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

It took two days for the nurse to actually realize that the only damage my back had acquired was a little bruising. When she finally let me out of that miserable hospital room, I made my way directly to the library and was heading towards my table when someone lightly tapped my shoulder. Turning with a frown already in place, I am shocked to find my little brother. Well, I can’t exactly call him ‘little’ anymore, seeing as he is taller than me.

“Charlie?” I ask hesitantly. Charlie rarely acknowledges me while we are in school. In fact, Charlie rarely acknowledges me at all.

“Cam,” he nods, his voice as low as possible with me still actually being able to hear it. I know he is trying not to attract any more attention than we are already receiving. “I need a word,” he mutters before walking out of the library and into the hall. I have half a mind to just let him walk off on his own but curiosity gets the better of me, and I follow him out, if somewhat reluctantly.

“Spill,” I demand once Charlie has finally stopped and turned to face me. We are now in a dark and narrow corridor that, had I not been well acquainted with unknown corridors I would not have known.

“What’s going on between you and Iero?” Charlie asks bluntly. He never was one for tact.

“Nothing,” I reply honestly.

“Bullshit.”

“Truth.”

“Don’t lie to me, Cam.”

“I’’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“What makes you think that?” After a silence he finally answers.

“I know you, Cam.”

I snort in derision. “Hardly.”

Charlie may be my brother but that doesn’t mean he knows me. He knows nothing about me. No one really knows me.

“Come on, Cammie.” He changes his tone and it almost sounds like he is whining. I cannot stand whining.

“Don’t call me Cammie,” I snarl.

“Just tell me…It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone.”

“Nothing is going on between me and Iero. Now if that is all you had to say, then I have better things to be doing,” I snap. Charlie averts his gaze and shifts awkwardly. “There is something else isn’t there?”

“Um… Maybe?”

“Either there is or there isn’t and I’m losing my patience, Charlie.”

“Look, you’re going to think I’m mental,” he huffs, looking somewhat embarrassed. And believe me, with Charlie, that is exceedingly uncommon.

“Just spit it out.”

“You know Brooke Aiden?”

“I know everyone.”

“You know her boyfriend?”

“James Hatty.”

“Yeah...”

“Where is this going, Charlie?”

“I fancy her.”

“Aiden?”

“Brooke!”

“Yes, Brooke Aiden.”

“Right, yeah.”

“This is all very sweet Charlie but why are you telling me this?”
“Well I know you don’t give a shit about your reputation…” Charlie shifts his eyes uncomfortably. I remember when I kissed Iero in the foyer after catching Victor with that girl… Charlie had given Iero a black eye for three consecutive weeks. He had never been a fan of my reputation as a heinous bitch and boyfriend stealer. But I had never really cared about his opinion.

“And?”

“I was wondering if maybe you could, I don’t know…find a way to break them up?” he mutters so quietly I can barely hear him.

“You want me to kiss James Hatty?” I snort with a raised eyebrow. An embarrassed and uncomfortable Charlie was an amusing sight.

“Well... Yeah? I mean, it’s a possibility.”

“No.”

“What?”

“No,” I repeat.

“Oh.”

“Charlie, I may not be an expert on the workings of the female ride but if you get me to do this, you will hurt Brooke and just end up being some form of rebound figure.”

“Oh.”

“So unless you understand that, I won’t do it,” I shrug. Normally, I would have accepted the offer but at the end of the day this was Charlie. He’s my brother. I may not particularly like him, or even get along with him, but that does not mean I am willing to allow him to get hurt.

“What if I am cool with being a rebound figure?”

“Then I have greatly underestimated your intelligence.”

“Look, I just fancy her. It’s not like I want to marry her, I just want to sleep with her. And she won’t sleep with me if she’s still with him so I need them to break up.” Oh god. Charlie, my own brother wants me to break up a potentially happy couple, breaking the girls heart so he can sleep with her? This world is slowly becoming more ludacris.

“You’ll have to pay me.”
“What?”

“Twenty dollars. In advance.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Do I sound like I’m kidding?”

“Cammie…” he whines.

“Twenty-five. Twenty-five dollars. And every time you call me ‘Cammie’ I’ll add another five.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Twenty-five dollars, and you have a deal.”

“But what if you can’t do it?”

“I’ll be able to do it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“Fine,” he huffs again, looking thoroughly disgruntled. I hold my hand out palm up. “What?”

“Twenty-five dollars, please.”

“This is ridiculous,” he grumbles, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a hand full of bills. If I did not know Charlie I would be rather surprised to see he carries around so much money in his pocket, especially at school. “Here’s fifteen, you can have the rest afterwards.” My hand stays where it is. He looks at me, disgusted, before handing over the other ten.

“Bye, Charlie,” I say before disappearing back down the corridor, leaving Charlie looking perplexed and a little annoyed.
__________________________________________________________________________

The girls study hall has not changed at all in the last four years I have been here. Do not ask me why there are separate change rooms for the boys and girls because I do not know. The walls are still covered in the same faded wallpaper, the lockers are still the same crimson red, and the carpets have still managed to retain their softness no matter the feet have trodden on it over the years. The window on the right looks over the lake while the window on the left looks over the football field and track. I prefer the window on the right while most of the other girls prefer the window on the left. Melissa included.

For this precise reason, I am currently sitting on the window ledge on the right while the other girls are pressed up against the cold windowpanes on the left.

“God, that boy has one fine looking ass,” one of the brainless sluts comments.

“Pass the binoculars, Lucy,” another mindless moron whines. “I want a go!”

“Bianka, you had them a second ago, it’s my turn,” the third soul sucking dumbass wails.

“I think it’s my turn anyway, afterall, it’s my boyfriend on the field,” comes the unquestionably stupid voice of my sister.

“What?” chorus the three girls.

“You have a boyfriend, Mel?” one of them asks in awe.

“Fuck,” Melissa curses. “We were going to keep it a secret, you mustn’t tell anyone! He’ll be pissed if he knew I told you!”

“We won’t tell anyone, promise,” another one of the stupid harpies whines.

“Who is it, Mel?” the third one squeals. Oh, dear god.

“Sh! Martha! People might hear you!” Melissa hisses.

“You are aware that the study halls are sound proofed to stop people eavesdropping on private conversations, and for studying benefits, aren’t you, Melissa?” I ask without even looking up from my sketch pad where a half formed drawing of the lake is waiting to be completed and added to my collection. Melissa looks over at me in surprise clearly unaware that I am even here.

“Really?” Bianka looks dumbfounded. Something not entirely uncommon.

“No, I’m lying.” I roll my eyes. “Yes, Bianka, really.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry, Bee,” the sanest of the lot rolls her eyes. “She’s just being her usual sarcastic self.”

“I shall take that as a compliment, Bethan,” I sneer back.

“For the last time, it’s Beth.”

“Whatever.”

“Hold on, are the rooms actually soundproof?” Bianka asks still looking thoroughly confused.

“Yes, Bee,” Bethan sighs. “They were installed in grade nine when some people,” she shoots a glare in my direction, “thought it would be funny to eavesdrop on peoples’ conversations and then write the things they said on the schools notice board.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway,” Lucy perks up. “Back to the point: Who is he Melissa?”

“It’s not Tom Harding, is it? I mean he has a fine body but he’s dumb as shit,” Bethan remarks. I cannot help but feel she shares that same trait with the aforementioned ‘shit’.

“No, no,” Melissa flaps like a fish stranded on dry land.

“So who is it?” Bianka squeals again. “Is it Peter? He’s pretty hot,” she muses. I stare at her in horror. How is it possible to actually be that stupid?

“Ew! Bianka! Peter is my cousin!” Melissa shouts, chucking a textbook at the worthless human being.

“Really? That’s so cool!” Bianka looks at Melissa with awe in her huge blue eyes.

“Bee, you knew that already,” Bathan sighs in exasperation.

“I did?”

“Is it Mark?” Lucy asks with a gleam in her eyes. “Mark is definitely a catch.”

“Mark is smarter than I am,” I state. “He would never be stupid enough to try and keep a relationship secret.”

“Do you know who it is, then?” Bethan asks with a sneer while Melissa glares at me.
“Yes,” I reply, causing the three girls to look somewhat shocked.

“You told her before you told me!” Lucy looks genuinely upset, Melissa glares at me again.

“It’s Victor, isn’t it?” Bethan smirks. It was more of a statement than a question, as if she already knew the answer. She looks almost triumphant as she smirks at me. It is almost as if she thinks her words will hurt me. She is wrong of course.

“Oh, god,” Lucy breathes. “It is, isn’t it?” She laughs as Melissa buries her face into her arms. “Fucking hell, Mel! Why didn’t you tell me? You’ve fancied him for years!” Oh. Had she know? Bethan’s smirk grows wider. She probably just hates me because her boyfriend paid me to kiss her so he could get rid of her. Except, she doesn’t know he paid me.

“Where are you going Cam?” she sneers as I get up and head to the door. I cannot help how I reply.

“Meeting Leo for a quickie,” I reply casually before striding out the door, leaving Bethan looking thoroughly pissed off. Leo is her ex-boyfriend that paid me to kiss him.

Needless to say, I am not actually going to meet Leo. My destination is far more interesting than one of Peter’s old friends. Wandering down the corridors, I let my mind drift to things that I needed to sort out. To begin with, I still had to deal with Victor as Melissa had taken to pestering me about it whenever we are alone. Then, I have to deal with Charlie’s somewhat bizarre request and I need to talk to Reid about using his classroom after lessons are over.

“Leech?” someone asks in surprise as I turn around a corner only to come face to face with someone’s chest. “What are you doing here? Come to prey on poor souls have you?” he sneers, regaining his composure.

“No,” is my blunt reply.

“Then what? Take a wrong turn?” His sneer widens covering his face, distorting his usually placid features.

“No.”

“Just piss off,” he snaps, clearly angry, although I suspect the anger isn’t actually intended for me. Which is unusual.

“Uh, no.”

“What the fuck do you want then?” Iero practically shouts, glowering at me.

“To get past you…” I reply as if it were obvious. Which it kind of is as he is standing in the middle of the corridor.

“Oh,” he mutters taken aback.

“Yeah.”

“So, you weren’t looking for me?” he frowns.

“Why would I be looking for you?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugs, lowering his gaze from mine.

“Then why did you ask?”

“I don’t know,” he repeats.

“Are you going to let me past?”

“Right…yeah.” Iero steps aside to let me through. His expression has changed from surprise to disgust to anger to distant, as if his thoughts were far away. I’m not really sure why I stop, or why I turn back to see him still standing there, facing the opposite wall, but I do.

“Are you okay?” I ask. He stands frozen for a while before slowly turning his towards me with a look of complete shock. Apparently, I do not ask people how they are feeling enough.

“Are you?” he retorts.

“What has that got to do with anything?”

“Well there must be something wrong if you are willingly trying to engage in a conversation with me,” he snorts. I turn back around and continue down the corridor without responding. It does not take long before I hear footsteps behind me and Iero appears by my side, frowning. “I’m sorry, I’m just in a foul mood,” he sighs. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”

I simply nod and we walk in silence for a little while.

“Where are you actually going then?” he asks at last.

“To the kitchens.”

“The kitchens?”

“Yes, the place where they make food.”

“I know what a kitchen is!”

Silence.

“How do you know where the kitchen is?”

“Really Iero, I would’ve thought you had learned by now. I know everything.” I smirk.

“Are you coming in or are you just going to stand there?” I snap.

“I…Do you mind?”

“Mind what?”

“If I come in.”

“Why would I mind?”

“You just…well, you’re not really a people person.” He shrugs but steps into the warm kitchen anyway. One of the many workers rushes over to welcome us and guides us to one of the many tables.

“So this is where you disappear off to then?” Iero breathes, looking around the kitchen. “People are going to be very disappointed, they think you are part of some soul sucking cult,” he comments as if it was a perfectly normal thing to say.

“And why would they be disappointed? It’s not like anyone is going to tell them, is it?” I narrow my eyes at him threateningly and he has the audacity to chuckle.

“Of course not,” he smirks.

“Besides this is not the only place I disappear to.” I shrug, not entirely sure why I am continuing this conversation.

“Where else do you go?”

“The forest behind the school, the far side of the lake, the library, the alcove on the fourth floor hidden behind the statue of a dying woman…” I shrug. Only after the words are out of my mouth I realize I have given Iero the ability to find me when previously no one else would be able to. The thought is somehow not as daunting as I would have expected.

“You know that statue is of Hillary Hitler?” Iero ponders. “She was Adolf Hitler’s only daughter and legend has it, she fell in love with a Jew. When her father found out, he forbade her from seeing him…”

“Did she obey him?” I ask, curious about the woman whose statue I had spent hours gazing at.

“No,” Iero snorts. “She met him in secret that same night and they made plans to elope. Of course, they were unaware that Hillary’s twin brother, Harry had witnessed their plans and, when Hillary returned to their house to pack her things, he revealed his presence to the Jew and killed him. Without a word. Just one shot…” Iero trails off. I realize I have leant towards him, enraptured in his words.

“What happened?” I breathe.

“Hillary returned to find her lovers body, stone cold. She knew it was her family that had done this and, destroyed by grief, she took her lovers hunting knife and plunged it into her own heart so that she fell beside her lovers body.”

“Rumour says, that Hitler never recovered from her death… That he blamed himself… It was said that with her death, died his last slithers of humanity. That as he buried his daughter in the clearing where she fell with her lover at her side, he also buried the last fragments of his past. The last fragments of the man he’d once been…” Iero’s eyes are fixed on the fire in much the same way that mine are fixed on his face.

Stories had always been my weakness. And Iero could tell a story beautifully. We sat in distant silence, his mind in places I will never know about and mine are lost in the past with Hillary Hitler. While romances were never my preferred genre, there was something about such a tragedy that pulled me under and left me wanting more.

“Tell me another story,” I whisper into the near silence. The fire crackles before Iero replies.

“Another day perhaps,” he smiled slightly into the flames and I wonder where his thoughts are because they are not here.

“Thank you,” he murmurs.

“For what?”

“For letting me come in here… and for distracting me.”

“Oh,” is my intelligent response.

Notes

This chapter is 2859 words!

In other news, I actually updated on Saturday this weekend! I'm pretty fucking proud. Also, as I wrote this chapter I obsessively listened to Black Veil Brides so if you wanna check them out of you haven't heard their music. If you have heard their music, go have another listen anyway. Comment, Rate and all that jazz! Tell me if you knew Black Veil Brides before this and if you didn't tell me what you though of them!