Bad Girl, Bad Boy...Could Only Mean Trouble

Toni backed up from Matt, but couldn’t break his gaze. Flashbacks and memories ran through her mind the entire time, until she tripped over a low wall that was behind her. Matt had left a couple years ago, but while he had been here, she and he had had a relationship…if that’s what you could call it.

“Toni? Are you ok?” Matt was leaning over her, his hand stretched out to help her up again.

She stared at it, before shaking her head and picking herself up. She ignored him pointedly as she walked over to her friends, grabbed her stuff and walked away. Matt watched her walk away, smirking slightly. He walked over to her friends and stood awkwardly in front of them.

“Which one where you?” Laurie asked crossing her arms over her chest.

“What do you mean?” Matt asked confused.

“Were you the one who left without a word? The one who humiliated her? Or the one who used to beat her?” Andrue growled.

“Uhh…is there a safe answer to that?” Matt asked biting his lip.

“Nope.” Charley stated stepping up close to him. “So which are you? I remember seeing you around, but she never gave me any specifics.”

“If you say the last one, I will personally castrate you.” Andrue growled.

Matt looked between the group and realized that Andrue must have been Toni’s older brother. He thought about his answer and decide that it would be safer to lie.

“The one who left without a word.” Matt muttered.

They three looked at him for a minute, before turning and following Toni without another word. Matt watched them go and wondered how much Toni would tell them. He doubted that she would be able to tell the truth, but he didn’t like the way that she had looked at him. That look alone could give everything away. He sighed and walked off to find his next class.

Toni sat behind the math building thinking about the events of the day. She knew that she couldn’t the arrival of Matt ruin everything she had worked for, especially her reputation. She wasn’t the pain in the ass she was for nothing, like everything else she did it had a purpose. Another thing she had to figure out was who was the boy who had threatened her? She had never seen him before until the other day when he came asking for Clark. Then again…knowing Clark, she was surprised that she didn’t get more of those types of visits.

She let out a breath and pulled out her phone. She had five new texts, two from Clark himself. She read the text messages from Laurie, Charlie, and Andrue, answering with short responses. When she finally opened the ones from Clark, she wasn’t at all surprised by what they said. Apparently his parents had found him with drugs in his room again and decided to send him to live with his grandparents for the rest of the year, hoping that it might straighten him out. Toni hoped that they weren’t betting on it.

She quickly responded, asking him who the guy was and if she would see him over the weekends. She put the phone beside her as she waited for his response and pulled out a pen from her bag. She started to draw on her arm when her phone rang.

I think the guy might be Nathan…we got into a little…snit before I left ;) I’m not sure if you’ll see me or not…I wouldn’t plan on it.

Toni cursed and slammed her phone shut. If Clark said they got into a “snit” then he had either done something to owe the guy money or screwed his girlfriend…Toni was guessing at the latter. She shoved her phone back into her bag and went back to drawing on her arm. She had managed to get a half sleeve-like design up her arm before Charley found her. Toni looked up at her in amusement.

“That took you longer than usual.”

“You’re brother can be very distracting…” Charley told her with an evil grin.

“Ahhhh! You really need to stop telling me this shit!” Toni yelled covering her ears.

Charley laughed and grabbed Toni’s arm so that she could examine the design closer. Toni had drawn a collage of bare trees mixed in with waves crashing over rocks. Charley could make out different designs hidden throughout the entire thing, but it was too dizzying to try and figure them all out.

“Well are you finally going to get this tattooed?” She asked looking up at Toni.

“I don’t know…I’m trying to decide on the date. And I have to figure out how to get past Andrue.” Toni explained.

“Leave Andrue to me.” Charley said winking.

Toni freaked out again, screaming images and covering your ears. Charley laughed at her and grabbed her stuff, standing up so that they could head to their nest class. Toni hadn’t heard the bell ring, but she was guessing that knowing Charley, they weren’t going anywhere near a classroom. She stood and followed her friend to the parking lot. She could see her brother and Laurie standing by their cars waiting for them.

“So have you heard from Clark recently?” Charley asked.

“Yeah. His parents caught him again and sent him to live with the grandparents. He also said that he and the asshole got into a “snit” before he left…I can only assume that he slept with Tiffany.”she told her.

“Did he also give you a name for asshole?” Laurie asked. She had walked over and heard the ending of our conversation.

“Yeah…he said he thought it was Nathan.” Toni explained checking her phone again.

“Still doesn’t tell us who is though…” Andrue muttered as he watched other students head towards their classes.

“What’s got you into such a mood?” Toni asked.

“Matt.” Andrue said simply.

Toni froze beside her car. She wasn’t sure what he had told them, but she hardly thought that it would be the truth. She had a quick flashback of someone’s fist heading towards her face, and flinched back instinctively. When she realized that it was a flashback, she looked around to see which of her friends had seen. None of them seemed to be paying attention and she let out a sigh of relief. She didn’t give it a second thought and told them that she would meet them all at the park.

Andrue face held a look of confusion and thoughtfulness. Seeing his sister flinch for no reason got him to thinking about Matt’s hesitation to answer his question earlier…could he have been lying about how he had hurt Toni?