Chapter One
“Avery! How long do you plan to stay in the shower?”
Avery’s mum knocked loudly from the other side of the bathroom door. Signing, Avery pressing her forehead to the cold tiles, letting the warm water run down her body. She didn’t want to go but she couldn’t tell her that. Her Mum had enough on her plate already.
Avery watched the rivulets run down her pale legs as she debated claiming to be sick before thinking better of it, she had already had enough ‘sick days’ that her Mum was threatening to take her to a doctor.
With a heavy heart Avery turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around herself before opening the door with a crooked smile.
“Sorry Mum, got lost in thought...” Her Mum gave a shake of her head and looked over Avery’s flushed skin with a critical eye.
“Feeling better today?” she inquired, pressing the back of her hand against her daughter’s forehead and frowning at the warmth.
Avery carefully batted her hand away and nodded, “Much better” she lied.
A small satisfied smile graced her Mum’s face and she pressed a soft kiss against her forehead, “I’m glad, I was starting to worry about how far behind in your studies you were getting”. Her eyes connect with Avery’s with a gentle smile. Avery knew she meant the best, but right now studies were the least of her worries.
Closing the door Avery turned to the small circular mirror above the sink.
I look sickly, she thought, staring at the paleness of her skin and reaching for the hair brush. It had been a couple of weeks now since she had given up on looking presentable for school.
Tugging her dirty blonde hair into a pony-tail she took the mascara from her makeup bag and contemplated applying a little before thinking better of it. It wouldn’t make a difference anyway.
Avery stared at the girl reflected in her mirror, wondering when was the last time she had seen herself smile. The girl in the mirror had deep blue eyes full of sadness and misery. The colour had washed away from her cheeks and she couldn’t help but wonder when she started looking so empty. Her fingertips carefully touch the cheek of her reflection.
Who is this?
_____
Breakfast was a small bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. She ate as slow as she could, knowing that when she was finished, the school bus would arrive, and she would have to leave the safety of her home.
“What’s up, loser?” Gwen, her sister grumbled as she plopped herself down in the chair opposite Avery. The two were very different. Avery being dainty and blonde, while her sister was plump and dark-haired. Avery studied her, her eyes moving from Gwen’s choice of a black band tee to the heavy eyeliner and dark lipstick. After some thought she opted not to reply.
“Avery, Hurry up! The bus will be here any moment, do you want to miss it?” Her Mum complained, hurrying into the kitchen wearing her suit jacket and pencil skirt. “Gwendolyn Hughes, what have I told you about the eyeliner! I keep getting calls from your school!” She sighed, switching her attention to her punk daughter.
“I’m not changing who I am, Susan” Gwen retorted, giving her mother a scowl before pulling the half eaten bowl of cereal that Avery had been picking at for the last twenty minutes to herself.
“Don’t call me that, I am your mother” Susan admonished, hastily snatching her keys from the hook above the kitchen bench before scrambling to the door. Avery sighed, wondering how many more times she would hear the same conversation before one of them would concede.
With the sound of a loud horn, Gwen stood up and slung her black messenger bag over her shoulder, patches and pins covering every inch of fabric. Every morning Gwen’s friends would pick her up, leaving Avery to take the bus alone.
“You better not skip today!” she warned Avery, pointing an accusatory finger towards her younger sister, “I’m sick of being forced to go to school while you get to stay home, Ave!“.
Before Avery could respond Gwen turned on her heel and headed for the door, slamming it behind her.
_____
Avery rubbed her hands together in a poor attempt to generate warmth, wishing that she had thought to grab a jacket. Bitterly cold wind tore through her, clawing at any exposed skin. She briefly thought about going back to get one and possibly missing the bus to stay home. I could just say I missed it. She shook her head, not wanting to have to see that look of disappointment on her mother’s face and deal with the rant from her sister.
It wasn’t long until the bus crawled around the corner of her street and came to a groaning stop beside her. The bus was never crowded when she got on; her house was one of the first stops on the way to school.
Avery gave a weak smile to the driver as she scrambled onto the bus, finding a seat somewhere in the middle. She wished she could sit closer to the front but some younger students had already taken those spots. They knew that the back was reserved for the bigger kids - the high schooler’s.
As the bus continued its journey, more and more students piled on, the back seats remaining empty. They always did, but that would change at the next stop.
The bus shuddered to a stop before the doors swung open. Avery’s gaze was drawn to the front of the bus as Ethan Wilson stepped on.
Avery had known him during her early years of middle school. She remembered sitting behind him in most of her classes. He disappeared at the beginning of junior high and she hadn’t seen him in four years. Since then he had grown a lot taller and muscular. She had a crush on him then, and when she noticed him passing her in the corridor a few days after she had started at West Lakeshore, those feelings came back as though just sitting dormant all those years.
He was tall with chocolate skin, his build toned. His dark brown hair tangled into curls on top of his head, the locks bobbing in front of his forest green eyes.
As he moved through the bus Avery let her eyes wander to him as he smiled and bumped fists with others on the bus. It was obvious to her that he hadn’t recognised her. She had grown a lot since then too and she wondered if things would have ended up differently if he had, for better or for worse.
It wasn’t until she heard the click of heels that her gaze was broken. The tall brunette that trailed behind Ethan turned her head to the blonde with an accusatory look, causing Avery to look down at her feet.
Paige was a gorgeous girl. She had long pin-straight hair parted down the centre and large, doll-like green eyes. Her clothing always came with an expensive price tag and seemed to be tailored to her every curve. She was a presence that could not be ignored whenever she entered a room, a picture of angelic beauty, but underneath that was nothing but an empty shell void of empathy.
Paige was the girl in school that nobody could stand up to without expecting to go through Hell. It was an unspoken law that Ethan was hers, the fact that they were both technically single meant nothing. He wanted to focus on basketball, and she was fine with that but stuck to him like chewing gum.
Avery kept her eyes down as the brunette strode up to where she was sitting, “What’s up Avery? You’re finally back at school, huh? I haven’t seen you all week” She smiled, hiding the true meaning of her words behind her ‘nice-girl’ facade.
Avery wasn’t sure how, but the day after she had first laid eyes on Ethan Wilson word had travelled back to the Queen Bee.
Needless to say, Paige was not impressed to hear that someone else was apparently after her man. All Avery did was look at him; she hadn’t even considered talking to him. She was shy. She couldn’t even fathom a conversation with someone as well liked as Ethan Wilson. Yet it was all Paige needed to blacklist her.
It started with little things. Finding cruel notes in her locker demanding her to not to talk to Ethan. People roughly bumping into her shoulders as she walked down the halls. The strange looks she was receiving from people she didn’t even recognise. Unfortunately, that was only the start of Avery’s torment.
The bullying quickly escalated. She started to hear whispers of rumours about her. About how she was a slut in freshman and sophomore year and had slept with over fifty guys before moving to Lakeshore. That she was involved in a brothel. That she stalked guys that she had a crush on and she would sleep with anyone who asked.
Then it was malicious words and taunts, ‘slut’, ‘whore’. The snide remarks from half-brained jocks and horny teenagers asking ‘You wanna fuck, Hughes?’, ‘Why are you acting like such a prude, everyone knows that you’d beg for it’“.
Words turned into actions. Boys smacking her on the arse as she walked down the halls. People assuming they had the right to touch her legs as she tried to take notes. Perhaps the worst of it came from Paige and her posse. The shoving and hair pulling. She would find her belongings destroyed or missing if she left them unattended for longer than a second. Yet they never left any obvious marks on her, they were smarter than that.
Avery couldn’t remember the last night that she didn’t receive a horrible message from strangers on the internet. She didn’t know what she hated more; the horrible requests for her to commit suicide or the uncomfortably sexual messages from guys she didnt even recognise. It had been three months since then.
Avery stayed silent, not wanting to respond to the brunette’s question. Paige’s smile was sickeningly sweet. As far as Avery had deduced, she kept her true nature hidden from Etjam. After all he was far different than her - smart and kind. If he knew the truth, Avery doubted he would keep her around. Nobody would dare tell her secret though.
Avery managed to give the brunette a faint smile, knowing that Paige wouldn’t ever do or say anything to tarnish her ‘nice girl’ persona with Ethan so close by. With this she seemed pleased, “I’m glad. See you in class then!” she smiled, turning to walk to the back of the bus and take her seat.
