Done All Wrong - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Chapter Eight: Rebellion

Nora's mom was more than happy to have me stay a little longer. I even offered to help her with anything she needed done around the house but she shook her head with a smile, saying that being friends with her daughter was everything she could ever ask of me.

So I might've teared up a little at that.

Her husband eventually came home, so I got to meet the man of the house too. Peter, a typical dad name, was tall and solid. His hair had streaks of gray along the temples but his face looked young apart from laughter lines around his eyes. He had an incredible sense of humor and he too loved horror movies like me.

"I tried to get Mary to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre on our first date. She ditched me right then and there," he said with a laugh. We were sitting around the table (even the little kids. Wow. What a big family) and laughing at old stories from the past. It felt....nice.

"I came back, didn't I? Wasn't going to let you eat all the popcorn," Mary smirked. "Plus we went and slept in the back your truck after we-"

"Nope! Now is not the time for that!" Nora cut her off. I was too busy choking on my cup of cocoa to even notice that Mary and Peter were smooching across the table. "Mom! Dad! Come on, we have a guest! Show some dignity!"

As they pulled apart, the quints all began to babble at the same time. I had to admit, they were cute babies; they all had wisps of the hereditary Norris blonde hair and big blue eyes. Charlie was the only one with brown eyes like their father.

"Do you need a ride home, Laney? I'd be more than happy to drive you home," asked Peter.

"Oh god no. I'm good. But thank you for the offer. And thank you for having me over. I had an awesome time." My bag was at my feet ready to go in case I wanted to make a quick escape. Turns out I didn't.

"Thank you for hanging out with Nora. She never brings anyone home so this is a treat for us," Mary hugged me tight. "Come over anytime. I'm almost always home so the door is open. If I'm not, then just make yourself at home."

I nodded before stepping out in the cool night air. Nora followed behind me, closing the door behind her.

"Thanks for coming over today. I had a lot of fun," she said.

"Yeah me too. Beating Bludgers is a lot more fun than I thought it would be." I scratched my neck and squinted. "Can we do it again sometime?"

Nora's eyes widened. "Y-yes. Sure. Absolutely. I'd love to. Maybe Sam can come over too sometime?"

I seriously doubted Sam would be interested in this but I nodded anyway to make her smile. "Doesn't hurt to ask, right? Well. I should get going before my dad gets home-"

As I made a turn to leave, Nora grabbed my wrist and pulled me back around to face her. We were suddenly face to face, our noses just barely touching and for a moment I thought she was going to kiss me.

And I would've let her do it too.

"Laney. If something bad happens at home or if you don't feel safe, please come get me. Or I'll come to you. Just...don't stick around and wait for the worst to happen. Okay?"

I swallowed past the lump forming in my throat. "Okay. I will."

She then let go of my wrist. Her face looked so sad even in the faint glow of the porch light above our heads. There wasn't anything I could say that would comfort her other than agree to what she said to me. As chatty as she was, she seemed to not be able to find the right words to say either so she waved goodbye as I headed down her driveway and disappeared from view.

There were no lights on when I got home. Dad's car wasn't in the driveway and thank god for that because my ladder wasn't down and my window wasn't open. There was no other option than to go through the front door.

My bed has never felt so inviting and relaxing. The sheets smelled so good so I curled up into a ball with every intention of going to sleep but something sharp was pressing into my back.

Sitting up, I moved off the bed to see what was underneath me. A cassette tape with Nora's writing on it rest on the mattress. I picked it up. This was a sick joke the universe was playing on me. I get it, universe. You want me to read more of the book. Heard you loud and clear. But where the hell was I going to find a cassette player? Nora forgot to give me one when we were hanging out today.

I decided to check the attic. The attic always creeped me out-I mean I've seen enough horror movies to know that nothing good ever happens up in the dusty old attic. But as I pulled down the ladder, I gathered my courage and went anyway, flashlight and baseball bat in hand just in case.

My dad is a hoarder. It might not show in the main rooms of the house but the attic is a different story entirely. Old Christmas decorations, photo albums, clothes, you name it and it was probably here. I even sifted through some of the albums just for a laugh. Most of them were old and had pictures of Josh's mom and our dad together. A few had our dad and my mom. Others had photos of Josh when he was a kid (he was hella cute too. Still squishy looking).

There weren't many of me though. I'm sure dad loved me all the same but it still kind of hurt that he didn't have many photos of me as a kid. You had the scattered one every now and then, me on a swing set or on my first day of school but there weren't many to call my own. There weren't even any of me when I was first born.

I put the photos away before I grew angry and set my mind back to looking for a tape player. There had to be one up here somewhere. My dad never threw anything out. If he had one, he still had it now and more than likely it was still in working condition-

"ACHOO!" I sneezed as a pile of dust flew up in my face from lift a blanket. My efforts weren't for naught as the dust went away and there before me was a cassette tape player.

"Gotcha," I whispered. "I knew you had to be here somewhere."

I locked up the attic again and made sure there was no evidence of me ever being up there. If dad knew I was up there, he'd throw a fit. No one, not even Josh, was allowed up there for any reason whatsoever. So all evidence of my intrusion had to be covered up.

Thank god for wet wipes. The dust that covered this thing had to be at least a hundred years old and it was practically caked on as I tried to clean it off. It was rusty in some areas too but the wipes managed to clear most of it away. Once I was done, the thing practically looked brand new.

It needed AA batteries so I stole some from my dad's room and put them in. I may have been born in the year 2000 but I knew how to work some things that were made before my time. I slipped the cassette inside and pressed play, jumping at the sound of Nora's voice.

"Hello this Nora! I'm going to record myself reading the Harry Potter books because I can't really afford to buy them as an audiobook so I'm making my own!" Her voice sounded so sweet and soft on the tape. It must've been made years ago when she was younger. "So let's begin with the first book, shall we? The Philosopher's Stone...."

Kicking off my shoes and changing into my pajamas, I got comfortable and picked up the copy of the first book she loaned to me and sighed as her soft voice took me on a ride to another world.

----------

"You look hungover. Were you drinking last night?"

Chem class was torture as I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to copy down what was being written on the board. "Huh? What did I miss?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Nothing we don't already know. So I'll ask again. Are you hungover?"

I shook my head. "No. I was up all night reading-"

Sam let out a bark of laughter that made everyone turn to look in his direction.

"No seriously. Were you drinking," he repeated himself again.

"I was reading. Why does this surprise people when I tell them?

"Because you're not a reader, sweetie pie. You're more of a Cliffnotes girl. Look it up online type of person. Not an actual read the content gal. What book was it that got you all rumpled up like this?"

I blushed. "Harry Potter."

For a moment, Sam just stared at me. Then he rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. "Lovegood got you hooked, does she? Maybe she's a witch too?"

I hushed him. Our teacher wasn't paying attention but I still couldn't risk us getting caught talking during class. "Look. She's a good person. She's not what everyone makes her out to be-"

"You literally started talking to her a few days ago. You can't consider her a friend already."

I shrugged. "Sometimes that's all it takes."

He watched me for a minute before sighing again. "You're going to get sucked up into her mess, if you know what I mean."

"You know what Sam?" I slapped my pen down. "Humor me. Elaborate more on this mess because I would love to know. What am I getting myself into?"

A few of our classmates had heard us talking and were now paying full attention to our conversation. I didn't care. They might learn a thing or two from this themselves.

Sam, on the other hand, was turning red in the face from embarrassment. "I'm just saying. Like if you don't wanna end up like her-"

"And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?!" I might've shouted a bit too loud. All eyes were definitely on me now as they turned to see what was going on in the corner of the classroom.

Ms. Royce stared us down like an angry bird. "Excuse me. What's going on here?"

I had enough. I couldn't sit here anymore and listen to this bullshit so I slammed my textbook closed and shoved it into my backpack before swinging I over my shoulder, making sure it hit Sam in the face.

"Good luck trying to find a bass player for the gig tomorrow. You just lost the best one you'll ever find," I snapped, even flipping him the middle finger as I left the classroom the only way I knew how.

With a bang.

The library was empty and as I said before, it was a good place for me to hide seeing how everyone strongly believed that I don't read. So hiding here was like striking gold. Apart from the librarian, a grumpy looking old man who I've never seen before, the place was all mine.

Or at least I thought it was.

I knew it was Nora sitting behind a stack of books because I recognized the black leggings and mismatched shoes under the table. What she was doing here I had no idea, so I went over and gave her foot a nudge.

"Boo," I chuckled.

Her frame jumped in shock behind the stack of books. She had to part the pile to see who it was that touched her foot. "Laney. You scared the pixie dust right out of me."

"God forbid," I rolled my eyes, sitting down. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Free period," she whispered. "Plus I have a huge history project due next week and I didn't even get started on it until now."

So that's what the books were for. They looked old and probably saw better days and better stocked libraries. "I don't take history. Why focus on the past when we should look ahead to the future?"

Nora made a face. "We study the past so we don't make the same mistakes again. You look exhausted, by the way."

I rubbed a hand over my face. "Yeah? You think so too?"

"What do you mean 'too'? Who else said you looked tired?"

The old man at the front of the room shushed us. We weren't even talking loud, old fart. "It doesn't matter. It's in the past. History."

She rolled her eyes but there was a smile on her face regardless. "Have any plans tonight? If you don't, you should come over again. Maybe we can watch a movie or something."

That actually didn't sound like a bad idea. "Cool. My schedule is completely open for tonight thanks to a certain someone whose name I won't-"

"Sam."

"How'd you know?!"

Nora sighed and closed her notebook. Her own eyes looked tired but I wasn't going to say anything to her about it. She had a reason to be tired. She had seven younger siblings and she was being constantly bullied at school. Anyone would be tired because of that.

"I know he doesn't like me, Laney. No one here does. You think I'm oblivious to what goes on around me? Well I'm not. I hear everything. I see everything. I know about all the names I'm called and what people think of me. But you know what? I can't let them see that it bothers me. Otherwise it'll escalate and get worse. The verbal bullying will turn to physical. Maybe even mental and psychological. Then that will lead to something far more drastic than anyone ever anticipated and not only would it hurt myself but it'll hurt the ones I care about the most. So that's why I don't ever show how I truly feel. Who even cares anyway?"

She was shaking by the time she was finished talking. I've never seen her so upset before that it genuinely made me upset too. This amazing girl, who I've only known for a few days and who I've come to respect and admire so much, didn't deserve any of the hate she got around here. If anything, she deserved to be treated like the queen that she is.

And I was going to be the one to do it.

"Come on. Pack your stuff," I told her.

"Why? It's not even lunch time yet."

"Fuck lunchtime. We're taking the day off to do whatever the hell we want. Life's too short to be sitting in a classroom for seven hours a day. Let's go have some fun."

This made her smile broadly and motivated her even more to pack her bag in a hurry to leave this hellhole. "Where will we go? What are we going to do?"

I shrugged as we passed the main doors. Nobody stopped us, which I was genuinely surprised at. "We can go wherever and do whatever. The world is our oyster."

She snickered at this. "Well then. If that's the case....let's go to the bookstore."

My shoulders sagged in defeat. This isn't what I had in mind when rebelling against the injustice that is the American Education System. "Really? Of all the places we can go, you pick the bookstore?"

She gently took my wrist and pulled me along behind her. "You trust me, don't you?"

I guess I did. To be fair, we've only known each other for a few days but in those few days I trusted her with my life more than anyone else in the whole world. "Yeah. I do."

Nora smiled. "Then don't worry. You're safe with me. I promise."