Page 23 of Malaise
“And that impacts me, how?”
Amelia inspects her nails, the smarmiest fucking look on her overly made up face. “Well, if sexual assault is your kind of thing, then I guess you don’t have a problem.” She shrugs dismissively. “I was simply trying to give you a bit of friendly advice.”
“Yeah?” I practically laugh. “Well here’s some for you: fuck off.”
“Jesus,” Cassie hisses. “You kiss your mother with that mouth?”
“Oh come on.” I roll my eyes and try to stand, but a firm hand to my shoulder sits me down again.
“Stay the fuck away from Jasper, yeah?” Amelia’s usually vibrant blue eyes are dark and foreboding as she runs her gaze the length of me. “He doesn’t want a freak like you, so stop wasting your time.”
“Point taken, thanks,” I snap. “But I’m actually not interested in him either.”
“Yeah?” she scoffs. “Is that why you were trying to get him drunk at Cedar Park the other day?”
What the fuck? “Who told you that?” Jasper. It has to have been.
“He did, dumb-arse. And it’s the last thing I wanted to be hearing when he had me half-naked in his bedroom.”
Oh God, too much information. “I don’t need to know that.” I curl my lip up in disgust at her.
“Just keep away, okay?” Cassie stands, taking my backpack with her and upturning it as she walks away.
The high-pitched cackle of Amelia’s laugh resonates in my ears as I frown and get down on all fours to pick up my things.
“Oh, Cass, don’t pick on the poor thing,” Amelia sneers as she gets up to join her friend. “Her brother died a couple of days ago.”
“Ugh,” Cassie grunts. “I’d probably kill myself too if that’s who I had to share a house with.”
The bitches laugh as they strut across to where Mr Beale now has the students under control. He eyes me from his vantage point standing atop the bench and frowns. I can barely make out what I have left to shove back in my bag as I lose my grip on civility and cry, something I’m apparently getting pretty good at doing nowadays.
Fuck school. Fuck a future. Fuck this town.
I sling the backpack over my shoulder, keeping my phone in hand, and turn to head out of the quad via the back gates. Nobody will be there when the whole senior year is awaiting timetables and the junior years have a free day. I can slip out unnoticed and do the second thing I’ve been getting pretty good at—running away.
My hands shake as I unlock the screen and swipe through to the only number I have left to try.
If he doesn’t care a shit about what I’m going through either, then fuck knows what I’ll do.