Authors: Lilian Carmine
As I walked into the room, Seth was sitting on his bed, a guitar case resting by his side on and yet another pile of papers scattered around him. That boy could not live without scattering piles of paper! I greeted him while walking to my bed and dumping my backpack on the floor.
“It looks like you’ve had a better day today,” he greeted in return.
“Yes. I’m as surprised as you are!” I laughed, reaching into my backpack to haul out my books. “Can you believe Tiffany was serious about being friends with me? I actually had a great time with her at lunch! Maybe I should give her a chance … what do you think?”
“Well, I don’t know, maybe she was really being honest yesterday. It’s up to you, Joe.” Seth began throwing his papers inside his backpack. He seemed in a hurry. “I don’t know if it counts for anything, but I have never seen her bullying people here before. She does walk around like she owns the place, but I guess she does in fact own the place, so it’s an honest attitude on her part.”
I was about to reply when a boy barged into the room without knocking. He looked calmly at Seth, a guitar case looped over his shoulder. He had a skater/surfer look about him, but his most noticeable feature was the wildest, deepest, darkest crimson hair I have ever seen. The contrast with his pale skin made his eyes really stand out with their vibrant green color. He was a little shorter and thinner than Seth, and had a small silver lip ring. And he was incredibly beautiful. No one should be allowed to be that beautiful.
Seth turned towards the door and greeted Skater Boy excitedly. “Hey! It’s about damn time, Harry! I’ve been waiting for you guys for ever in here. Wait. Where’s Josh? Why isn’t he with you?”
“I dunno, man. You know Josh, always disappearing, doing ‘Joshy things’. Sammy is already at the rehearsal room waiting for us,” Harry answered quietly. Then he noticed me for the first time and immediately tensed, averting his eyes. “Hey, Seth, man, there’s a chick in your room,” he mumbled shyly.
Seth continued to stuff the last remains of his papers into his bag. “Yeah, that would be Joe Gray. I’ve told you about her, remember? She’ll be my room-mate for the rest of the year, so please do try to knock before entering our room from now on, dude. Joe Gray, this is Harry Ledger. Bass player and most awesome friend,” he introduced, grabbing a quick cool handshake with Harry.
Harry looked at me shyly and nodded a short greeting. “Hey, Joe.”
“Hello, Harry,” I replied, leaning back against my headboard and waiting for him to stick to the expected script about my name … It never came. Harry just stuffed his hands inside his baggy shorts pockets and waited patiently for Seth to be ready to leave.
I was stunned. That was a first. No, really, that was
the first time
someone had been introduced to me without the
“But Joe’s a boy’s name”
line coming up. The. First. Time. Ever.
I guess Tristan hadn’t
exactly
mentioned it the first time we’d met, but I knew he’d been thinking it and restraining himself from asking because I was daring him to say anything about it. Harry seemed like he didn’t care at all; that he wasn’t even masking the thought.
Harry must have noticed me gawking at him, because he started to shuffle his feet uncomfortably, anxious to get out of the room. He looked incredibly shy. Which was really strange. Beautiful boys like him were usually full of themselves, all smirks, winks and cocky replies. Harry, apparently, was nothing like that.
Seth finally finished his packing and grabbed his guitar case, throwing it over his shoulder, and headed for the door with a relieved Harry tagging behind. “So, Joe, we’ll be at rehearsals! See ya later, okay? Come on, Harry, we’ll wait for Josh there. I have a surprise song to show you guys. You won’t believe how good it is!” He winked at me before closing the door.
I smiled to the room, enjoying how excited Seth was about his new song. I hoped he’d let me hear him playing it some time. I decided now was a good time to take a bath, since I had the whole room to myself.
I took out my special tangerine shampoo for “happy occasions” only, and hurried to the bathroom. When I was done with my bath I walked out all cleaned up, properly perfumed, fully groomed, hair all nicely combed, and dressed in my black sweat pants and black tank-top.
I came to a sudden halt when I saw that another boy was sitting on Seth’s bed, with his back to me. He had really large shoulders and was thumping on his legs with two drumsticks. He turned to look at me when he heard me coming out of the bathroom.
“Hey, Seth, man, I’ve been waiting here for ev— Oh. Hi. Hello. You’re not Seth,” he said abruptly, a puzzled look on his face.
The lightest, bluest eyes stared back at me from a handsome, thin face complemented by thin lips. His hair was really short and as black as mine, almost shaved at the sides but a little longer at the top, where he was sporting a small mohawk.
“Hey, you must be Josh. I’m Joe, Seth’s new roommate,” I said, offering my hand to him.
He shook it, smiling kindly. “You have the name of a boy, but you sure don’t look like one!”
I smiled back at him. There it was. A variation of the traditional script, right on cue. It really was only Harry, then.
“They left for rehearsal a while ago. I heard Seth asking about you. He has a new song to show you guys. You should probably hurry, he must be anxious waiting for you.” I threw myself on to my bed and grabbed a book.
“Yeah, right,” he said, standing up.
Whoa! He was tall. And had really broad shoulders and a strong chest, but a lean build. Seth didn’t need to worry about playing good songs – not with everyone in the band looking like they did. He could try opening a modeling agency, in fact.
“Nice meeting you, Joe! If Seth starts annoying you too much, just let me know and I’ll take care of him for you!” Josh gave me a warm smile and a tiny wink, then he left the room in a hurry.
I spent the rest of the afternoon doing my homework as planned. After dinner I tried to wait up for Seth, reading a book in bed. I was really curious to hear the band’s comments on the new song, but sleep overwhelmed me and I didn’t even hear Seth sneak back into the room late that night.
Chapter Fourteen
Birthday Present
Thursday started pretty uneventfully.
I got up early and went to grab some breakfast on my own, leaving Seth still sleeping. Tiffany arrived fifteen minutes later, chatted with some friends and again headed to my table with her tray of food, to join me for breakfast. I noticed that this got me some weird looks from people around us. It was two days in a row that Tiffany had joined me for meals. People were starting to notice me, the weird-looking tomboy girl that captured Tiffany’s attention.
I felt a little awkward about the spotlight being on me, but I kept on munching my breakfast and trying to hide from all those prying eyes. We talked a little – well, Tiffany did most of the talking; I wasn’t much of a talker in the mornings – and then we parted ways to head for our classrooms.
I remembered that I needed some books from my locker, so I made a small detour to grab them first. On the way to the lockers, I started to pick up a few threads of conversation passing by me. At first I didn’t connect the dots, but soon I began to understand that all the whispers, hushed murmurs and side glances were directed at me.
“I heard she stood up to Professor …”
“… a boy’s name, that’s her over there …”
“The cheerleader squad are scared of her, nobody knows why …”
“She even stood up to Tiffany! She must be crazy …”
“… and they are best friends now? What’s the catch?”
“Who is she anyway?”
That last comment was made by a group of jocks to their captain, Bradley Finn. Seth had pointed Bradley out to me the other day, warning me to stay clear of him. Apparently, there had been a fight between them last year and Seth had left the basketball team. It was the first time I’d seen Seth so disgruntled about something. Bradley was a living, breathing jock stereotype: the school basketball team captain, big, dumb, massively loud, rude, pretentious and very conceited. Every quality I despised in a person. I had seen him walking round the halls before, but now Bradley had turned his face in my direction and was studying me with deep interest. I tilted my head down and continued walking to my locker, trying to draw the minimal amount of attention to myself, but people kept pointing and whispering at me all the time. I realized I was getting quite a name for myself. Fantastic. Not even one full week at school and I was already the crazy, deranged new girl. Just great!
I hurried to my locker and grabbed my books as fast as I could. The buzzing around me was starting to make me feel really uncomfortable. As I closed the locker door with a bang and turned to leave, a big heavy chest stopped me mid-turn. I stumbled backwards, startled, slamming loudly into my locker. When I looked up, I saw the smug, square-jawed face of Bradley staring down at me.
“So, you’re the new girl everybody is talking about! I don’t see what all the fuss is about. What’s your name, new girl?” He dragged his big hands through his short, sandy hair and smirked unpleasantly.
I regained my balance and puffed out my chest, trying to impose myself a little. Bradley didn’t seem impressed. “I’m Joe. Joe Gray,” I said quietly. I should keep it cool now. I didn’t need any more fights in this school.
“Hah. That’s fucking hilarious! What’s your mom’s problem, giving you a boy’s name like that!” he barked in a mocking tone.
I squinted my eyes at him, starting to feel my blood boiling. “Your mom’s half responsible for your pea-sized brain, but you don’t see me asking what’s her problem, do you?” I snapped. So much for keeping it cool.
His brow creased with the effort of thinking. “Are ya calling me stupid?” he barked again. He looked angry now, rather than amused.
“You know, the fact that you even need to ask that really answers your own question, dontcha think?” I said, crossing my arms defiantly with my books against my chest.
Bradley leaned really close to me, forcing me to step back and bump against the locker door again. I mentally cursed myself: stepping back would give him the impression I was scared. Definitely not a good move in a fight-for-power-position. He extended both arms either side of me, blocking my escape.
“This pea-brain here is going to give you a lesson, though. It’s not very smart to piss off the most popular guy at this school!” he said menacingly.
I stared at him with my jaw clenched tight. He did not know who he was messing with. I had my martial arts belts to prove him wrong! “You back the hell off, or I’ll make you regret it,” I warned with a growl. I shifted my legs, giving myself enough balance to stand on one foot, while preparing a
kick in the nuts
routine. It wasn’t an approved manoeuver, technically speaking, but with a guy his size I needed to fight dirty to have some starting advantage.
But before I could do anything, a hand grabbed Bradley’s shoulders and pushed him away from me, hard, making him stumble backwards, almost falling on his ass. I was as surprised as he was.
Bradley regained his balance at the last second and stood up straight, turning to look at a furious Harry in front of him. Harry had his arms firmly at his sides, fists clenched tight. He looked really angry, but when he spoke his voice was low and calm. His hands betrayed the cracks in his calm façade, though. “I think it’s time for you to leave, Bradley,” Harry said.
Bradley wasn’t happy about being pushed around roughly like that. “Yeah? Who’s gonna make me? You, little rocker boy?” he barked. Bradley barked a lot. He reminded me of a pit-bull.
“Yes, the little rocker boy and I,” said Josh stepping up to Harry’s side.
Josh wasn’t as
little
as Harry. He had an impressive height, although Bradley was broader and bigger in the muscles department. But apparently Josh’s threat was enough for Bradley to reconsider his next move. Bradley glanced quickly around and noticed the absence of his buddies, the basketball team he always had by his side for backup. Now he was alone. And outnumbered. So he did what was expected of conceited cowards. He backed off.
“Fine. She’s all yours! Have fun with the tomboy there! She’s not even worth the aggravation!” he said, walking away with a sneer on his face.
Harry approached me and kneeled down to pick up a book I’d dropped, handing it cautiously to me. “Are you okay?” he asked in the same calm voice of minutes before, but now all the anger was gone there was a hint of softness to it.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Thanks, Harry,” I said, taking my book back. “I’m sorry to get you guys into trouble. He’s going to want to get his own back on you two later.”
Harry smiled softly and shrugged his shoulders, with an expression that said he couldn’t care less about Bradley’s retaliation.
“Don’t worry about it,” Josh added. “We’ll walk you to your class. Where are you headed?”.
“It’s … this way. It’s not really necessary, guys! I can take care of myself,” I insisted as they walked by my side through the hallway.
They weren’t buying it, though. Why would they? All they had seen was a scared little girl being hustled by a huge bully. One minute later they would have seen a little girl kicking the bully hard in the nuts, though. I was a little annoyed at them thinking I was that helpless. But they meant well and were just trying to protect me, so I let them tag along.
“So, Joe, Seth showed us his new song,” Josh commented casually.
I was happy with the change of conversation. “Yeah? What did you guys think of it?”
“It was pretty good.” Josh smiled.
“Very
, very
good,” Harry added from the other side of me.
“Good! Seth was very excited about it. He must be happy that you guys approved. He said you two are a bit picky in the lyrics department.”
“We’re not picky! We just like songs that don’t suck, that’s all!” Harry laughed. “And that one definitely did not suck. Thanks, Joe.”