Chapter 2
1072 Words
Chapter Two.
The first time I saw Darex was the day he got enrolled here as a Sophomore.
The rumors about why he was expelled from his previous school were outrageous. Some said it was for beating a younger student bloody. Some said he had sold hard drugs that people overdosed on. Some said he had killed a man and slept with his wife and the only reason he wasn’t in jail was that he was fifteen and his father was loaded.
Like I said, outrageous.
He looked almost exactly like Darren, which made sense since they were identical twins but it was weird the first time I saw them beside each other.
While the masses flocked to Darren, people tended to stay away from him. The school didn’t know if any of the rumors were true but we certainly knew about his anger issues. We’d seen evidence of it firsthand, multiple times.
Unfortunately, he didn’t stay away from me. I remembered the deep feeling of dread when I realized there were two of them.
On that first day, he had literally bulldozed into me. He's sent both me and my books flying, amidst laughter and he didn’t even turn back, the prick. Ever since then, it had been one thing or the other that made me sure that even that first time wasn’t an accident.
You would think because Darren had a year’s head start on Darex, I’d despise him more. But no, I’d done some self-reflection and could say I hated them both equally, and with a burning passion.
Where Darren preferred physiological warfare, Darex was a different case. He was more physical like taking scissors to my trousers and making them shorts while they were still on my legs or taking the belt that was keeping my pants on my waist so I had to hold it up. Students made sure to laugh, point and even take pictures as I passed them on my way to my locker where I kept spare clothes.
I ate alone today because my best friend, Summer, had a cold. So, I went to the football pitch, intent on just sitting and scrolling on my phone.
But Darex was there, making out with a girl underneath one of the bleachers. People might be afraid of him but they still thought he was hot.
I groaned in my head. Must have been my lucky day, to run into both of them before the end of the school day.
I tried to back away when I saw them but he noticed me. He stopped kissing the girl and shot me a smirk. Oh no.
Well, there was no running now because he might literally chase me down. He’d done it before and it wasn’t fun to be tackled by someone who weighed considerably more than you. Darren may have made me determined to not be s**t at drawing but Darex had put me off heavy contact sports.
He stood and his 'colleague' stood as well. He wrapped his hand around her waist and they sauntered over. ‘Go on, Darling,’ he drawled, eyes fixed on me. ‘I’ll find you later.’
‘Promise?” the girl asked, twirling a strand of her hair.
‘Absolutely,’ he replied, and kissed her hard. I rolled my eyes as she giggled again when he smacked her ass. She sashayed away, swinging her hips.
"Darex-"
I still attempted to reason with him after all this time because it was the best course of action.
I couldn’t take this to the admin office. One of the reasons being their Dad was a major contribution to the school and the second being that it might come back to bite me in the ass if the twins took offense to me ratting them out, and decided to teach me a lesson.
But the biggest reason was that they’d have to call my mom. It had become a deep-rooted habit to try and keep her as happy as possible by not causing any trouble in my school..
It seemed that day wasn’t the one where he'd grow a soul. He lunged, cutting my words off at the knees and caught me by the hair. I hissed in pain but his fingers slackened as he brought the both of us to the ground.
Then he started running his hands through my hair.
"Darrex, stop!"
He never listened. Ever since I started curling it, he'd added a new truck to his arsenal.
He would hold my hands in one of his and ruffle my hair until it tangled and poofed to twice its original size. It was so frustrating!
When he was done making my hair look like a frizzy bird's nest, he walked away with a stupid smile on his stupid face.
One day, I’d find out where he lived, sneak in and cut off all his hair. I didn't run into any trouble the rest of the day.
The door wasn't locked when I came back from school. I pushed it open, thinking nothing of it other than Mom was home.
And I was right; she was home. But she wasn't alone.
I always took off my shoes on the porch so maybe that's why they didn't hear me come in. Another reason was because there was music playing, though it wasn't loud enough to hide the sound of the gasp falling from my mouth and my shoes falling to the floor.
Mom jerked away from the man, a horrified look on her face. I glimpsed the man going a different route, he dove for his shirt. Smart. I looked away, fixing my eyes on my mom. The music stopped.
"Jane!"
I couldn't really process what I was seeing. What was my life? Wasn't I the one supposed to be caught with a boy on the couch?
Mom had never dated in the years that followed Dad's passing, maybe that was why it was even more shocking.
Mom attempted to smoothen her hair down with her hands. It wasn't working. It was a short black mass of waves. She had given that hair to me too, I just wore mine longer.
"You're home," she breathed, heaving.
And that's when I saw it. And I was sure that it wasn't there when I left for school this morning.
She wore a fat twinkling diamond, what looked suspiciously like a wedding ring on the right finger.
- Writer
