Tangled Up In You (A Savioe Family Novel) Read online

  Tangled

  Up In

  You

  Ginny Atkinson

  Copyright 2012 © by Ginny Atkinson

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you, for respecting the author’s work.

  DEDICATION

  This one is for all of my wonderfully crazy cousins, my first best friends in life. Though we may have grown apart over the years, our exploits and adventures still make me smile today.

  Chapter One

  Roxy

  They say high school gets easier with each passing day and not to worry about fitting in at such a young age. I say they are full of it. Completely and totally full of it. They, my parents, have lost touch with all reality. By that, I mean they must have forgotten what it is like to be surrounded by those that pick on you for the way you dress, look, sound and whom you hang out with. Though, I don’t get bullied. I’m talking not at all. Not even a push into a locker or a snicker of geek when I walk the halls. I’m what some call an invisible one. We are the people who could coast through school and graduate with no one remembering our name or face. My teachers even forget my name and ask if I’m a new student almost every Monday. So it might not actually be that often but it sure feels like it and it’s a little depressing. If it wasn’t for my best friend Jessica Frasier, I doubt I’d even have one friend in the entire school.

  My parents though, think I’m just being a drama queen about it and that I will get over everyone’s Roxanne Amnesia then laugh about it when I get older. That is another thing my name. Who names their daughter Roxanne Prudence Saintshill anyway? People who listen to too much 80’s music and watch an old TV show about witches, that’s who. It just screams ‘my parents hate me.’

  The RA, as Jess and I call it, started in middle school. When most kids hit puberty and grew about six inches or more, I stayed at a shocking five foot even. I just stopped there. I can’t even try to claim an extra half inch. We think that they just started looking over me and then eventually just stopped looking all together. It’s not as if I’m ugly, plain or anything. I’m just me. I have my mother’s clear olive complexion, almond shaped eyes and dark hair. My father’s green eyes and killer smile, dimples included, best thing about that I have never needed braces. I was also cursed with my grandmother’s stature and figure. Short with a tiny waist, big hips and uh… bust. That is annoying. I can never find anything that fits properly. The jeans that fit my butt are too long for my legs and the ones that fit my legs never fit my rump. My mom has to actually hem the bottom of all my clothes, which for her is a miracle to even attempt something like that. Jess says that I have an exotic look about me. Which is cool right? I guess the people in school just don’t know how to see it. They are too busy looking for the tall, skinny, blondes or something.

  The latest thing that has set me off, as my mom says, happened this past Thursday. Jess and I were in the hall at our lockers getting our books before we left for home. The popular kids sauntered down the hall like normal. Jocks and cheerleaders arm in arm laughed over some inane useless thing that happened to one of them. The drama kids stood over in a corner discussing the supposedly perverted things Shakespeare wrote about as a few of the science prodigies scrambled to get to their bus on time.

  That is when someone pushed Jess into her locker. They grabbed her by the back of her shirt and tried to open the thing to shove her in it. I was standing right there with mine already open. Practically with an arrow over my head flashing easy target, but no they went straight for her instead. As I stood there for a moment in shock, I realized that they had never gone after her when she was around someone before.

  I shook myself out of my near catatonic state and grabbed the arm of the attacker. “Leave her alone.” I shouted trying to pull the person back with all my strength. That failed miserably. Think of a tiny Chihuahua trying to attack a bear.

  “Get away, kid. This doesn’t concern you.” She grunted. That is when I realized this was Marie Savioe, the nearly 6-foot behemoth known for her loud mouth and short temper. Her family moved here a year or two ago from southern Louisiana. The entire lot of them, there is six kids in all have been in and out of trouble with the school and law enforcement since the day they set foot in our small little Virginia town. Well that is if the rumors about them were true.

  I heard Jess squeal in pain and renewed my efforts. After taking a deep breath, I positioned myself up against the lockers for extra leverage and pushed Marie away. She stumbled back a few feet before falling on her back and stared up at me incredulously. I stood next to Jess who was slowly climbing out of her locker, blood trailing down her chin from the cut she must have received from inside it. “You okay?” I asked her keeping my eyes on Marie with my heart pounding in my ears.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” She whispered her hand wiping away the blood.

  “Let’s get our stuff and get out to the car.” I whispered back. She grabbed her backpack then mine and practically ran out of the school. I still stood there watching Marie. My heart was pounding in my chest. Adrenaline coursed through my veins. The look in her topaz eyes told me right then that my days of being invisible were over. She was going to make my life hell and I couldn’t help but feel happy over it. I gave her a quick smirk and turned to walk away.

  “This is not over, Shorty.” She practically growled in my direction still sprawled out on the floor holding her ankle.

  I spun around eyebrows raised in amusement. “Looking forward to it, Goliath.”

  When I reached my car, a green late 90’s four-door sedan, Jess was already inside it waiting for me. I slipped in the driver seat and started it. Looking over at her I asked, “So what did you do to get her pissed at you?”

  Jess bit her lip to keep from cracking a smile, “She said I was poor white trash and I calmly told her that she’d know the signs.”

  I leaned my head back on the headrest and sighed, “Jess, what the hell am I going to do with you? You know she’s going to come after me now right?”

  “I doubt that. RA will get in the way. Like it always does.” She pulled the visor down and checked out the scratch on her chin. Her frizzy medium brown hair was pulled back in a sloppy ponytail at the base of her neck.

  I put the car in reverse and headed out of the lot. I hope Jess is wrong. Just the possibility of actually being noticed for once is enough to keep me smiling for the rest of my junior year. Shit, it’s enough to keep me happy for the rest of my high school career.

  *****

  Friday morning, I pulled into the dilapidated trailer park Jess lived in and pulled up to
her singlewide trailer. I honked the horn twice to let her know I was out there and flipped the visor down to check out my reflection in the tiny cracked mirror. My parents still refused to let me wear any makeup. My mom says that if I wear any I’ll get premature wrinkles around my eyes. I shook my head and grabbed my purse looking for my eyeliner, mascara and lip-gloss. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. I usually washed it off when I dropped Jess off in the afternoon after school anyway.

  Jess jogged out to the car her backpack slung over her back, hair a wild mass of frizzy curls and a Pop Tart in her mouth. She climbed in the passenger seat with a sneaky grin on her face. I groaned flipping the visor back up. “What?”

  “Nothing. I can’t be happy to see my bestest friend in the whole wide world.” She laughed as she placed the Pop Tart on her lap and tried to run a brush through that untamed mass of hair.

  “Yeah, what’s up?” I put the car in drive and head out of the park. “You usually are not this uh… chipper in the morning. Seriously, what happened? Did you finally score that guy you’ve been panting after for weeks?” Love the girl dearly but she was a bit of a slut.

  “Pssht. I wish. Anyway, I heard from Madison, who heard from Angie, who heard from Sarah that a certain beastly girl that we both love so very much has been suspended for that little incident in school yesterday.” She rambled pulling her hair back into a low-slung ponytail. She picked up her Pop Tart and took a bite. “Apparently, the vice principal’s son witnessed everything and told his mom. She immediately had the security guards find her and bring her to her office. Where she called her parents and explained the zero tolerance policy on bullying and suspended her for the week.”

  “So no Marie today or next week?” I asked as we pulled into the student parking lot. The lot was already packed. I sighed at my lack of decent parking options and pulled into the second to last row.

  “Nope. The she-hulk is not allowed back on school property until next Thursday.” She took off her seat belt and grabbed her backpack.

  I put the car in park, turned it off and got out. “At least you don’t have to worry about getting shoved into a locker until she gets back.”

  She laughed and closed the car door. “True. Oh shit!” She stopped in front of the car and stared over my shoulder. “Her brothers are glaring at us.”

  “Which ones?” I asked trying to force myself from not turning around to look. I thought Marie was huge. In comparison to her brothers, she was tiny. We currently have three of them in our school. Beau is the oldest and a Senior. If I had to guess I’d say he is around 6’3” medium brown hair with light eyes. I really haven’t been close enough to see the exact color. He tends to stay to himself most of the time, but when he does cause trouble, it usually results in the cops being called. Charles is the fifteen-year-old freshman. Even he is taller than Marie by at least a few inches and like her, he has light brown hair and eyes. I have yet to see him not walking to the principal’s office each week. Then you have Luke. He is slightly taller than Beau with dark brown shoulder length hair he keeps tied at the base of his neck and light blue eyes with a slight dimple on his right cheek that only makes an appearance when he smirks. Not that I’ve noticed… much. He’s just in my History class, English and Science. Thanks to the alphabetically assigned seating charts, he sits right in front of or beside me in each one.

  “Looks like it might be the oldest and the one in our History class. I can’t really tell.” Her face scrunched up as she squinted in that direction.

  “You should probably wear your glasses. That could help you out a bit.”

  “Puh-lease. I only need those for reading anyway.” She rolled her eyes and continued to stare over at them. “Yeah, it’s Beau and Luke. They don’t really look too happy either.”

  “Well, if they are going to say or do anything I’d rather be in the school than out here in the open. That way my little butt can hide in a crowd. Come on.” I grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the school entrance.

  “Aren’t you afraid they are going to mess with your car?”

  “It’s just a car. If they do, that’s fine. I’d rather it be roughed up than us.” I whispered to her as we passed a group of football players staring at us. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion at their scrutiny.

  When we walked into the lunchroom or commons as they call it here, all eyes were trained on us. We sat down at our usual table to wait for the first bell to ring. Jess waved at a few of her other friends. They sauntered over and started rambling about something. I tuned them out and started scanning the room like I normally do. This was too weird. People were actually looking at me. I’m talking full blown staring and whispering. I almost expected a few to start pointing in our direction at any minute. I leaned forward and murmured to Jess. “Why is everyone looking at us?”

  “Because you my friend have become a little legend. People are saying that you beat up Marie. Funny huh? Looks like no more RA.” She giggled and nudged the brunette beside her.

  “Uh… no. It’s really freaking me out. I did not beat her up. I just pushed her away from you.” I hissed at her and while leaning across the table.

  “I know that.” She huffed rolling her eyes at me. “Everyone else thinks you knocked her on her ass though.”

  I bit my bottom lip and dropped my head on the table. This is ridiculous. I went from invisible to instant gossip in the span of a night. No wonder the Savioe boys were glaring at me this morning. They must have heard the rumors that I knocked Marie to the ground and had her suspended. With a groan, I lifted my head. Well, I wanted to be noticed.

  *****

  Luke

  So Roxy decided to show up today. I was wondering if she would. Normally if someone does something to one of us, they try to stay away at least for a few days. Just to let the dust settle. She though… she must not care. My lips twitched a bit in a smirk. I’ve always thought she was a bit odd. She just ignores everyone and floats through the halls as if the entire school is beneath her. In class, she sits back and glares at the teacher or she’ll have her nose stuck in her sketchbook. I remember trying to talk to her at the beginning of the school year a month ago. She just looked up at me with those big green eyes and gave me a look like I was bothering her. I made the mistake of telling Marie about it last week. She freaked out asking what was wrong with the girl. If she thought she was better than me.

  I knew I shouldn’t have said a thing to her. Marie tends to overreact when it comes to someone slighting us in anyway. She took Roxy’s silence toward me as a slap in the face. She went out of her way to find out more information on her and try to fix the situation. Which in Marie speak means intimidate or throw a punch.

  Last night when I got home from my shift at the local grocery store, Marie hobbled into my room. She was ranting about how some little shit shoved her to the ground causing her to twist her ankle when she was just talking to Roxy at her locker. Now she was suspended because of it. I knew immediately that she was ‘talking’ to the wrong person and Roxy was the one who did the pushing.

  “Did ya hear what I said, frère?” Beau growled at me his accent overly pronounced in his anger. I glanced over at him and shook my head. “Da two of dem jus’ show up and go in like nothin’ happened yesterday.”

  I shrugged pushing away from the car. “So what’s the big deal? Marie is forever getting into fights and arguments. Why should yesterday’s fight be any different?”

  “Cause we protect our own and da petite cooyon has da entire school believin’ she kicked Marie’s ass.” He sneered, his eyes following the girls as they headed into the school.

  I gnashed my teeth at his description of Roxy. “Well we might as well head on in if we want to clean up this mess.” Whether she likes it or not I’m going to follow Roxy to make sure Beau and Charles don’t mess with her too much.

  As I headed up the steps to the commons an arm slinks around my waist. “Hey baby. I missed talking to you last night.” A high-pitched voice purred
against my side.

  I glanced down at her blonde head. “Christie. Sorry, babe, I had to work last night. When I got home I had to deal with Marie’s thing and I forgot.”

  She leaned up to kiss my check. “That’s alright I’ll forgive you this time. Yeah, I heard about that. Who’s this Roxanne girl anyway? Is that the girl with the frizzy hair and football player shoulders?”

  “No. She is the petite fille. The little girl.” I mumbled heading into the building with her under my arm. Christie and I have had an on again off again relationship for a few months now. While I like talking to her, she can be very superficial, flighty, jealous and petty. She tends to jump to the conclusion that I am constantly cheating on her especially if I don’t answer her calls or texts within a few minutes. I cringed at the memory of the last break up.

  She called me on Sunday morning when I was at church with my family. I, being the respectable Catholic that I am, left my phone at home, so I didn’t disturb my fellow parishioners. After the service when we returned home I had over ten missed calls and twenty text messages. I responded to one of her texts letting her know that I was at Mass. She flipped out. She called me back and screamed at me demanding the name of the girl I was sleeping with. It took me almost two hours to get her calmed down enough to actually have a normal conversation with her. Marie asked after I got off the phone why I put up with that crap. My only excuse was to shrug. There was no way in hell that I’d tell her it’s because the girl I want refuses to acknowledge me.

  Christie and I followed Beau through the double doors. The moment we walked in the commons silence greeted us. Every set of eyes turned to us and then flicked over to Roxy who had her head on the table. I elbowed Beau, nodded over to our regular table and whispered. “I’ll say something to her in class. If we do something now, you know they’ll suspend us too and if that happens Momma will have our hides.”