Chapter 5 Standoff

“Oh, Fairy, where do you think you are going?” Yuel calls as I face him across the car.

It’s like the world comes to a standstill again, no thought enters my head, everything is black except for the spotlight shining down on Milo, standing in front of Yuel, with Yuel’s hand wrapped around Milo’s throat.

“Milo,” I gasp as I watch him and the others standing there. Narrin has a smirk on his face. Zeke is looking cocky, Narrin is smirking as well, with a raised eyebrow, and it is Yuel, with the utter triumph on his face, as he stands there with Milo.

“Now, release the car door and come over here so that we can talk about how naughty you are,” Zeke says as he looks at Yuel and Milo.

“Otherwise, Milo might need to cop your punishment,” Narrin adds gleefully.

“Firstly, who the hell are you calling Fairy, and secondly, what the hell do you want?” I growl as I take a step away from the car.

“We just wanted to say hello, but then you took everything that we thought we were good at and turned it on its head,” Talon adds as he spits out blood.

“Well, clearly, I didn’t want to talk to you. Instead of it hurting your precious ego, maybe you should have taken it to mean that you should move on to someone willing to say hello. Also, maybe you aren’t that good.” I growl back.

“Now, now. Little bit, we were just being friendly, and here you are being mean. Is that any way to treat us?” Yuel adds

“Yes, yes, it is the exact way to treat you.” I growl back

“Leave my sister alone,” Milo growls as he struggles in Yuel’s grasp.

“Milo doesn’t. Look, I am sorry if I hurt your feelings. I am sorry. But chasing me, stalking me, and being a pain in the ass isn’t going to get me to do what you want. Let Milo go, he has nothing to do with this, and then maybe I will say hello to you when I see you.”

“You will say hello when you see us, you will talk to us. But most importantly, you will tell us everything there is to know about you and your little brother, Milo.” Talon growls as he wipes blood from his nose.

“Yeah, hello, I can do. But the rest, I am not a people person. I dislike people, so it will have to be on a case-by-case basis. Right now, you are not helping your situation, as you are holding my brother hostage, and instead of that, it's making me feel like forgiving his whole messed-up situation; all it is doing is pissing me off. So let Milo go, and we will go from there.”

They release Milo by shoving him forward. I watch as Milo stumbles for a few steps before gaining his balance and moving to my side.

“Great, I see that you can listen like good dogs. Now I want you to say goodbye, and we will be on our way,” I growl at the boys across from me.

They don’t speak for a full minute. Milo and I move towards the car with quick steps, climbing in and locking the doors. I shove the keys into the ignition and tear out of the car park.

“You want to talk about it?”  Milo asks as we continue towards home, checking the mirrors like we are on the most wanted list.

I shake my head. “Not yet.”

He nods. “Okay.”

That night, I sit on the porch out back with all the lights off, staring at the starry night sky. I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep running.  Those boys are like relentless bulldogs with some hound chucked in. But how can I make it stop?

I think about math class. About the quiz. At that moment, I felt a surge of power.

She needed that again. Nodding my head at the course of action that I have planned. I move through the small house and climb into bed beside Milo.

The next day, I take a deep breath as we pull up into the school parking lot again.

“Are you sure this is the right thing to do?” Milo asks as he too takes a deep breath after asking his question.

“I don’t know, but I can’t act scared of them, can’t run from them,” I mutter as I watch the kids walking into the school gates.

So, with leaving little room for self-doubt to occupy my mind, I open the car door and hesitantly walk towards the school that is my prison for the next six hours.

I don’t run.

I walked.

Slowly. Deliberately.

Talon saw me, and we locked eyes, my silent challenge to him. I watch as he smirks before opening his mouth and letting out a shrill whistle. It doesn’t take long before the others arrive.

Zeke tried the shoulder bump. I sidestepped.

Yuel smirked. I stared back.

Narrin watched. I met his gaze.

They didn’t know what to do.

“Good morning, Princess.”

“Hello, Fairy”

“Morning,  little bit.”

“Hello sugar plum”

Nodding my head, I continue past the boys like my heart was galloping out of my chest. I keep walking into our math class with the four guys following close behind. Taking my seat, I watch as the boys take theirs, and all the eyes within the class stare at us like we are other beings with two heads or more.

At the end of the day, I still raced to Milo. Still tore out of the parking lot. But something had changed.

I wasn’t just escaping.

I was reclaiming.

This became the new norm. I pretended that they didn’t terrify me, and they continued to greet me daily and upon every class that we shared together, I would nod my head, but no words actually left my mouth, and so this became normal. The teachers stopped watching so closely, especially by the end of our first year together, when every class I had, they had as well.