Draven

For some unknown reason, I said too much. As Jenny and I sat there on the bed, I let the words spill out like they’d been locked up inside me. There was no reason for her to know anything about me, none whatsoever. I should’ve never told her about the whole group home thing. With a couple of months until my eighteenth birthday, I couldn’t risk it. She was the last person I ever expected to share anything with. 

Maybe that’s what was bothering me, or maybe it was the fact that she admitted she would’ve agreed to date Tyler. I don’t know. I couldn’t wrap my head around any of it. The guy infuriated me. All I wanted was a piece of revenge, and I got it. Letting her get under my skin wasn’t a part of my plan. 

After cutting the conversation off, we went straight into studying. We didn’t get very far when her mother said dinner was ready. I knew it pissed Jenny off that I agreed to stay, but I couldn’t pass up the chance for a free meal, especially a hot one. I didn’t get them very often.

We left our books open on the bed, and I followed her down the stairs into the kitchen. It was the first time I’d actually been face to face with her Dad. He didn’t seem so tough. He was far less frightening than my own Dad. You’d have to be a tank to match his brute force.

“Draven, this is my husband Steve.” Mrs. Pearson said before showing me to my seat. It was a small table and I was seated directly next to Jenny. Across the table was Jenny’s brother Trevor. He was an odd kid. 

“Nice to meet you Draven,” Steve said.

I didn’t reply, just nodded my head. It wasn’t in my nature to be accepting, and I couldn’t care less what anyone thought of me. My guard was always up. Take it or leave it.

“What have you two been working on?” Steve asked me, but I didn’t feel like answering. I just waited for Jenny to tell him. Small talk was pointless in my opinion, especially with people I barely knew. I stared straight ahead at the table of food, and waited for the moment I could dig in. I just wanted to eat, and get back to studying.

Mrs. Pearson made small talk throughout the dinner but it was all very uncomfortable. After a few short answers, she finally quit asking me questions. I wasn’t used to being with a normal family that sits down to eat dinner at a table. Hell, I wasn’t even used to eating a home cooked meal, but I scarfed it down. It might’ve been my last one, and it was too good to pass up. 

Everyone seemed to glare at me as I shoveled the food in my face, even though they were trying hard not to. I could feel their eyes on me, silently judging my every move.

By the time I finished my last piece of bread, I could barely move. My stomach was turning and I felt violently nauseous, like my insides were wrecking havoc. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so full. 

Trevor had already left the table to go back to his room, and Jenny was sitting as still as a statue next to me. Her Mom was making coffee and her Dad sat perched in his chair with his hands folded in front of him. The silence was oddly loud, and I didn’t like it. When you’re used to hearing noise, complete silence sounded terrorizing. It made me fidgety and didn’t help my already unsettled stomach. I was ready to get the hell out of that room. 

“We should finish studying,” I said, nudging Jenny’s arm. 

She flinched at my touch. “Yeah,” she agreed. 

“We’re going back to my room to finish up. We have a lot left to do,” she told her parents.

“You’re studying in your room?” Steve asked before glancing back at his wife. 

Jenny placed a quick kiss on her Dad’s cheek. “We’ve been up there this whole time, Daddy.”

“It’s fine, Steve,” her Mom interjected. I felt like this was a conversation that I was better left out of. “You kids go ahead.”

The hike up the flight of stairs was a little harder this time around on a full stomach, and Jenny was extra quiet for some reason. 

When we walked back into her room, she closed the door this time. I climbed back on the bed taking my spot and waited for her to join me. She was acting weird though, like to the point where I was feeling uneasy. Something was up.

“You’re acting stranger than normal you know. What’s going on with you?”

She sat down, pulling the notebook over her lap. I thought she was going to say something about my eating, and the fact that I barely chewed my food. A starving man has to eat, but I didn’t want her prying into my business. 

The longer she sat there not speaking, the madder she got. I could tell by the way the lines on her forehead grew tighter. She bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes. 

Boy was I in for it, and I didn’t even know what the hell I’d done. 

“You know it’s one thing for you to act like a complete ass to me. I get it. You despise me as much as I do you. But you acted like a total prick down there. My parents were nice to you. They allow you to come over here so that I can help you pass your senior year. They feed you. They were nothing but nice, and you were such a jerk. I mean seriously,” she ranted. She slammed the notebook on the bed and stood back up. “I can’t believe that I listened to my mother when she told me to cut you some slack. I’ve lost my mind.” She was raving like a complete lunatic, and spouting out truths like they were nothing. “Ever since I can remember, I have avoided you. You’re a bully. You prey on people’s weaknesses. You cause a scene no matter where you go. You think you’re owed something, and I would cringe just hearing your voice.” I couldn’t stop her as she paced the floor. When I climbed to my feet she moved in for the kill. “Let me tell you something Draven Lepage. I’m tired of walking on eggshells when you’re around, and being afraid of saying the wrong thing because you’ll embarrass me like you do everyone else. I am disappointed that I wasted my time trying to help you pass, when you yourself wouldn’t help a thirsty man find water. I’m through. You won’t come back into this house and disrespect my parents again. And you can find someone else to tutor you, because I’m so over it.” 

She finally shut up long enough for me to get a word in, but I stood there in shock and couldn’t even find the right words to say. 

“Get out.” She shook her head.

“You’re mad because I didn’t speak to your family the way you wanted me to,” I spat. “Or were you just waiting for a reason to get out of this?”

“Don’t turn this around on me!” She shouted. 

I smirked, which pissed her off even more. She wasn’t getting rid of me that easily. Fighting was my specialty. 

“You have this brick wall up around you, making people think that you’re some bad ass who runs the show. Well news flash Lepage, the show just ended. You wanted to keep me at arm’s length, just long enough for me to get you through high school. Let’s see how good you do on your own.”

“You’re not serious.” I tried laughing it off. Tears welled up in her eyes, and I realized just how serious she was. I knew it because I could read her like a book. Her eyes narrowed in on mine and for the first time in a long time, I felt small. I felt defeated. I felt like I screwed everything up, and I was going to lose it all. All these feelings she’d kept bottled up inside about me had come out with full force, and the only words that came to mind were – she was right. This wasn’t really about her parents. That was just the icing on the cake. I’d gotten under her skin one too many times.

I’d always used my rage to get what I wanted, I didn’t know any other way. And I couldn’t change. Rage wasn’t going to win this war.

“Go,” she told me again.

I walked over to the bed and gathered my things. When I looked back at her she still had that fighting look in her eyes. They were filled to the rim with unshed tears, and I didn’t have any words that would make it better. Those kinds of words didn’t even exist in my vocabulary.  

I stepped out into the hallway and she slammed the door behind me. I stood there for a moment, but when I heard her crying I got the hell out of there. I took the steps two at a time, and left her house in a hurry. 

Every minute in the car I replayed what happened trying to understand, but I couldn’t. Maybe it was some revelation on her part. Maybe she had some pent up aggression that she just needed to get out. 

I didn’t know.

All I knew was, she was angry. There was nothing that I could do or say to make it better. It upset me to hear her crying, but I wasn’t going to run back and apologize. I shouldn’t have to apologize for being myself. She knew exactly how I was before the whole tutoring thing began. So what if I didn’t speak to her parents. It wasn’t enough to make her that pissed off. 

Something else was wrong with her. 

But it was too late to worry about it now. 

What’s done is done, to hell with it all.

To hell with her…