Chapter 4

Shane's Flashback!

Shane's dad's dragged him to some stupid party because his dad is visiting some so called 'old friends.'

Yep. this is SO boring! Shane thinks to himself. He's currently stood with his dad and some woman called Tracy. That's when he sees something out of the corner of his eye that catches his attention. A girl. She's just come in through the back door. She takes one look at the room full of people, bows her head, and legs it up the stairs. She's wearing a school uniform, because it's a Friday, that consists of; black tights, a grey skirt, a white blouse, and a grey cardigan with the local school's logo on it. He looks back at his dad and Tracy and, managing to slip away unnoticed, he makes his way up the stairs after the girl. At the top of the stairs there are loads of different doors, but one of them is slightly open. He walks over to it and pushes it open just as he sees the girl pulling on a dark blue top to go with her light blue jeans. Oops. He goes to take a step back but the floorboards creak under his feet, causing the girl to grab something off her dressing table and spin around to face him. It takes him a while to register that it's a knife that she's pointing at him. He slowly raises his hands in defence.

'Who are you?' the girl asks. She looks scared, and her voice is shaking.

'I'm... the son of a friend on Tracy's.'

'What do you want?' she asks, not relaxing any and not lowering the knife.

'I-Nothing. I was just bored, I guess.'

'How long have you been stood there?' she asks, her cheeks turning to scarlet.

'Just got here,' he answers.

'You're not supposed to be up here. Upstairs is a no go zone.'

'Didn't know that,' Shane replies, his hands still in the air.

'Why aren't you at the party?'

'No one to talk to.'

'There are plenty of kids your age downstairs.'

'I know, and they're a bunch of knobs and twats who talk nothing but bullcrap.'

That gets a small smile out of her. He looks back at the knife.

'I'm not going to hurt you…' he tells her. She continues to watch him for a few seconds more before sighing and putting the knife in a drawer.

'Mind if I hang out here for a while?'

He takes her silence as a 'yes' and walks into the room and lies down on her bed. Her eyes are still guarded and they don't stop watching him. Eventually, however, she pulls out a sketchbook, sits on the windowsill, balances her sketchbook on her knee, and starts drawing. He watches her as she draws, her face full of concentration. She looks up quickly and sees him watching her, her cheeks turn a rosy colour of pink, she looks back at her sketchbook.

'What are you drawing?' Shane asks. She's quiet for a few more seconds…

'Someone I used to know,' she finally answers.

'Can I have a look?'

Again she's silent, for a little longer this time. Eventually, she nods. He stands up and sits next to her, she hands him the sketchbook.

The picture's magnificent. There's a girl with long, dark hair staring out from the paper. She's standing under a full moon and holding a knife. It's all been drawn in so much detail that you can actually tell what the girl's feeling. She feels sad, angry, and betrayed. The moonlight catches the knife so perfectly that the knife glitters in her hand. It's the most beautiful and scariest thing he's seen in his life. And that's saying something, since he used to live in Morganville.

'Wow!' he finally manages to say. 'How long have you been drawing this for?' the girl shrugs.

'About two days, I guess.'

'TWO DAYS, seriously?' Shane exclaims.

'Yes,' she smiles at him as she takes the sketchpad from his hands, and it causes his heart to just stop. She returns to drawing as he stands up and lies back down on the bed. After about another ten minutes of drawing the girl quickly bites her lip and mumbles,

'I'm Claire.'

'Shane,' he replies. Claire smiles at him again before looking out the window.

'So…' Shane says once another five minutes has passed. 'How come YOU'RE not at the party?'

She shrugs, not looking at him.

'I don't like being around too many people,' she tells him.

'Oh, yeah? What about friends?' She looks up at him.

'I don't have any,' she replies, shrugging.

Shane suddenly feels a pang of pity for Claire.

'Why not?'

'Because people think I'm weird.'

'Why?'

Claire looks him straight in the eye and replies, 'because I am,' so softly that he has to strain his ears to hear it. Something tells him to drop the subject but he ignores it.

'What makes you say that?' he asks.

'Just drop it, Shane,' she sighs.

'Why?'

She doesn't answer.

'I don't think you're weird,' he says after a while.

'You don't?' She asks, looking at him again. He shakes his head and smiles. She smiles back at him and looks back out the window.

'Hey,' Shane says.

'Yeah?'

'Can you draw anyone?'

'Pretty much... Why?'

'Can you draw me?'

'You?'

'Yeah.'

'Um... Okay, I guess.'

Claire hops off the windowsill and grabs her sketchbook. He sits up and crosses his legs, making room for Claire to sit. She sits, cross legged, opposite him and finds a clean page, it doesn't take her long to start drawing.

'So, what makes you think I'm normal?' Claire finally asks. She looks into his eyes and he smiles, causing her to blush.

'Oh, I don't think you're normal,' he says.

'What? But you just said-'

'I just said you weren't weird, not that you're normal.'

'What the hell is that supposed to mean?' He laughs.

'Think about it and get back to me.'

She keeps looking at him but he doesn't crack, eventually, she just laughs and gets back to drawing. The truth is… he likes her, really likes her. She's not like other girls, she's mysterious and beautiful and talented and SO much better for him than Monica. The next time she glances up, they both freeze, their lips are only inches apart. They both sit there, frozen in place, but then a voice calls up the stairs.

'Claire, are you up there?'

Claire quickly pulls away, taking a deep breath. 'Yeah!' she calls back. She closes her sketchbook and climbs off the bed.

'You should probably go,' she murmurs. 'I mean, someone must be wondering where you are by now.'

'Yeah, I doubt my dad's even noticed I'm missing but… I should probably get going before someone notices I'm gone.' She nods and walks back over to the windowsill, not looking at him as he stands.

'Shane?' she asks, just as he's about to leave.

'Yeah?' He turns back to face her, she's watching him.

'Will you ever be back?' He shrugs.

'I hope so, Claire, I really do.' And, with that, he leaves.

End of Flashback

For a while, neither of them move, and then Shane pushes Claire back behind him. Frank stares at him in disbelief.

Of course! How could I have forgotten? Claire asks herself. It all seems so obvious!

'Are you fucking kidding me, son?' Frank spits.

'You're not touching her!' Shane yells. Shane's reaction tells her that he knows exactly what his dad has planned for her, or he knows enough anyway.

'Don't you remember what I told you? In the car, after the party? About who she is… WHAT she is!'

'Yeah, dad, I remember.'

Someone grabs Claire from behind before she can do anything to stop them, but she knows exactly who it is without having to see them. It's one of Frank's biker buddies. Claire yelps and he clamps a hand over her mouth. But it's too late, Shane spins around and punches the guy in the face.

'Claire, RUN!' Shane yells before his dad slams his fist into his jaw. Eve screams again, Michael decides to help Shane fight off the bikers, and Claire runs for the door. But there's just one problem, there's a biker blocking her exit. There's only one other way to go that isn't blocked and so she races for the stairs. She doesn't stop when she gets to the top, she runs straight to her room, slamming and locking her bedroom door behind her.

She can still hear the yelling and screaming coming from downstairs, but all she can do is hide, she can't help in the fight. She runs over to her closet and starts grabbing her clothes and chucking them back into her bags. If there's only one thing she knows anymore it's this,

Frank's blown her cover, she has to leave!