I'm Not a Whore, I'm Just a Leech

It is several hours past my curfew by the time I get home, by now I know my parents have gone to bed. The maid glowers at me as I wake her from her slumber on the couch.

“Really Miss Donahue, what time do you call this? I dread to think about what you’ve been doing,” she sneers suggestively. I ignore her and clamber through the living room to the library. The only light comes from the glowing coals in the fireplace. Making my way across the book cladden room I begin stoking the fire back to life.

“This is late even for you,” a voice says behind me. I was startled but didn’t let it show.

“I think you’ll find it is early as opposed to late.” I reply without turning around.

“Whatever Cam,” the voice grumbles as its owner maneuvers themselves into a sitting position. “I need your help,” the voice says at last. I wait for them to continue, “You see, I have this problem.”

“When people have a problem it is generally assumed they want assistance, and one cannot provide assistance if they do not know the details of the problem.”

“Yeah, yeah…I’ve been seeing this guy for a while now but we’ve kept it a secret. I want to go public but he doesn’t and I’m afraid it’s because he’s cheating on me,” the voice mutters. “I was wondering if you’d see how he reacted if you came onto him.”

“It will cost you,” I mutter.

“Twenty dollars, I know.” This is not the first time she has asked for my help.

“I’m going to need to know his name, Melissa,” I sigh and turn around to face my sister. It is not really a surprise I don’t know who she is dating. I am closer to Melissa than the rest of my family, but I still do not particularly care about who she is with. Why should I? It’s not my life.

“That’s the thing…” she mumbles awkwardly. I sigh, it would be typical Melissa if she was dating someone weird or embarrassing. Last time I helped her she was dating a grade nine who never stopped chewing gum. Ever. It was disgusting. I made her pay me an extra five dollars.

“I can’t help if I don’t know his name.”

“Please don’t hate me,” she rushes. I narrow my eyes.

“Melissa you know my emotional range goes from mildly interested to annoyed.” Ever since the incident with Victor, I have stopped myself feeling anything too extreme. It’s not worth it.

“I know, it’s just that…”

“Spit it out.”

“It’s Victor,” she blurts out rather loudly, clearly worried about my reaction.

“No.” I say, turning back around to face the fire.

“I’ll pay extra.”

“No.”

“Please,” she begs. “Cam, I’ll do anything!”

I turn to her, “You know full well that you will not do anything because that is a ridiculous thing to suggest. Would you jump off the school roof? Because that is included in the concept of ‘anything’. It is an absurd thing to say.”

“Cam, you’re changing the subject,” Melissa sighs. “I just want to know if he won’t go public because he’s not serious about me, that’s all. You’re the only person who can help me!”

“Well, it’s a shame that I can’t help you then.”

“God, Cam, if I didn’t know you any better, I’d say you still have feelings for the guy.”

“Go to bed, Melissa,” I instruct over my shoulder, keeping my face blank. She gives me a pleading look before getting up and walking out of the library to her room. It was ludacris. Utter insanity. How dare she even ask for my help?

As I take her seat on the couch I look up at the shadows that are the ceiling and try to get her words out of my head. ‘I’d say you still have feelings for the guy.’’ I do not. I don’t feel things that extreme. Why do those words bother me so much, though? I suppose there’s only one thing to do. I will do as she asks, I will seduce him. I’ll make him want me, then I’ll slink off into the shadows as my sister yells at him.





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The second day of lessons arrive and I breeze through classes half asleep. It is a permanent problem, I am always tired during the day but then when night falls, I can never get to sleep until the early hours of the morning. And I mean the late early hours of the morning. The teachers don’t notice but as I am not failing anything; they don’t care, even if they do. The only teacher who did notice was the math teacher but after I persistently fell asleep in his lessons and still aced the final exam, he left me alone.

I spend my free periods in the library as usual, but today no uncertain girls or frustrated boys seek me out. I get ahead in my homework. I get ahead on my homework then after setting my alarm for a half hour later put my down on the table and close my eyes.

“Cam? Cam, wake up,” someone shakes my shoulders. Opening my eyes I am greeted with a blurry world and after checking my phone realize that I still have seven minutes to sleep.

“Go away, Melissa,” I sigh before resting my head on the table.

“No, I wanted to talk to you about last night. I shouldn’t have asked you for-”

“I’ll do it,” I interrupt.

“You’ll do it?” She looks sceptical.

“Yes. Now, go away.”

“You’re not just saying that?”

“Do you want to write up a contract and have me sign it? Yes, I’ll do it,” I snap.

“Thank you so much Cam! It means a lot,” she says before hugging me and running out of the library. I fall straight back to sleep for the remaining three minutes I have until it is time for my last lesson of the day: Chemistry. One of my favourites.
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I nod to Mr. Reid as walk into the Chemistry lab and make my way to the back. The honours level Chemistry class is quite small. There is a shy girl who sits in the corner and doesn’t talk to anyone, two nerds who have an unfortunate tendency to blow things up, there is my cousin Peter; there is Peter’s friend Keegan. A thuggish looking boy who wouldn’t hurt a fly, Frank Iero and, of course, myself.

“Please, get yourselves into pairs,” Reiddrones as he writes the instructions on the board. The thuggish boy looks over at the shy girl who smiles back and he plucks up enough courage to join her in the corner. Peter and Keegan immediately partner up and the two nerds almost trip over their two feet in their excitement to light the bunsen burner.

“Looks like you’re stuck with me, Leech,” a voice murmurs above me, and I look up to see the only other partnerless person in the room. Frank Fucking Iero. I’m never quite sure why I don’t like Iero. I keep telling myself that it is more than the fact that he stole my first kiss, because quite frankly, that is a ridiculous notion. First kisses don’t mean anything.

“Aren’t I a big ball of joy?” I sneer back as I scrape my chair across the tile floors and get up to retrieve some chemicals from the back of the class.

“No need to sound so enthusiastic,” Iero mutters. I ignore him.

Similarly to the shy girl and her partner, Iero and I work in silence; he measures while I add. The textbook is lying open in front of us but neither of us really pay attention to it. Across the room, one nerd is trying to demist his glasses while the other is trying to lesson the smoke coming from their table. Peter and Keegan are too busy talking about football to concentrate and are throwing things in randomly.

“So Leech, been breaking any hearts lately?”

“And what makes you think I would tell you if I had?”

“Well you haven’t been kissing me so I assume you’ve found someone else to kiss. God knows you can’t control your hormones.”

“The way you talk you might make me believe you want me to be kissing you.”

“We’ve been through this before, Leech.” He sighs. “I indulge you out of pity. I could never actually want someone like you.”

“Someone like me? Who’s someone like me?”

“That’s the thing Leech; there is no one as screwed up as you.”

“Thank you for that invaluable insight, Iero.”

“Please put one vial of your project on my desk then clean your area,” Reid instructs the class. Before Iero can say a thing, I pour the chemical reaction into one vial, and have Keegan put it on Reid’s desk for me. “That’s the epitome of lazy.” Malfoy gestures to the vial, I shrug, and begin clearing away.

“Well have fun in the library,” Iero calls over his shoulder as he slings his bag up onto it and walks out of the classroom behind Peter and Keegan. The nerds are still trying to scrape together a vial worth of chemicals, and the thuggish looking boy is awkwardly offering to carry the shy girl’s bag.

Grabbing some more text books from my locker, I begin to walk towards the library and get there before any of the other students.

Notes

I meant to update yesterday and I apologize (to those of you that care) for not being able to do so. Really though, did any of you actually notice? Anyways, here's Chapter Two. And in the next chapter we see a lot more of Mr. Iero, and a new job for Cam. If you get what I'm hinting at, I really hope you're excited. If you don't, then you'll see next chapter.