Something Else

We have mandatory classes soon and I decide not to change even though my dress is starting to get annoying and my tights are itchy.

I lie on the bed to try and kill time and eventually I fall asleep.

I dream I’m in the limousine again except this time with Lucas not Brad and I’m not wearing the red dress anymore, I’m wearing a leather jacket and leggings.

“You know,” he says. “They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, but the heart I believe is the mind of the soul. Thinks as though it knows love the way we do, so really your heart would tell me more about your soul than your eyes.”

Something about the whole seeing my heart statement makes me feel uneasy and I quiver and have a slight break in composure which I quickly fix.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“You tell me,”

“Is this real?”

“Yes and no.”

“What?” I ask confused.

“It’s real, but real in another world, we aren’t on the plains of the living, or the dead, just the plain of the subconscious mind and this is what happens when two people meet in this world,” I nod like I understand.

“So to clarify, this is your dream too?” I ask slightly confused.

“Too say the least, yeah,” he smiles at that, but only slightly.

“So why are you asleep? Don’t you have important manners and affairs to attend too?” I ask teasingly.

“Why are you asleep? Don’t you have important mingling and conversations to attend too?” he retorts shutting me up.

“Point proven, I guess,” I sigh, I just can’t win with him.

“You know it’s nearly 7:30,” he says in a warning voice.

“But, we just got here, if I should be in such a hurry to leave shouldn’t you be too?” I ask confused and unconvinced.

“No, on the contraire I can control if I wake up,” he says.

“Too shay,”

“Why do you talk like you can’t afford to break composure for one second?” I ask prying into his personal life, because it’s so much easier then contemplating mine.

“Because, I can’t.” He says it so simply, so honestly I can’t find the right comeback or any comeback for that matter.

“I can’t argue with that logic,” I say trying to avoid the topic, but he has a scowl that makes me nervous.

“Wake up Lacey,” that’s the last thing I remember.

I open my eyes to realise yet again I’m late for an assembly of the females.

Recalling the dream I begin to question if it was real. He said it was, but wouldn’t my subconscious say the same thing?

I practically hop down stairs, three steps at a time. Dashing down flights.

“Chastity Montclair?” Oh no headmistress is taking attendance.

“Here madam,”

“Karly Night?”

“Here auntie!” she says with an all too perky attitude and a bright smile I can sense from here.

“Lacey Night?”

My timing is impeccable and my entrance is as dazzling as usual.

“Heee-er,” I wheeze squeezing in between Karly and Sierra, just squeaking by a tardy.

I look up and see the never faulting gleam in his eye confirm my suspicions.

My aunt soon wraps up attendance and hastily begins to explain today’s lesson. We will each have time to individually mingle with minimum one of the boys to help narrow their decision. At the end of class they will announce if they’d like any girl to come back with them.

As soon as class starts I plant my butt firmly on a chair and decide to let people approach me, but interestingly enough, they don’t.

I look at Karly to see she’s still in a small crowd surrounding one boy don’t know. It’s so ironic to call them boys, they are demons, the root and core of evil itself. Referring to them by their gender is all too casual.

Most of the girls wander around looking lost or chat in small groups, I appear to be the only girl holding her ground.

A big group of more prestigious girls has formed around who I can only suspect to be Brad.

“You know, you really should stop lurking in the shadows, that’s sort of my zone,” I say casually knowing the person behind me will hear.

“Please, there’s enough shadows in this place for both of us,” he says creeping over hesitantly.

“Whose shadows are you living in?” I ask teasing him.

“Besides my brother’s and father’s I will likely soon start inhabiting yours.”

“I’m fine with that, my shadow is big enough for the both of us.”

“I’d ask you on a date, but I think you’re already spoken for,” he says easily.

“You could speak for me if you want,”

“Okay, I’ll speak for you, I think that this is stupid the prior engagement to evil psychopathic murderers,” I stare at him for a long moment in awe of his honesty.

“I didn’t mean in the literal sense.”

“I know what you meant.”

“Ladies settle down please it’s time for an announcement from our visitors,” says my aunt uneasily.

The first boy to go up I don’t recognise and he claims he doesn’t like any of us. Straight forward.

Brad strolls up next and I think 95% of the audience is ready to faint.

“So, what we are going to do is take the pretty girls with us, play with them and throw all but one away,” I find this unsettling, but no one dares flinch.

“My choices are Lacey Night. Oh did I say choices I meant choice.”

The boy I saw Karly with strolls up next.

“I would be honored if Kimmi came back with me,”

Shit.

What the hell? What about Karly? I don’t know what my plan was, draw attention and then throw it onto Karly? That was impossible.

Now Karly’s going to have to go as my guardian. Hilarious.

But just then as the girls start murmuring and complaining it suddenly becomes apparent he isn’t done.

“I’d also be very delighted,” his voice is vicious, I don’t like him.

“If Karly Night accompanied me also,” Never mind he’s my second favourite.

“Ladies please disassemble for curfew, Except those who were called!” she adds for my benefit I still try to sneak away which only makes it worse.

“Lacey?” she asks.

“Yes headmistress?”

“I recall your name being called, if you think otherwise please inform me,” her face is sad but strict.

As the other girls fi0le out with an odd uniformity something occurs to me.

Nothing is permanent, so they best keep a good last impression.

“We leave now, come,” hisses Michael with obvious distaste.

Kimmi and Karly are too scared to pipe up, but I’m not so I ask the question on everyone’s mind.

“What about our stuff?” I ask agitated.

“Not my problem” he shrugs with a smirk too young for a middle aged man. Person. Demon.

“Are you coming or should I have someone drag you out?”

I don’t ask questions after that.

They lead us out to the front of the school into the same limo I rode in earlier, Michael sits shotgun and immediately places the privacy wall.

I’m seated uncomfortably between Lucas and Brad and I swear everyone is staring at me like I’m supposed to fuel the conversation. Reluctantly I succumb to the sister and sister’s friend and limo full of evil demon pressure.

“So where are we going?”

“Hell,” replies Lucas casually. It’s a funny joke, but I can tell Karly and Kimmi don’t get it, because they’ve begun breathing uneasily.

“New York,” says Brad coolly shifting slightly closer.

“New York City?” pipes up Kimmi allured by the possibility of shopping and that I am still alive.

“Ummhmm,” says Brad yet again inching closer his hand starting to get to close for comfort.

“Can we go shopping?” she asks with bright eyes. Karly’s being awfully shy and quiet.

“Sure, you can try on clothes and Markus will watch you,” snorts Lucas. Clearly she doesn’t just annoy me.

“I can take you shopping if you-“

“Will you stop it? Are you trying to get on top of me or under, seriously I’m not a stripper or under two I don’t have to sit on anyone’s lap!” I’m yelling so loud Michaels probably telepathically brainstorming my death with Brad.

Kimmi shoots me a look of disapproval and just shakes her head and roll her eyes. So sentimental for a girl who lost her older sister this morning.

“Hey Kimmi I never told you how sorry I am about your sister,” I say changing the topic hastily with a cue to Karly.

“She was a waste of space anyway, no one will miss her.”

So cold hearted and emotionlessly spoken.

“Speaking of wastes of spaces and not missing girls, Dennis dad’s going to kill you,” groans Lucas with emphasis on the kill. I can’t tell if he’s joking or serious, but after what I witnessed today I don’t doubt the latter.

“I” The guy I know presume is Dennis is cut off by the car door opening.

“Hello again lovebirds,” says Michael in a sort of mock evil singsong type voice. “And Lucas.”

Poor Lucas stuck at 17 while all his brothers vie for the crown he’s stuck being well 17.

“Hi!” says Kimmi way to perky to be written off as cute or lovable, she crossed the line, the line between annoying and stupid. Who greets a murderer? That killed their sister! SO STUPID!

“Plane now.” He speaks so flatly I feel like Kimmi got her energy by sucking the remaining life out of him-and everyone else in the room-car-area-world.

Brad gets out first and practically drags me towards the plane, ahead of the others; still in their field of vision, but not in their hearing range.

“Listen bitch, you’re here, because I want you here. You are a puppet, I’m your puppet master, I’m pulling your strings,” He’s not wrong about that.

“You do what you’re told or your family tree might just end with you and Karly,” he hisses her name with an especially cruel snarl.

“Understand?”

“Rhetorical Question?”

“You’re catching on nicely,” he smiles down at me and I bow my head uncomfortably; feeling as short as my dress.

We reach the stairs leading into the plain and I step up first, but Brad tugs on me-hard­-and I fall into his arms and laughing he carries me up and into the plane. He’s literally pulling my strings.

He plops me down in the window seat, clearly so I don’t run off, and walks off to sit with his brothers and dad, but not before kissing me-on the lips.

No sparks … I don’t know what I expected from my kiss, but I guess my first kiss is the person I kiss.

I open up a book on my cell. I’ve read it about 1000 times, but I doesn’t seem to get old.

Pretty much it’s about a girl named Misty who falls in love with a boy, but he can’t love her because he is in a war torn nation and he loves her so much he takes a bullet for her and after she gets stabbed he carries her to help and dies of blood loss. Misty says love is the desire of the mind and body longing not to be alone.

Karly walks over and sits down in the seat beside me and starts talking unaware of my lack of interest.

“Thanks Lacey, you know for all that you’ve done and are doing for me. I really like Markus, he’s really quiet and honest and sensible and smart …” and not Miller.

“Karly I’m trying to sleep.”

“Oh.”

“Good Night Lacey.”

“Go to sleep Karly.” And by the sound of it, she does. I don’t even to look to check and the sound of Kimmi’s snoring confirms I should sleep, but I can’t.

I shift for hours, but my mind refuses to ease and I’m stuck in a hazy state of wake.

I stay up until what I presume to be about 6am by the light outside, by than I practically pass out.

I wish it didn’t have to be this way.