Chapter One
KAI
You wouldn’t think taking a shortcut home from school would have life-changing consequences.
It was a stupid thing to do in the first place. Stupid because the route took me straight through Fleming Park and past the local grammar school. Now, if the odds were in my favour, I could slip by without any of the posh, uppity twats noticing me.
Sadly, the odds rarely seemed to be in my favour. The fuckers seemed to have an instinctive homing beacon where I was concerned, always coming out of the woodwork ready to torment me.
I didn’t know what it was they hated about me more.
That even though I was two years younger than them at thirteen, I already towered over them.
That my postcode didn’t carry the same cache as theirs.
That I didn’t spend much time outside my house because I was helping care for my younger siblings.
And my mum. Since starting chemo, she’d needed me in a way she never had.
With Dad’s job being so high-pressure, I’d stepped in to keep everything going.
Or maybe they hated me because I was Black.
At this point, I didn’t care why they tormented me, just that they did. Thankfully, our paths didn’t cross often. It wasn’t like they’d be caught dead on my estate. Not unless they were hitting up Druggie Bill for a ten-bag of weed.
They weren’t too good for us when it came to recreational drugs. One of those posh fuckers probably smoked more than the rest of my estate combined.
“Hey, Mal-ach-kai!”
The taunt rang out across the field. Even if I hadn’t recognised the voice as Timothy Smythe, the slow, punctuated way he drew out my name would’ve given him away.
“Come on, you little chav, don’t you want to play?”
I gritted my teeth at the slur. With all the education those twats received, you’d think they’d have a wider vocabulary.
Being from a council estate wasn’t something I was ashamed of, regardless of what insults they wanted to throw at me about it.
To them, a council estate meant you were poor.
And being poor, to them, was something to be mocked.
The ironic thing was that we weren’t even tight for money. Dad had a fantastic job at an accountancy firm in the city. Another year, and he should make partner. In fact, we’d been about to move to a much better area. My name had even been down for that stupid school.
But then Mum got sick. Everything else got put on hold as all our lives changed in an instant.
It was ridiculous anyway. Who the fuck judged others based on their address or bank balance?
Pricks. That was who.
I quickened my footsteps, wrapping the handle of my crossbody bag around my hand.
I’d lost two bags to Timothy already. I really couldn’t afford to lose the contents of this one too.
Unlike many of the kids on my estate, I took school very seriously, and this bag contained not only my books but two completed essays.
Mum and Dad had drummed the importance of a good education into me from a very young age.
I wasn’t going to let them down.
Loud thumps approached as the boys continued to yell my name in that infuriating manner.
“Mal-ach-kai…”
“Don’t you wanna play?”
“Where you running off to?”
“Aw. Are you scared, Mal-ach-kai?”
Blood pounded through my veins as I broke into a sprint.
Yes, I was scared. Scared of losing a whole night’s sleep rewriting my essays.
But I wasn’t scared of getting a beating.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t had enough of them from these twats.
The only reason they got away with attacking kids from my estate is that they travelled in packs, waiting until they got one of us alone.
It was only a matter of time before someone stood up to them. That person wouldn’t be me. Knowing them, they’d go home crying to their mummy and daddy about the kid from the council estate.
The last thing my parents needed was the police on their doorstep. Because, let’s be real, whose word would they take? Mine, the boy from the council estate built like a brick shithouse? Or the lanky group of tossers with too-white teeth who smiled like butter wouldn’t fucking melt?
Yeah. I knew how that story would end. It’s why I never fought back. It wasn’t worth the trouble it’d bring down on my family.
They were closer now. My long legs ate up the ground as I sprinted towards the woods on the edge of the field. Once I was in there, I’d be okay. There were always kids from the estate hanging around, and if they saw this lot chasing me, it’d be war.
Say what you like about council-estate kids, but we had each other’s back unquestionably. Especially against fuckers who thought they were better than us because it was their parents’ names on the deeds rather than the government’s.
The tree line was tantalisingly close. My breaths were coming out in gasps as twigs snapped under my feet.
Smack.
Something hit the small of my back, sending me sprawling into the dirt. The wind whooshed out of my chest and I winced as my cheek scraped along the ground.
Shit. Get up, Kai.
Before I could get my breath back, a heavy weight dropped onto my shoulders, pinning me in place. I snarled, twisting my head to see Hugo, Timothy’s favourite sidekick, grinning down at me. “Caught you, Mal-ach-kai.”
“It’s Kai,” I spat, wriggling as I desperately tried to unseat him. “Gerrof. I need to get home.”
Shiny loafers came into my vision, and my heart sank as Timothy crouched in front of me. “Oh yes, you need to go home to babysit. We see you taking your brother to school in the mornings. What’s wrong with your mum? She depressed? Wouldn’t be surprised with the dump you all live in.”
“She has cancer, you prick,” I hissed.
If I’d hoped that might spark some compassion in Timothy, I’d thought wrong. He sneered at me. “Good. Natural selection at its finest.”
His words unlocked something in me, and I started thrashing. Hugo yelled for help while pinning me down, and before I knew it, multiple hands were digging into my arms and legs.
“Poor Mal-ach-kai,” Timothy said mockingly. “Here we are, just trying to be friends, and you’re throwing it back in our faces.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask what about our current situation suggested an attempt at friendship, but I bit it back. The quieter I kept, the faster this would be over with and I could be back home.
“Looks like we need to give you a lesson in manners.” Without warning, Timothy grabbed a handful of my hair, painfully yanking it back so I had no choice but to look at him.
“You’re so pathetic. Not that we expect anything else though.
After all, we know that chav stands for council houses and victims.”
I gritted my teeth against the pain searing through my scalp. Timothy’s face was so close to mine that I could smell prawn cocktail crisps on his breath. “And you, Mal-ach-kai, will always be a victim.”
He pulled back his fist, and I braced for the impact.
Instead, there was a loud thump and Timothy’s eyes glazed over before rolling back in his head.
I watched in confusion as Timothy’s limp hand fell from my hair as he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
A lanky lad in ripped jeans and an Offspring T-shirt glared at Timothy. In his hands was a thick branch.
Disdain dripped from his voice as he spoke, “Actually, it stands for council houses and violence. Never sure where that came from though, seeing as you fuckers are clearly the more violent ones. But I never did like uneven odds.”
He banged the stick on his open palm twice.
The weight lifted off me as footsteps hurried away. Timothy was already coming to, but his friends weren’t waiting for that. Hugo and another shoved an arm under each of his shoulders, half dragging him through the dirt as they scarpered.
“Chav.” My rescuer rolled the word on his tongue, sneering after them as they disappeared through the trees. “Don’t they teach vocabulary at that fancy school?”
It was so close to my earlier thoughts that I barked out a laugh. The boy jumped like he’d forgotten I was still on the floor. “Shit, dude, do you need a hand?”
I waved him off, clambering to my feet and dusting off bits of twigs and leaves as I did so. “It’s all good. Thanks for jumping in and saving me.”
“No problem,” he said, throwing the branch to the side. “Never hit anyone before, but when I saw how many were pinning you down…”
His voice faded, his lips thinning as he shook his head. “I wasn’t going to stand there and do nothing.”
“Some people would’ve. Or turned around and pretended they hadn’t seen anything.”
He tilted his head at me curiously. “Would you?”
“No. I’d step in if it was to help someone else.” I checked my bag over, frowning when I saw the broken catch. “Fuck’s sake, not another one.”
“You’re very tall.”
I flicked my eyes over to the other lad. “You’re…observant.”
That surprised him. His head fell back and he let out a throaty chuckle. The sound sent butterflies swirling through my stomach.
Now I was the one who was surprised. What the hell was that about?
“I mean, you’re a tall, big guy.” My chest puffed out at that. “How’d they get you on the ground like that? Was it just that you were outnumbered?”
“No. But no good comes from fighting back. Not for kids like us.”
“No,” he agreed softly. “It doesn’t.”
That was the way of the world. We were tarred with a certain brush before people even got to know us.
Just because of where we lived.
“I’m Kai.” I shoved my hand out like my dad did when he met new people.
“Silas.” His smaller hand slid into mine, sending an unexpected jolt of electricity up my arm.
His face creased into a massive grin, revealing a slightly chipped front tooth and a deep dimple in his cheek.
It was like someone had hit me over the head with something. I stumbled back, yanking my hand from his.
Silas didn’t seem to notice my odd reaction. His hands were back in his pockets as he looked past me warily. “Think they’ll come back with a bigger gang?”
I hitched my bag higher on my shoulder with a sigh. “For sure. We should get going.”
“Yeah.” He turned back in the direction of our estate. “Probably for the best. Especially if you don’t like fighting.”
I followed after him. No, I didn’t like fighting…but if someone swung at Silas, I didn’t think I’d hold back.
I followed him home, not knowing this would be my life now.
Me, following Silas, waiting for him to really see me.