Page 7 of Apathy
I shook my head, shutting off thoughts about Dylan and the fact that I missed him like crazy. As soon as I exited on the other side of the fence, I felt like I could finally breathe. These first three periods were hell to get through. The first one was spent with me trying to ignore the burning need to look at my new desk partner, and during the other two, I kept thinking about dark eyes and these weird feelings he seemed to draw out of me. I honestly couldn’t wait for that bell to ring. While Mrs. Montgomery, our history teacher, kept going on and on about the current situation in the world, I felt as if the walls were closing in on me.
One year, Skylar. You have to survive one year and then you’ll be gone for good.
I couldn’t wait to leave this town behind. This depravity, this sickness, these deranged people that liked to wear their pretty little masks. I wanted to leave it all behind and start anew. I just had to be smart and survive. I just had to shut my mouth when he called and try to get through this without losing the remaining pieces of my mind.
The air smelled like rain, and as I ran across the street, heading toward the entrance to the cemetery that was located right next to Clayton Bakery, I prayed that it would rain. I hated this in-between period where it started getting humid but it wouldn’t rain. At least with rain, I could pretend that it was washing away the sins and tragedies surrounding our little town.
I stopped in front of the gate leading into the cemetery, looking for the groundskeeper. He almost caught us once as we sneaked in at two in the morning. I knew that we had to be more careful if we wanted to keep coming back here. While my parents didn’t give a shit about my whereabouts and what I’d been doing, it wouldn’t look good if the senator’s daughter was caught getting high at the local cemetery.
All of us had something to lose, and only Hailey and Beatrice weren’t part of one of the founding families. Kane was a St. Clare, Lauren a Maddox, Rowan and Danny a Lacroix, and me a Blackwood. All of our parents would shit a brick if any of this came out, especially after that party back in May.
I ran between the tombstones, heading toward the other side of the cemetery where all the crypts were located. All our families had their own crypts, and one day my body would probably rot here, forever bound to Winworth. Thankfully, our families preferred the Hylan cemetery, right next to the old church in the center of the town, and they wouldn’t be caught dead here. I almost snickered at myself and my thoughts, but in reality, I was disgusted by our families. Even a cemetery was unworthy of their perfect bodies, as if the dead cared where they were buried.
Unfortunately, not even the dead rested easy in Winworth.
This cemetery was used by the people living on the East Side of Winworth, or as my lovely parents loved to call them, lowlifes. We all heard the stories about gangs running free on that side of Winworth, people missing, drugs flowing through the streets as if they were water, but we were forbidden from crossing the bridge connecting the two parts of this town to investigate for ourselves. And I was curious. I wanted to see if the stories were true.
As I came closer to the area that housed the crypts of various families, most of them abandoned and no longer used, I thought about the kids we had in our school that came from the East Side of Winworth. We all looked the same, but I could see the bullying some of the seniors from the West Side kept inflicting upon the lower classman that didn’t belong to their social circles.
If you asked me, it was complete bullshit. Our mayor behaved as if the East Side of Winworth didn’t even exist, always mentioning only the West Side. I know how I sounded, like a whiny girl that kept talking about the unfairness of the situation but still wasn’t doing anything to change it. But how could I change the way people viewed the East Side of Winworth and their inhabitants, when I couldn’t even fix my own problems?
The only solution I had, not only for that problem but for all my problems, was to get away from here. Nothing good could ever come from this godforsaken place. Even nature here knew that the sinister things ran the show, and I couldn’t even remember the last time I saw the flowers in full bloom, unless they were dahlias or roses. Our gardener once tried to grow daisies, after I begged him to buy seeds, but nothing ever came out. I could still remember the disappointment on his face, and him explaining that the weather here wouldn’t let them grow. But I knew better. People weren’t the only poisonous thing around here. Air, soil, water—it all carried its own poison, and the longer you stayed here, the sicker you got.
Before I could reach the crypt where we usually hung out, a branch broke somewhere behind me, and I froze in place, trying to hear anything else. I heard footsteps on the wet ground, a crow screeching from above me, and I turned right, hiding behind one of the crypts. I tried to calm my breathing as the footsteps came closer, and closer, and closer, until I couldn’t hear them anymore. Was it the groundskeeper? Goddammit, I didn’t see him before and I was so careful.
Fuck, if he found me here, I would have to come up with a story about an old ancestor that was buried here. Shit, shit, shit.
I pulled my phone out, checking if Lauren had texted me, but the screen remained blank. I just hoped that they weren’t already here. We could spin the story if one of us was found here, but five teenagers at the cemetery, in the middle of the school day… Yeah, he wasn’t going to believe us. I looked up, struggling to drown out the screeching of the crow, but there was no use. I couldn’t hear anything but the wind that started increasing and the annoying bird. I took a step forward, attempting to see if anyone was around, but before I could fully see the area in front of me, a hand landed on my mouth, and somebody started pulling me backward.
I started thrashing against them, hitting their sides, trying to pull away their hand, while a scream lodged inside my throat, and my eyes started watering from the lack of oxygen. Whoever the person was, they wore gloves, and they were much taller than my five-foot-six. Panic gripped my insides, and my stomach started turning, but my captor was relentless. Tears fell over my cheeks, but instead of increasing the pressure, my captor slowly released me. It took me a moment to realize that instead of silence, laughter was what welcomed me.
I turned around, only to see Kane standing next to the crypt where we usually hung out, with Danny right in front of me, and Rowan laughing his ass off, standing behind his brother. Lauren was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Beatrice, nor Hailey. I didn’t have to be a genius to know what just happened.
“You motherfucking—”
I ran toward Danny who was obviously the one that dragged me, scaring the shit out of me.
“I am going to kill you!” I screeched as I launched myself at him, hitting his chest with my fists, while he continued laughing. Kane, Danny, and Rowan were all part of Winworth High’s football team. I knew that my hits did nothing to him since the guy was built like a brick wall, but I was going to try. “What the fuck, Danny?” I yelled as I kept pummeling at his unmoving form. “Goddammit, I thought I was going to die.”
“You should’ve seen the look on your face.” The motherfucker laughed as he took a hold of my hands, stopping my unsuccessful attack. “Are you crying?”
“No!” I ripped my hands away from his grip and wiped my cheeks, just as Kane approached us, looking concerned.
“Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not fucking okay, you idiot.” Rowan was still laughing, clutching his stomach, and mumbling incoherently. I narrowed my eyes at him, ignoring Kane altogether. “I’m glad this is amusing for you, Rowan. I wonder if you’ll laugh when I switch the cocaine you love snorting so much with baking soda?”
He immediately sobered, a horrified look taking over his face. “You wouldn’t.”
“Fucking try me,” I spat out. “And you!” I looked at Danny and took a step closer to him. “I’ll make sure that Lauren knows what a fucking shithead you are.”
Alarmed, he reached for me, but I took a step backward and started walking toward the crypt, turning my back to all three of them.
“Skylar!” Danny yelled, but I didn’t want to talk to any of them. I lifted my hand, showing him my middle finger, and ducked down, since the entrance to the crypt was smaller than the rest of the space. “Come on!” His voice followed me all the way in, but I continued to the bench on the far side of the crypt and dropped my bag on it.
Their footsteps followed me in, and I kept my back turned to all of them, going through my bag and pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, just before Kane spoke again.
“Sky—”
