Chapter Sixteen
Amelie
“You are coming to a party tonight!” Elsie demands. “The Knox boys have not had one since you arrived and you can’t miss it; everyone attends. You never do anything fun on a Friday night! And word has it that Kalen has said the party is in honour of your birthday.”
“But my birthday was weeks ago!”
“It’s just an excuse. Kalen will give any reason he can think of. He’s planning a big Halloween party too.”
Of course he would, everyone knows we are almost step siblings - even though our parents aren’t married, for now.
I’m surprised my incubator hasn’t tried to lock Monty down yet.
I also can’t help but wonder how she’s been funding her lifestyle for the last decade if her and Monty haven’t been together that long.
How did they meet? What’s their story? I don’t give a shit, but it’s a way to get information on her and use it against her.
“Fine, under one condition, if you see me get wasted and run off with a Knox, you stop me by any means necessary.”
Her eyebrows raise. “Care to share?”
“I may have slept with Kalen and possibly gotten close with another.”
“You did not!” she squeals, jumping up and down. “I thought you were anti-Kalen.”
“I am.”
“But that means you were with another Knox, and that is rarer than spotting a unicorn around here. Let it be Onyx, that guy needs to get laid.”
I place my hands on her shoulders and give her a little shake. “You have to stop me from doing anything stupid, my damn hormones are taking over and it has to stop.”
“I will try my best, but wear something slutty.”
“I don’t own anything slutty and I’m going to be late for my class with Mr Knox.”
“Fine, go. But come to my room when you’re done and we will find you something hot.”
“Just remember, I’m not from around here and don’t want to freeze.”
“That is the joy of a Knox party, they are always held in an abandoned underground bunker. It is awesome. Hot and sweaty in confined spaces, so dress the part!”
I laugh at her and make my exit as fast as I can, before she drags me back to her room and I miss my lesson. I’m really hoping Sawyer is there today because I am still as mad as a cut snake about him ditching me and dating; even if it isn't rational.
I see Sawyer and Onyx warming up, whilst I stand and watch from a distance. They both really do look amazing from behind.
Onyx must feel me watching; he spins around and smiles, sending a tingle of emotion all over my body. It isn’t often that he smiles, and for the first time, he seems genuine.
Sawyer notices his brother's change of attitude and looks my way, then back to his brother, his jaw tense.
“Don’t stop on my account,” I say, coming to stand closer to them.
“Checking me out, huh?” Onyx jokes.
“Close your mouth, Amelie, it looks like you’re catching flies,” Sawyer snarks.
“He jokes! I almost had my Onyx-is-a-robot theory complete.”
“Hurry up and stretch, we need to get this lesson over with,” Sawyer snaps, looking down at his phone.
“Another hot date?” I snap back, starting to stretch. If he wants to be pissy at me, fine, but he still owes me and I will get him alone eventually, so he has to tell me. A deal is a deal.
“If you call a grade-A clinger a date,” Onyx snorts.
“Get lost and run brother. Amelie, can I talk to you for a minute?” I look to Sawyer, but Onyx interrupts.
“Last one to the tree line is a rotten egg!” I turn to face Onyx.
“Sorry Mr Knox, but I wouldn’t want to be a rotten egg.” Onyx laughs and I turn away before I can see the look on Sawyer's face, not before kicking Onyx as hard as I can in the shin and making a run for it.
“Cheating won’t help you win,” Onyx calls after me, but I just lift my middle finger in the air and sprint as fast as I can towards the tree line on the far side of the oval. He will catch me quickly, I have no doubt about that. His taunts get clearer and clearer the closer he gets.
With a hundred metres to go, I can feel him on my ass.
My lungs are starting to hurt, my foot connects with his and I fall with zero grace.
Normal people would use their arms to brace for landing.
Me? I fall like a sack of shit, hitting my chin on impact, and the air is knocked out of me from the intense pain.
“Holy shit, are you okay?” he asks falling down beside me. A smile reaches my lips because I think I can still win this. I roll onto my side, and even though the angle isn’t right, I have enough swing to tap him on the nuts.
I scramble to my feet, run the few steps to the edge of the forest, falling back against a tree. Onyx has managed to get up and join me, a slight limp to his step.
“That was a low blow,” he says taking a seat beside me, making me look his way so he can check my chin. I snigger at the double entendre.
“I don’t think it needs stitches, but we should get it cleaned up.”
I agree, so he helps me up and we walk in silence. When he walks straight past the sports building, I stop and ask where we are going. He informs me that Sawyer would have locked up when he left, and sure enough he has. Thankfully, I went back to my room to change today before our lesson.
Onyx takes my hand and drags me along. I expect it’s because he just wants to get this over with.
“Hey, are you okay?” Elsie asks as we walk past the dining hall as she is about to enter. I go to answer but Onyx cuts me off.
“She’ll be fine, now fuck off, vagitarian.”
I wave to Elsie all whilst Onyx starts dragging me off again.
“Hey, that was rude,” I snap.
“So what? You have blood dripping from your chin and you are worried about her feelings?”
“What is her name?” I push.
“Vagitarian.”
“Her actual name?”
“Why the fuck do I care?”
“Ugh,” I groan because I know that I won’t win this one with him. I let it go, stop fighting, let him drag me to Christ knows where. Anything for an easy life. Get in, get fixed, get out again.
After being dragged halfway across campus and into what I am presuming is his dorm building, he stops at a room and opens the door, no key required.
Slate is seated at a desk, laptop open, staring at the screen.
“We need to have a chat with Kalen before things get too f…” he stops talking when he swings his chair around and notices me standing next to Onyx. “What the fuck did you do to her?” he growls, stopping his previous statement mid-sentence when his eyes drink in the state of me.
“She started it. Don’t just blame me,” Onyx grumbles, but there’s a definite whine to his tone.
Slate gestures for me to sit on his bed and slides a first aid kit from under his desk.
“I kicked you in the shin for a small advantage,” I defend myself. “I didn’t want to be a rotten egg.”
“She also kicked me in the nuts.”
“Please, your big brother taught me self-defence. That wasn’t a kick, more of a love-tap,” I laugh. That is what he gets for making me bleed.
“Sounds like you deserved it, bro.”
Onyx tells his brother where to go and pops in their en-suite bathroom for a shower.
“Are you magic?” Slate whispers in awe, and I shake my head no. “He’s never nice to anyone.”
“I’m sure your father is making you all be nice to me, but I’m not complaining.
It’s nicer than being dragged off and pinched.
” He looks down, ashamed, at my reference of that day in the library.
“Maybe you’ll all get to know me and realise I am not the enemy here, the she-bitch is a mutual issue for all of us. ”
“So, things really are that bad between you two?”
“If you call a mother who drank and took too many pills leading up to her leaving ‘bad’, then yeah. Also, let’s not forget that she’s a mother who ditched her eight-year-old daughter and eleven-year-old son.”
“That’s not that bad,” Slate mumbles.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m just saying, as an adopted kid, your story isn’t that unique.”
I turn away from him, gently lift my hair out of the way, and slip my shirt down off my shoulder to reveal three small triangular scars on my shoulder blade.
“What’s that?” Slate asks. He reaches out to touch the raised, puckered skin.
I haven’t looked in a while, but these old scars haven’t faded with time.
They’ve just changed. No longer red, raised, angry welts, the scars are something you can now only feel or see when the light catches them in the right way.
They’re so pale and silvery that they’re almost luminescent.
“You see the really bad one?”
“Yeah.”
“That was the first. I was five or six, I think. She used the tip of the iron. Pressed too hard for too long.”
“Fuck…” he hisses.
“She got better at it. She also realised that there were better places to mark me. Less obvious places. And of course, other ways to hurt me, that would be more subtle. Plus, she didn’t always have time to wait for the iron to heat up,” I laugh humourlessly.
“Why?” he sounds so angry he can barely get his words out.
“That first one? I didn’t eat my vegetables quick enough for her liking.
The second was for failing to say thank you when she got me a drink.
The third was for crying too loudly when I fell over and hurt myself.
That one was a doozy, because I actually needed stitches but she wouldn’t take me because she was scared of my other injuries being seen.
Those three reasons stuck. Then it becomes a blur.
I’m not sure she gave reasons after that. ”
“Fuck,” is all he says. Then he reaches up and lifts his shirt to show me his back. It’s riddled with scars, though my eyes are immediately drawn to his Celtic knot tattoo. It’s the same as Kalen’s. I focus on his scars. Scars that are newer and fresher than mine.
“I was the family punching bag,” he tells me quietly. “She never laid a finger on her perfect Onyx. It’s why he always has his shirt off and I never do. Even in summer.”
“Why?” I whisper, tracing my fingers over the long cross-cross patterns that span his entire back.
“Do they ever need a reason, really?” He can’t see me but I shake my head. I have no words. Slate gets it.