Inevitable (15 page)

All my
insecurities melted away into nothing however the moment Blaine
smiled at me, or talked to me, winked at me, held me… I had no idea
why, and doubted I ever would, but for some inexplicable reason I
felt like the most important person in the entire universe when he
was close by.

A
fter
being here for almost a month and getting chauffeured absolutely
everywhere by either Blaine or Lori I’d started to feel like a
burden. This added more fuel to my desire to find a job. Once I was
earning my own money I would insist I make my own way to and from
school. Or at least force them to take some money for their trouble
– not that either needed it or would take it without a hefty fight
on my part.

Blaine had
been attending early morning detentions - with the principle no
less – for fighting on school grounds the day he bust Scott’s nose.
On days when we had no classes together this meant the mornings
passed painfully slowly until I got to see him at lunch. Today was
made a bazillion times worse however, thanks to the dance class I’d
been forced to take.

We were learning a new routine to Katy Perry’s Hot ‘n’ Cold
(or at least that was being taught, I can’t say I was doing such a
brilliant job of learning it) and I spent the entire hour jumping
and twirling and feeling like an all
-round dick head in Lori’s old Lycra
leggings and off the shoulder tee.

Someone with authority up there in the sky clearly hated me
because not only had they worked this godforsaken dance class into
my life’s plan but they also thought it would be fun to put me in
the same class as Sky and FUBS – or Keeya as I later found out her
name. I
hated
her. Every time I saw her the image of her tongue diving
into Blaine’s mouth in the cafeteria took over my mind. She looked
at me with the same malicious glint in her eyes as Sky and her
mouth was full of the same vile venom.

At one point
as we made our way back to the locker room I heard her giggling
with Sky and then caught sight of her foot flick out in front of me
in time to sidestep it. She looked disappointed as I continued to
walk past her and I knew instantly it was her intention for me to
fall flat on my face. Then…

I fell flat on
my face.

I hadn’t
noticed a small wire bin in my path and I quite spectacularly
tripped over it with a giant thud, smacking my face onto a wooden
bench in between two rows of lockers. It seemed I didn’t need
anyone’s help to make me look like a total dumbfuck. I had that one
covered all by myself.

“
Jesus, Maddie! Are you okay?” Lori yelled as she leapt
towards me, practically pole-vaulting over the row of benches. I
nodded as I scanned the floor for a vortex I could disappear into.
“God, you’re bleeding!”

I touched my
lip with my finger and sure enough when I pulled it away there was
blood on it. It stung like a bitch but not nearly as much as my
pride.

“
Let’s get you to the nurse,” Lori said, holding out her
hands to help me up. I tried to protest, sure all I needed was a
quick dab with a wet paper towel and a couple of paracetamol but
she was having none of it. So before I knew it
, I was being dragged by the
hand towards the nurse’s office.

The
nurse was one of the strangest people I’d ever met, which is saying
something when you have a mum like mine. She had a heavy southern
accent (like in the cowboy films) and I almost choked on my own
spit when she referred to me and Lori as ‘y’all’. I didn’t know
people actually spoke like that in real life!

She must
have been nearing forty yet wore a skirt shorter than her knickers
and a tight top with such a deep v I could see the bow of her blue
satin bra. Her hair was past her shoulders – blonde from the roots
and then ‘dip dyed’ in red and every limb was adorned with some
kind of chunky jewellery.

The whole time
I was there I had visions of boys purposely bashing their heads
against walls, or throwing themselves down steps in pursuit of an
injury, just to get a look at her seriously impressive
cleavage.

Turned
out all I needed was a cold compress – which equates to a
wet paper towel. I threw Lori an I-told-you-so look to which she
just shrugged and by the time we were ready to go it was time to go
and meet Blaine in the cafeteria.

He text
me as we hit the doors to say he’d be a few minutes late -
something about needing a word with his football coach. My heart
dive-bombed into my stomach and I wondered briefly if it was normal
to miss the company of one particular person so much.

After leaving the lunch line Lori and I sat at our usual
table –
Sky’s
table. For some absurd reason Lori was her friend and I
couldn’t expect her to up sticks for a girl she’d only known a few
weeks. The past few days haven’t been too bad since Blaine started
sitting with us. Like every other female with a pulse, Sky was
fixated with Blaine and she wouldn’t dare say something to offend
me in his presence. Of course Blaine was going to be late today,
and I huffed a frustrated sigh when I saw Sky approaching the
table. Then I literally gasped like an idiot, causing Lori to ask
me if I was alright when I noticed FUBS trailing behind
her.

The
realisation hit me that I would soon be sitting at the same table
as Blaine and his ex fuck buddy. I wasn’t sure how I felt about
that, although I was leaning towards royally pissed off.

“
Aww, so the nurse couldn’t fix your face then?” Sky said
with a fake look of concern on her face. I knew right away the
sarcastic bitch wasn’t referring to my lip. “Lori, go get my
lunch,” she barked at Lori as if she was her master or something. I
rolled my eyes as I waited for Lori’s comeback and then almost
choked on my chips when she slid out from her chair and headed for
the lunch queue.

For the
billionth time since I met Lori, I wondered why the hell she still
hung around with this girl. I was missing something. I knew I was.
And I was going to find out what.

The flames of
rage I felt towards Sky dissipated into barely noticeable embers
when I saw Blaine entering the cafeteria. He was too busy chatting
to Jason to notice me at first but when he did he flashed me a
full-toothed smile which made my insides quake. I took a swig from
my milk carton as they made their way over and I felt rather smug
when Jason sat down and started talking to me as if Sky and FUBS
weren’t even there.

Blaine’s
attention had been stolen by some guy whose name I didn’t know and
he held up two fingers as if to say he’s be two minutes.

“
Yo, Dora, be a doll and grab us a soda would you? I swear my
mouth’s as dry as a nun’s cunt.”

I sprayed my
milk all over my lunch and only barely missed Lori’s too.

“
Jason! You can’t say things like that! Is it not blasphemy or
something?” Jason shrugged and I looked down towards my milk and
saliva soaked pizza and chips. Guess it was a good job I wasn’t
really hungry.

I
started to rise from my chair to get Jason’s soda, figuring I might
as well seeing as my lunch was now ruined and I had to walk past
the line to return my tray anyway, but was gently pushed back down
by my shoulders.

“
Maddie, what the hell happened to you?”
Blaine asked in a panic,
lowering himself in front of me and tracing my bust lip with his
thumb.

“
Some bench was giving me attitude. But don’t worry I totally
kicked its arse,” I quipped, but then his jaw tightened and I
wondered if he thought ‘bench’ was a British word for bitch or
something. “I tripped in the dance locker room,” I clarified. A
hint of a smile danced on the corners of his lips and I punched his
shoulder as hard as I could. Even though he was balancing in a
squatting position he didn’t even stumble.

“
Come with me,” Blaine said, taking my hand. He had a
suggestive glint in his eye which I had quickly come to recognise
as his ‘let’s go make out somewhere’ look.
FUBS’ puppy eyes didn’t go unnoticed
as she unashamedly gawped at him. I also didn’t overlook the fact
that Blaine didn’t even seem to notice her.

I shot her a
death glare as I stood up from the table.

“
Hold up she’s getting me a soda!” Jason piped up.

“
Get your own. She’s not your
freakin’ slave,” Blaine snapped and then
pulled me towards the frosted glass cafeteria doors.

You’d think Blaine was famous sometimes. People
(well,
girls)
literally dispersed, making a pathway for him when they saw him
coming. I knew how privileged I was to have Blaine Elwood’s arm
draped around me and I hoped I didn’t look as pathetic as the girls
around me with their tongues hanging out as he brushed past
them.

Blaine took me to his car and after our expected
make
out
session we chatted about irrelevant twaddle. He told me his dad and
Treacle were having to cut their holiday short because of some
crisis regarding one of Mitch’s security businesses and that they
would be home tomorrow. He seemed tense about that and I wondered
if he’d ever open up to me about his troubled relationship with his
dad, or whether I’d ever grow a set of balls big enough to ask
him.

He reached
into his glove box and took out his cigarettes before rolling his
window all the way down and flipping his lighter.

“
Shit that reminds me. Can we stop off at a shop on the way
home? My mum needs fags.” Blaine almost choked on the smoke he’d
just dragged into his lungs.

“
Wait, wait, wait… I know this one. Your mom needs
smokes
right?”

‘
Fags’
Of course. New country – new meaning.

“
Right. Damn, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this
country,” I said through a sulky pout.

“
I wouldn’t want you to. You might lose your cuteness.”
Blaine pressed my nose like a button and I giggled like dumb-arse
cheerleader.

“
I was wondering, seeing as it’s my last night with the
house to myself, and seeing as your mom’s been okay lately, if
maybe you wanted to come round tonight? Watch
DVD’s, order takeout… kiss me
till your lips feel numb,” he leaned into me and then whispered in
my ear, “and I don’t just mean the ones on your mouth.”

I planned to laugh and then punch him again, but his words,
coupled with the fac
t he started kissing my neck ignited that heavy, needy ache
between my legs and all I could think about was releasing
it.

“
Well?” he asked
, pulling back. It took me a moment to compose
myself and remember what he’d even asked me.

“
I don’t think I can. My mum’s taking me and Lori shopping
after school and I know she’s been okay but I’m just not sure how
long that’ll last. I mean she’s normally fast asleep by seven so
I’d invite you to mine but you’d probably just be bored. We don’t
even have a telly.”

“
Ooo telly… TV yeah?”

“
Sorry. Yes I meant TV.”

“
Don’t be sorry.
I love how you talk. And its fun trying to guess
what you mean sometimes.” I let out a small laugh and he leaned in
and kissed my nose. “Anyway, who needs a ‘telly’?” he said, trying
to mimic my accent but only succeeded in sounding like a pissed up
Scotsman. “I’m sure we can make our own entertainment.” He winked
at me and my internal organs melted into mush.

“
I guess I’ll see you tonight then,” I said with a beaming
smile. “I’ll call you when we’re back home.”

I had a
feeling the day was going to drag impossibly slowly from that point
on. I didn’t want to go to my next class. I didn’t want to go
shopping with mum and Lori. I just wanted to be curled up on my
sofa with Blaine’s body wrapped around me like a blanket.

Blaine

I
f
only I’d have got a picture of Maddie’s face last night when I
walked in with a forty-two inch TV and set it down on the floor
across from her couch.

“
What the hell is that?” she asked.

“
Well, I was going to cook us up some dinner on it but if that
doesn’t work we can use it to watch some of the DVD’s I’ve got in
my trunk,” I replied with as much seriousness as I could
muster.

It was only a
spare one from the garage. No one would miss it. After a lengthy
speech about not being able to accept it and me telling her she
either keeps it or throws it in the trash, Maddie finally uttered a
reluctant thank you.

“
I don’t know how you can live without TV,” I said, popping
my ‘Taken’ DVD into the side of it. “What do you do with yourself
on a night? Wait, let me guess… you read, don’t you?” Perplexity
washed over her face.

“
Um, no. I study, clean, and talk to you and Lori on the phone.
I can’t say I’ve ever got through a full book in my
life.”

“
Really? I thought
all
girls read books, and then spent their days bitching about
why these fantastic book guys don’t exist in real life.”

“
Well, I’m not most girls,” she answered with a shy smile.
I’d give her that. Maddie was most definitely
not
most girls. In fact, Maddie was
undeniably one of a kind.