Foolproof

Back at the cemetery, Lindsay slowly walked up to Mallory and placed one of her hand on her shoulder. Mallory placed her hand on top. Lindsay knelt down.

“You never told what happened?” she said quietly.

“My uncle and my aunt were driving Mel and I back from our ballet recital when a 16 year old boy who just got his G2 thought it would be cool to drive his fast car around carelessly and he tried to make a yellow light only to be a second late and crashed into us. It was my uncle and Melanie’s side. My uncle barely survived but is paralyzed for life. My aunt suffered minors’ injuries. I barely made it out alive, but I survived. I survived because of Melanie. If she was alive, I would have been dead.”

“How’s that?”

“I have her kidney. My kidney was failing so my mom said to give me Melanie’s kidney since luckily we were the same blood type. Melanie was brain dead, but her organs were will working. You know Natalie Watch?”

“Yeah, the one with the heart condition.”

“She has my sister’s heart.”

Lindsay gasped. “Wow.”

Mallory nodded. “My mom never talked about her. You weren’t even allowed to say her name in the house.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, Mal.”

She chuckled softly, “We were 3 years old, Lin. No one knew any better.”

“Is that why your uncle is in jail?”

Mallory shook her head, “No, I’m talking about Uncle Matt. Uncle Karnack is in jail.”

“Ooh, uncle Matt!”

“Yeah, our mom’s brother,” Mallory said sarcastically.

“So uncle Karnack is on your dad’s side then?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he do?”

“Committed I crime, I guess,” Mallory shrugged.

Everything was silence. Mallory stared at her sister’s name. “I can’t go back to school now,” she said quietly.

“Yes you can, and you will. Don’t let Cameron and that bitch stop you from living your life or whatever. I’m not really good with this,” she chuckled.

“I can tell,” she smiled weakly.

“Come on, you’re going tomorrow and I’ll be right by your side,” she smiled.

Mallory sighed and hugged her. She knew she could count on her cousin. The wind picked up and blew itself around. For a second there, Mallory felt as though it was Melanie. She smiled.

**

By Wednesday morning, Harlow had spread the words that Cameron and Mallory had broken up because Mallory had sex with him when she wanted to wait till marriage. Everyone who had no idea who Mallory was until they saw her with Cameron a couple months ago were shock.

One of the girls that were crushing Cameron for a long time went up to Mallory that morning at her locker.

“Is it true that you and Cam had sex? Was he good?” the girl asked.

“Is it true that you have a black eye?” Lindsay said.

The girl looked at her confused, “No…”

“Do you want one?” Lindsay raised her fist. The girl squealed and ran off. Lindsay squeezed her cousin’s shoulder, “Ignore them bitches, they have no life.”

“Wish I could,” she whispered. She turned around as she closed her locker, “All this time I wanted to be noticed and now I just wished I was invisible again. I regret saying yes to-”

“Hey, we don’t have time for regrets on our lives. Okay? I don’t even regret getting kicked out of the three schools. I don’t regret crashing your brother’s car… and then he punched me in the back of head – which is a really weird place to punch someone, I mean-”

“Lindsay.”

“Sorry,” she cleared her throat, “how is your brother anyway?” she said changing the subject.

“I don’t know. He’s at Boston University with his ugly girlfriend,” said Mallory feeling relieved that the subject had changed.

“Ew, still?”

“It’s been four years,” said Mallory lamely.

“Ew,” Lindsay said in disgust. Truth was Mallory’s brother’s girlfriend was not entirely ugly from toe to head. She was not exactly skinny or average either. Her hair was always changing. She was constantly whining. She was not any fun therefore Mallory just says that she was ugly.

“Wanna skip and go watch Kevin make a fool of himself?”

Mallory chuckled, “Where?”

“At his work.”

“I thought you were banned?”

“You know, if you keep pointing all the places that I’m banned from, I’m gonna start to feel like I have no places to go anymore.”

“You keep getting yourself banned, you will have no more places to hang,” Mallory told her.

She groaned, “Whatever! I’ll wear a disguise.”

Mallory laughed and they left to go see Kevin. Mallory had never once skipped a class. This was her first time. It felt good. After all, there was a first time for everyone.

As they walked out the doors, Mallory asked, “Why did you kicked out?”

“You don’t wanna know,” Lindsay shook her head.

**

The rest of the week was torture for Mallory. She could not handle the pressure anymore. With the rumors flying around, the lies Harlow kept putting out, Cameron who continuously to follow her around at school, Lindsay who was not always there because she either had detention or something.

She was going crazy. Everyone looked at her as though she was slut. Boys kept flirting with her thinking they would stand a chance with her. Mallory could not do it anymore.

Came Friday afternoon, one more class and she had the weekend to herself. Or so she thought.

“Hey!” said a random girl that Mallory had never met in her life.

“Go away,” she said desperately.

She laughed, “I’m having a party at my dad’s place. You should come. It looks like you need it.”

Mallory looked at her suspiciously. “I don’t think so.”

“Don’t trust anyone, I understand. I was there.”

“What?”

“My name is Riley Poi.”

Mallory eyes went wide. “Y-you’re-”

She nodded, “Yes, I’m the one Cameron’s friend, Patrick, burned when he set the classroom on fire. He’s an idiot and I charged him. I was a witness who took it to court. His father’s a lawyer and well, I lost the case and Patrick did not get expelled. Life sucks sometimes and the only way to cheer up is a good party,” she grinned.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“Oh, it’s nothing. So I have a little scar on the side of my neck. It’s worse in places you can’t see, so it’s all good.” She lifted her shirt and saw a huge scar on her flat stomach.

“You know what, I could use a party,” Mallory smiled.

“Listen, Patrick is a fucking dick. But for some reason, I can’t say the same for Cameron.”

“Why not? He screwed me.”

“He did, but was he the mastermind behind all this?”

“He went along with it! Who side are you on?!” said Mallory, getting angry.

Riley held her hands up, “No one. I just don’t want to see you walk away from the best thing you ever had.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Mallory said confused.

“Come on, Mal. Don’t act like you don’t like him. I can see it. I know you do, but you’re hurting really bad and-”

“I’ll see you at the party,” Mallory slammed her locker, “and you can shut the fuck up.” She walked away to her last class. Riley watched her disappeared around the corner. She felt bad for her. Riley had walked away from the best thing she ever had and now he was gone. He was in love with someone else because she did not trust him. She did not want the same thing to happen to Mallory. However, it was none of her business and she had her saying.

It was up to Mallory to realize that everyone deserved a second chance.