Her face reddens further, and her eyes narrow.
“Don’t bother. And I will be spending the night at my parent’s house, so when you’re ready to act like a real fiancé you can find me there.”
She hobbles towards the chair with one shoe on and snaps her purse up before limping to me and grabbing up her other shoe, slipping it on and straightening her blouse.
My eyes don’t stay to watch her sauntering out the same way she came in.
Sitting at my desk, I boot the computer up and drum my fingers anxiously against the keys until the screen lights up.
I bring Google search up and type in Alice Young.
About 500,000,000 results.
Fuck!
Who are you, Alice?
Four
Chapter
ALICE
The hum of student chatter through the corridor weighs me down with paranoia, thanks to Reese Winters who spread vicious rumors about me around the school, making my last term here a nightmare.
I’ve out grown these people, I’m nineteen for Christ sake! Having to repeat a year has been a drag.
I didn’t want to be talked about, stared at, ridiculed by my peers.
I wanted to be a shadow in the back of the classroom, doing what I needed to do to make up my grades and graduate.
This wasn’t the plan I had dreamed of for myself, but life is an unpredictable bitch.
She tore a hole in the pretty picture of my future, and I was left to rebuild it with tattered pieces.
I was popular for the right reasons once, but then my mom remarried and then got sick.
Her illness was like a plague on my existence.
An infection not just riddling her body, but also poisoning my life in the process.
It was as if someone buried the sunlight and cast me into a forever darkened state.
When I get to my locker my eyes close and re-open, wishing the words blazoned across the small door in lipstick are just an illusion. “WHORE.”
I know they’re courtesy of Reese’s girlfriend, Gemma Rodes.
Four more weeks and then I’m out of here.
College will be different.
I’ll fade away, leave this behind me and become someone new.
Grabbing my books from inside, I slam the door shut and storm from the school, debating over whether to just forgo graduation and give this place the middle finger.
I wish I had money to leave this place for good.
Move to Europe. Paris, the city of love. Be a woman of the world.
“Alice, wait up,” Reese, the asshole, Winters calls out across the parking lot.
Clenching my books, I hitch my backpack farther up my shoulder, picking up my pace.
The pounding of his footfalls sound behind me, and I know I can’t out walk him, so I slow my pace and let him catch up.
The sooner he can say what he has to say, the sooner he can fuck off.
“Whoa, I thought you were going to take off running,” he chuckles, coming to a steady walk beside me.
I hate how desperate I’ve become to get help with college fees.
Anything to get away from the depression of my wilting mother.
“What do you want, Reese?” I groan.
“Listen, I just wanted to say I’m sorry, you know how guys can be. I just told Jimmy, but he has a big mouth.”
“You have a girlfriend, why did you tell anyone?” I snap.
With a smirk and a shrug, he drops to my height and winks.
“What guy could keep that to himself? You’re Alice fucking Young. Every guy in this school has wanted a piece of you since first grade.”
Gross.
The sad thing is he’s lying to try and sweeten me up. The stupid idiot thinks that’s flattering.
Maybe to girls who give a shit about that stuff, but not to me.
He used my vulnerability against me to get something he wanted.
He’s a sick bastard, and I hate him. I hate them all.
“Fuck off, Reese,” I spit.
“Whoa, calm down, Alice. I kept the real secret for you. If people found that out then…”
“Then what? They’d ridicule me and call me a whore?” I argue.
“Look, people just think we hooked up, no big deal. Speaking of…” He taunts, and I wish I had more power.
More support. More options.
“My truck’s over here,” he says when he sees my resolve weaken.
I don’t have options unless I’m willing to forgo college all together, and I’ve sacrificed too much to end up in a dead end job, making scraps.
I follow him to his truck that’s tucked at the back of the parking lot under the shadow of trees.
Before I’ve even fully sat in the seat, he’s unzipping his fly and pushing my head into his lap.
When he finishes in my mouth, I spit the fluids into an old soda cup he has amongst the crap scattered on the floor.
He tastes bitter, and I hate that I’ve let him be inside any part of me.
“Here,” he smiles, smug, tucking his now flaccid, small dick back in his slacks.