Revenge and Its Thrills

Alex’s POV

“Truth or dare?” My friend Jeremy asked me, his eyes glinting in the dim light.

I rolled my eyes. It was nearly midnight, and we were lounging with our friends Taylor and Rian in the middle of the school football field. I say field – it was really just a gravelly mix of wet sand and mud. But it was all our crappy school could afford, so I guess it had to do.

“Dare,” I told Jeremy. He grinned and shone the torch in my face.

“I dare you to . . . Damn, I dunno. Sacrifice yourself to Satan.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Funny,” I said drily. With anyone else I would just laugh at them, but Jeremy was always full of shit and it got annoying after a while. I’d already put up with him all night.

Jeremy frowned. “I’m hilarious, Gaskarth.”

“Sure you are,” Taylor interjected, her sharp voice edged with sarcasm.

“Shut up, Momsen.”

Taylor glared at him. She was the type of girl who wouldn’t waste a second in stabbing a knife through your heart and laughing gleefully at your pain. At the same time, she was incredibly sexy, and none of the guys at school could resist her blonde locks and harsh blue eyes.

Squirming uncomfortably under Taylor’s gaze, Jeremy averted his eyes and looked to the ground, his brow furrowed in thought.

After about a minute, Rian sighed dramatically. “Are we playing truth or dare or what?” He asked pointedly.

I yawned in agreement. My back was aching from sitting down so long, the wind stung my bare arms and my hair that I took so long to style this morning was flapping around my face. I had little to no patience left for Jeremy tonight.

Finally, he snapped his fingers. “I got it! I dare you to break into school and trash the Rector’s office.”

I shot him an unimpressed look. Was that all he could come up with? I’d already done that twice before. Jeremy just shrugged and shifted on the uncomfortable ground.

Taylor shook her head and stood up. “Well, I’m coming too Alex, because I’m bored as fuck out here.”

The torch light swung to her face.

“No,” Jeremy told her with a glare.

“Yes,” She shot back, then grabbed my arm and pulled me with her towards the school. I didn’t complain. She was one of my best friends. To be honest, I was glad she was coming with me, because last time I did this I got so bored I decided to graffiti ‘Alex Gaskarth is the shit’ on the lockers. I didn’t get in much trouble for it, because this was Inverness Royal Academy and they weren’t really known for their discipline, but they did call my mum which got me grounded.

We walked up the little grassy hill that separated the building from the football pitch, using Taylor’s phone as a torch, and then loudly approached the school. We were laughing about dumb shit the whole time. We didn’t need to be quiet – this school didn’t have any sort of security system.

To get in we used an old key that used to belong to the Rector. A few months back our friend Austin had stolen it, and made copies at a key cutting place.

As we wondered down the hallways, Taylor got a glint in her eye. She stopped walking and turned to me with an evil smirk. Crap, that look never ended well. And it was usually at my expense.

“Alex, what do you say we get Jeremy and Rian into some shit?”

“Why?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow. I wasn’t against the idea though. At least it wasn’t me she was planning on screwing over this time.

Taylor shrugged. “Because we can.”

A little thing you should know about us Inverness Royal Academy students: We’re a bunch of douchebags, snitches and bullies. We couldn’t care less who we got in trouble – just as long as we had fun doing it. We beat up kids on a regular basis if they dared to be different, we would sell out even our closest friends to the teachers if we got paid to, and we trashed everything and couldn’t give a shit. Most of us were drug and alcohol addicts. Most of us were never getting anywhere in life.

I was a typical Inverness Royal Academy student. Except I wasn’t addicted to the drugs and alcohol, I just did them for fun. I wasn’t exactly proud of my personality, but I’d come to accept a while ago that I was a complete asshole, so now I just enjoyed myself with it all. I didn’t regret any of the things I did. I knew I was going to be a screw over on life and live homeless in a gutter somewhere, but at this stage in my life I really couldn’t care less.

Taylor told me her plan, and I had to admit it was good. Not genius, but good.
We reached the Rector’s office and proceeded to destroy the place. Throwing chairs around, smashing the window, writing obscene words on the walls, shredding paperwork, and just generally making a complete tip of it. Teach Mr. Hoppus to confiscate my phone.

Speaking of my phone, I found it in one of the draws and slipped it into my pocket. Mr. Hoppus, the Rector, had taken it off me for a whole week just because he hates me. Literally, his exact words were “Alex Gaskarth, give me your phone. I’m confiscating it for a week because I’m a massive fucking twat who likes dick in the ass. And I hate you.” Okay, maybe not his exact words, but you get what I mean.

Seriously, in this school you could get away with stuff like sticking your chewing gum in the teacher’s hair and smashing up the bathrooms, but the minute you text someone in class they confiscate your damn phone. It’s pathetic.

Taylor and I stepped back to admire our work. We exchanged impressed glances. The room was unrecognisable.

“Now for phase two,” The blonde said, and took out her phone. She started to text Jeremy and I laughed at what we were about to do, filled with excitement. Man, I couldn’t wait to talk to Jeremy and Rian in the morning.

We both sat on the desk and waited for the guys to arrive, swinging our legs in sync. I snuck a glace at Taylor’s relaxed face. It wasn’t often she looked so peaceful. Nothing like a good bout of vandalism to let out that anger. I’ll admit, I had feelings for the feisty, rebellious blonde, but they weren’t strong enough to ruin our friendship. I wasn’t about to ruin what we had – We were so close, I would even consider her my best friend.

Eventually we heard approaching footsteps. Taylor and I exchanged a knowing grin. This was going to be fun.

The door swung open, and there stood a very pissed-off looking Jeremy.

“Alright, Momsen. Just so you know, I’m pissed off at you. Do you have any idea how much energy it took to walk up here? A whole fucking lot, tha-“

“Shut your god Jeremy,” Taylor snapped. She stood up and walked over to him. “Where’s Rian?”

Rian stepped out from behind Jeremy and gave a slight, sarcastic wave. I could tell he was a little annoyed, but he wasn’t going to be an idiot about it. Thank god.

I waved them both over and, grudgingly, they agreed. “It’s in there,” I said, pointing at a set of drawers on the opposite side of the room.

“What’s so interesting that we need to see anyway?” Jeremy grumbled in annoyance as they headed to the draw.
Quickly, I darted out the room, Taylor right on my heels, and slammed the door shut behind us. Taylor locked it.

I could hear muffled yells coming from inside the room. I couldn’t suppress the laughter bubbling inside of me and I doubled over, laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. Taylor was leaning against the wall in an attempt to stay upright and gasping for breath.

Once we had gotten over our hysterics, we started to head away, but not before Taylor yelled over her shoulder; “Good luck getting out of there, fuckers!” That set me into a new peal of laughter. They couldn’t jump out the window because the office was on the top floor of the school. Damn, we were too clever.

I parted ways with Taylor and headed home. I was bound to get in trouble because it was 1:00 am, but who gave a fuck. They were only parents.

I opened the front door and loudly announced that I was home. Hoping to just reach my room without a confrontation I swiftly climbed the stairway, but I was met in the corridor outside my room by my mother’s angry face. Oh man, here we go.

“Where have you been Alexander?”

“Places,” I replied, my voice laced with boredom. I just wanted to go to my room and check Tumblr.

Her face took on a worried expression. “If this carries on we’re going to have to do something, Alex. I can’t just watch my son destroy his life like this.”

“Yeah, you’ve been saying that for 7 years, mum,” I muttered, then I pushed past her into my room. Finally, Tumblr time!

I didn’t end up actually going to bed until at least 5:30 am. But hey, sleep is for the weak. And I had the thought of how priceless Jeremy and Rian’s faces were going to look when I saw them at school tomorrow.