Page 53 of Unspoken Words
I raised an eyebrow at her. “You werethirteenso, no, your reasons weren’t that obvious to me. It could’ve been an accident or a distraction or—”
“Wow!” she said, her eyes wide, her mouth even wider. “You’re the first person to say that. Not even Mum or Tristan thought it was anything but a deliberate act of whoredom.”
“Well …” I picked at a piece of dead bark, “not everything is as it seems.”
“True, but sorry to burst your polite bubble because it was deliberate, except … not for the reasons everyone thought.” Lilah looked to the ground again.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me the real reason.”
“I know, but you might as well be the first to know the truth.” She pulled her leg back up to her chest and rested her chin on her knee. “Mr Rochford caught me cutting myself in his classroom during lunchtime. He told me I had to tell someone, like Mum or a doctor, or the school welfare coordinator. I didn’t want to. Mum wasn’t strong enough to deal with a teenage daughter with daddy issues, and I wasn’t ready to stop cutting. It was a release; a pain that helped with a different kind of pain. So … I panicked. I told him to keep his mouth shut or I’d lie and tell the principal he’d come on to me. And then, as if it were perfect timing, the principal entered the classroom, so I did the first stupid thing that came to mind and lifted my t-shirt.”
“Bloody hell!”
She waggled her eyebrows. “Tristan is not the only one in the family who can act, you know.”
“Did Mr Rochford tell the truth?”
“No. He obviously thought my threat wasn’t an empty one. Plus, he’s married with kids, so he couldn’t risk it.”
“That’s pretty fucked up, Lilah. You were willing to ruin a man’s career and life simply because he was looking out for you.”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t willing to, but he didn’t know that, so it worked out in the end. I was expelled, I had to see a counsellor—who inevitably helped me with my cutting—and no one but me got hurt. Problem solved.”
I let out a long breath. “But now you have a student record and a false reputation.”
She shrugged. “It’s not exactly false. I still flashed my boobs. Big deal.”
Her story was batshit crazy. Lilah was batshit crazy, and yet I kinda understood her, so much so that I shook my head and laughed. A deep belly laugh.
A big smile crept across her face. “Why are you laughing?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I just need to laugh.”
“By the looks of how you booted that rock before, I’d have to agree with you.”
“The rock was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” I dismissed, composing myself.
“Poor rock.”
“Yeah, maybe next time I’ll just flash my boobs at it instead.”
Lilah snorted and covered her eyes. “Please don’t.”
“Hey! There is nothing wrong with my boobs.”
She peeked through her fingers. “I’ll take your word for it.”
Feigning insult, I pouted my lips and grabbed at my chest.
“So … why were you angry? Did it have anything to do with Ellie yelling at you?”
My pretending ceased. “You heard that?”
“I think the whole neighbourhood heard it, Connor.”
I let out a long breath, still angry with Ellie. “It’s a long story.”
“Well, cut it short. Nobody likes long stories, especially boring ones.”
