Tightrope

Fornicating In The Library

I knocked on my cupboard door at 8 o'clock on Monday morning. "I'm leaving for school," I announced. There was no response. Apparently, life on the streets had gifted Knight with a non-existent sleep schedule. Or maybe he just hadn't slept well in months and needed the rest. Either way, he was soundly asleep.

I hiked my backpack further up my back and walked over to my desk. If there was one thing in the world I loved more than my mother, it was stationary. I was the pastel highlighter kind of bitch. I was dedicated in pursuit of being the most basic white bitch going 'round.

I scribbled out a note for Knight. Off to school. I'll be home at 4. I'll stop off at shops to buy you some clothes. He was currently dressing in one of my oversized tops, but it said HOT MAMA on the front; while that was hilarious, I was willing to buy him a larger collection of clothes.

I shoved it under my cupboard door. Thank God for a walk-in robe; the only way anyone could possibly find Knight was if Liv tried to steal my clothes, but it locked from the inside. Whenever Knight was sleeping, he would lock the door.

Liv would be baffled, but nothing else would come of it. She'd probably think it was a new ingenious safeguard against her thievery.

I didn't really know why I was so desperate to keep it hidden from my family. Mum and Dad would let Knight stay, I knew that. They would feel sorry for him. But I also knew they'd try to remedy things with his parents, try to get him home. Knight was firmly opposed to that.

"Oi, Lena, hurry up!" Mum called from downstairs. "Liv is going to drive you to the station, and she won't wait."

We were probably only a fifteen or twenty minute walk from the station, but it was far enough to be a hassle. Liv drove us most mornings, since she was an early bird and voluntarily got up at 7.

I shut the door to my room, praying that Knight would finally recognise hospitality and personal boundaries and therefore not rifle through my things, but I doubted it.

It was then that I remembered; I was going to have to face Jace again today. Face the Jace who had told me I couldn't keep up, who had asked me to prove myself, like I hadn't over and over for fifteen years as I claimed victory of him for over a decade. Clearly, I needed to prove myself again.

"Ugh," I muttered. "Awkward."

I padded down the stairs, my school shoes clunking against the marble. I always held onto the railing when I went up and down the staircase; I watched a movie once when the chandelier had hung loose and fallen on someone's head, killing them immediately. I no longer lived in terror of a similar incident, but I still did not trust it, and kept as far over to the side as I could. Tempting fate? Not today.

Liv was waiting for me at the bottom. "You were loud the other night, and last night," she said. "And up late."

I shrugged and blinked my eyes, as if that would help me seem less tired. "Since I was banned from partying, I decided to do it alone. In my bedroom. For, like, a week. Like a sad person who has been placed under house arrest."

As it turned out, Knight and I were chatty, loud and obsessed with all of the same TV shows. I reminded myself to shut up the next time we had a late night movie night and laughed uproariously at the latest Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode.

Liv ruffled my hair. "Aw, that's so cute and depressing."

I slapped her hand away. "I hope you fall in a slightly large hole."

"Yeah, okay, get in the car."

I saluted mockingly. "Aye, aye."

When I got to the car, Austin had already claimed the front seat. He grinned at me. "This is what happens when you're slow."