My mum went beserk when she saw my face. I wandered into the living room, keeping my head down as I put my bag on the couch and shrugged my jacket off.
"You're awfully quiet," she commented.
I gave a small nod, keeping my head down and leaving the living room to go to my bedroom, thinking I'd gotten away with it. That was, until two hours later when she walked into my bedroom. By then I'd washed the dried blood off of my mouth and iced it, it still hurt but it looked a bit better, but by then bruises had started to form on my face from the punch. But regardless, I'd grown used to the dull pain so when she walked in, I didn't think to cover my face. I realised my mistake immediately when she gasped.
"Jesus Christ, Monica! Who did this?"
I shook my head slightly "It doesn't matter."
"Well it obviously does! You shouldn't let them do this!"
"Oh yeah, because I gave him my permission before he kneed me in the face," I almost snorted.
"You know what I mean! Do you want me to go to the school?"
"No, Ma! It's fine, it's over with."
"Have you seen your face?"
"Many times," I retorted, sarcasm evident in my tone.
This was my last night with her and I was being mean.
"...Can I have the day off tomorrow?" I asked slowly after a few moments of silence whilst she stared at my face.
"Monica," she groaned "If you have too many days off I'm going to end up in trouble."
"...Please, mum..." I said - despising the idea of my last day among friends being at school.
"I'm sorry, Monica, but no. You have to go in," she shook her head.
"They did this to me!" I said, pointing to my lip.
"Yeah, but you won't do anything about it, what're you going to do - stay off forever?"
I sighed and didn't respond as she turned around and left. Great. Well, at least I wouldn't need any help acting down enough for my "suicide" to seem realistic. I pulled my old, beat up mobile out of my pocket and dialed Allie's number. She picked up after a few rings.
"Evening, Monny," she greeted me.
"Don't call me that," I groaned.
"Fine, fine," she said, her tone still pleasant "Any reason your calling?"
"...Chris got me," I sighed into the phone.
"What? How? Are you okay?"
"He waited until you left, and no...I'm not too great..."
"...Wanna talk about it? If you don't just...I dunno, tell me to piss off or something."
"Thanks but...I'll deal with this by myself."
"That's not healthy, Monica," she sighed disapprovingly.
"I know, I know," I said quietly "I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to meet up in the morning to walk to school? I'd rather not face the journey alone."
"Of course I will, it eight okay?"
"Yeah, I'll see you then," I said slowly, hanging up.
It hadn't been a good idea. Knowing she was concerned about me just worsened the guilt as I wondered how they'd all react...It had always been a thing I'd wondered vaguely - how people would react when I died, but now that I was going to know, I dreaded it. I tapped drummed my newly scarred fingertips against my knee before reaching into my bed-side table for a few sheets of lined paper and a pen.
"Time to get this over with," I mumbled to myself, scrawling the word "DAD" onto the top of the paper before I began the letter.
It took me hours as I wrote each individual person a letter. I tried to lie as little as I could - never once using the phrase "suicide" and instead words like "left". I owed them an honest explanation at the very least. The last and the hardest letter to write was the one to Beppe. That night I went to bed with sore, raw eyes and an aching chest from sobbing so much, and what made it worse was the fact that soon a lot of the people I knew would be doing the same and it would be my fault.
I woke up the next morning feeling ill and slightly regretful as I stared up at the cracks in my ceiling...Something felt off...but what? Then I realised. I could actually see the cracks in my ceiling. Normally I couldn't unless I wore my glasses...Could the vampire blood be effecting me already?
Today would be my last day with my friends and my family. I felt guilty - guiltier than I'd ever felt before, infact, but as much as I tormented myself, telling myself "you could've stuck it out", I knew it wasn't true and that if things had continued on the way they were, whether I liked it or not, I would've ended up writing those letters at some point, the only difference being that they'd be genuine.
I felt even guiltier when Allie buzzed at the front gate and when I saw her, she was clutching a package to her chest, wrapped in a polythene bag.
"What's that?" I frowned.
"I got you it on the way here!" she smiled, thrusting it towards me.
I gave a small smile, taking it from her and taking it out of the bag. I sighed. It was a new bag, black with intricate purple designs covering it.
"Oh, Allie," I sighed "You really shouldn't have!"
"I have too much spare money," she waved a hand "Plus the school would've just given you money for a crap one that'd break in a week. Anyways, think of it as a get well soon present - your face looks even worse than usual!"
She grinned cheekily as she said the last part, nudging me. I laughed, ignoring the warning, stretched feeling my lip gave when I did. This was going to be much harder than I thought. It didn't take long to get to school as we went back the way I'd walked with Mr Crepsley the previous night, and I couldn't help but look into the alley where I'd been blooded with a small frown.
I was torn. Well and truly. I knew if I'd turned him down, I'd be walking this same way to school, but instead regretting turning down the offer. No matter what I'd chosen, I'd end up regretting something, and despite the fact that I'd be leaving everything behind, I was excited and curious about what was in store for me.
I felt a strangely sad feeling come over me once Allie and I were sitting with Bianca and Frasier before school ended. Not because I'd miss school - no, but because I'd miss them and being around them.
"What's got you so upset? Missing Spiderman?" Frasier grinned jokingly.
"Spiderman?" I asked with a laugh.
"Easier than remembering the name," she waved a hand "The dude from the freak show."
"Mr Crepsley," I muttered.
"Yeah, him. Doesn't it sound like he should own some kind of pancake shop? Crepsley's Crepes!" she grinned and I couldn't help but snort with laughter, wondering what my soon-to-be guardian would think of that.
"I s'pose it's a bit of a step down from performing in a Freak Show," I laughed before changing the subject "Hey, it's Friday, right?"
"No, it's Sunday," Bianca replied with a small smile.
"Fuck, I should be at church," I drawled in response before laughing "You guys want to sleep over at mine tonight? We could...I dunno, camp out in the living room."
I didn't really want company that badly that night, knowing my mind would be occupied, but I didn't want to spend my last night of being able to see them, alone. Art was first lesson. We were painting again which was probably a bad thing considering I became stupidly paranoid about keeping an eye on my possessions. I ended up sitting between Allie and Bianca - Frasier wasn't in that class.
"So, what shall be our entertainment tonight?" Allie asked.
"Giuseppe!" Bianca grinned stupidly.
"No!" I groaned, drawing out the word "He's my brother, guys."
"Well he's not mine!" she shot back with a cheeky grin and a laugh.
"Yeah but he is twenty three and you're fifteen!"
"Pfft, legalities," she waved her paint brush around, splattering me with the black.
I let out a surprised squeak before eyeing the black splodges. I dipped my brush into the red before leaving a long, crimson streak down her arm. We did that back and forth for just a few moments before we heard the rather unamused voice of the teacher.
"Girls! Stop that immediately!" she shrieked towards our backs and I had to stifle a few giggles as Bianca made funny faces, mouthing the teachers own words as I got up to try and scrub the mess from my arms.
Bianca soon joined me, trying to clean her own arms.
"It looks like you've been stabbing me," she grinned before it faded as she watched my scrubbing at my arms.
"What?" I raised an eyebrow - Bianca was never one to be silent.
"Your fingers," she said, grabbing my hands, forcing me to drop the paper towel.
I wrenched my arm back, surprised by the amount of force that seemed to be behind it even though to me, I hadn't pulled that hard. Bianca struggled to keep her balance.
"...Jesus! Calm down!" she muttered, a surprised expression covering her features "How the hell'd you manage that?"
"I've had them ever since I was like 5," I waved a hand dismissively "I can't believe you've never noticed them before!"
Seeming a tad sceptical, but sensing that I didn't want to talk about it, she dropped the subject, although I caught her staring at them a few more times throughout the day, causing me to try and hide them as much as I could without getting ridiculous.
The day passed far quicker than I would have liked it to. After school, since I had three others with me, Chris chose just to jeer from across the street. I ignored it, keeping my eyes on the pavement in front of me and telling myself I'd be away soon enough, and as sick as it sounded, I hoped he'd feel guilty after my "suicide".
Since it was only just vaguely starting to get a bit darker, Mr Crepsley wasn't there – I didn't know if he'd be there, even if it was dark, but I was strangely pleased that I'd escape Frasier pushing me towards him and trying to get his attention – I'd have to live with him for years, and as childish as I was being, with him not there I could pretend that everything was normal, but even then, that offered little comfort.
"Ugh, this is so hard," Frasier complained, staring at her maths homework.
"That's what she said," Bianca snorted.
"Who is "she" and why does she say so much?" Allie frowned, causing all three of us to stop whatever we were doing and snort with laughter.
I sighed and leant back against the foot of my bed. I felt tired and I didn't really know why.
"Hey, Monica?" Frasier snapped me out of my thoughts with a frown.
"Huh?" I asked, looked at her.
"Why aren't you wearing your glasses?"
"Oh, I, uh, I guess I don't need them as much as I think," I shrugged, looking back down to my chemistry homework, not really knowing why I was bothering with it considering I'd never be at school again - a thought that made me happy.
That was when I heard the front door open and I froze. Beppe. He hadn't seen my face yet. I clenched my fists and directed my gaze to the floor as I heard my door open.
"Ladies," he greeted boredly "Monica, was school good?"
He sounded smug. I sighed and looked up to meet his happy gaze which quickly turned furious.
"Did, uh, Ian's brother do that?" he asked.
I bit my lip and quickly regretted it as pain shot through it.
"Right," he said, turning around.
I shot up and darted after him with speed that surprised everybody - me especially.
"Beppe, no!" I exclaimed grabbing his arm.
"I need to teach that kid a lesson!"
"Yeah, look how well it went last time, Beppe," I sighed, looking at the boring cream carpet under my bare feet.
His eyes softened and he frowned.
"Just...leave it, yeah? Nothing we can do now..."
"I could beat his ass to a pulp!"
"And be jailed."
"Oh, so you're just gonna accept this...this bullshit?"
I gave a small head shake.
"No, I'm, uh, dealing with it," I said slowly, picking at a loose thread on my trousers.
"How?" Beppe frowned almost immediately.
"By not beating the crap out of them – an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, right?" I evaded the question.
"I'm meeting you after school on Monday," he stated simply, clearly unsatisfied with my answer.
I didn't respond – I wouldn't be around on Monday and I didn't want to argue with anybody. I sighed, gave a small nod and he reverted back to his playful demeanour, giving all of my friends a small, goofy smile and leaving the room.
"and how exactly are you dealing with them?" Bianca asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow.
"Just let him beat them up!" Frasier sighed exasperatedly "They deserve it!"
I shook my head, doing my best to suppress a sigh. My last night with my family and friends and I couldn't even try to forget it.
A/N: I'm not going to lie and pretend I'm happy with this chapter, I'm really not. Lately I've been reading a lot of Game of Thrones, Tolkien and the likes and I feel it's really improved my writing style. This update has been sitting around for weeks, I just re-read it and...yeah. I'm not happy with it, but you guys deserve something. Sorry for the wait, coursework, exams and a lot of personal drama got in the way. Also, my tumblr url is braddouriflivesinmywall if any of you want to follow me :)