AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Miss Treadwell,” Paul said again. “Your reputation for being dramatic is well earned, I see. Tomorrow will be soon enough.”
“You want dramatic? I could just call the police.”
“Now, Miss—”
“Don’t patronise me again, Paul. You’re another one who doesn’t seem to give a fuck.”
He flinched at the word and took his glasses off. I didn’t regret saying it, though I did note that the castle was turning me into a frequently f-wording person.
“We don’t really register as people to you, do we?” I went on. “We’re lab rats to be used for your own ends. Lines on a screen.”
I looked along the table. Colin and Michelle both had small smiles, different but similarly aggravating. Aleks met my gaze, but did not smile. It was his turn to hear my truth. “You seem to be the best of them, Aleks, but really you’re the worst. You’re not a bully – you don’t behave like them – but your silence condones and enables their abuses. And I have no intention of getting used to it. Ever.”
The word ‘ever’ reverberated high up in the roof, a sad reminder of a different echo, as a crowd gathered round.
“Well said,” praised Sun. She started clapping and the rest joined in. We then, en masse, swept out of the hall to the foot of the stairs.
Will shouted, “To the top of the tower!”
“What is going on?” asked a confused Justin, as he emerged from the theatre corridor with a colourfully made-up Bekah.
“We’re revolting,” Will informed him.
“Speak for yourself,” said Justin.
Numb feelings set in as we all rushed up the stairs and into my room. There was oohing and ahhing from the younger students when they saw the barre and the ceiling window. I sat on the bed with Will and Justin, and listened to the many ‘evil Michelle’ stories. Our class, minus Simone who hadn’t joined us, had many tales of Colin, his useless warm-ups and constantly crass mouth. Aleks wasn’t mentioned, of course he wasn’t. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Edward was phoned for legal advice, and a list of demands was constructed.
My mind could only half follow the discussion. I thought about Aleks’s school life. This must all seem very minor in comparison to sticks and beatings. I hadn’t even told him the worst parts. The worst. Why had I said that about him? It wasn’t true.
Justin dragged me out of my reverie. “Ed doesn’t think they’ll expel you, sweets. They’ll be running scared of litigation now, what with everything. He says they didn’t explain the research aspect properly to us, so we could refuse to let them use any data they’ve gathered. We may have signed our consent on those forms, but it wasn’t informed consent. Push them into a corner with that, and get them to give you whatever you want, is his advice.” It was clear that everyone expected me to spearhead the rebellion and face the enemy on their behalf.
Holly arrived with biscuits, crisps and cola: rebellious food. “You were awesome, Phi,” she said. “It was needin’ to be said, all of it. They’ve telt me to tell ye that they’ll meet you in the first upstairs studio at eleven, tomorrow morning, to ‘discuss your concerns.’ All your classes are cancelled for tomorrow.” She deployed this in her best posh voice. “Aye,” she then said, expressing much suspicion in the syllable. “Dinna go by yersel, quine. It’ll be you against the bunch o’ them. Plannin’ to make ye feel this small.” Her finger and thumb measured the centimetre I was to be made to feel.
Justin and Will would come too. They offered to stay the night with me, but I needed to be alone. To cry, to shower, to cry some more. To put on a big shirt of Aleks’s that I found on a chair. We would probably never see each other again after tomorrow.
I found I couldn’t stay in my room on my own. I couldn’t leave things this way. So, I ran down and round the cold stone stairs to the silvery grey bedroom below mine.
Chapter 33
Hisroomwasempty.The bedside lamp was on, the bed itself rumpled as if he had been in it. Maybe I should get under the blankets and wait for him to return? I didn’t care if he was angry. I wanted to feel his wrath and respond, hopefully more appropriately and clearly this time.
He stepped out of the bathroom, naked, his face looking sort of pink round the edges. He’d been crying. I rushed over andheld him, moving my hands around different places on his back as if the hurt could be removed that way. If I hugged him everywhere, pressed him to me, covered him with love, everything would be okay.
Defiance of some sort detectable in his face, he pulled my shirt – actually his shirt – up and off, over my head.
We stood before each other, just us, nothing in between. He put his hands on either side of my face and kissed me twice, softly like the first time on the train. I shivered. He made a guttural sound as I slid down his body, dipping my nose into the indented line that marked the middle of Aleks. I took hold of his beautifully hard penis and touched it to my cheek, my lips, my tongue.
Suddenly we were airborne and then on the bed. I shrieked in shock at the flight, and gasped when he pinned my arms back behind my head. His face was grim. I wriggled under him, but there was no give in the grip he had on my wrists.
“You want this?” he asked, voice kinder than face. “You’re sure?”
I nodded, deliciously overwhelmed by the male power of Aleks. He lined our bodies up and was, all at once, in me. I yelled in surprise, but also for the total joy of it. All needs met in an instant. All worries gone.
His eyes stared into mine as we moved into a new paradigm, love and power realigning around us. I smiled up at him, and he barked some sort of order.
He released my arms and flipped me over in one move. Gentle hands stroked my back and placed me on my knees. The sensation was different in the new position, animalistic and raw. I fell down on the pillows, jibbering something nonsensical. I was his, completely his, and at the same time more free than I had ever been. Free to be myself, to let go and fly high on waves of boundless beauty, above all worldly concerns. The feelings found a voice and a name: “Aleksandr.”
At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted his tongue’s delicate dance. It was always too intense, and after such a stretching of the senses it might be unbearable. But everything was altered now, met as we were in this wild abandonment. I raised my hips to his mouth and demanded more and more until breathless exhaustion led us back to one another, face to face.
