After Forever Ends - Ramone Melodie - Страница 26

I had never seen Lucy interact with people. We were very different indeed. Where I had always been the quiet, studious type, my sister was a chatter hound who dreaded to touch a book. Until I met Oliver and was thrust into the limelight, I had been a wallflower. But not Lucy. No, Lucy was in the middle of it all, in charge and being the boss. She commanded a certain authority without effort, it seemed, and it was not a long time before it became obvious that my little sister no longer needed my assistance at her new school. I was free to look after my own business, except for when she would show up and talk non-stop while I was trying to study.

“I don’t know what the problem is with Michelle,” She followed me into the library, “We used to be friends and now all she does is try to get me into trouble! She’s angry because of Trevor! I don’t even like Trevor! I can’t help it that he likes me! Trevor is just my friend, Silvia! But she goes and tells everyone that I like him and I don’t!”

I tried to listen to her sympathetically, “Lucy, shush. You can’t speak so loudly in here. Missus Cronin is very strict.”

That was true, but the other truth was that I didn’t want to deal with Missus Cronin because she held a grudge against me from the year before. What had happened had not actually had a thing to do with me, but with Oliver and Alexander, who had both gotten detention for having a row that got out of hand in the library. They then spent that extra time collaborating on drawing a very nasty, but hilariously funny depiction of Missus Cronin wearing fur lined boots under her floral dress with a crown on her head and a fur stole. Brandishing a giant pen like a double-sided axe over her head and sporting a murderous snarl, the caption below her read, “Cronin the Librarian”.

Anyone who had seen the film “Conan the Barbarian” laughed until their sides ached. Unfortunately, on his way out of his German class, the drawing fell out of Oliver’s notebook and was retrieved by the professor. It ended up on Headmistress Pennyweather’s desk and she had no choice but to haul the both of them in and set them up with a series of painful detentions where they did things like clean toilets and scrub the floors of the hospital wing. That was not enough punishment for Missus Cronin, who was obviously not impressed with their artistic genius. Since then she not only hated the twins, but me, Lance, Merlyn and Sandra as an extension.

My sister lowered her voice, but she didn’t stop going on about Michelle and Trevor and Alicia and Bonnie and Laurie -- oh how I wanted to tell her to shut up! I did my best to block out her noise while I found the books I needed for a research paper on Chaucer.

“Oh!” She took a step backward and hid behind a shelf, “It’s Brandon Reese!”

“Who?” I looked over to see a tall blonde haired boy walk down our isle and move over to the next.

“Brandon Reese!” She hissed, moving very close to me so that I could hear her, “He’s disgusting. He and his friends are always saying things to girls. Horrible things, Sil.”

“Like what?”

“Like things! Nasty things about their bodies and things! I hate him! He makes me ill!”

“If you get upset every time some disgusting boy says something nasty to you, you’ll find yourself upset quite often,” I told her and bravely walked to the desk with my books to be taken out. I did my best to smile at Missus Cronin. She looked at me as if I were invisible and stamped a date on a card for each book, and then shoved them back at me. I went back to a normal voice as Lucy and I left the library, “He’ll get caught sooner or later and I promise Headmistress Pennyweather won’t tolerate…”

“Hey, Red, are you red all over? Got a fire crotch?”

I stopped dead bang and turned. Two first year boys were sitting on the rail, laughing at the blonde boy from the library.

“Pardon me?” I demanded.

“I asked,” The little sot said bravely, “If your hair is red all over,” He sneered, “Do you have a fire crotch?”

I had it in mind to walk up and thump the little brat in the face when I saw Alexander come over and around the stairwell. In one movement, he swept the two sideways off the rail on to the floor and lifted Brandon by the shirt. He whirled with him and slammed him hard into the stone wall, “Do you know who I am?” He demanded.

Brandon didn’t answer. He just stammered, his legs dangling uselessly, his face white with fear.

“That’s my woman and she’s more beautiful than any troll you’ll ever drag out from under a bridge, so admire her all you want, but keep your filthy gob in your mouth, got it?” Alexander shook the terrified boy again. “And if I ever—EVER,“ He was snarling, “Hear any of you or your foul mouthed friends say another unsavoury word to ANY girl ANYWHERE on the grounds I’ll tear your ugly heads off! Do you understand me?”

Brandon stammered again. No words escaped.

Alexander gave him another good shake, “I asked you if you understood me!”

“Y…yes…”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, S-s-sir.”

“Tell my girlfriend you’re sorry.”

“S-s-s-“

“Look at her!”

He turned his face toward me. I swear his lips were white. “S-s-sorry, Miss. I’m terribly sorry…”

“Tell her you’re a fuck wit,” Alexander banged Brandon’s head against the wall.

“I’m a fuck wit!” He was practically in tears. “I’m sorry!”

“Will this happen again?”

“N-no, Sir!”

“Good answer!” Alexander started to set the boy on to his feet and then thought better of it. Instead, he picked him up from under his arms and threw him in the direction of his friends, who looked almost as terrified as he did. Brandon hit the concrete with his bottom, but rolled and skidded across it on his belly. He was on his feet before he even stopped. The three of them immediately began to run in the opposite direction.

“Yeah, run!” Alexander muttered. He turned slowly to Lucy and me, “Are you two all right?”

“Yes, thank you, Oliver,” Lucy said. Her eyes were wide like saucers.

Alexander gave her an odd look as if it surprised him that she couldn’t tell the difference between him and his brother, “No worries,” He replied.

I didn’t ask him why he didn’t tell her.

Thinking he was Oliver and not wanting to be a tagalong, Lucy explained that she was going to go and tell her friends what had happened.

“Wow, Alex,” I said after she left, “I’m stunned! You’re my hero! Why did you say you were Oliver?”

“I wanted to scare him more,” He said simply, then gave me a crooked smile, “If I said I was your boyfriend’s brother, who cares, right? No claim to authority. But your boyfriend…well, that just gives me the right to wipe the tile with his greasy little arse.” He glanced in the direction the boys had run, “I think I gave them a good enough scare to stop them. It helps that there’s two of us walking around. They won’t know which is which. We can be in more than one place at a time, really keep them straight.” He shook his jacket straight, “Talking to girls like that! The little dirt bags tick me off.”

We began to walk together, “Thank you.”

Alexander shrugged, “I know just about every girl in this school. Mind I’ve dated most of the older ones. There’s no one like you, Sil. Sometimes I wonder if I’d hit you with that ball if it’d have been me you went for instead. My brother’s the lucky one. But still,” He eyed me head to foot, “You have a bloody fine body. Blimey, it’s hard not to look at the way you bounce and sway-like.” He stopped before he said more, wiped his forehead with his sleeve, and looked straight ahead, still walking, “But you do belong with Oliver and, mind, I’ll not have some little tosser talking about you like you’re an object to covet. You’re not just practically my sister, after all. You’re a lady and you’ll be treated like one if I’ve anything to say about it. Lucy, too.”

I had never known how Alexander felt about me before that, other than he was fond of me. It was quite pleasing to have him compliment my looks, every girl wants to hear that, but best to know where my place was in his heart. After a moment of recovery, I pulled him down by the shoulder and kissed him on the cheek, “I love you, too, Xan,” I told him, “I always wanted a brother and you’re the best one ever!”