When Perfect Meets Crazy

Chapter 33: 32 - Wonder Woman and Sleeping Beauty

I was the first one up. As always. Today however, I didn’t get much sleep to begin with. After arranging

for Ian to sleep on the floor, my mind couldn’t get quiet. It was running a mile a minute thinking,

overthinking and rethinking everything he had revealed.

I wouldn’t have minded if my body wasn’t so exhausted it was practically begging for sleep. With

complete disregard for how tired my body was, my brain kept churning. Of course when I finally

managed to quiet my brain and get sleep on the agenda, my dad chose to show up. And to top it off, he

chose to come in through the back door like an intruder which he only does occasionally. Between

worrying that he’d find evidence like a blood stain that would lead him to find Ian in my room and a very

realistic fear that it wasn’t even him at all but rather one of the people Ian was running from, sleep

pretty much flew out the window.

It wasn’t till sometime around 4a.m. I was finally able to drift off. Not much in the way of sleep if you did

the calculation.

I had breakfast ready and was halfway through the dirty dishes when Olly ventured downstairs,

yawning loudly.

“Sleep well?” I asked begrudgingly, my tone green with envy as I slid a plate of eggs and bacon over to

her.

I shouldn’t have bothered with breakfast. With how well tested she was, she didn’t deserve it.

She grunted an unintelligible sound.

Olly wasn’t by any stretch of imagination an early riser and if she was expected to wake up early and

make conversation, it had to be after some form a meal.

She devoured the contents of her plate while I worked through the rest of the dishes.

“Hey, can I borrow your black skirt? The pleated one. I want to wear it with my new boots.” Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

“Hmmm.” I nodded absently, wiping my hands dry after putting away the last of the dishes.

We borrowed stuff from each a lot. Her more so than me. Most times, she couldn’t even be bothered to

ask. My closet was always organized and she knew my system so it was easy for her to take things

whenever she wanted with or without my permission. I was used to her barging into my room and

taking whatever she wan--

My eyes widened in horror as my thought process slammed to a stop.

I had something to hide in my room.

“Olly! Wait!” I screamed, flying after her.

She was halfway up the stairs by the time I caught up.

“What?” She wasn’t amused.

“I’ll get it,” I said as calmly as I could while panting like a seventy year old with tuberculosis.

She eyed me suspiciously. I pasted a smile on my face. Her eyes narrowed, not buying it.

“I just organized my closet. I don’t want you messing it up.”

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes, continuing up the stairs. “I need to take my bath anyway. Just put it in

the bathroom.”

I kept the smile on my face until she entered her room. Then, I allowed myself a sigh of relief. That was

too close. How on earth did I forget I was harbouring Ian in my room?

I slapped my hand across my face, mentally chiding myself to do better.

I sighed, then sped off to my room.

Ian was still sprawled at the foot of my bed, faintly snoring. One would think he’d be awake by now

given the circumstances but no, the idiot was not only sleeping in at an unsafe person’s house but had

actually slept through both my alarm and my not so quiet morning rituals -taking my bath, packing my

bag, laying out my clothes, prepping my hair-.

I scoffed, rolling my eyes to the heavens.

“Wake up, idiot.” I hissed.

“Hmmm.” He rolled over, turning his back to me.

“Get. Up.” I stabbed his injured arm with my index finger.

It did the trick. With a groan of pain, his eyelids fluttered open.

“Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” I sniped, walking over to my closet.

I picked out the skirt Olly wanted and headed to the bathroom door.

“I’ll deal with you in a sec,” I informed him.

Olly was in the shower as expected so I draped the skirt over the basin by the door leading to her room

so she’d pick it up on her way out.

I returned to my room.

“I have school in a little while. What’s your plan?” I asked the boy who was still groggily rubbing his

good hand over his unbruised eye.

Surprisingly, he had been right about the quick healing thing. His face looked markedly better.

“I’ll go see Townsend,” he answered.

It was clear he spouted the first idea that popped into his head and hadn’t actually thought it through.

I managed to refrain from rolling my eyes at his suggestion.

“Is that safe?” I pointed out the obvious, gesturing for him to turn around while I pulled a shirt over my

tank top and switched out the sweatpants I had on for a corduroy wine colored skirt that stopped just

short of my knees.

I took his lack of reply as a negative and forged on.

“Also, won’t rolling up battered and bruised raise eyebrows?”

Once again, he stayed conveniently quiet.

“You haven’t thought this through at all, have you?” I slipped on a pair of pumps.

“I just woke up. Cut me some slack.” He yawned, shoulders drooping a little.

I rolled my eyes.

“Lucky for you, I have.” All night long to be specific.

His back was still to me but I knew in my bones he was rolling his eyes. I rolled mine right back.

“You can turn around now,” I said, taking a seat at my dresser to put up my hair.

“Thanks for last night,” he said quietly, shuffling from one foot to the other nervously.

“Well,” I met his eyes through the mirror, “I am Wonder woman after all.”

He instantly relaxed, flashing me a grateful smile.

“You can rest here for now and meet up with me after school. Or you can go back and pretend you

spent the night at your girlfriend’s.”

I set down my hairbrush and picked up a scrunchie.

“To cover your bases,” I continued. “It means you’ll have to see her today. I recommend going this

morning so your alibi looks airtight at a glance. Also, you might want to stop at a makeup store to get

concealer in your color. Or ask Tammy to do it for you.”

“This is why I chose you. Your ability to rationalize your way through anything.” Gratitude filled his

features. “You don’t even like me. Is there anything you can’t do?”

“Ditch you, apparently,” I quipped without any real bite to my tone. I finished my hair and rose to my

feet, turning to face him. “You can leave out the window.”

His jaw slackened as he stared, looking me over from the bun of my hair to the pumps on my feet.

My brows furrowed.

“Problem?” I asked.

He shook his head. It didn’t seem like all was good but I didn’t have time to get into it so I let it slide.

“Oh-kay,” I drawled. “Just remember to come up with a lie to tell Tammy if you’re still not ready to tell

her the truth. Normally, I won’t recommend coming clean but you’re white. It’s what you guys do. You

share your life story the first good chance you get.”

“That was racist.”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “Maybe not. But you have to admit, black people aren’t as trusting as whites. The

last time a black trusted someone with their life story, we all ended up as slaves.”

“Technically, that’s not true.”

“Technically, you’re a liar who deceived me, a black person into thinking what you wanted me to think.

Sounds like history repeating itself, doesn’t it?” I shot him a pointed stare.

He rolled his eyes.

“A liar who needs to come up with a new lie to tell his girlfriend. I’m guessing she isn’t white either.

What is she? Mexican? Cuban?”

• • •

I was absentminded.

I wasn’t paying attention to the teacher or even to my friends who kept trying to pass me notes. I

couldn’t bring myself to get out of my head. There was too much going on. Too much to think about

thanks to Masked Idiot. I knew it was a bad idea the second I stepped foot in that arena but I hadn’t

expected myself to get embroiled in an undercover FBI mission. No matter how I looked at it, it was

insane. Barely believable. It made no sense.

I sighed heavily, hooking one of the two locks of hair I had left down behind my ear.

“Avy.” Mae nudged me with her shoulder.

“Hmmm?” I tuned back in to find that I was the only one who hadn’t finished her meal and the other five

girls sitting with me, staring at me hungrily. “What?”

“Who’s the new guy? I heard he was at the library with you too.” She wriggled her brows suggestively.

“New guy?” I frowned, drawing a blank.

The wriggled brows meant she was talking about a boy I liked but between the drama with Masked

Idiot and taking care of things in my mom’s absence, there wasn’t any time to eve--

I reeled back, surprise blossoming on my face. She couldn’t possibly be referring to Masked Idiot,

right?

“That guy,” Claire chipped in, taking advantage of my silence to flaunt her knowledge. “Is Ian

Carrington. Yes, the Carringtons you’re thinking off.”

I almost face-palmed. Of course she was talking about him. After all, he was the only guy I was

regularly with these days and she was blissfully unaware of the circumstances that brought us together.

Of course, she’d conclude I liked him.

I flashed a snarl in Claire’s direction. Why did she have to step in and supply his name like it was any of

her business.

“How’d you figure, Claire?” My caustic tone was barely veiled with saccharine.

“Found his Instagram,” she replied innocently.

“Oh my God! That Ian. I follow him. I didn’t even realize it was him. Oh my God.” One of the ‘Charlie’s

Angels’ as Ian had dubbed gushed.

“Woah.” Mae breathed.

“The question is,” Claire smiled, her clear gray eyes honing in on her prey; me, “how do you know him,

Avy?”

I kept my expression blank and uninterested.

“We ran into each other.” I shrugged. “I needed directions. He helped me out.”

Based on past precedent and my disinterested attitude, they knew that was all they were going to get

out of me so they settled for stalking his Instagram profile which had quite a number of shirtless photos

at foreign beaches.

Needless to say, I had enough material to tease Ian with forever if I so pleased.