Page 10 of Apathy
Yet, one look at him this morning, one touch, and that’s all it took to drown out the whispers in the dark, and the heavy Winworth’s air that kept suffocating me for years. Mischief and promise of danger, that’s what laid hidden in the depths of his cobalt eyes, and like a sailor succumbing to a siren’s song at the sea, I was drowning in the hurricane disguised as a high school boy.
“Is there something on my face?” he murmured, and I noticed how close our faces were. If I lifted my head a little bit higher, I could press my lips to his. Maybe I would be able to draw out some kind of reaction with that? My fingers trembled from the need to touch him. My teeth tingled because I wanted to sink them into his bottom lip, to pull that piercing, and to cover him with everything forbidden I carried with me.
But I couldn’t.
“No.” I shrugged, putting some space between us. “I always wanted to get my lip pierced but didn’t have a chance. It’s fascinating.”
“Really?” He smirked at me, knowing full well that I was lying. But instead of calling me out on it, something flashed in his eyes, and he turned away from me, looking at the rest of the room.
The moment his eyes weren’t on my face, I felt like I could breathe again. What was it with him that piqued my attention so much? It couldn’t only be the whole devil-may-care attitude because there were other people in our school, in our town, that behaved in a very similar way.
Was it the fact that he didn’t really care about what Kane thought, or what anybody else had to say? I’d known him for a couple of hours, but I could already see that he wasn’t somebody who would bend for social norms, and I respected that.
“So, Ash,” Danny started, as the smell of weed trickled through my nostrils, and I looked at Rowan who held the blunt between his lips, looking at us. “Where did you guys move from? Oh, wait. Shit. I just realized that we didn’t really introduce ourselves.”
Leave it to Danny to behave like a welcoming party. Beatrice snorted, and Hailey rolled her eyes, because this is what Danny did. Every single party of his, he had to behave like the fairy godmother, involving the strangers in a conversation. Hailey collected strays, but Danny… Danny kept them.
“I’m Danny.” He pointed at himself. “That’s Rowan, my twin brother.” He looked at Rowan, whose hands were now on Hailey’s shoulders. “You already know Skylar.” The bastard smirked. “Lauren, our favorite troublemaker.” She lifted her right hand, showing him her middle finger, and I started laughing because he wasn’t exactly wrong.
Where Lauren went, trouble followed. She was a magnet for mini disasters, and trust me, I should know because I was usually the one accompanying her when all of them happened.
“I love you too, babe.” Danny smiled at her. “Hailey, our favorite cheerleader, who supports the Winworth Crows with passion—both on and off the field.”
“Well, I’m not the only one on my knees, Danny,” Hailey retorted, as Rowan placed a blunt between her lips.
“At least I know what I’m doing when I’m on my knees, Hales,” Danny mocked, earning a glare from Rowan.
“Cut it out, dude.”
God, we were a mess. Every single one of us. I had no idea how we ever ended up hanging out together, considering that conversations like this one took place between us, most of the time.
“There’s nothing wrong with being on your knees,” Ash suddenly interjected. “Besides,” he spread his legs, his knee touching mine, and placed his hands on his knees looking at Danny, “it’s none of our business if she wants to be on her knees or on her back, or on her feet.”
“Why, thank you.” Hailey smiled at him, but Rowan… instead of glaring at his brother, he directed his gaze at Ash, whose face I could no longer see from this position.
Danny cleared his throat, finally realizing what an idiot he was. “Right.” His eyes landed on Kane who didn’t say another word after asking Ash for his last name. But he kept his eyes plastered on the two of us until I noticed what he was looking at. Half of my body was plastered to Ash since Lauren kept pushing me into him. Not that the bench had enough room for us to move around, but the darkening of Kane’s eyes started worrying me.
I would have to talk to him about all this nonsense he’s been spewing around, and this caveman-like behavior, as if we were together.
“You know Kane, our Golden Boy,” Danny continued with the introductions, despite the chilling energy in the room.
“We’ve met,” Ash responded. They sure fucking did.
“And Beatrice, Kane’s girl.”
I wanted to fucking laugh, because while Beatrice would give her left kidney for Kane to even look at her, he didn’t want her. At least, not anymore. Not after what she did.
“Sky,” Lauren nudged me, pulling my attention to her. “Do you have water or you wanna take these dry?” I looked down, seeing five green and yellow capsules laid in her hand.
“Where did you get those?” You remember when I said that Lauren attracted danger like a magnet? This was what I was talking about. Out of all of us, she was the only one that dared to go to the East Side to score drugs, weed, and other things I didn’t want to know about right now.
My parents weren’t the only ones that didn’t give a shit about their kids, but unlike me, Lauren wanted hers to care. She wanted them to see her, to talk to her, to acknowledge her, not just give her money so that she would keep her mouth shut. You danced on the fine line of safety and danger, and going to the East Side was a sure way to make them notice her—if she was ever caught there, of course.
But over time, I had a feeling it developed into something else, and while she didn’t want to talk about the person that managed to get her drugs, I knew there was more to the story than she was willing to share.
“My grandma came the other day.” She laughed. “The doctor prescribed her Tramadol for the back pain, but you know her. She doesn’t want to take anything that isn’t plant-based, so she asked me to get rid of these.” She wiggled her eyebrows, looking all comical, and I would’ve laughed if my attention didn’t revert back to those five pills and the feeling they were going to give me.
She brought Tramadol once before, and the feeling of nothingness that came with it was exactly what I needed then. It was what I needed now.
