are right now to bump into me?" the guy with the British accent sneered. I looked back at him defiantly before glancing down at my arm. He didn't get the memo. "The entire school's on a roll just to get their hands on you. Coming to Ardenwall and challenging our king was a big, grave mistake. And now you'll pay for it."

I stared back at him with a blank expression.

Both his hands clamped down on either of my arms as he began tugging me in the opposite direction of where I was heading. I struggled against him but he was strong, I'll give him that. My leg came up to swipe beneath his but he just deflected it.