"Raina Claire! You home?" Her mother called from the living room.

"Yup!" RC called back, detesting that everyone kept calling her Raina Claire when they knew she liked RC better.

"I've steamed vegetables for your dinner, so no carbs." Her mother continued.

"Yay!" RC said quietly with faked enthusiasm. She was actually starving. "Okay," she replied loudly.

"And for God's sake, clean up your room!"

"Right, I'm on it." RC called back, trudging up the stairs, intending on doing anything but clearing her room. Literally anything but that.

She threw her bag at the foot of her bed and took off her jacket. She observed her bruises in the mirror.

"What the hell," she whispered, running her fingers on the side of her eye that had already clotted nicely. Her lip was still a little swollen.

RC stared at herself.

She stared and stared and stared. At herself. And she thought. All the tumbling thoughts that were choking her up, angering her, hurting her. She thought and thought and thought.

She thought about Jordan Brooks, even though she did not know him. She thought about how he had helped her stand up after Brent had left her on the floor, and how he had followed her all the way into the girls bathroom, and how he had almost seen through her tough loud facade.

Almost.

She thought about Shay and Allie and Mallory and Brent. But mostly about Shay and Brent. How​ dare they? How dare they treat her like this? Maybe she deserved to be treated like this. Maybe she was loathsome. Maybe she was not really good enough.

Maybe. Just maybe.

She thought about Mrs. Powell. She liked Mrs. Powell mostly because she loved the subject Mrs. Powell taught. That was it. Also, maybe because Mrs. Powell wasn't a nosy dictatorial prick like the rest of the teachers. She wondered who would replace her.

RC wanted to scream.

She pretended to scream, careful not to make a sound. She screamed a silent scream.

Just then she heard her mother coming up the stairs.

"Raina Claire!" She heard her mother call.

RC quickly loosened her ponytail, messed her tumbling hair up to hide the clot near her eye, and opened her bedroom door. "Yeah?"

"There's someone…" her mother stopped short when she saw RC's lip. "Darling what happened?"

RC shook her head. "Nothing, I tripped and fell at school, it's no big deal."

Her mother looked concerned. "Are you sure it's okay? Looks like it needs ice."

"Yeah it's…"RC shrugged. She cleared her throat. "You were saying?"

"Oh yeah, there's a boy here to see you." The disapproval in her mother's voice was as clear as daylight.

"A boy?" RC was confused. Her blood curled at the thought that Brent had finally discovered where she lived.

"Raina Claire, you know the two house rules. One, no boys allowed, two, no boys allowed." Her mother counted the rules off on her fingers.

"I didn't invite him, mum, whoever he is." RC stepped past her mother and bounded down the stairs to the door, hoping and hoping that it wasn't Brent or any of those other stuck up pricks that called themselves his friends

"What do you want now, Brent?" She started as she swung the front door open. "I'm bus…" she stopped short suddenly when she saw who it was.

"Busy?" Jordan completed the sentence for her. "Really?"

"Yeah," RC said, recovering from the surprise. "Cleaning."

"Cleaning?" Jordan asked incredulously, grinning widely in amusement.

RC shook her head, feeling stupid. "Forget I said that."

"You wish," Jordan retorted, still amusedly grinning.

RC rolled her eyes. "Uh, what are you doing here?" She asked Jordan uncertainly, swinging the door shut behind her, lest her mother be eavesdropping.

Jordan said nothing. Nothing at all.

His longish hair flew slightly as the wind picked up. RC noticed a tattoo behind his left ear. It was a bird in flight.

"So," RC took a deep breath, looking away from his stifling gaze to the tattoo behind his ear. "How many more of those do you have?"

"A few more." He responded, not looking away from her.

"Really?" RC prodded. "Where?"

"On my body."

RC scoffed. "Oh I know that, smarty pants, I'm asking where on your body you have them."

Jordan only smiled without responding.

RC rolled her eyes. "Fine don't tell me."

Jordan chuckled and adjusted his leather jacket.

"I assume there's a reason why you're here, am I right?" RC started.

"Maybe," Jordan responded after a short pause.

"That's not helping," RC smiled.

Jordan stepped closer to RC and ran his fingers over her lips. RC stopped moving.

This felt like an unreal dream. Like ones where you ride unicorns and slide off rainbows and eat endless skittles and never grow fat.

Unreal.

"Jordan this is mildly inappropriate." RC murmured softly, deeply inhaling that signature french fry scent that always clouded him.

"I hate this." He replied in an equally soft tone. "I hate that you always get hurt."

RC cleared her throat, at a loss for words. "It's nothing."

"Is it?" The murmuring continued.

RC heard her mother clear her throat loudly from the other side of the door, and she suddenly stepped back.

"Okay I'll let you have my biology notes tomorrow." She said loudly, knowing that her mother was definitely listening.

Jordan nodded. "Okay, thanks."

He stepped back, still not looking away from RC. They stared each other for a second longer, and then RC slipped back into the house.

"Who was that?" RC's mother questioned suspiciously.

"Just some guy from school." RC shrugged.

"And what did he want?" Her mother turned back to her marinara sauce bubbling away over the heat.

"He wanted my biology book, but I told him I'm using it tonight." RC quickly lied.

She would rather lie than break the 'no boys allowed' house rule. Niomi had done it in high school, and the consequences had not been pretty, to say the least. Not pretty at all.

"Very well, then." Her mother turned off the stove. "Set the table. Maryanne and Kaira will be home from tuitions soon." Maryanne and Kaira were RC's younger sisters.

"Okay." RC replied, her heart still racing a little at Jordan's sudden visit.

Her heart did not stop racing. Not even when her father told her off at dinner for looking hideously fat.

It just did not stop.

***

Hi 😊

Thoughts? Let me know!

Z.