Never Loved (Crescent View Academy) (3 page)

Tony cradles his stomach, and
cringes his face.

“
Is this guy bothering you?” Mandy
stifles a laugh.

"Nope. He's dead. I killed
him."

"Murderer!" Tony blurts out in
between breaths.

"Are you sure he's dead? I mean I
could kick him in the nuts again... just to make sure, you
know-Double tap."

I stood up, ignoring
Tony
’
s
pleas for help and wrap my arms around Mandy.

“
Thank God
you
’
re
here.” I smiled looking down at Tony, who was now struggling to get
up. “God. I was this close to getting on Tony's thunderbolt ride of
endless pleasure.”

“
Eternal-Eternal Pleasure" he
corrects me, now standing tall, with his chest bulging forward. He
brushes his hair back and takes one look at Mandy, then bursts out
of the room as if he just discovered the effects chocolate
laxatives had on his stomach.

“
So,
where
’
s Morgan.” Mandy asked.

“
Somewhere, we
actually just got here, like ten minutes ago, so
he
’
s
probably out looking for Jason and his friends, you know, bros
before hoes and all.” We laugh.

"So did you hear, about Tiffany and
that college guy she cheated on Jason with? Well they broke up last
week?" Mandy squealed.

"Doesn't surprise me"

"Rumor has it - and by rumors, you
know I mean -me hiding in the girl’s restroom smoking a cig, right?
- Anyways. She told her now ex-boyfriend that she was dating a
football player from our school. I wonder who's she's digging her
claws into now. I mean the only descent looking ones in the team
are Morgan, Tony, Jason, and Eric." She noted. But something told
me she meant to say something else.

Time seemed to just slip away after
that. We talked about all the weird stuff that happened throughout
the year, the weird rumors about what happens in the woods, how
Mrs. Peirce seemed to be getting younger, and how we suspect it was
due to Mr. Hogs, our English teacher. We made plans to talk every
day and to meet up as much as we could during the
summer.

Three months away from Crescent
View Academy wasn’t like other schools, where everyone lived in the
same vicinity as everyone else. Nope. Student attending Crescent
View belonged to all parts of the world, so summer vacations for us
meant going back to whatever state or country our parents lived in
at the time. As for me, my dad live about twenty miles away from
the school in Perchance, Washington. And Mandy's mom lives in the
center of Paris, France. She refuses to learn French, since she
only vacationed there three months out of the year.

I hated that we weren't going to
see each other, almost as much as I hated not being able to see
Morgan. I missed her already, even though she was standing in front
of me. As far as I was concern, there was no best friend that
matched her in anyway at least not in Crescent View or the world.
She's funny, smart and always has something to say-negative or
not.

I mention how adorably cute she
looks in her black circle skirt and pink glittery top, and she
rolls her eyes and said "Bite me, Carrot top."

Sometimes I wonder if Mandy knew
how beautiful she really was. She has short pixie blond hair,
silvery gray eyes, and sun kissed tan, she reminds me of
TinkerBell, except with an endless array of cuss words and used her
middle finger as a wand to ward off evil. I'm always tempted
to
walk behind
her while sprinkling
gold glitter
around her while
chanting “All you need is faith and trust and a little bit of pixie
dust!”

We were so oblivious to everyone
else in the room that we didn’t notice when Lily, one of
Tiffany
’
s entourage aka evil twin, had walk into the room. It
isn’t
till she started
clears her throat of a massive hair ball- or hair
of balls -(she isn't called Lily knee pads, for nothing), that we
noticed her anorexic ass, standing in front of us, arms fold and
snarl on her beach burnt face.

We roll ours eyes at her in unison
and mimicked her stance.

“
Lily,
it
’
s so
not
nice to seeing you again” Mandy said, and Lily pretended to be
oblivious of the fact that we really didn’t want here near
us.

“
Hi Mandy.” She
said grinning like she just won an Oscar for the world most idiotic
performance for the worst fake smile in the world. She turns to me
and a much darker smile creeps up the edge of her hot pink
lipstick, like the fog in scary movies, except this was so much
more eerie. “
And Nicole" she
hisses my name, rolling out the -cole- in my name, as if it were
bile pouring out of lips. "I
’
m surprise you
’
re even here. Well, with
the whole...you and Morgan breaking up, I thought
you
’
d
be back at the dorms, wondering where you went wrong. God you’re so
pathetic, I actually feel sorry for you.”

“
What? Bitch! Say that again.”
Mandy rushes towards Lily, right arm up, hand fisted, knuckle
bulging, eyes like a thunderstorm on the verge of becoming a
tornado. I stop her by standing between them, spreading my arms on
either side me.

Two things came I to mind
simultaneity. One and most obvious one, Mandy was going to kick her
skinny ass if I didn’t find a way to back off. She's always on my
ass about sticking up for myself which leads me to the second thing
that came to mind. How do I stick up for myself? I’ve never had to
deal with this kind of drama before, no confrontations what so
ever.

I never understood how girls like
her and Tiffany always went around pissing off people. Haven't they
heard of the term, you get more bees with honey. Obviously not. If
only I could dissect that brain of theirs, I'm such I'd find
nothing but evil occupying every inch of it, but at least it'd be
fun to look at. To test which words trigger a negative response.
I'm pretty sure rainbows, and unicorns made the list.

“
Actually, Morgan and I are still
together.” I hissed. “So you can tell Tiffany to stop sniffing
around for scraps.”

"Still together. Really." she
mocked.

"Just suck it, Lily. Seriously, get
laid. Better yet, get a life. And preferably one that doesn't mimic
Tiffany's right down to the fake beauty mark on your
face."

"Fake. Doesn't your hair come from
a bottle?"

"All natural. My drapes do match
the carpet. Can you say the same thing about yourself?" I asked in
the most nonchalant way possible.

Lily stood there steaming. I was
afraid her extensions where going to fall off.

I felt proud of myself and I knew
Mandy would be to for this new found spunk.

Nobody went up against Tiffany or
her minions. She was your typical Ice queen, hidden behind a
southern bell smile. Beautiful beyond belief, long locks of shimmer
blond hair -that never go up against her. Seriously, I saw her
playing volleyball once and her wavy Megon Fox hair never moved and
inch. She has these wintery blue eyes that threatened gulf ball
hail. And body to kill for, with the ruthless attitude that came
along with it.

And, call me a freaked-out but I
think she's psychotic. Aside from the fact that every time I walk
past her, I feel like there's this blackhole where everything
beautiful and pure goes to die, hanging over her head. She went
after whomever she wanted and sadly enough she always succeeded.
Except with Mandy and Me. Yes. She was definitely someone you
shouldn’t turn your back on. Like literally, she'll stab you with
those porcelain nails she keeps filing. The worst she's done to us,
was spread rumors about us being romantically involved. And she has
a disturbing way pranks on us. Like when she, put those torn off
heads of dead frog on our beds, or when she hanged those creepy rag
dolls with our pictures of our faces on them, in our lockers,
outside our dorms and in the woods out back, but nothing she did
seemed to faze us. Freaked us out. Yes. I guess it helped that we
walked around like “
we
don
’
t
give a shit”.

This time it had nothing to do with
Mandy or me, the one Tiffany was after- was Morgan. But, I was
certain nothing she could do would get to him either, especially
since he hated her guts for dumping Jason his best
friend.

“
Lily, Darling,
where have you been all my life.” Tony sashayed, crossing the room
from the entrance door to stand in between Lily and me. We ended up
standing in a straight line and I couldn’t
’
t help biting back a smile as
I realized how comical this all looked.

“
Not now, Tony.” Lily
scowled.

Tony, turns to me and with a
grinning smug on his face and said. “You had your chance with me,
Nicole. Now let Lily get on this ride."

I smile and he winks.

I drag Mandy towards the door, (by
the way, not as easy as I thought). I wondered what Lily meant
about Morgan and me. I mean my boyfriend’s name coming out of any
girl's lip was enough to wake up the jealousy dragon in me,
especially girls like Lily, tall, blonde, anorexic, and thinks
she's god’s gift to men.
No
doubt
this rumor was something Tiffany had
started, but there's was the
what
if
question in the back of my
mind.

Lily pops her frizzy hair from
underneath Tony
’
s arm and said. “Check inside the
second bedroom upstairs...the one on the left. If you’re not broken
up then..." And she pauses for that dramatic effect, "you sure as
hell will be after what you find in there."

I heard Tony asking Lily what was
going on in his mom’s bedroom but Mandy was out the door and I was
trailing behind her. Just as we reached the top of the stairs,
Mandy went ahead of me. She stops in front of the door, just around
the time I stopped breathing, and she presses her ear against the
white door. Her eyes flare up with comprehension. Somehow I managed
to pull through the fear that pinned me in place and walk up next
to Mandy, who now had her hand on the door.

She stares at me, her pouty lips
open, and her stunned expression begins to wash away. Now anger,
sympathy, and fear dispensed around her. She nods once and I knew
what she was asking.

I swallow hard, tempted to run away
and pretend none of this was happening. Unable to stop myself, I
nod back at her.

The door swings open. On top of a
kingside bed was Morgan wearing nothing but the silky black sheets
from the bed that matched the entire room and laid underneath him
with a smug smile, was Tiffany without a single hair out of
place.

****

Everything around me had turned
into this thick suffocating fog of shapes, faces, and screeching
voices. I didn’t
’
t know what I was doing, where I
was going. Off in the distance I could hear a familiar voice
calling out my name and it tore into my heart like cotton candy.
Then I heard pieces of Mandy screaming so loud and with such
passion, at Tiffany and Morgan. She's always had a talent of
pointing out the worst in people and from what little was seeping
through, she wasn't lost for words when it came to those
two.

I felt my
father
’
s hands trembling around me, pleading for me to tell him what
was wrong. That’s when I finally snapped out of the haze. I had
walked over twenty miles and ended up into the comfort of my
father’s arms.

Every day since that night, I've
seen a desperation in my father eyes, and it kills me to know that
I put there. Ever since my mom died two years ago, when I was
fourteen, I've never cried in front of my dad before. I was always
afraid to be the cause of his pain, so whenever I got hurt, I would
suck it up. I’d put on my bravest smile and just laugh it off. I
had seen what losing my mom had done to him. Now I knew that my
fears were justifiable, and now I had another reason for hating
Morgan and Tiffany.

****

Today is going be good day. I
thought to myself, climbing inside my dad's Rover. I sat inside, my
cheeks laid softly against the window. I could feel the start of
fall coating the glass, and I'm thinking things are getting
better.

My dad puts a loving hand on my
shoulder. I turn and stared into his emerald green eyes that
mirrored mine right down to the gold sparks surrounding his pupil.
He seems worried. All his bright, tender, and lively features are
slightly dimmer than what they used to be. Guilt washes over
me.

“
I
’
ll be find dad. I promise.” I said fighting back the tears
threatening to pour out. "I'm over it."

"Are you sure, classes don't start
for another week."

"I know, but I'm a junior now, so I
have to move all my stuff to the junior dorms before classes start.
Not to mention, I have to figure out the fast route to get to get
to my classes. I have Mr. Hogs for English two and he hates it when
people are late. I'm talking about in front of the class
scowling."