Chapter 14

Chris was the first one to cast a stone at Mara. It was predictable – it honestly was – though a bystander might have bet on Mara to do that. Chris was so entirely committed to her, in a way he never was to any other girl before, that people tended to forget how devoted he actually was to his friendship with William. And some might even wonder if it didn't outweigh his affection for Mara.

That's what Mara was forced to think about after he snapped at her not even a week after their fight with William. She missed her brother so very much. She missed eating dinner with him and commenting out loud the stupid movies broadcast on the local channel. She missed walking in on him when he was on the phone with Noora and catching small glimpses of his most tender side. Mara missed her big brother. But she knew – and Chris knew it – that William would get over himself and talk to her again at some point. Because they were family – not just by blood, and not just at heart, but both. Which is why Chris suffered all the more.

This led to a fast paced Thursday afternoon filled with untamed passions and misplaced aggressiveness. Everything escalated very quickly for Chris and before he realised what was happening, he was in yet another fight with the Yakuza guys.

The whole day William had tried twice as hard as usual to get rid of him, and turn the other Penetrators against him. He didn't hide his blatant contempt for his former best friend, and openly suggested he just go home so he and the other could finally have fun. Chris stood firm on his position and argued until he had the support of everyone but William.

"What are you gonna do? Chain me up?" Chris had snickered, earning a few laughs from the group of boys watching the dispute. "I'm more fun than you could ever dream to be anyway. Mara is more fun than you too," he said, which caused a huge vein to throb on Will's temple. It was disloyal of Chris to play this card, but it was too late for regrets, the stupid thing had been said. "Just kiddin'. Why the serious face? Can't take a joke?" Chris said in bad faith.

"Do you really want to go down this path, Chris?" William had asked him, ever so severely.

"There's no going down for me anymore, man. I've reached rock bottom the day you told me to leave," he answered just loud enough for William to hear but no one else. "You wanted this, didn't you? Rivalry? Internal tensions? Pettiness? Well, now you got it! I'm playing your game."

William wanted to smash Christoffer's head against the nearest wall in hopes that it would knock some fucking sense into the boy, but chances were his skull was harder to break through than the concrete wall. From the day William had put an end to their... whatever, Chris hadn't stopped pushing him in hopes to corner him. He didn't stand down and distance himself from the Penetrators, he made himself even more essential to the group and took a leading role despite Will's attempts at thwarting his plans. Everybody liked Chris. He was charismatic enough to convince the whole of them to do anything he wanted against their better judgement, and he was the life of every party. If Chris wasn't there, it wasn't a party, it didn't really start until he walked in. William had the calm yet stern authority and the magnetism to make people gather around him like a flock of sheep around the Shepard, but without Chris he lacked something. He didn't appeal to them the same way Chris did.

"Fine, be an obstinate ass, like I care!" William eventually said, clearly losing this round.

It wasn't such a sore loss since he won every other one during the week, but to Chris it evidently meant victory. Whatever the hell William had planned to do later that day, he will have to count Chris in, because if William could haunt all his nights and spoil his days, then he was in his damn right to ruin what he had in mind for tonight.

000

Mara's day was much different. Good different. The entire school day turned out unexpectedly nice and by the time she came back home, she was smiling bigger than she had during the past week.

After lunch break, when it was almost time to go back to class and Mara was grabbing her books for her afternoon classes at her locker, she made a fortunate encounter. She met Noora. Not that she didn't know her before, she just never actually spoke to her in person. In Mara's mind, Noora was just William's pretty girlfriend who was a year younger than her. The blond girl was trying to pile up an astounding number of books but they tumbled down and slipped from her arms. Mara instinctively dived forward to grab them before they hit the ground but she wasn't fast enough.

"Shit! Sorry," Mara said even though there was nothing to apologize for.

"No, no, it's my fault!" Noora said as she knelt on the floor and began to gather her belongings. "Thanks for trying anyway."

"What are all those books for?" Mara wondered out loud when she grabbed a book with a Spanish title. Mara never learned Spanish. She was more of a science person and took advanced biology.

"I'm helping a few friends with their Spanish homework," she casually answered, shrugging her shoulders and smiling. "We're holding a study group later at the library if you want to join in."

"Thanks, but I don't do Spanish," Mara laughed awkwardly.

The girls stood up and Mara helped Noora put the rest of the books in her tote bag.

"Hey, you're Noora, right?"

It was a question of pure formality. She couldn't possibly start a sentence with "You're Noora, my brother's girlfriend," that would be downright terrifying – at least Mara knew that if anyone tried to use this as a conversation starter, she would run the other way.

"Yes," she said, clutching against her chest the last couple books that didn't fit in her bag.

"I'm Mara."

"I know who you are," she giggled, replacing a strand of hair behind her ear. "I mean, everybody here knows who you are. And William always talks about you."

"I bet he does," Mara replied in a snort, trying as best she could to hide her bitterness behind a fake laughter. What a way to give a first impression. "It's weird that we never met before, you two spend so much time together!"

"I thought he didn't want us to meet," she admitted. "But it was silly, we could have talked anytime without him knowing, at school."

"Like we're doing right now?"

Could this conversation get any more cringe-worthy?

"I hope he's treating you well," Mara finally said. "Don't hesitate to put him back in place if he's not."

There, much better. She was never good at beating around the bush and making polite small talk. Going straight to the point was much more like her modus operandi. By the way Noora's shoulders relaxed it seemed like Mara wasn't just imagining the tense atmosphere.

"Believe me, there's no need to tell me," she laughed, closing her locker with her elbow and beginning to walk away. But she kept talking, indirectly inviting Mara to tag along. " If he gets too cocky I call him Wilhelm until he calms down. He hates it!"

"That's a genius move, I might borrow your idea," Mara happily said and walked alongside the blond girl, until they reached her group of friends.

She was going to leave them alone, but Noora gave her an encouraging look and gestured her to stay and participate in the conversation. Mara was in foreign territory. Was she supposed to say something first? Heck.

"Hi," she said, shooting all of them a bright smile as if she knew exactly what she was doing. "I'm-"

"William's sister!" A cute blond one said.

Mara didn't know all of their names. She knew about Chris Berg because one day Chris was telling her about how he met his name twin, but he was so hungover from the party that Mara and William didn't believe him until he showed them. She also knew Eva, because she was the one who brought him to the bathroom which led to this encounter. But all the others were just familiar faces whose names she never bothered to learn.

"I'm Vilde," the same blond added, holding out her hand, as though she wanted to shake hands.

When Mara reached out hesitantly, Vilde enthusiastically grabbed her hand with both of hers and giggled like she just me the Queen.

"It's nice to meet you," Mara said almost automatically.

All of the other girls introduced themselves and then showered Mara in questions about the Penetrators, as though she was the guardians of their deepest, darkest secrets. Mara didn't tell tale on her friends, but she politely answered the most innocent questions, while trying to avoid those about William. For a while, the girls chatted, forgetting about the time until the bell rang and they all proceeded to gather their bags and coats before heading to class.

"Hey," Mara called Eva's attention. "I guess I should tell you that Chris is not gay now."

"What?" She squealed. "Where did you hear that?"

"A while ago I heard you talk about this possibility. I had a good laugh, so thank you for that, but it's not true."

"What makes you think it's not?" Vilde asked eagerly. It's like she could sense gossip. "We saw Isak make the 'call me' sign to Chris!"

The call me sign, seriously? Mara didn't comment but simply answered.

"I can guarantee you, he's not into guys," she assured them. By now they were all ogling her like she was talking a very interesting kind of gibberish, that is, with wide eyes but polite restrain.

"Who is he into, then?" Sana asked, rolling her eyes as if she was tired of all this suspense.

"Me."

Mara saw Vilde's eyes practically pop out of her head, Eva mouth a very articulated 'WHAT' and smile like the Cheshire Cat. The others seemed either not particularly surprised or downright bored by her answer.

"How long?" Vilde asked. She looked as though she had been betrayed by her gossip digger skills. Like she should have known this.

"A bit less than five months," Mara answered, now a bit overwhelmed by their reaction.

"That's crazy," Eva said with her huge smile still plastered on her face. "How can you even deal with him? He's a douche."

A hundred different answers came to mind at that, but the thing was, Mara couldn't argue with that. Christoffer Schistad was many things, and among those things, there was 'a douche'. He was a filthy heart-thief and home-wrecker, girls manipulator and serial dater, there was no denying it.

"But he's my douche."

Mara shrugged, and although most of the girls seemed unconvinced, especially Noora – Mara knew she was a hard core feminist and she understood perfectly that Chris' behaviour was going against all her beliefs and moral values – a faint glint in Eva's eyes showed her that at least one of them got it. Eva nodded and smiled kindly. Then they split up and went to class – late.

For the entire afternoon, Mara smiled like a dummy, and didn't pay any attention to her teachers' boring lessons. She went home with a heart so light she feared it would fly away, and by the time she reached Chris' house and stepped in, she was on a literal cloud, it was as though she was gliding on the floor instead of walking.

Yet all this came to a hastening end when she saw the blood staining the otherwise immaculate floor of the hall. Mara never thought that having her heart drop in her stomach or the colours leave her face would be such literal feelings. She followed the drops of red with a knot in her stomach, feeling increasingly ill.

"Chris?" She croaked out, finally spotting his huddled figure on the ground, leaning against the back of the couch.