Persistent Tree

5. Idiots and Apologies

"I don't believe it. Amethyst Houston."

I felt my body tense and my thoughts turn defensive as the brunette looked at me with a mixture of hostility and derision.

I realized that my fists were clenched and with great effort, I opened them. "Hi," I said, smiling pleasantly. "Nice to meet you."

"You sure about that?"

I nodded at the beautiful, dark-skinned woman in front of me. "Yes," I said. "You're rather unpleasant right now, but I can't blame you for it, if you know what I mean."

Onyx coughed awkwardly beside me. "Why can't you be nice to her, Petra?"

"Why can't whales fly, Onyx?" she retorted.

I nudged Onyx gently to stop him from making a snarky reply to Petra. "It's okay," I told him, and then turned to Petra. "I understand your predicament. I'm not my family."

Petra's eyes widened. Clearly, she wasn't expecting me to voice that out loud. She rolled her eyes and turned away from me, and I felt a prickling of hurt, but I was used to crushing it.

Onyx had invited me to join him and his friends to the beach. I had happily agreed; maybe it was time for me to make friends other than the Heartens and my dog. So here I was, on a pleasant Sunday, dressed in a blue sundress and being shown exactly how unwelcome I was here. The only reason I didn't leave was Onyx. He had been so delighted about me accompanying him...asking him to let me go home would ruin his day.

I walked next to Braden, one of Onyx's friends. He carried his flaming red hair with amazing panache, and with piercing blue eyes, a long, slightly crooked nose and thin lips, he was knee-weakeningly handsome. He harbored an intense dislike for me, more so than Petra, and I had a feeling that it wasn't just my last name that bothered him.

"Do you really have to walk next to me?" he hissed.

Loathing might be a better word than dislike.

I felt my temper rise, and a snarky response bubbled to my lips. But then I saw the slightly upset look Onyx had on his face, and I swallowed my rude words. I gave in, just like I always did to the wishes of everyone who disliked me. "Sorry," I said, and slowed down. He gave me a dubious look and shook his head, before muttering "weirdo" and moving on.

"Sorry about him," another redhead, Braden's sister Olive, said to me. Unlike her brother, she was nice to me, meaning that she had not made it her life's mission to make me feel unwanted.

"You don't need to apologise," I replied, smiling warmly at her.

"You don't resent him for being that mean to you?"

I sighed. "Nobody likes to be treated the way he treated me, Olive. Especially since I have never said or done anything to him."

"So why do you..."

"I don't want to ruin things for Onyx. He's my friend, and I don't want him to get disturbed over any tension between his friends and I."

Olive smiled tightly. "And here I thought that you were trying to become one of us."

I glared. "You all seem to think that I'm genetically tuned to be a bitch. I'm not and I don't like people to judge me as one. So no, thank you, I don't want to be one of you."

"You're being a bitch right now," Braden called from in front of me.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. Don't ruin this for Onyx, I mumbled mentally. "You're right, I'm sorry," I said, mentally beating up Braden with great relish. Braden simply scoffed.