Hi guys. Last chapter got less reception than expected, but hey, whatever. This chapter features some swearing, a Mick and Alicia scene (introduced in chapter five and talked about in chapter six), and Sibuna, of course. I am finding it easier to write Micklicia scenes rather than Jara. Strange? I think so. Anyway, I made a cover for letters and angels (I don't know how you'll go about viewing it) and I think it is great.
~0o0o0o0~
Patricia was the first to shriek," What?"
"You heard me, Rufus has Mara." He snapped back.
The rest of them took their own turns reacting. Nina was chanting the word, 'No' over and over again. Fabian sat by her side, a comforting hand on her back, but looking worried none the less. Mara and Fabian had been great friends last year especially when they were both selected for the national spelling bee and had won.
Amber had started tearing, rambling on about how they used to be best friends and how she might now be dead. Close behind was Alfie, who, similarly to Fabian, was comforting her. He did a much worse job at this and came off as really awkward, his hand hovering just above her shoulder. Patricia had taken to gnawing down on her nails nervously, now extremely quiet. She was only ever quiet in times of great distress. And they deserved to be. Everyone knew that Mara wasn't the strongest of people, and knowing Rufus, he would definitely use this to his advantage.
"He wants the pieces." Jerome explained, standing up as if to assume dominance. He believed that by doing this, all of them would gladly conform. They didn't, obviously.
"No, we are not giving the pieces to Rufus," Patricia warned, glaring at him.
"Well then what the hell are we going to do, huh? He told me that he'll kill her. Look at this," he opened the picture on his phone and tossed it at all of them," Do you really think he's just going to let us waltz in and take her? He'll kill all of us if we don't."
"Jerome, we are not discussing this. We can't just give them away." Nina countered, though extremely hesitant in the way she said this," Who knows what Rufus'll do with them?"
"And why the hell not huh? We don't need eternal life. If he wants it, that's his own demented business, but we need Mara back." How was he not getting through to them? Why couldn't they just back off and let Rufus and the teacher's handle this? Why couldn't they see what he was saying?
"Calm down man, we're trying to help!" Alfie stood up and walked over to him, placing his hands on his shoulders, giving them a reassuring squeeze. Jerome shrugged the hands off.
"No, all you guys do is play detectives in your little group, thinking this that this is all fun and games. Well it's not anymore and we have a responsibility to get Mara back." Jerome seemed to stomp his foot to confirm how final he was being.
"Jerome if you say another word-"Patricia growled.
"Patricia, have you ever loved someone? No, you haven't. I doubt you can even feel emotions in that cold little heart of yours." Anyone would be able to hear the sarcasm that came along with his words. She snapped at this.
Patricia stood up slowly and walked over to him. The two shared a mutual glare before she spat," Outside. Now." He obliged and walked out with her, not really caring that he had ticked her off. The others watched in horror realizing that Trixie was going to rage.
Once outside, she slapped him. Hard. "What the hell Patricia?" He asked angrily. First, the bruise on the side of his face, now this. Great.
"Joy has been fucking missing for the whole term. Do you think I've been worried about her? Yeah, but has anyone really done anything about it. No. I've had to live with this since the beginning of the term and I'm trying my best to be patient but you think you can just waltz in and get her back. Joy and Mara are both in danger. We know you have a thing for her."
"And what, do you have a thing for Joy or something?" Although it was meant to be a joke, the softening in Patricia's eyes shocked him.
"You… you like girls?" He laughed a little at this inciting an evil look from Patricia, but he could see how uncomfortable and awkward she was getting.
"I like Joy, for your information, yeah." She tucked some hair behind her ear nervously making sure no one was watching the two. No one knew about this, and she doubted that Joy would even care having been hung up on Fabian and what not.
"This is just-"
"Queer?" She let out a dry laugh, her arms crossed around her chest.
"Strange. Does she know?"
"What do you think you idiot? Of course she doesn't, and you, you better not go telling everyone, because if you do, you'll get way worse than a slap, alright?" Her threat was somewhat empty but Jerome acted as if he were generally hurt, quickly cracking up.
"Your secret's safe with me." He winked.
"Wow, that's really reassuring," she rolled her eyes," I'm sorry about your… face."
"Is it red?" He queried, touching it. It definitely stung like anything, but considering he had survived Mick, this wasn't as bad.
"Just a bit." She cringed, looking as the giant red mark forming on his face hoping that he was planning on avoiding any mirrors for a while. His face was a mess.
He gave her an indignant look and asked again, "By just a bit do you mean totally red and defined?"
"Mm-hmm. Come on, let's go back in. And Jerome, about your thing with Mara? It may just be my opinion, but I could totally see it happening between you two." With Trixie's blessing, Jerome walked back into the meeting, a small smile on his face, they started on a plan.
~0o0o0o0~
Mick was in a pickle. More of a self-induced depression due to the fact that his girlfriend had mysteriously disappeared, to put it in more accurate terms. The worst part? Kids everywhere were starting rumors about him. Some said he had beaten her and she had told her parents so they had taken her out. Other argued that she got fed up with him and ran away to escape, and would reappear any time soon. None of the house seemed to care. They were all off in their little group, doing whatever they did. It never showed when he was around them, but Mick felt alone.
He near lost all of his friends when Nina arrived. He couldn't really blame her, but first it was Amber, then it was Fabian, then Patricia, and then Alfie and Jerome. How had they made it into a clique and he hadn't? Maybe he was just extremely hard to be around. But, regardless, he had Mara, and Mara had been all he needed. Then she started swaying towards Jerome, hanging out and chatting. It had been natural that Mick had gravitated towards Alicia. Mick wanted to be alone to wallow in his 'depression', so he brought himself to the neglected change room at the gym.
The room was in need of desperate repairs, and there was tape keeping the students out. The administration had sworn that it would be fixed, but that was last year, and with no improvements, it grew neglected: the perfect solitude. He stepped under the tape and entered in. There were showers on either side of the walls. Near the end, there were different rows of lockers. They were rusting in parts but he knew they were mostly sturdy.
He positioned himself out of view and leaned against the lockers, savoring the cool metal against his back. It was, in all honesty, a hot day, and a bit of cold was refreshing. He had no idea of time, and stayed there for a while. Mara dominated most of his thoughts. Where was she? He was frantic, but no one seemed to notice. It was somewhat offensive, seeing as Mara had done so much for them and they were just ignoring her without a care.
He leaned there for a while, mulling over these thoughts, when he heard the distinct squeakiness of the door. "You alright?" A voice too familiar asked. He opened his eyes to see the small brunette, arms crossed over her chest, staring at him with a concerned look. Her eyes, vibrantly green, betrayed this, shining brightly, almost bemused, he thought.
"Is this about the whole Mara thing?" she asked him softly, leaning on the lockers across from him. Finally, he thought, someone who cares.
"I just… it's so hard; especially when everyone thinks that I had something to do with it. God it just, ugh!" He turned to punch the locker. The room echoed with the metallic clang for what seemed like minutes until it finally died down.
"Mick," she soothed grabbing his hands to stop him from punching," that won't solve anything."
He jerked his hands away from her having felt a strange wave of electricity. "Don't tell me what to do." It was such a childish statement, even for him. Alicia, who at that point was keeping her cool, felt herself starting to get angry as well.
"Mick," she breathed out," I'm trying to help you!" The annoyance in her voice was poorly masked. Mick could see it in her eyes. They were glaring at him. The whole effect was rather unnerving. He refused, though, to tell her everything just because she was his friends. He wanted his privacy.
"No you aren't." He chuckled dryly. She seemed to recoil from this as if she herself had just been hit by him. Her mouth hung open as she gasped. The only thing she was thinking? How dare he!
She let out a deep breath, her eyes closed. Once she opened them, she stared at him once more, "What did you just say?"
"I said, you don't care. You're just like every other girl who thinks that by getting on my good side that I'll start fancying you."
"You think I what? You always come to me! If anyone is at fault here, it's you!" She was livid now. He pinned her against the lockers.
"Run that by me again?" He whispered into her ear, seething.
She writhed in return, pulling her head away from him, "You heard what I said. Now let me go, this is getting repetitive and boring."
"Why is it," he returned, still pinning her against the lockers," that you don't think I did anything, huh?"
"Do you think I know nothing about you? I know that you throw spack-attacks every once in a while but you are not like that. You're good down deep Mick, you just like assuming the role of the alpha-dog."
"How would you know?" he increased the pressure on her wrists making her wince slightly. She knew that would leave a bruise and that there would be nothing that she could do about it.
"I've known you for nearly a year now; do you really think I know nothing about you?"
Mick placed his lips on hers. As soon as he did it, he knew it was a mistake, something that was irreversible, but in the moment, he was so enraptured with her that he hardly even gave a damn for what he was feeling. In fact, all he could think about was how she was such a great kisser. Their lips molded together in a frenzy of heat and passion and anger. How it was possible to kiss someone out of anger, he could not fathom, but then again, his mind was on other things. He pulled her closer towards him, while her hands tousled his hair into a giant, blonde, frizzy mess.
Her hands quickly flew to the buttons of her shirt. This alarmed Mick for a second. With Mara, he had always taken everything slow. They had barely gotten to a full-frontal snogging session. With Alicia though, he didn't seem to mind at all. Luckily, fate stepped in. Because of their snogging, they hardly heard the door squeak open, followed by footsteps. Of course they had to be making a ruckus, and having heard an inexplicably large gasp, they knew they were in trouble.
"F-Fabian, I can explain!" Mick cried, putting as much distance between him and Alicia as humanly possible. He would never buy it though: swollen lips, crazy hair, both of them panting as if they hadn't had air for a while. Fabian saw all the signs.
"Mick, how could… I thought…. I thought you were better than this. Mara's missing and you cheat? I thought you were better than that." Fabian walked out of the room briskly, obviously disappointed with Mick and sharing a new found dislike to the girl with brunette hair.
"I need to go." Mick announced, struggling to clean himself up. He couldn't risk Fabian telling everyone. If there was one thing that Fabian sucked at, it was telling lies.
"No, Mick… I'm sorry. Oh God, all of this is my fault. Go catch up to him." Alicia slid down the lockers once Mick left. It wasn't like she didn't like Mick. She did fancy him, but knowing he had a girlfriend, she tried to keep her distance. Mick made this hard though with him being all adorable and all. Had what Mick said been true? Was she really just getting closer to him so she could snatch him up at Mara and his imminent break up? And she had thought that she was a good person. This proved quite the opposite.
She walked to the mirror, trying to straighten herself up. There was a, in her terms, big-ass hickey on her neck that her hair would never hide. Definite problem. She gently traced the mark with her finger. For now, she would stay away from him. He loved Mara, not her. The kiss had been induced by the heat and their anger, nothing more.
With that, she left the room and set off looking for some concealer.
~0o0o0o0~
So what did you think? Eh? Eh? No, oh, why don't you tell me what you think in a review, those are always nice, you know, because reviews are amazing.
Ten reviews people, ten, then next chapter
(Oh, and if the cover is available, tell me, because it is driving me wild.)
And I'll save Mara in the next chapter and then we will have some Jara, okay?
~kels
P.S One thing I need to address
If anyone knows who sibunalove4ever is, can you please tell me?
She dissed on me – I'm fine with that, but then she disses on my friend – not so fine with that.
If anyone knows who he/she is, please contact me so that I can P.M him/her because I am really bothered by this
And I just need to say that I try never to flame any of your stories, but sometimes I get really angry and will lash out so if I have ever done this to you in the past (I am never really anonymous) than I am sorry