Atlas Grove, once a dancer with dreams of dancing under the stars, now lives petrified in the shadows of abuse. To escape her living nightmare she must keep her head down and work hard, being her senior year this is her last chance to get out. Altho...
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"For the love of all that is mother fucking holy, will you get your pretty little head out that damn book and Yano... maybe socialise with me, do some work?"
Snapping the book shut I'm met with two black fierce wings you could easily cut a vein with. Layla towers over me red nails clutching her hips whilst one boot-clad leg is slightly bent, expectancy veiling over her. The copy of 'The Great Gatsby, the one Blaze got me that still smells like him and his sheets, the copy that's seen us through many restless nights hits the diner counter with a small thud. I wince at the sound already itching to scan it for damage. Layla's eyebrows hitch up and I realise I've not actually said anything, just gotten lost in worried about losing another part of him.
"Sorry... I've got an exam tomorrow." That is partially true, I have got my English exam tomorrow and it is on The Great Gatsby, though this isn't my class copy that's covered in notes. Doth no pen come near this one. The pages that carry the lingering smell of pine and lemon, like his sheets or the crumbs I sometimes find in between the pages after our cookies from our late-night Julie and the Phantoms binge. Another show I forced him to watch under false pretence, I sometimes catch him mumbling the lyrics as I sing them in his car... sang them rather.
"Sure sunshine. Although you are not my sunshine at the minute are you, my love." She pulls at the end of my blonde ponytail with a frown. I don't even have the energy to bat her away. The dinner behind us in its usual late-night chaos. Tables of last-minute dinners and jocks who are already promised those scholarships despite the grades they end up with. They throw food at each other like apes and holler from the sticky booths. Families occupy the further tables after the little ones' late-night dance classes and karate classes. I revel in the noise that pushes the silence away, the constant state of numbness. The air smells of grease and sugared desserts, the best kind obviously, and the neon red LEDs cast an artificial glow across the chequered floor. Some people may call Ruby's tacky but that's what it's meant to be and if you can't love it at face value then I guess you have no business here. Bells ring distantly as other waiters shoot off in various directions towards the jocks and the bag-eyed parents, their kids chewing on crayons.
"It's just exam stress, it's wearing me down. Sorry." I hop off the stool and slide my book under the counter, pasting the best smile I can muster on my face en route to the hotplate. Laycie catches the crook of my elbow and hauls me back into the stool with an umph.
"Don't you be tryna pull the wool over my eyes, young lady. That ain't no exam stress that's boy stress." Panic skitters over my skin like a parade of tiny ants. "What's going on Atlas." Her eyebrows slant down into a line of concern, fear pinching her blushed lips. There's no way I'm getting out of here without telling her. A breath of humid fryer air fills my lungs, the words spilling out on exhale.
"Blaze and I broke up."
Laycies face pales as she reels back from me, her grip on my elbow softening. She blinks a few times before her eyelids droop with pity.
