Lilith (3 page)

Rhi put
the car in drive and slammed on the gas pedal. I held onto the front dash in fear and watched as she drove like the devil all the way to school. Every muscle in my body squeezed tight in terror. Rhiannon actually made it to school in less than five minutes. Five very excruciating minutes, and my house was almost three miles from our school.

She exited the car and
slammed her door so hard the car shook. My left foot was braced against the dash in anticipation of our crashing. She hadn't hit one car or pedestrian in her death drive, really she should be driving for NASCAR with those crazy skills.

I un
tangled my body from her passenger seat and followed her outside. She was walking away from her car with her head angled strangely. I looked into her tilted face and saw anger flashing brightly through her eyes.

"Rhi?" My voice came
out in a squeak.

She turned to look at me and pointed
to something or someone behind me. I twisted on my heal and followed the line of her finger. My pretty little Grey Honda was destroyed. I walked forward and stared in amazement at its horrible transformation. The tires had all been slashed; all of my windows were shattered, and scratched into the speckled side was one vulgar word. BITCH. My jaw dropped in shock.

What happened?

I didn't feel Dean come up behind me until he put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me away. I turned to watch my car every second until it was out of my line of vision. He led me into the Main Office. Rhiannon sat beside me on the bench while Dean disappeared inside one of the small offices.

A pretty woman I'd never seen before foll
owed him out through the open door and stood directly in front of me. She had dark hair cropped short in a cute pixie style. Her eyes were a deep sea blue and she had the kind of face that looked good with or without makeup. Timeless beauty I think my mom called it. She crouched down and looked me straight in the eye.

"Hi Miss
O’Brien, I'm Mrs. Charleston, I'm Dean's mom. I'm also the schools new Vice Principal. Do you know who might have vandalized your car?"

I chew
ed on my lip in frustration and shook my head no. I was so off everyone else's radar I doubted anyone other than my immediate friends, even knew that I existed.

"Actually mom, uhh I mean Mrs. Charleston, I think I have an idea who it might
have been." Dean said.

I glance
d at Dean's face in surprise.

"Seriously?"
I asked him.

"Yea, you know Pacey I agree with Dean, I think we know exactly who did this."
Rhiannon's face was amused and angry.

I look
ed around me in confusion. Who would do this to me? I didn't have any enemies; I kept my head down and let Rhiannon do all the talking. It had to take a certain amount of animosity to make someone act out this harshly. Who could I have pissed off...?

"Come on guys, do you really think Lex
ie would go that far?" I watched one of Rhiannon's eyebrows rise in amusement.

"Uh
yea, come on Pacey she's the freaking devil in a mini skirt. She's done loads worse to other people, me included as you well know."

"I hate to break up your little
discussion girls, but do you have any proof this Lexie is the one who did it?" We all looked up at Mrs. Charleston. She was definitely new.

"No, but yea, I mean I can vogue
for Pacey. That Lexie girl hit on me yesterday and wasn't too happy when I turned her down. She even made this stupid gesture to Pacey. She seemed psycho mom, and you know I wouldn't lie to you."

Mrs. Charleston elbowed
him playfully.

"So
rry, Mrs. Charleston." He raised his fingers in the air and made quotations around her name.

"I know Dean but I need more than your word, I nee
d actual proof. Pacey dear, I had the secretary call the police and they should be here shortly. We should call your parents; since you’re underage, they’ll need to be here while the Police question you. Now I suggest you two go get to class. Pacey can stay with me while we wait."

"But Mo-
--"

She hel
d up a hand to Dean's complaint.

"No
but mom's, no Mrs. Charleston. You get your behind to class or so help me I will give my only son detention.” She smoothed down the wrinkles on her tan skirt and squared her shoulders.

“
I'll give you all a moment to collect yourselves. I'll be waiting for you in my office Miss O’Brien." She patted my hand sympathetically.

"So." Dean said
in Rhiannon's direction.

"
Yea got it. Text me Pace, I'm going to have the girls do some digging. See you two at lunch?" Rhi said.

We both
agreed and watched Rhi walk out the door into the busy hallway. Dean grabbed my hand and pulled me gently to my feet. He yanked me into a tight hug and I breathed in his wonderful intoxicating scent. He smelled like clean soap, and warm honey. I melted into his solid body and rested my head against his chest.

The fullness was
surrounding me, filling up my heart until I was afraid it would explode with the sensation. Even if my car was a mess, being in his arms made everything better. Heat curled around in my belly then shot out to the rest of my body. The hum sang in my blood for the second time.

Someone
cleared their throat and Dean turned in their direction.

"Class." I hear
d his mother's voice enunciate the word sarcastically.

"Yea, yea, I'l
l see you at lunch ok." Dean said.

I nod
ded up at him and groaned silently when he let go of me. He grabbed his bag and saluted his mom as he walked through the office door. Mrs. Charleston came forward and guided me wordlessly inside her office.

She called my parents once we were inside. I could
hear my dad screaming through the receiver as she spoke to him. Her eyes went wide when she hung up the phone.

"Your dad has healthy lungs."

I laughed in agreement. "That's nothing wait till he gets here, I wouldn't be against investing in ear plugs."

We wait
ed in uncomfortable silence. I tapped my foot impatiently this was slow torture. I knew she wanted to say something, about me and Dean. I just hoped it wasn't her disapproval.

"So Pacey I was just
wondering about you and Dean."

I
waited for what I hoped wasn’t bad news. This was not the way I’d imagined meeting his mother, not that I’d really had a chance to imagine it at all really. But the truth was being in a room with her with my feelings so new and close to surface was daunting.

"Are you two...serious?"
She asked.

I shrug
ged but didn't answer. We’d known each other less than twenty-four hours, serious didn’t seem like the right word, even if it was.

"I just noticed you two seemed
close, you know, I honestly think it would be great for him to make some new friends. He’s had it pretty hard lately…” She paused for a moment than added. “With the move."

My eyes went
wide in surprise. "Really? That's too bad, he seems really sweet." I laughed and said. "He has great manners. He's always opening doors and watching his mouth. It's cute."

She smiled
. "His father was really big on that. It's nice to hear he still tries to remember."

I notice
d immediately that she said remember, meaning that maybe he wasn't around anymore. That was sad, I'd have to ask gently the next time I saw Dean.

Chapter Three

Sticks and Stones

The rest of the morning passed
by in a blur. My parents showed up and made their formal introductions to Miss Charleston. The cops showed up right behind them and took us back out to my car.

My parent’s faces were twitching in agitation when they saw the destruction. Af
ter what seemed like more hours than humanly possible, I finally got to go to class. It was the middle of fifth period, which was the only nice part about the whole endeavor. I was surprised to see Rhiannon so happy when she saw me.

"Hey Pace, guess what?"

I threw my arms out in question frustrated with the entire day. There was no telling what she was going to say, not only had the last 24 hours been crazy, but what was next was anyone's guess.

"Ok so I had Liv go check with the Janitor, she did some scandalous little foot work to get the i
nformation by the way...anyways, she told me that there is a surveillance camera in the parking lot and the police were able to get the copy." Rhi sneered with delight and continued. "Chances are our little Miss Trashy Pants finally effed up good this time." Rhiannon rubbed her hands together like it was Christmas.

"Ok."
I said.

"Oh come on Pacey seriously this is AWESOME. If we can
prove it was her she's going to do actual jail time. I think I just heard angels sing."

I was
not surprised she sent Liv to do the snooping. Liv’s father was one of the top Homicide Detectives in Paso Robles, and she was our own personal Sherlock Holmes. I'd have to remember to ask Rhiannon later what Liv had to do to get the information.

The janitor wa
sn't some creepy old dude either. He was a College dropout whose mom worked with The Superintendents; she was the one who scored him the job. He was semi hot, tall, dark, and bad boy cute. He always had this little bit of five o'clock shadow that made the younger girls go crazy.

Olivia "Liv" Lopez joined the Bad Girls Club earlier this year. She'd been a "bobble head" for years, and when Lexie finally crossed
her, Rhiannon was foaming at the mouth to recruit her. Liv hadn't been nearly as stupid as Lexie had thought, and when Liv started liking a boy Lexie hadn't yet been able to conquer, Lexie declared war.

See with Lexie the ultimate betrayal was to steal a boy she wanted. Lexie, despite her fake brain-dead exterior, was always collecting information, always plotting a future adversary’s demise. With
Liv, she had years and years of information. She struck gold when Liv had a minor in-office surgery our freshman year.

She'd been born with a rare, although kind of annoying
defect and of course Lexie knew. She exaggerated what had really happened and low and behold, Liv was known as the he-she, hermaphrodite of our school.

It was sad really, Liv was a
nice girl, and what she'd had fixed had very little to do with what Lexie said it was. It was something as simple as having to have a doctor cut through her hymen. She wasn't born with a penis, let alone both sets of genitalia, she just had to go to a Dr. before she tried to have sex. I guess if she'd tried before seeing the Dr. it would have been extremely painful. Ouch.

It made me wonder though, what kind of demons Lexie could possibly have to make her lash out so harshly at everyone else. The only girls she was friends with were the ones she feared the most. The ones that were sweeter, and more beautiful than she was, but
easy to intimidate and control.

The moment they didn't do or act the way she wanted them to she cut them lose. And
then she went after them, trying to embarrass them, reveal their worst secrets, and hurt them as much mentally, and emotionally as possible. I really felt more sorry for her than anything, how lonely was her world? To have no 'real' friends, or people that truly cared about her. What horrible life did she suffer from at home, to make her who she was now, to make her so evil?

The bell rang breaking into my thoughts. I really shouldn't feel sorry for
Lexie; especially after all of the things she had done to my best friend. I followed Rhiannon out of the classroom. I jumped when someone grabbed my hand after I made it through the doorway. Dean smiled at me softly.

"Sorry, you're probably pretty jumpy after th
e whole car thing." He said.

"Yea, the police said they were going to look into it. But they didn't really have any leads. I told them about Lexie, but her father being on the Culliver City's Police Committee makes anything really happ
ening to her impossible."

Rhiannon
stopped walking and before I could put on the breaks, I slammed into the back of her. Dean reached out to steady me.

"Walk m
uch Rhi? Sheesh what the---"

She turned on her h
eel and looked me in the eye. "Her dad is on the what?"

I sighed.
Rhiannon's whole plan of sending Lexie to prison was a pipe dream. I hadn't wanted to burst her bubble earlier.

"He's a Police Committee board member, and yes that pretty much means even if it was Lexie she's got so many con
nections we’re screwed."

I watched
Rhiannon's face turn bright red in anger. She stalked off without a word punching one of the lockers on her rampage down the hall. That went well. I'd never been able to ask Rhiannon what we were going to do if her "Master Plan" and ultimate revenge of Lexie failed. If this was how she acted when we hit a tiny roadblock, how much worse could it get?

I didn't want to delve in to
o deeply into that issue. She had a scary need to get back at Lexie, and it was becoming pretty unhealthy. Before it had just been insults. Now it was morphing into something else, something dark, like what Lexie was into. I wanted my best friend back.

"You ok?" De
an rubbed my shoulder softly.

"I don't know, I'm worried about her. She's obsessed with Lexie. I don't know what to d
o." He squeezed my hand and moved his head in the cafeteria's direction.

"Well, wel
l, well, what do we have here?"

Before we could walk through the doorway Lexie came into view. Her arms were crossed over her chest in a sort of smug satisfaction. She was definitely t
he one who vandalized my car.

"Excuse me, can we
get past please." Dean's courteous voice asked her.

"Not just yet, I hear your piece of crap car got a makeover.
I wonder, does the truth hurt?” Lexie asked.

I ground my teeth and tried to hold my tongue. I could feel the heat creeping up my neck. Iris
h tempers were usually short and mine was no different.

"Nope not really but you‘d be the one to know. I wonder do you ever hear what people really think about you."
I shook my head and continued.

"What's sad is you probably don't, and what's worse is you don't care either. Is it lonely Lexie, being a
one-woman psycho train. I feel sorry for you. I know I shouldn't I mean you’re pathetic really. Do you think anyone years down the road will think of you with anything other than pity. You may be able to fool them, but I know exactly what you are. You're a disease, a terminal cancer, and so completely full of ugliness that you drain the world around you of beauty, instead of filling it with some."

Her jaw dropped in surprise and I elbowed pas
t her pulling Dean behind me. My heart was beating so quickly I was afraid I was going to have a heart attack. I sat down at the nearest table and tried to gain my composure. People around me were staring in shock. I'd said horrible things to her, to
thee
Lexie Vega.

I closed my eyes and remembered my words with horror, psycho train, pathetic, a disease,
and ugly. I said all of those things not in the comfort of my close friends, or in the presence of discreet witnesses, but in front of the entire cafeteria full of students. I was as good as dead.

I must have some small form of
Tourette ’s syndrome, because this was so not like me. I didn't badmouth the biggest bully in school to her face. I didn't shove her out of my way and then have a major panic attack. I was the girl that kept her mouth shut and let her loud mouth group of bad girl friends do the talking for her.

Dean was rubbing my back trying to help me calm down. I could still feel
the heat in my neck and face.

"Wow, are you okay Pacey?" D
ean asked in a concerned voice.

I couldn't speak. He continued to stroke my back in slow circles. It felt good, really good actually, so I didn't notice when a group of people started to form
a circle around me. I looked up into the waiting faces of the Bad Girls members. Rhiannon stared at me smiling, her hands were twitching with excitement.

"Oh My God, what did you just do?" Her vo
ice was high and full of humor.

"Someone just told me you told off Lexie Vega. No one even knows where she went either. Some of the girls were saying they
even thought she was crying."

I groaned and covered
my face with my hands...this was bad, I was dead, deader than dead, and I was going to be rotting in Hell starting tomorrow. Whatever Lexie was, going to do to me w3ould be ruthless. I'd snubbed her in the worse way. Not only did I have Dean, but I'd told her off too. Nausea rolled around in my stomach dangerously.

"Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick." I stood up quickly and ran to the nearest
trashcan. I threw up what little was in my stomach.

When I stood up everyone around me was still watching. The cafeteria was eerily silent. Great, now Lexie had more ammo against me, I could only pray she didn't hear about this particular
incident. I wiped my mouth and grabbed the soda Rhiannon held out to me.

"Sorry, I didn't want to make you sick."
Her voice was soft and gentle.

Dean stood back away from us. I mouthed 'I'm sorry' to him.
He shook his head.

"Want to get out of here?" His deep voice surprised me. Maybe he wasn't
the nice boy I thought he was.

"Really? The new VP'
s son is going to ditch class." I said in disbelief.

He chuckled and
said. "I'm not nearly as nice as you think I am Pacey O’Brien."

He reached forward and
put my hand in his. He nodded politely to Rhiannon.

"I'm going to steal your friend here for a lit
tle while. That okay with you?"

Rhiannon
raised her hands in submission.

"It's about damn time someone did. I hope you feel better Pacey, I'm going to try to do some damage control. Figure out
what devil girl is planning."

I smiled and waved in the Bad Girls direction. What I didn't expect was for everyone in the Cafeteria to start clapping. As Dean and I walked across the
Lunchroom hand in hand, the entire student body gave me a standing ovation.

When I think back on the words I said i
n anger, I think of one quote.
"Speak when you are angry---and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret"
Laurence J. Peter
.

I wasn't sure what to think of what had happened. No matter how true the things I said might have been, I still shouldn't have sa
id them. To speak only to harm wasn't wise. Because sometimes what we 'think' we know is true isn't.

I spent the rest of the day getting to know Dean. He told me about his dad, and how the year before he'd died of Melanoma. It's a type of skin cancer that can spread voraciously. Dean and his mom had tried to stay in San Diego but eventually
it was too hard. Everywhere they went were memories of his father, and his mom couldn't take it anymore.

So two months ago they started looking for somewhere else to live. They got lucky when Mrs. Charleston looked into Culliver City. I got the feeling that Dean was leaving out something though. When I asked him if he left behind a
girlfriend, he couldn't meet my eyes.

Despite
that, I still felt like I could trust him, even if he was leaving out whatever happened to his girlfriend. He said that he was single, and that was that. I didn't press him for more information. I let it go, even if it was bothering the heck out of me.

I looked out my window and glanced back down at my cell.
Rhiannon hadn't called or texted me yet. That was pretty damn surprising knowing her. I opened up a new message and typed three words.

Where
are you?

I stared down at my phone in anticipation. I didn't want to walk into school blindly. I could only hope that
Rhiannon would have some idea of what happened to Lexie. The only really good thing about tomorrow was the fact that it was a Friday. So that meant that my first week of torture would at least be short.