Chapter Nine: Oink

There was something acidic and scathing boiling in my chest. No, it wasn't hydrochloric acid. It was annoyance.

My days seemingly began and ended with Zayn Davenport I tell you and therefore, annoyance is surplus.

The haze of Zayn and I was jaded and I was back to normal, dreading the man. When he walked up to me in English Lit, I slumped in my seat.

"Perhaps your 'not serious girlfriend' shouldn't be in our book for the sake of our reader's mental health" I stated flatly.

"C'mon, Mayfield, who else is it meant to be?”

“There are over two hundred females at this school. Pick one”

“Will you play the part?”

Zayn looked hopeful.

Rumors had it, Zayn and Lorraine encountered rocky waters. Her entourage found her bawling in the bathroom after lunch and concluded.

I didn't want to mess with heartbroken Lorraine and get murdered while walking down an alley in broad daylight.

"Fine, I'll write about the love of your life" I rolled my eyes and typed her name in as a part of the cast.

"Perfect" He smiled cockily getting his way.

"No it isn't. What about me?" I grumbled. It had been obvious thus far, no one liked me in that way.

Zayn rubbed his stubble, focusing his gaze at the blank computer in thought. "We can make it a love triangle, You and Lorraine fighting over the irresistible Jock”

That was a nimble idea. I might have complimented it's complexity if that wasn't already my life. Zayn's victor was Lorraine and not me.

"That is a dumb and hellishly self centered plot" I racked my head for a solution for getting angled by the couple. “What about Carson?”

Zayn frowned. “No”

“Why not. He does think I have a crush on him. It will be perfect” I typed it in, smiling at my wit

Apparently, Carson transfered to our horrible school. I hadn't bumped into him but staring at him from my lunch table confirmed it.

“Why him though?” Zayn looked as apprehensive as an infant. “Can't we cast Joshua?”

“No” I lowered my voice. “He's a bit creepy”

We both looked over our shoulders at Josh Walbridge who just so happened to pick out a big heap of gold from his nose.

“Fine” Zayn surrendered, shuddering. “You can date Carson or whatever his name is”

“You know his name” I squinted.

“What does it matter?”

“Are you jealous?” I proposed. Zayn rolled his eyes, flipping me off.

“I have a girlfriend, Mayfield”

He rolled up his sleeve, revealing some handmade bracelet with Lorraine's initials. Something twisted in me.

“Then we're both set. It's about damn time we begin this book”

All I punched in seemed pathetic. God knew the storyline I had etched into the sordid parts of my mind was nothing similar to what I was typing. It wasn't smut. I swear.

A run though of it was Zayn and I having a clandestine affair despite being in relationships. I didn't have the heart to propose it to him.

"Milan?"

My fantasy cloud depleted. I looked up at the screen to see a string of d's take up about half a page.

"Let me type while you clear up your thoughts" Zayn swooped the desktop into his territory and rapidly corrected my left brained mistake.

I watched coldly as Zayn pinplaced every single detail of what was meant to be a war between Hephzibah- fictional Lorraine- and Me whereby I woefully lost.

"I don't want to be on the loosing side"

My shoulders shuddered in tremor when I'd said it. Zayn on the other hand didn't seem bothered and continued his screenwriting.

"Did you hear me?"

Zayn spared me a glance. "You said something?"

My stomach dropped to the floor. My bravery was long gone along with my self respect but that didn't decrease the fact that I didn't want to loose to Lorraine even if it was fictionally. Even if it meant dating Zayn.

"Forget it" I mumbled and Zayn thoughtlessly did.

"You'd be such an awesome villain" He said after an awfully long moment. I chortled.

"I'd be spectacular. I want a badass outfit and a theme car, preferably a Chevrolet"

A Chevrolet in the color pink to be precise but Zayn already berated me enough, revealing I liked all things pastel will add another tally of things to tease me about.

"As if. The most you get is a vomit green scooter" Zayn guffawed. I picked up my pencil case and smacked the Neanderthal upside his head. Zayn's laugh had the pungent stench of nefariousness.

"Mrs Leblanc" I rose my hand, voice loud enough to carry from the distracting angle of noisesome children to the front of the class where I truly belonged.

Zayn preferred our group camped in the far corners of the class, deterred of intelligence and light.

"Yes, Milan" She smiled.

"I want a change of partners, this one I have here is a bit too..." I eyed Zayn. His smirk was boisterous as ever. "Unusual"

Mrs Leblanc couldn't help but laugh. "No, Milan, both you and Zayn will remain partners until your story is presented to this very desk. His unusualness isn't something you can't handle"

Zayn laughed once more. I felt a piercing urge to kick him in his nether regions. "Hear that, Mayfield. You're stuck with me" Davenport nabbed my cheek pulling my face close to his.

If I leaned in just a little, our lips would be touching.

I was staring at his lips as he smirked, oblivious to what I was cooking up in my mind about those lips. My lipstick would smudge against his lips if I tried.

Woah. What the fuck am I thinking. I pushed myself away and said the Virgin Mary prayer. I'd been reading too many novels.

"I remember you castigating being partners just as much as I did so why?"

Zayn racked his head for a well spent three seconds before answering. "The more you spend around someone, the more likable they become"

For some twisted reason, I was smiling because I related to that theory. Zayn was better once you got to know him.

"I bet you say that to everything In a skirt" I scoffed despite myself.

"Ofcourse not, every compliment i give to you is as new as they come" He smirked.

I stared at his lips for the better part of a minute and looked away, cursing myself for letting the feminine urge to have relations with a hot guy get to me.

I was actually having fun with Zayn. It was against every bad thing I'd written about him in my diary and every evil comment I left behind each of his posts.

“I guess I'm Yet to get used to it, Zayny” I batted my eyelashes. He hated the nickname because it made absolutely no sense.

The project and bickering resumed with full force. It was obvious Zayn and I weren't compatible In terms of school work; we barely made it past the synopsis when the bell rung for our next class.

My chest tightened at the thought of my next class, Sarah would be there but the person who wouldn't was why I was on end.

Zayn didn't take chemistry, he didn't like the thought of acids and traded it for biology–which I resented.

I mean, who's head was I meant to hurl a book at when I get overwhelmed?

The hallway was packed with students grabbing their necessities for the next class and regrouping with friends in Brownian motion. I and a certain male didn't join in instead, he walked behind me quietly.

"What do you want, Zayn?" I spun on my feet, almost walking right into him. A wall of Clothes blinded me. Curse my face for being the height of his pectorals.

"Let's have lunch together" Zayn smiled meekly.

I contemplated his request briefly. Sarah and Chelsea would walk me to Zayn's table themselves with a flower crown but I couldn't stomach what would happen once they left

My screams would bounce of the walls and I'd lie dead with my neck bones mangled while Lorraine demurely wiped blood on her cream jumper.

“No, thank you. A busy woman as I am, I'd prefer not to die before I fulfill my dreams”

Zayn hung his head back, laughing it off. “What are you going on about? You're the most dramatic person I've ever met”

“Why, thank you but I'm being dead serious here. We can't possibly. We both know your girlfriend's going to squeeze the fat out of me if I go over there"

Zayn smiled like he'd already had the conversation in his head. "I'll take care of it"

There was no way he could take care of that wild animal except he broke up with her and I could bet all my twinkies that wasn't his supposed plan. "And I'll think about it"

A genuine smile played along his lips. Zayn grinned like a little kid on Christmas day. God helped him if Lorraine was noncommittal to his plan.

The late bell went off but neither of us left. An embarrassed heat filled my cheeks. My Darn heat sensors were going mad. I was standing and smiling for too long. I needed to flee before I oinked and wiggled my ass.

"You're late for class Milan" Zayn nodded toward my class at the end of the hall and made the first move to leave.

“It's no big deal, you're also late”

“I Know, that's why I'm leaving” Zayn cruelly pushed his large palm into my hair and ruffled it. I breathed fire.

I heaved a sigh when he pranced away and shamelessly ran to the class because I might have been smart but not all Teachers Stan a nerd.

I snuck in courtesy my short height. Teaching and learning was in full swing, I couldn't interrupt that now, could I?

Mr Cavill would threaten me with detention if he found out.

Well, there went my incognito. My desk was cluttered with Beakers and It's cousins, the other glass equipment. I got caught when they clinked.

“Welcome to class Milan” Cavil glowered over his shoulder.

I smiled. “Good morning Sir”

“Kind reminder that you'll be cleaning my apparatus after the class, right?”

Saying no was signing a death contract for the rest of my academic life. “Why not”

And my Two minutes of Fame were over, He resumed his real work–other than torturing people's children.

Once more, I sighed and collapsed in my bench.

"What has you all riled up?" A certain familiar voice asked.

My frown deepened. I wanted to run away and possibly shove my head in an ostrich hole. Or shove her head in one.

"She's speaking to you" Gertrude-mia from coffee city pressed.

"Mia, don't be harsh, you're making her quiver" Lorraine crooned, pouting red tainted lips.

I was not quivering. “Hey Lorraine, How's it going?”

"Why were you with Zayn yesterday?" I shot Gertrude a look but she was too busy grinning maniacally to notice. Effing snitch couldn't keep something to herself.

"It's not your business" Boy, was I playing with fire. You thought Cavil's glower was threatening, think again.

"Don't make me do something you'll regret Milan, tell me"

"Milan, Lorraine, keep it down!" Mr Cavil was holding unto his Hardcover Textbook a bit tighter than normal. He was going to send it crashing down on me and I'd go blind. I could feel it.

Lorraine twirled her hair, smiled a little and the man was appeased.

The class resumed and carried on quite peacefully for an enjoyable while. Barely quarter an hour later Lorraine spun in her swivel chair (the poor majority of us got benches) and made and insignia with the ugliest penmanship smack in the middle of my jottings.

Oh, no she didn't. I didn't like her petty threatening but I could tolerate. Messing with my books, I could never.

I grabbed a handful of her hair before she could spin. It was oddly satisfying to tug. "Stop" I whispered.

A smile played at her lips, it was pure evil and terrifying. In one flick of her wrist, the ballpoint pen she ruined my book with was against my skin, piercing through my tissues and tickling my cheekbone.

"No, Milan"

I pressed my hand against my face, squirming as blood poured out of my face just the way ink leaked from the ballpoint pen.

“What can I say, it's self defense”

She looked innocent and angelic while I looked like I fled a murder scene.

Well, shit. She started it.

One thing led to another, I pulled hair, my hair was pulled and we ended up sulking in the principal's office. Lorraine was in a chair identical to mine caressing her red scalp while I held up an alcohol wipe to the hole in my face.

"You know, when I'd received a call that two girls were fighting, I thought they'd be middle schoolers not a future valedictorian and You " Principal Melbourne sighed. If I wasn't scratched up myself, I would have guffawed.

"In my defence, she ruined my notes" Principal Melbourne glared and I shrunk to an infinitesimal school child.

"Back in the day, if someone destroyed my belongings, we'd resolve it verbally. Now, I have to explain to two pairs of parents why their children look like thugs" She sighed again.

I would've said some more stuff to Lorraine if I was given another chance but principal Melbourne looked swamped with her sending apologetic emails and would pin me to the wall with her stilleto if I pushed it.

"I have a fair punishment for you ladies because you two are in the wrong despite one of you trying to make someone else bald" She spared me a look.

When she ran into the chemistry lab at the most unfortunate time, tufts of Lorraine's hair were stuck in my fingers. "Both of you will serve three days cleaning each and every laboratory, no questions asked"

With a final expression of her disappointment in us, Principal Melbourne glared us out of her office.

"Go to -" Unpleasant use of expletives. "-Hell" Lorraine whispered.

"So can you" I smiled sending her the glorified bird on a platter of ‘I don't give a shit if your father is an attorney’.

Past the bulky doors of the principal's office, four faces awaited the blond witch of the west and i.

“I never knew you had such fight in you, Mayfield" Sarah smirked, eying my swollen cheek.

"Neither did I"

“Milan, Look at your shirt” Chelsea said lowly. I could tell she was mad on my behalf.

I looked down at my shirt. If you didn't squint, the smears of blood against my baby blue blouse could be mistaken for artistic brilliance.

“I guess we hit it off a bit too harsh”

I couldn't tell which blood was mine and which wasn't, I did know I was going to burn that shirt.

I stole a glance at the other less important faces, Zayn and Gertrude's. Zayn was speaking quietly to Lorraine, barely even noticing me. Gertrude did and she growled. The sight made me nauseated.

“Why don't I try getting the blood off, I'll meet you two at lunch”

I glanced over my shoulder when i was about to make a turn into the girls restroom. Zayn was pulling her hair into a ponytail.

Then he looked up and our eyes met. I forcefully walked into the restroom.

I checked for inhabitants, when there was none I locked the door and stared at myself in the mirror.

In resume, My ponytail was an absolute mess, my eyes were red rimmed, aftermath of my anger but my lipgloss was still rosy.

The nurse gave me some pills for impalement induced headache and they were making me woozy. My head was spinning as I questioned my existence and why Zayn was still with Lorraine if they weren't together anymore.

I leaned against the counter for support. Surely the nurse didn't accidentally give me a hallucinogen.

If she did, I'd be happy to blame not trying to get the blood off my shirt and looking forward to having lunch with Zayn on it and way more stuff I plan to do.

I gave my most minimal effort toward making my blouse less gory. I ran a paper tower under the tap and dabbed till the orange had spread like a plague.

Best give up now. I chucked the towel in the trash, fixed my hair and pulled the door open and damn me for not giving the stain my best because right there was Zayn, glittering in the sun streaming into the hallway via the Windows in the Restroom.

“Who do we have here” I crossed my arms over my chest as both a defense mechanism and to hide my shirt.

“The grim reaper” Zayn scratched the back of his neck. I felt compelled to laugh at his super lame joke. “And I figured I'd tell you not to come sit at our table”

I shrugged. “I wasn't planning to after my experience in the colosseum with that rabid girl”

Yes I was. I fixed my hair and would've shown despite my poor work on the stain.

"I'm sorry about that. Lorraine isn't a violent person, I don't know what got into her”

You. You made her a crazed demon.

“It's fine. I had fun exercising. It was my first time in forever” I stretched my hamstrings for dramatics. “Thank Goodness it happened before lunch. I can't imagine pulling her hair out Infront of the entire school”

“I said I was taking care of it”

“Were you really?”

“Yeah” He smiled and pushed something into my arms. A jumper. “It's mine and it's for practice during winter so forgive me if it smells like Boy cooties”

I stared at the Blue cotton for way too long. Zayn was…helping me.

He'd never batted an eyelid when my tires got stuck in mud or when I tripped on my own feet. He was always having too much fun to care.

“Are there unhatched spiders in here?”

Zayn laughed. “I wouldn't know, it's been in my locker for far too long” He smiled and ruffled my hair. “See you later, Millie”

He was walking away. I couldn't let him. “I might get blood on it, Zayn”

“Then keep it” Zayn said over his shoulder as he walked away. He always walked away and i always watched him like some sappy movie.

I was thankful for the save but the damn bastard ruined my hair. I huffed and walked back into the Restroom with the dumb thought:

It smelled like him.

"Milan?" Mom's tone had a stark ‘You’re in deep shit' to it. I was this close to the staircase.

"Yes, mother" I popped my head into the living room, smiling.

She was seated, legs crossed with an interior decorating magazine in her lap. "Have a seat young lady"

“What's the gist on the latest Bar stools?”

She was glaring. And I did as I was told. Mom's lips were pursed tightly, she looked like as impressed as Principal Melbourne.

"Your principal called" Mom wasn't looking at me, her eyes were glued to the less than important magazine from 2017. "Milan, violence?"

"I have a reason for doing so, she ruined my notes” Now that I said it out loud, it sounded ridiculous.

I was being petty but i had fun throwing up Lorraine's hair like confetti.

"She was ruined your book?! Are you four Milan? That's so immature of you" Mom was becoming increasingly insufferable. Didn't she see the bandage slapped across my cheek as a result?

Yes, I acted like an infant but I got stabbed. It was self defense.

"She stabbed me with a pen and you expected me to sit still? That isn't how you raised me"

Mom raised me to sit cross legged and not slouch and not be bullied. She was contradicting herself if you asked me. Plus, I got my animalistic traits from her.

"Oh, Milan. I didn't raise you to be a street fighter either. You could always report to a teacher. What if that girl slumped while you beat her up?"

Throwing her into a dumpster and fleeing to start a new life in London was always an option.

"I thought you'd be proud of me for standing up for myself” I sounded sulky and pitiable.

“You could have handled the situ–”

“I have a headache. I'll be in my room" I smiled and ran away from her.

When Mrs Trina Mayfield didn't get the last word, she got a little crazy. Her left eye would twitch and you'd wish you were six feet under. I'm glad I got away unscathed.

My thoughts of Lorraine's hairline were quite entertaining on my walk to my bedroom.

Beanies would be her trademark henceforth because nothing could save her. I felt a tad bit guilty though.

I should send her a message and a haircare hamper to clear the thunderclouds, she deserved it.

“Hello” I looked up, smiling at my own mental stand up comedy. Cole's door was ajar, his head poking through the opening.

“What's up, Coco?”

Cole smirked and grabbed my arm, tugging me with so much strength I spiralled into his lair. My head missed ramming into the doorpost by a lucky inch.

My effing life flashed before my eyes.

"For the love of God, Cole" I clutched my heart. It was pumping too much, I wasn't far from Cardiac arrest.

I was going to die after Beating up and innocent girl. I was going down under with the Murderers and Rapists and BTS haters.

“Stop overreacting, you're not dying”

“I sure feel like I am” I collapsed into a puddle by the side of Cole's bed breathing hard. When I couldn't see the Light anymore, I punched his chest. “Why would you do that to me? I could've died”

“Did you?” Cole cocked a brow.

Way to make me feel very stupid for thinking I was in cardiac arrest.

"I heard you and mom downstairs" He plopped on his bed.

"I'm not apologizing for anything Colander so keep your speech to yourself" I waved goodbye and waddled to the door.

"How much of her hair did you get?"

I smiled and inclined my head back, enough to catch Colander's grin. Days like that, I thanked God for not being an only child.

“Not as much as I'd wanted.” I pouted. “What I'm mad about is this”

I jabbed my thumb at the dainty, little Bandage at my temple. The nurse insisted I got one.

“Shit Mulan. What did she stab you with?”

“A fountain pen”

"She sounds quite nice. Is she good looking?" Cole smirked.

"You have a freaking girlfriend. Keep it in your pants" He laughed and leaned back on his bed.

My eyes scanned the disarray which was his room. Suitcases lined the walls and dirty clothes the floors. "Is it customary for the male species to have disgusting bedrooms?" I asked.

Cole's lair for as long as I'd known it was always in some sort of battle with tidiness, the tidiness always lost. Zayn's room looked somewhat identical to Cole's setting.

“It's a masculine tradition, you would never understand.”

“How does holly manage this?” Lucky me, right next to me was a once white Vest that could've been mistaken for chocolate brown.

I didn't want to know what stains were on it. There were way more than was healthy. Microbiologists could possibly find a new species of bacteria on there.

“She helps me clean up sometimes” He snatched it away. “I've been trying to pack" Cole groaned.

"Doesn't college resume in like three months?"

"Yes, that was three months ago. Now it's resuming next week. Surprise!" Once more I say, poor Cole, poor me too, poor us.

Next week was still centuries away, right? I could always savour Colander's presence before he'd go away.

If you didn't realize already, I was advertently afraid of being alone. I don't count parental socialization as company.

My mouth opened and closed, mimicking Benny and dream in the aquarium downstairs. I'd never admit it to his face but I didn't like it when he left.

Sometimes, when the emotions got the best of me, I'd cry all night.

"Yes, I almost forgot!" He exclaimed, leaping off his bed. After pushing around his belongings, making his room more disoriented than it once was. "I need to tell you something"

"Spill it"

"I'm Proposing to holly"

My love for Cole was definitely neutered, I fought for control over my brain as I processed what he said. There were words I couldn't fathom in that sentence.

Propose. Verb. Has more than one meaning but the most viable in this situation is: To ask someone to get married to you.

"Explain" I practically begged. I was gulping big swallows of saliva hoping for him to yell ‘Shucks’ and run away.

An nefarious ghost of a smile lit his face up.

"I. am. getting. married. to. Holly."

"Why?" I was nonplussed, my senses rusted by the sudden revelation. What happened to the not making big decisions about things without one another.

Cole knew I didn't like her, he knew why I didn't like her yet he acted oblivious and gazed at me in my sputtering glory.

"Because I love her"

"Bull"

People didn't get married after 365 days of dating, he hasn't even Lived with her. What if she was a hermit and didn't clean up after herself and left plates in the sink after dinner?

A frown watered down his humorous grin. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a suede box, I watched in horror, inquisitiveness an impediment from looking away.

Cole flipped the box open, in it's pink silk lined walls lay a silver ring. Hexagonal rock sitting in the middle glittered in the light.

I went neurotic.

"You can't be serious Cole. You're what? 21" Inflected the '21'

"I'm twenty three, Milan. I'm not a child, I love her and I will propose to her"

Talking Cole out of his silly idea proved useless after a while. He was dead set on marrying Holly.

"It makes no sense. You don't even know her that well" I tugged at my hair for the millionth time.

“No, you don't know her. That's why you're against this”

“Why would I want to know your girlfriend Cole?”

“Because she's my girlfriend and you're my sister. My only sister in the world. At least make an effort to like the girl I'm in love with” Cole pushed himself to his feet, angrily.

“No i won't. She stole you from me, why should i make an effort?” Moisture began to gather at my eyes.

There, I said it. I didn't like holly because she stole my best friend away from me and turned him into a coitus obsessed monster.

His features pinched. “She didn't steal you from me Milan”

“Yes she did. We used to do everything together Cole and then she swoops In and I'm alone again” I was crying and my sinuses were acting up.

“That's because she's my girlfriend and you're my sister. You're this cynical and mean because you're lonely and it's making you crazy”

That was the most hurtful thing I'd ever heard. Cole caught himself, regret washing over him instantly. I Understood.

I was going crazy because instead of bawling and walking away, i Laughed.

“You're the meanest person ever” I stood and shoved his shoulder.

"I'm sorry" Colander forcefully had me participating in a hug. His hazel eyes were apologetic when he let go, I laughed some more. "I have something to tell you.”

“What haven't you already spilled” I chuckled lowly.

“Holly's pregnant"