What the Heart Wants
Chapter 18
Eddie saw Alia into the house, carrying a still sleeping Michael. He wasn't sure how the little boy had slept through the whole thing, but he had and he wasn't going to knock it. He knew Rachel was watching him with concern as Alia simply bade them both a sleepy goodnight and trudged up the stairs. "I need a word," He murmured, depositing Michael on the sofa, managing a smile as Rachel grabbed a throw and covered the sleeping child to keep him warm. He'd gotten hesitant permission from Alia for the conversation, half the reason she'd gone straight upstairs.
"What's wrong? Thanks for bringing Alia home, by the way."
"It's the least I could do." Eddie floundered a little, not sure how to bring it up but knowing she needed to know. "Listen, I was talking to Alia earlier, and Stuart came up." He saw the colour leave Rachel's face as she pretty much fell into a seat on the sofa. He took a position next to her, keeping one eye on his son as he took her hand in his own. "You know you were scared what would happen if Stuart found her that last day of term? Your instincts were right."
"What? I don't… I don't understand."
"She didn't tell you, didn't want to worry you. The day after he showed up here… he came back. When she was home alone."
"Oh god," Rachel choked out, tears welling in her eyes as her fingers tightened round Eddie's hand. "No, tell me he didn't… no…"
"He didn't hurt her." He correctly guessed where her mind had gone to, that Stuart had hurt her, or worse. "He pushed her against the wall and threatened her." He took a deep breath, rebelling inside at even having to repeat the words. "He told her he'd be after her to get to you, that he'd make sure she was spreading her legs before the year was out." Eddie felt disgusted even having to speak the phrase. This was a child, for crying out loud. No one should even be thinking such a thing about a child, let alone threaten said child with it. He dropped Rachel's hand only to instantly pull her into his arms as a sob erupted from the woman, tears pouring down her face at the thought of what Stuart had done to her daughter, had threatened her with. She knew that her past would affect her daughter to some extent, but she hadn't expected that level of threat from Stuart, let alone that her daughter felt the need to protect her from that knowledge. It was Rachel's job to protect her, not the other way around.
"Why didn't she tell me?" She whispered between sobs, clutching Eddie's arm so hard he was sure he'd have at least some bruises there come morning. He adjusted the arm around her back to brush her hair through with his fingers, trying desperately to calm her.
"She didn't want to worry you. Stuart was already threatening you, remember?"
"I would've, should've protected her. I'd never want her to go through what I did."
"You did protect her. You sent her to her Aunt, got her away from Stuart and anything he could've used against her and you."
Eventually, he felt her calm in his arms, her tears drying up as she rained in the panic and terror at what had happened and what could have happened to her daughter. For his part, his heart was breaking, both for the distress she was in and the knowledge that there'd been a good chance he would've never seen her again after the fire. Both stood as Alia appeared, wearing pyjama shorts and a vest top, looking rather sheepish.
"Rach?"
"Oh Ali." Rachel pulled Alia into a tight embrace, both of them whispering apologies and reassurances to each other, the tears flowing freely. Eddie took that moment to slip out with Michael, silently marvelling at all the child had slept through. God only knew he wouldn't be getting much sleep that night.
…
Alia sat near the back of the classroom; head propped up on her hand as she attempted to focus on the English lesson she was sat in. Mr Clarkson was a good teacher, she knew, but after last night and the night before, she was running on about four hours sleep in total. Between explaining what had happened with Stuart in full to Rachel and then planning on what would happen with the information they had on Fiona and Mel, it had once again been too late to get any meaningful amount of sleep. She knew Rachel wasn't any better than her, both spending their early morning swapping and sharing makeup to try and cover the evidence of their lack of sleep of the last couple of days. They'd both been slow and sluggish, nearly getting caught by Eddie as Alia had handed over the folder to Rachel that break time, the headmistress managing to push the folder into her top desk drawer as Eddie had walked in. His pause had told them he knew something was up, but thankfully he'd left it alone, looking as exhausted as they felt. It wasn't even lunchtime yet and she could feel her eyelids trying to close every few seconds.
"Miss Falan. Alia."
Alia blinked, directing her gaze to Tom, who looked torn between exasperation and concern as he watched her. Blinking more to make herself alert, she glanced at the question, guessing that he wanted the answer to it. She ignored the concerned glances she was getting from Philip and Bolton, the latter of which had decided to ignore her since lunchtime the previous day. "Uhh, isn't it something like 'all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others'?"
Tom shot her another concerned look but nodded. "Yes, thank you. And who knows who said it? Katie?"
"Was it Napoleon?"
"Exactly. Now what do we think is the meaning…"
Alia blocked him out again, hand still propping her head up. She'd known Eddie would tell Rachel about Stuart's threat, had told him that it was okay to tell her that instead of the real conversation that they'd been so late because of. She hadn't been aware that that secret had still been weighing on her until she'd spoken the words aloud. She felt both lighter and heavier, to be completely truthful with herself. Lighter for the threatening behaviour to be out in the open, but heavier because she wasn't sure if she'd gone too far or not with telling Eddie about her mum. And the one person she could talk to about it happened to be the subject of it, so she couldn't even talk about it. She spotted another concerned look from Tom but thankfully the bell rang before he could say anything.
Grabbing her things, she flung them into her bag and rushed out in the midst of the students just in case she was held back. She'd purchased a sandwich and drink at breaktime, so instead of sitting in the canteen, she made her way straight outside. The weather wasn't too bad, if a little chilly, but she worked around that by placing her blazer out on the grass under an oak tree and pulling her leather jacket over her shoulders to keep herself warm. She couldn't be dealing with the loudness and prying of her friends at the moment. When she was tired she would be more likely to let things slip that she shouldn't, and what with everything going on, no matter what was let slip, it wouldn't end well.
Instead, she ate slowly, trying to bring herself to get the motivation for her afternoon class, science. She knew Rachel would be disappointed if she bunked off school, even if it was one lesson so she could have a much needed nap. Pulling out her lyric notebook, she played around with a couple of verses as she finished off her sandwich. She knew she was close, needing to figure out the last of the lyrics for two songs and then finish off the music for them, then they'd be complete and she could send them off to her manager and label. She was starting to wonder if it would be easier to ask to be home schooled again. She had a lot less to worry about when she was at home. She didn't have to get up at a stupid hour after nowhere near enough sleep, sitting in classes where she was nothing but bored, with kids she either didn't like or didn't really know her, working at a much slower pace than she was used to, having to hide her music and the majority of her identity from everyone all the time. If you ignored the identity of Lia Rose, there was still the whole issue of no one knowing that she was actually Alia Mason, daughter of their illustrious headteacher. Parent's evening would be interesting, especially as she'd gotten the slip in form that morning, telling her it was going to be in just over a month's time, a week or so before they would break up for Christmas.
Fiddling with the pencil for a few moments, she gave up and put her things back in her bag, sighing and pulling her jacket tighter around her. She'd gotten a bit further, but it was difficult when trying to do it in secret on little to no sleep. She'd have to have a nap as soon as she was able to and see if she could work out the final wording once she was a bit more rested.
"You alright?"
She glanced up, knocked out of her musings to find Bolton stood awkwardly over her, hunched under the leaves as she noticed the weather had turned and began to rain rather heavily, forcing most of the pupils indoors. In the distance, she could see Tom watching them from under the foyer at the front of the school, once again clearly concerned.
"I'm fine," She said shortly, standing up to put her jacket on properly and grabbing her blazer and bag off the grass.
"Seriously, you're not acting yourself. What's up?"
She rolled her eyes. "Even if there was something wrong, what makes you think I can share it?" She shook her head as he made to protest. "I mean come off it, what's anyone going to say if I say, had an argument with my mum, or got in trouble here? Nothing." She made to move away but he grabbed her arm to stop her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tom start over to them but she was focused more on Bolton.
"Is that what it is? Have you had a spat with your mum or something?"
"No. I just haven't had a lot of sleep the last couple of nights. Let go of me."
"Is this about the rumour of your mum and Lawson?" Bolton persevered, neither seeing Tom reach them in hearing distance as he'd started speaking. Alia ripped her arm from his grip, her eyes flashing.
"No! Can't you leave me alone? It's got nothing to do with my mum sleeping with anyone!"
"Then what? Cos you ain't been right the last couple days and everyone's noticed. You can tell me."
"Why? Yesterday you were convinced I was a snitch. Why would I tell you anything now?"
"Ali, c'mon, I'm sorry about that. I know you're not."
"You want to know?" Alia asked almost dangerously. She knew she'd have to tell the truth and lie all in one go. "Fine. It's called not sleeping because you finally confessed to your mum that Stuart bloody Hordley threatened to make you 'spread your legs' to hurt your own mother!" She was thankful for the rain forcing the other pupils inside. It was bad enough Bolton was forcing her to reveal anything. Though maybe she'd broken him, for he seemed frozen in place, his mouth open in shock and horror in his eyes as he stared at her, barely even blinking. She knew there were tears in her eyes, and they were both getting soaked, having moved out from the tree's cover at some point during the argument.
"You two." Both abruptly turned to Tom, their faces descending into horror that he'd overheard their argument. For his part, Tom was also horrified with what he'd overheard. Hadn't it been bad enough that he'd been blackmailing Rachel over her past? What on earth made him threaten a fifteen year old with that? She was just a child. "My office, now."
…
In Tom's office, the two fifteen year olds stood in stony silence facing the desk, dripping rainwater onto the carpet. Alia was faring only slightly better than Bolton, as her jacket was waterproof whilst his wasn't, but her boots weren't waterproof, whereas his trainers were. Tom was sat behind his desk, watching the pair with concern. When it became apparent neither would speak, he decided he needed to kick it off himself. "So, I'd like an explanation."
"For what?" Bolton replied eventually, after glancing at Alia and realising she wasn't going to respond.
"You know what, Bolton. That little discussion I happened upon. In the pouring rain." Tom shot him a hard look. "I only moved over when you grabbed her arm. Explain. You know you don't grab hold of anyone."
"It's fine, I don't blame him," Alia interrupted woodenly. "He didn't mean to and won't do it again. Will you?"
Bolton shook his head in agreement with her as they both fell back into stony silence, clearly hoping that their agreement would get them out of the office quicker. Ordinarily, it would, but Tom was more concerned with the conversation he'd overheard than only the problem of Bolton grabbing Alia like that. "And as for the conversation I heard?"
Both teenagers grew stiff at his words, not even trying to look at him as their eyes stayed locked on the sodden carpet around them. Tom decided to try a different tactic.
"Why would there be something between your mum and Mr Lawson, Alia? Are you Philip's sister or something? Is Miss Ryan your mum?" Tom asked gently, trying to piece together what he'd heard between them. To his surprise, Bolton snorted and Alia looked furious.
"No! I'd sooner run away than have her as my mother!" Alia replied, wrinkling her nose in disgust. Bolton snorted again.
"Would you like to share with the class, eh Bolton?" Tom asked, irritated with the girl's disrespect towards a member of staff, no matter his own feelings on Melissa.
Bolton's eyes immediately widened and he shook his head. "No, not a thing."
"Clearly you know something."
"Nope."
Tom decided to let it go, clearly seeing he wasn't getting anywhere with asking about Melissa being Alia's parent. "So, let's talk about what was said after that part then." He ignored the panic from the two pupils. He had a duty of care. He wasn't about to abandon that because of their unease with the situation. "Alia."
"What?" She finally glanced at him, though didn't meet his eyes. "I'm fine."
"And what about what you said to Bolton?"
"What about it?"
"Is it true?"
Alia shrugged. "It's not like he can hurt me now. It just happens I never told my mum until now. She was upset so I didn't get much sleep."
"I can have a word if you'd like, talk things through with her." He took note of the panic that welled in her eyes at the mention of talking to her mother, though curiously, so did Bolton's to a lesser extent. Clearly, Bolton knew something about her home life too. "We can't have things like this affecting you, especially not during your GCSE year."
"No, it's fine. We're fine." Alia hastened to assure him, silently cursing him and Bolton. How did she find herself in these ever more ridiculous situations? "I'll be fine. We got everything sorted last night and I swear, I'll get more sleep tonight. I'm sorry for snapping at people; I get moody when I need sleep."
Tom looked between them, realising he wouldn't be getting any further with them for now and silently dismissed them, not missing their relief at not being questioned further. They didn't know that the only reason he hadn't continued with the questions was because he was going to the other senior management about the situation first.
TBC…
