Just Another Monday

A piece of paper was half sticking out of my locker when I approached it on Monday morning. Dread consumed me, even though I hadn’t yet opened it to see what was inside. Thoughts of Aidan and his threat were running through my mind and I was almost positive this note had something to do with whatever he had in store for me. He wasn’t the type of person who served revenge cold. He liked to get things started as soon as possible. And seeing as I’d been away Thursday and Friday, now would be the perfect time to begin dishing it out.
I stared hard at the note, indecision prickling my mind. Did I throw it out without reading it, or would ignorance only serve to make things worse for me? Wait, why was I being so negative? For all I knew, it could be a case of mistaken identity. Maybe someone had put it here thinking it was someone else’s locker. Teenagers passed around secret love notes all the time, so it made sense that some love-crazy girl had stuck it there by accident. With that thought foremost in my mind, I plucked the scrap of paper from its resting place, unfolded it and read the contents. I frowned as I reached the end. How odd. It had to be a mistake, yet my name being written at the top said otherwise.
“Noah!”
I looked up as Ashleigh jogged towards me. The slight flush in her cheeks plus her damp blonde hair meant she’d just finished morning practice. The skirt of her red dress billowed around her as she came to a stop beside me.
“Hey, Ash.”
She pulled me into a bone crunching hug, taking me by surprise. Yes, we had become pretty good friends of late, but I had no idea we’d reached the hugging stage. After a brief hesitation, I patted her awkwardly on the back. It felt almost alien to be hugged by someone that wasn’t Riley or Courtney. I didn’t know if I liked it or not.
“God, we missed you!” she exclaimed when she pulled back. I took “we” to mean her, Courtney, and Drew, considering I didn’t really have any other close friends.
I shrugged apologetically. “Yeah, I just had some family stuff to take care of.”
She laughed, the sound delicate. “And now that you’re here, Courtney has decided she’s sick. Out with the flu.”
This, I already knew. I had rung Courtney on Saturday asking if she wanted to hang out. What answered me had sounded more like a mortally wounded frog taking its last breaths than my best friend. So although she was more than keen, I had to put my foot down and insist that she rest up. Apart from not wanting her to get worse, I didn’t want to catch whatever she had.
“Yeah. Guess it’s just us and Drew for lunch then,” I said.
She looked at what I was holding. “What’s that?”
“I’m not exactly sure. I found it sticking out of my locker.” I handed her the note and watched as she read it. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head towards the end.
“Wow. That is one, er, steamy lust note. The guy is certainly expressive about what he wants to do to your body.”
I shuddered in disgust. Who in their right mind would leave such a note sticking out like that. If it had been anonymous I could have understood. But no, it had the guys full name, three different contact numbers on it, and all the days and times he was free.
She looked up from the note. “Someone you know?”
I shook my head.
She frowned. “But it’s got your name on it.”
“I know. That’s why I’m not exactly sure what the deal is.”
I unlocked my locker and tugged it open - only to find out why Mr. Lust’s note hadn’t made it all the way in. Pieces of paper came streaming of my locker, pooling at my feet. I gaped, not quite believing how many there were. Ashleigh made a sound of surprise beside me, stooping to pick a handful up.
“Christ,” she said. “There’s hundreds. If these are anything like the first, I’d say something very weird is going on?”
I cocked an eyebrow at her. “You think?”
We opened about a dozen each, and came to the conclusion that something very weird was going on. They were all similar to the first, with some having just names and numbers, others going the full mile to explain in great detail what they wanted to do to me, or what they wanted me to do to them. My skin crawled with disgust. Just reading all of this had me wanting to rush home and dive into the shower.
“Grab me that bin, would you?” I said to Ash, already sweeping the stray pieces into the large pile.
“You’re not going to keep any of them?” she asked a couple of minutes later, throwing the last two into the bin.
I snorted at her, checking in between my books for any stray proposition notes.
“Oh yeah, I’m just going to grab a handful and organise a sexcapade for every day next week,” I said sarcastically. I grabbed one on top of the pile in the bin and waved it at her before reading it.
“Why not this dude? Garrett Stevens, sophomore. Ah, there’s even a side note. He wants to make sure I know that his “mum works late on Friday’s, so if I wanna quick hump and dump, he could sneak me in and out of his bedroom window no trouble.” I mean, what the hell? Has someone been advertising me as a hooker or something?”
Ashleigh was going through a fit of the giggles, in no state to answer the question. Not that I’d expected one. It had been rhetorical, but even as I’d said the words, my stomach began to clench with unease. This stunk of Aidan. Simply because Serena was too dumb to think of something so elaborate and creative.
I screwed the note up into a tight ball, wishing I had a lighter so I could burn it for added satisfaction. I’d love to set the entire bin on fire for that matter.
“We should give you a hooker name,” Ashleigh said, regaining the ability to speak. I glared at her, kicking the bin in the general direction it had come from.
“You know, you’re finding this way too funny,” I said. Which to her, I suppose it was.
“Oh, oh, what about Naughty Angel, or Forbidden Candy? Spank me Susan? Those are definitely hooker names.”
“Laugh it up, pompom girl. You can bet I‘ll be front and centre at all of your games, waiting for you to fall flat on your face.”
“Don’t like those then? How about something more subtle? Anastasia? Francesca? Franny for short!” She burst into a fresh wave of laughter, and though I knew better, I had to ask.
“What’s so funny now?”
“I just thought of a short name for Franny. Just take out the R and you’re left with Fa-”
“Okay!” I said, grabbing her arm and tugging her down the hall. “I get it.”
We’d taken two steps from my locker when a boy I’d never seen before in my life sauntered up to me in what he obviously thought was an irresistible manner, but had me wondering if he’d crapped himself. Before I could ask what he wanted, he pressed up against me, slapped his hand onto my a*s, and gave it a good squeeze. Shocked, I pushed him away from me. Surprise registered in his eyes right before I clipped him over the head with my schoolbag.
“You little creep!”
He staggered backwards, a howl of pain escaping his lips. And people said the entire works of Shakespeare was a waste of space. It had definitely found the perfect space in my bag for such an occasion.
Not giving him time to recover, I whacked him again. Ashleigh grabbed my arm to stop a third hit, saying, “Relax! I think he’s no longer a threat.”
“Oh, I know that. I’m doing it because it makes me feel better,” I snarled, trying to have another go at him. He pressed himself into the nearest locker, cringing away.
“Wait! Stop!” he shouted. The only reason I paused was because Ash still had hold of my arm.
“What the hell do you think you were doing?” I hissed at him, tugging experimentally on Ash’s grip. No luck. The girl was stronger than her rake thin frame suggested.
“You b***h,” creepy guy said, straightening and glaring at me. “I think you knocked my filling out.”
At full height he was several inches taller than me, but enraged as I was, there was no room left for fear. Never in my life had I been grabbed in such an inappropriate way. It was disgusting. And now he had the audacity to call me a b***h?
I narrowed my eyes to slits. “You’re lucky it was only a loose filling, you little s**t. Next time it’ll be a swift kick to the boys downstairs, and I’m sure they’ll be much harder to replace than a filling.”
His legs shifted ever so slightly, coming closer together. Maybe it was the look on my face or the way my leg twitched as I said it, but he was definitely not taking any chances.
“Whatever,” he said, and tried to shove past me.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Ashleigh said, letting go of me to hold him in place. “First of all, you haven’t apologised to my friend here. And second of all, you haven’t told us what possessed you to make such an a*s of a move on her.”
The guy stared daggers at Ashleigh, but like me couldn’t seem to get his hand free. “Look, I got the same text as everyone else. And even if I hadn’t, there are flyers in the boys locker rooms.”
We gave him blank stares, having no idea what he was talking about.
He huffed in impatience. “You’re Noah Duke, right? The girl from the picture? Looking for a good time, anything goes, you’ll spread your legs for anyone. Doesn’t matter who it is as long as they get you to cloud nine while they’re doing their thing?”
By the end of his little tirade, our mouths were hanging open.
“Though it said nothing about violence,” he muttered to himself.
Ashleigh gave him a disdainful glare. “Did you just quote the flyer to us?” she asked in disbelief.
He shrugged irritably. “Can I go now?”
Without waiting for a response he yanked himself free and all but ran down the hallway, cursing us until he was out of sight.
“I know you’re lacking a boyfriend at the moment, but that’s no reason to go around advertising yourself as easy,” Ash joked, finding her voice first to break the silence.
I smiled thinly, but amusement was far from my mind. It was definitely Aidan then. The notes and numbers, and now some random guy groping me. He’d really outdone himself, putting up flyers and sending chain mail texts. Though I was sure that this was just the beginning. Only the tip of the ice burg in the scheme of things. There’d be plenty more to come over the following weeks. I sighed, pushing those ominous thoughts to the back of my head. One day at a time. That’s how I’d deal with it.
“Well, at least we know why every guy is desperate for me to call them,” I said, following her lead with the jokes.
Ashleigh wrapped her arm around my shoulders and guided me down the hall. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get some of my jock friends to take down the flyers. And I’ll get some of the girls to spread word that you’re taken. That you have a big burly boyfriend with ape knuckles and a hairy chest who will crush anyone that looks sideways at you!”
I raised my eyebrows at her. “Uh, ew. How is that going to help me? People will think I have a monkey fetish.”
She let out a bark of laughter. “Okay, a big bad tough guy sans ape knuckles and hairy chest.”
“Much better,” I said, allowing myself to smile.
After all, there was no point in getting worked up about it. I couldn’t undo something that had already happened.
“Who would do something like this anyway?” she asked as we stopped outside my homeroom class.
I shrugged, feeling guilty for lying but at the same time not wanting to drag her into my problems. “Who knows.”

I was on my way to the cafeteria for lunch when I remembered I’d left my World History notebook in my truck. God d****t, I didn’t want to make a detour. At least eight percent of the male population had me in their sights. I’m pretty sure the other twenty percent were either gay or hadn’t seen the flyers yet. Though according to Ashleigh they never would. She’d wasted no time in getting some of her guy friends to tear them down.
Even so, I’d had people coming up to personally deliver their numbers to me, while other ogled from afar. I felt like the newest freak at the circus.
Cursing, I kept on straight ahead instead of taking a left to the cafeteria, ignoring all the looks from horny teenage guys as I passed. I jogged through the main doors and out into the parking lot, making a quick beeline for my truck parked on the far side. Ten feet from my truck, I staggered to a halt and swore like a sailor. Thank God no teachers were about. Though they were lax on swearing, mine definitely would have earned me a detention.
Parked over my truck, blocking it in, was a navy blue Honda Civic. I had no doubt he was planning to leave very late after school, just to piss me off. At least this cemented the fact that I’d been right. His little hooker scheme was only the beginning, and his car parked over mine was merely another plan he’d put into action. I had to wonder how many more there’d be if I had received two today alone.
A smile tugged at my lips as a thought came to me. Yes, I’d told myself that I was going to take the high road, but really, what was the point? Especially when my idea was so great.
Thirty minutes later I was certain of one thing: those Hollywood movies were full of crap. It had taken me over half of my lunch break to wedge bits of an old popsicle stick into the air valves on Aidan’s car tyres. By the time I stood up from tampering with the fourth one, I was covered in sweat, my hands were black from the grime on his tyres, but the sound of air hissing out of them was like music to my ears. I jumped up and down, doing a little happy dance. Take that, you son of a b***h! I looked down at my handiwork and smiled in satisfaction. Yep, those little bits of wood couldn’t be pried out with fingertips. Not that it would matter once he realised his tyres were flat. I scrambled around his car picking up all of the little air valve caps before tossing them into the bushes behind my truck. Then I jogged back towards the school to see if I could squeeze in a sandwich before lunch was over.

When the final bell rang, I took my time gathering my things, and then dawdled down the hallway that lead to the main entrance of the school. I wanted to give Aidan plenty of time to discover the state of his car. The smug looks he’d thrown my way during World History last period suggested he hadn’t yet discovered what I’d done. There was also the chance that he wouldn’t head straight to his car now, but that didn’t bother me at all. I’d just ask Drew to give me a lift home. And then when Aidan did finally check his car, he could call the tow truck himself. I stopped by my locker on the way out to grab some books I’d need for homework, affectionately patting my complete works of Shakespeare book before slamming it closed. The number of horny boys panting after me had decreased marginally over the course of the afternoon, making me wonder if Ash had spread work of my supposedly tough-guy boyfriend ready to thump people for looking at me sideways. If so the girl worked terribly fast. I’d have to thank her tomorrow.
I pushed through the main doors and looked around the fast emptying lot. No sign of Aidan, which wasn’t surprising. No sign of Drew either. I walked down a row of cars, trying to see the next row over on my left when the sound of pounding footsteps sounded from my right. I turned my head just in time to see a very enraged Aidan before his arms shot out and he pushed me as hard as he could. Taken by surprise, and little more than a measly 115 pounds, I flew sideways into a parked car, hitting my head with a loud thwack before bouncing off it to hit the pavement just as hard. I let out a hiss of pain, and tried to blink away the stars dancing in my vision. I’d bitten my tongue when my chin hit the ground, and if the metallic taste of blood was anything to go by, I’d bitten it hard. I got to my hands and knees, and tried to push myself upright. Nausea rolled through my stomach in waves, accompanied by the sudden onset dizziness. Crap, I must have hit my head harder than I thought. I groaned, barely managing to stamp down the urge to throw up. With the pavement spinning in fast circles, I lost my balance and keeled over sideways. Before I could try again, Aidan was hovering over me, grabbing a fistful of my hair and dragging me upright. I swore as a sharp pain seared my scalp, and felt several strands of hair snap under my weight.
“You little b***h,” he hissed in my ear, his eyes narrowed to slits. Fear stabbed at my chest. If I thought he’d looked scary before, I’d been misinformed. The look on his face now bordered on psychotic rage.
My eyes darted sideways as I tried to see why nobody was intervening. It wasn’t like the parking lot had been empty when he’d attacked me. Through my blurry eyes, I made out four beefy looking teenage boys standing ominously between me and the dozen or so students watching avidly. Oh, so he’d been lying in wait, with crowd control ready. Well, craptastic. Things weren’t looking good for me then. I blinked rapidly, trying to make the two swirling Aidan’s in front of me become one. He let go of my hair to grab me by the front of the shirt, slamming me backwards into a parked car with all his might.
Pain lanced through my shoulder and up through my back, but was almost immediately dulled by the sudden flow of adrenaline coursing through my body. I braced my hands on Aidan’s shoulders and pushed back. Though it had little physical effect, the flicker of surprise on his face was evident.
I gave him a sardonic smile, exuding a confidence that hid the quaking fear on the inside. “What’s the matter, Aidan? Having car trouble?” Probably the stupidest thing to say to the person who had hold of you and outweighed you by at least forty pounds. But the fact of the matter was, I was going to get the hiding of my life whether I goaded him or not. And if I was too small to get in some good hits physically, then I’d damn well make sure I got in my verbal ones. I wasn’t going down without some sort of fight.
He growled in anger, his face turning a very unflattering shade of red. He pulled back one of his arms and punched me in the stomach. The air rushed out of me on a pain filled ‘oomph’, and I tried hard to draw some air back in. My legs buckled, but Aidan’s death grip kept me upright.
“You always had a smart mouth Noah,” he said through clenched teeth. “Why not try shutting it for a change. You’re only going to piss me off more.”
“F**k you,” I spat, panting. “You’re pathetic. A coward. Only a weakling would pick on someone smaller than him.”
Enraged all the more, as I knew he would be, he threw me into the parked car again, causing me to yelp in pain. Another wave of nausea rolled through me, causing sweat to prickle my skin. Knowing I had nothing to lose at this point, and spurred on by the sudden burn of anger in me, I lashed out, stomping on his feet, kicking at his shins and trying to claw at his face. Skilled fighter I was not, but any girl can do damage with a set of long nails. I managed to rake said nails down one side of his face, drawing blood and causing him to curse fluently and aggressively.
He pushed me away from his body with one arm, and raised the other one to hit me. I screwed my eyes shut as his fist came flying towards my face, my body tensed in anticipation of the blow.
Nothing happened. Well, not nothing. But his fist never made it to my face. Instead, the grip he had on my shirt was torn free. With legs like jelly and a head still fuzzy, I fell forward, remembering too late to put my hands out to break my fall. So naturally I landed face first, hitting my nose hard enough to make it bleed. I cursed, rolling onto my side and spitting blood. I must have blacked out for a few seconds, because when awareness surged again and I cracked open my eyes, the first thing I saw was one of Aidan’s beefy watch boys laying on the ground several feet away, clutching his stomach. I pushed up into a sitting position, the world spinning around me in tight circles when I did so, and noticed another guy laying next to the first, his eyes half open and in a daze. Blood poured from the second guys nose, which was undoubtedly broken. The sound of flesh hitting flesh caught my groggy attention and I glanced to my right. I gasped in shock at what I saw, briefly wondering if my eyes had crapped out on me completely, making what I was witnessing purely imaginary.
Tyson stood a few feet to the right of me and had hold of the front of Aidan’s shirt with one hand. With his left hand, he was punching him repeatedly in the face. The smack of flesh on flesh was accompanied by a rhythm of grunts of pain coming from Aidan. All anger had fled his face, replaced by stark terror. It was all he could do to fend off the worst of Tyson’s punches and cover some of his face. The two turned slightly, giving me an unobstructed view of Tyson in all his fury. I recoiled in shock at the look in his eyes. It was murderous. There was no other word to describe the unleashed rage he was expressing freely on his face as well as in his punches.
A guttural moan came from my left, making me look the other way. Drew was positively beating the crap out of watch boy number three. My eyes widened. I was finding it hard to reconcile his fiercely angry actions with the kind, carefree boy that I knew him to be.
I flicked my eyes back to what Tyson was doing and let out a cry of warning as I saw watch boy number four attack him from behind. I needn’t have bothered. Tyson ducked the punch with ease, and dropped Aidan like a stone to deal with the interruption. With a grace that surprised me, he ducked several punches and danced out of the guys reach when he tried to grab him. Then without pause, he stepped forward and let loose with a left hook. It smacked watch boy number four square in the face with a resounding crack. The guy was out before he hit the pavement. I gaped as Tyson walked over and nudged the guy. Satisfied that he was no longer in the game, he turned sharply and headed back to Aidan, who had just managed to pick himself up from the heap he’d landed in. Giving him no chance to recover, Tyson punched him again. Aidan ducked, but not quick enough. The punch landed on his shoulder rather than his nose. He careened backwards, almost landing himself in my lap. I blinked at him. His face was a mess, his nose definitely broken and his lip split. His left eye was already swelling shut, a purple tinge colouring the skin around it. Without breaking his stride, Tyson stepped up and booted Aidan in the ribs. I flinched as Aidan howled in pain, not liking the sound at all. Tyson pulled his leg back for another swing, causing Aidan to recoil. He bumped me in his retreat, spurring me into action.
“Stop it.”
The words came out surprisingly steady considering I was shaking like a leaf. Whether it was from adrenaline, or fear was anyone’s guess. Tyson flicked his gaze my way, indecision clear on his face. He wanted oh so badly to keep beating Aidan, but at the same time seemed to sense he might be scaring me.
“Stop it,” I repeated, my voice softer this time. “He’s not worth it. Don‘t dirty a perfectly good pair of boots on his sorry a*s.”
Tyson regarded me for a few seconds more before he crouched and grabbed Aidan by the front of his shirt. He yanked him upwards until they were almost nose to nose. Aidan’s breathing was harsh, his eyes wide with fear.
“Listen to me, and listen carefully,” Tyson said. His voice was low and even, and full of promise. “If you lay a hand on Noah again, this will feel like a love tap in comparison. Understand me? In fact, if you even f*****g look at her the wrong way, I will beat you to within an inch of your life. You’ll find out first hand what it’s like to visit the E.R. Got it?”
In his petrified state, Aidan forgot to reply, earning himself a none too gentle shake from Tyson.
“I can’t hear you.”
“Yes!” Aidan cried. “I got it.”
Satisfied, Tyson shoved him away, and, in a moment of rarely seen intelligence, Aidan picked himself up - albeit very slowly - and limped away, clutching his side with one hand, his nose with the other. His watch boys, well the two that were conscious, followed suit, leaving.
I leaned back against the parked car, breathing shallowly. The adrenaline was wearing off, revealing all of my aches and pains. Besides my head, the worst was my right shoulder.
Drew came up beside me and crouched down. He had a split lip, but that seemed to be the extent of his injuries. “Jesus,” he said, looking at my face. “We should get you seen to.”
At Drew’s words, Tyson snapped his head our way, causing me to just about leap out of my skin. His eyes were still burning with anger, which told me it had been a real effort for him to let Aidan walk away.
He stood up and stepped over to us. “I’ll take her,” he said, and bent to scoop me into his arms. I gasped in pain as the aches in my back and shoulder worsened, and wrapped my arms around his neck. His entire body was tense, and he was shaking slightly with suppressed rage.
“Sorry,” he muttered and carried me with ease to his car. The spectators that hadn’t yet dispersed stepped well out of Tyson’s way. He deposited me in the passenger seat and slamming the door, then had a few words to Drew before he got behind the wheel.
I barely had my seatbelt on before he was peeling out of the school parking lot.
We hadn’t made it two blocks when he pulled over suddenly, into a no parking zone and killed the engine.
I cast him a tentative look, but he was staring daggers out his front windscreen. He sat like that for the next thirty seconds, while I tried to stem the blood flow from my nose with the sleeves of my jersey.
Starting to get worried by his silence, I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut across me, exploding in anger.
“F**k!” he said, hitting the steering wheel hard. His already split knuckles began weeping in protest. “God d****t!” He hit the wheel again, then growled, a sound of frustration and probably pain, if the state of his hands was anything to go by.
Despite his aggressive behaviour, I wasn’t afraid of him. Huh, maybe I was stupider than I thought. But deep down, part of me knew he’d never hit me.
“Tyson,” I started.
He looked sideways at me, still angry. “You actually dated that a*****e!?” he exclaimed.
I figured it was a rhetorical question, so I stayed quiet.
“Are you f*****g nuts?” he continued. A little peeved, I had a retort on the tip of my tongue when he held up his hand. “No, no. Don’t answer that. You must be. Only someone crazy would date that son of a b***h, and then get into a fist fight with him.”
I glared at him. “None of that makes me nuts.”
He snorted, then yanked off his long sleeved tee. Underneath it he was wearing a black v neck shirt.
“What’re you -”
He reached over and gently placed it under my nose, which was still dribbling blood. With his free hand he pushed my head back against the seat.
“I don’t think it’s broken,” he said, holding the shirt in place. “Though it should’ve stopped bleeding by now.”
“It’s looks worse than it feels,” I said in a muffled voice, waving my hand dismissively. A hand that was covered in scrapes. How the hell did I manage that? I looked at the other one, which was a mirror image of the first. I decided they stung too, something fierce.
He moved the shirt after a few more minutes, dropping it into my lap. “It’s stopped bleeding, but we should go and get it checked out, just in case.”
I shook my head, causing my stomach to churn violently and yet another dizzy spell to appear.
“No,” I croaked, ignoring the sharp ache coming from the left side of my head. “I’m fine, really. They’re only minor injuries. I just want to go home. I’ll sleep it off and be as good as new tomorrow. There’s - Oh crap, I think I’m going to be sick.”
I barely got the words out of my mouth, my stomach heaving. Tyson grabbed his discarded shirt from my lap and shoved it under my face just in time. I emptied my guts into it, continuing to retch even after my stomach was empty.
“God, I’m really sorry,” I said when I was done, but was pleased to note the nausea had lessened. “I’ll buy you a new shirt.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said not the least bit phased, wrapping the mess up in his shirt and chucking it onto the back seat. He did however open both of our windows to let in some fresh air.
He gave me a penetrating stare. “How are you really feeling?”
I sighed in defeat. “Dizzy. Sick. Sore.”
He arched an eyebrow. “How hard did you hit your head?” Instead of waiting for an answer he grabbed me by the face, working his hands through my hair, feeling for a lump.
“Ouch!” I said, when his hand ran over a particularly tender spot on the left side.
“Yep, ouch alright. It’s a goose egg. No wonder, too. Heads weren’t made for bouncing off cars.”
I gave him a peeved glare. “Now the guys got jokes?” I said sarcastically, trying to get a feel of the lump myself.
Tyson cracked one of his half smiles, and I was glad to note his anger had faded considerably. “Yes, the guys got jokes. But I think you have a concussion.”
He started his car up, indicated briefly and then pulled back into traffic.
“Where are we going?” I asked, trying to ignore the lingering stench of vomit. God, the first phone call I was going to make when I got home would be to a professional car cleaning service. It would be the least I could do.
“Medical clinic, to check you out.”

I groaned. “No. Just take me home. Oh, wait. I need to get my truck. Just take me back to school.”
Tyson made a noise of incredulity, but didn’t take his eyes off the road.
“Seems the knock to your head has amplified your stupidity. The only place you’re going is to the medical clinic. Then home. Your truck’s not going anywhere.”
“But-”
“No buts. Did you miss the part where I said you don’t have a choice in the matter?”
I glared at him, or tried to. With the pain dancing in my head, it probably resembled more of a grimace.
“You never actually said that.”
“Well, I just did. So quit you’re whining.”
I huffed in aggravation but conceded defeat.
When we arrived, the clinic was amazingly empty apart from an elderly man and a woman with her three kids. Unlike the barren white walls and floors of the Mercy Hospital E.R., this place was all colour. Turquoise carpet covered the waiting area, while orange, yellow and pink decorated the walls. A little play area dominated one corner with toys and building blocks strewn everywhere. Though it seemed the uncomfortable hard plastic chairs were universal throughout all medical centres. After filling out the necessary forms, we sat down with our backs against the clinic’s front windows.
“Is anyone at your house?” Tyson asked.
I raised an eyebrow at the unexpected question. “No. Everyone’s at work.” If everyone meant Riley, that was.
“Then call someone to come home.” He reached up to tug his ponytail free, but before I could get a good look at him with his hair down, he retied it.
“Why?”
He sighed in exasperation and gave me a patronising stare. “Because, you just gave your head a good knock and shouldn’t be left alone for the next twelve hours or so in case it’s worse than it actually is.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How do you know that?”
“Experience,” was his short reply. “Now are you going to call someone or not?”
“And if I say not?”
“Then I’ll drive you to Courtney’s when we’re done here.” Did he even know where she lived?
“She’s sick.”
Amusement glittered in his eyes. He knew I was throwing out evasion tactics and wasn’t buying any of them. “So? Even a sick person will notice if you keel over and die.”
“Wow. You have such a way with words.”
“And you’re avoiding the subject. Are you going to make a phone call or not?”
“Alright, alright.” I dug my cell phone out of my bag and hit speed dial for Riley. His phone went straight to voicemail, so I dialled the phone in his office, and got the same result. Not that it was surprising. He was usually in meetings most of the day and even when he wasn’t, he often forgot to turn his cell back on. I dialled his secretary instead, the woman who’d been hired as a temp to cover for Izzy.
“Azalea Shipping head office, Bevan speaking, how may I direct your call?”
“Hi Bevan, it’s Noah here. Is Riley floating around anywhere in the office?”
“Hello, Miss Duke. No, Mr. Duke is out of the office at the moment and has his phone is switched off. Would you like to leave a message with me? Or was it something urgent?”
“No, that’s fine. Could you patch me through to Melanie Brown’s office instead please.”
“Of course.”
I waited while the call went through, and was suddenly nervous. What was I going to tell Mel? The same thing I was going to tell Riley, I supposed. But then again, I hadn‘t actually figured out what I was going to say to my brother. Most likely because I expected him to be unavailable. But Mel wouldn’t be, and I needed to think up something fast.
“Melanie Brown speaking.”
At the sound of her voice I almost dropped the phone. Crap. No matter what I told her she was going to flip out.
“Hi Mel, it’s me.”
“Noah? Sweetie, are you okay? You sound tired.”
Wasn’t that an understatement.
‘I’m fine, really.” I ignored Tyson’s raised eyebrows. “It’s nothing major. But I need you to come and get me.”
There was a pause on the other end, and I could almost see her face as she thought up all the possibilities of where she had to collect me from.
“Where are you?” Her voice was purposefully calm, as if expecting the worst. I sighed, and rubbed a hand over my tender stomach, trying to stave off another round of nausea.
“The medical clinic downtown.”
I had barely rattled off the address before she hung up on me with promises of being there in less than fifteen minutes. Given the fact that work was all the way across town, she’d have to create new land speed records to keep that promise. I dropped the phone back into my bag and looked at Tyson.
“Happy now?” I asked.
“Extremely.” He glanced at the clock hanging over the play area. I followed his gaze. It was just after four.
“Do you have to be somewhere?”
“I have work at four thirty.”
“Oh. If you need to leave, you can. Mel is on her way and I’m pretty much in good hands if I ‘keel over and die’ right now.”
He gave me a droll stare. “I’ll stay until she gets here.”
“You know, I’m not going to snap and go loony. It’s just a bump on the head.” But despite my words, I was glad he was staying.
Not two minutes after my phone call, we were called into a small room where a nurse took my blood pressure and asked a few boring questions - all of which I’d already answered on the forms she was holding. You’d think they’d read them beforehand, or at least glance at them. She tapped a few things into the computer sitting on the doctor’s desk, then left and told us Dr. Greenburg would be with us shortly.
I glanced at Tyson from my chair beside the desk. He’d taken the seat closest to the door, his elbows on his knees, and was rolling a cigarette between his fingers. The blood seeping from his split knuckles stained the white paper red, but he didn’t seem to notice or care. I frowned. The gesture was oddly familiar, and it took me a second to realise why. I let out a bark of laughter, startling Tyson into dropping the smoke. He looked up at me, an eyebrow arched.
“Please don’t tell me you’ve snapped. Hold it until the doctor gets here, because my first aid skills are limited to clapping someone on the back when they’re choking.”
I gave him a droll stare. “Oh ha, ha. Very funny. No, I was just thinking. It’s like déjà vu, isn’t it?”
He leaned over to pick the smoke up off the floor, throwing it into the trash can opposite him. “What is?”
“This.” I waved my arm to encompass the room, then stopped abruptly as it brought on a small dizzy spell. “You, me, in a hospital type place. Just like when we first met.”
He leaned back in the seat, amusement glittering in his eyes. “So it is. You really need to stop having confrontations with your ex, it’s becoming bad for your health.”
I snorted at his bad joke, causing my nose to sting painfully. “Yes, because I antagonise Aidan for s***s and giggles. I was just getting my own back. I didn’t expect him to fly off the deep end like that.”
“You just made your nose start bleeding again,” he said, ripping some paper towels from a dispenser and handing them to me.
No sooner had I stuffed one under my nose than the door opened, and in stepped Dr. Greenburg. Her dark reddish brown hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, her pale skin standing out in stark contrast. A short woman, she looked to be in her late twenties.
“Miss Duke?” she said without looking up, consulting a clipboard in her hand. In an act of stupidity I nodded, then hissed as the pain in my head intensified, and the dizziness grew. She looked up in concern. And did a double take. I couldn’t have looked that bad, right?
She walked over and dropped the board onto her desk before taking my head in her hands.
“You said this happened at school?” On the form I’d lied and said that I’d been involved in a scuffle with another girl, though judging by the sceptical note in her voice, she wasn’t believing it. I sighed, suddenly too tired to keep up with the lie.
“Yes, it happened at school - ouch!” Her hand ran over the egg sized lump on my head. “But I wasn’t fighting with a girl. It was a boy.”
Her eyes immediately darted toward Tyson, taking in his bleeding hands.
“This boy?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.
I looked over at Tyson and resisted the urge to laugh. “Ah, no. If that boy hit me, I’d be in the morgue, not here talking to you.”
“Then what happened to your hands?” she asked Tyson, still overly suspicious.
He met her gaze head on, unconcerned. “I hurt them beating the living crap out of her ex boyfriend. Unfortunately she stopped me before I could deliver him into the land of unconsciousness.”
Dr. Greenburg’s face eased into a smile, one of approval. “Well, isn’t that a pity.”
Her hands finished their search over the back of my hand. She used one to tilt my chin upwards, towards the light.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tyson crack one of his half smiles. “I thought so.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. This was probably the liveliest I’d ever seen him. Go figure that it’d be just after he’d been in a fight.
“You’ve got a nasty cut on your chin,” she said, her attention coming back to the task at hand. “Though it won’t need stitches. Your nose is a bit battered, but it’s not broken.”
She shone a torch in my eyes, making them water. “Definitely have a concussion, though it seems to be mild. Have you been dizzy or nauseous?”
“She threw up in my car,” Tyson supplied.
I tried to glare at him, but the doctor wasn’t finished poking and prodding. “Technically, it was your shirt, and I told you I’d replace it.”
Dr. Greenburg chuckled and released my face. “Anywhere else that’s hurt?” she asked.
I thought about telling her of the pains in my back and shoulder, and of my sore stomach but decided against it. I wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. I was definitely not a big fan of hospitals and such. Besides, who needed a medical professional to tell you that you’d been shoved into a car hard enough to leave bruises. I could figure that out all on my own, thank you very much.
So I shook my head, dabbing at my stinging nose with the paper towels.
She sat back at her desk and started tapping away at the keyboard.
“I’ll disinfect the cut on your chin, and then -”
But I didn’t hear what else she was going to do because the door burst open and Mel strode in. I looked at the small clock hanging above Tyson’s head. Jesus Christ, it’d taken her fifteen minutes as promised. She saw me first, dumping her bag onto the ground and taking the few steps to reach my side. She crouched in front of me, taking my face into her hands.
“What happened? I had to make all sorts of threats out there at the reception lady before she’d tell me anything. She said you’d come in with a suspected concussion.”
The intense look of worry and fear on her face made me feel guilty.
I shrugged, causing pain to come to life in my shoulder. “It’s nothing,” I said. “I just got into a bit of a fight.”
“Excuse me,” Dr. Greenburg cut in. “But who might you be?”
It was only then that Mel noticed the good doctor sitting close by. She hadn’t even realised Tyson was sitting quietly by the door.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Mel said. “Her family was unable to be reached, so I’ve come in their place. I’m a family friend and Noah’s emergency contact.”
Dr. Greenburg rose from her chair. “Right. Well I’ll go and get a bandage for that cut and some disinfectant. Give me a few minutes.”
I was betting the things she needed could easily be found in the cupboards behind her, but then again, with Mel on a mission to find the source of the problem, I’d get out of the way too.
The door closed with a click behind the doctor as Mel turned my face from side to side. “Who did this to you?”
“Um.” My gaze flicked around the room before landing on Tyson. He was staring at me intently, but was also ignoring the pleading look in my eyes. Guess I’d have to handle this one on my own.
Before I could open my mouth again, Mel followed my gaze, her eyes widening in surprise. She shot to her feet, standing over me protectively.
“Did you -”
“Mel!” I cut her off. “It wasn’t him. He actually helped me out. Aidan was the one that decided I needed a makeover.”
She whirled on me. “What!? He hit you!?”
“Several times,” Tyson piped up.
Rage clouded her beautiful features. “Wait until I get my hands on that little f****r. He’s going to wish he was dead. I hope that little b*****d doesn‘t want children. Where does he live?” she asked me, already scrabbling for a pen so she could write down his address.
I laughed. “You’re a bit late. Tyson already took care of him.”
She looked at him closely. “Tyson? You mean Mr. Yummy?”
My mouth dropped open even as my cheeks turned a brilliant red. Tyson cast me an amused stare.
“Mr. Yummy?” he repeated, eyebrows raised.
“Um, Mel.”
‘S**t, I’m sorry,” she said, realising she’d just outed me. She looked at Tyson, admiration flaring in her eyes. “So did you hit the little b*****d?”
Tyson nodded, returning his attention to Mel, though his amused smirk stayed firmly in place.
“More than once?”
“Lots of times,” he replied.
“Good.”
Dr. Greenburg re entered a second later with the promised bandage. She looked at Tyson. “My nurse will take care of your hands. She’s waiting just outside the door.”
He stood and shook his head, looking at the clock above him. “That’s okay. I don’t really have the time. I have to get to work.”
“She’ll be quick. It’ll only take a couple of minutes,” Dr. Greenburg insisted.
“Make sure the cost of any treatment he needs is added to Noah’s bill. I’ll cover it,” Mel said.
Tyson looked uncomfortable at all the attention he was receiving but nodded. Wise man. Mel wasn’t someone who took no for an answer. He looked at me. “I’ll see you at school.”
I barely caught myself before I nodded and made the ache in my head worse. “Yep.”

Reviews

[life*of*equiluxe]

Loved it! I could tell you had a lot of fun writing it. :) I liked how she handled the boy situation and stood up to Aiden, even though he beat her up. Upload soon PLZZZZZZ! lol