Chapter 12: Chapter Twelve

Two hours later, the movie began to sink to an end. I was in tears. I was actually crying to an actual fucking film! Am I kidding myself?

The movie finally ended. I had never watched Romeo and Juliet before, nor read it as I never paid attention in class. We had covered it but that was way back in year nine and even then, I never listened. Now, I wish I had. I would have given the world more of my attention.

Romeo and Juliet laid inside a coffin bed, her head on his chest and his arm spread. She had killed herself by shooting herself in the head because he had taken poison because he thought she was dead. I know, sounds messed up, but it was really good. It was such a great twist, a great way to end a movie. I found it typical at first that it was a everyday normal love story but they both died in the end! And that I was not expecting. Usually in love stories it ended with them getting married and skipping off into the distance.

That's why I loved it so much, it was different.

-Knock, Knock...

That must be Ms. Harrison.

I jumped up from my bed ran down the stairs, my hand reaching out to the front door. I grabbed the handle and pulled the door open by a few inches, just so my eyes could peek out and examine who it was on the other side.

It wasn't Ms. Harrison.

Instead, it was a dark skinned man with black hair. His eyes were a dark brown, they almost looked black too. I looked him up and down. He wore a smart sophisticated suite with a red blood colour toned tie. He seemed about the age of early forties and late thirties....one of the two. I noticed he held a blue clipboard to his chest and he briefly glanced down at it as I continued to stare at him. "Are you Claire Copper?" He asked in a croaky voice. I assumed he had a bad throat.

I gave him a dirty look as if I was a dog who had just turned her nose up to her food. "No. Why?"

He cleared his throat as he jotted something down onto his blue clipboard. "Claire Copper and Arthur Copper are the rightful owners of this house. Am I correct?" I didn't answer. Clair and Arthur were my parents. My dead parents. "Miss?" He asked, bringing my back to the presence.

"Err. Yes, yes they are." I nodded.

"I don't think you're aware, but some bills have been missed. There's also record of no payment being made for TV licence." Shit! I thought Ms. Harrison had paid it. What the fuck has she been doing? She always made sure my bills were payed!

"W-what?"

He pursed his lips and handed me sheet of a list of bills and TV licence which hadn't been paid for over the past two months. "It is questioned on your behalf of the house."

"What do you mean?"

"Basically, love...you've got to be out of here within two weeks."

After the man left me with the sheet lying in my hands, I ran over to next door and see Ms. Harrison. I wanted an explanation. Why hadn't she been paying for these fucking bills?

I reach her front door and literally bang my fist against it. I wait for a moment and that's when footsteps begin to approach from upstairs, coming closer and closer to the door. Eventually Miss Harrison opened the door with an unamused look, she obliviously hadn't forgotten the argument we had yesterday.

I held out the sheet of paper to her and her eyebrows pressed together. "What?" She asked with a small voice. I kept an unamused expression fixed on my face as I crossed my arms and tapped my foot like an impatient six year old. Miss Harrison stood at her doorway and read it slowly, as she did her face began to slowly fall. I bet she didn't see that coming. Had she been lying to me this whole time? Why hadn't these bills been paid?

She looked up from the paper, her lips tight. "What is this all about?"

"Oh, don't start!" I yell with a sudden. I can't take no one's shit anymore. "Have you not read it clearly? I've got to be out within two weeks! What the fuck have you done!?!" Miss Harrison's eyes widened, "Me? What are you talking about?"

"One of the housing people knocked just this second ago and told me there's been unpaid bills, including TV licence!! So, come on! Why haven't you been paying them!?!"

Miss Harrison just looked at me with a horrified expression, the sheet of paper shaking in her hands. "Alice, I... I don't know what to say to you."

"How about try telling me why you haven't paid these bills! What's wrong with you? Did you deliberately do this!?"

"Of course not! Alice, I'm sorry. It's hard to explain, because you've never had to pay. You’re practically a child. Bills get dearer each year, the expense changes and I'm sorry but I wasn't aware, I haven't been keeping up with the payments."

"And why not? You do realise I'm gonna fucking loose my home now, because of you!" I yelled and she shook her head in panic, "What do you expect me to do!? I have a house of my own, Alice! I have my own bills to pay. I'm not made of money, you know!" She exclaimed. I growled and snatched the sheet of paper out of her hand, ripping it into shreds. "Fuck you! Fuck you all!" With that, I ran.

I couldn't believe this! I just couldn't believe it! I had to be out of my home within two weeks! How could I possibly leave the house I had grown up in ever since I was four years old! I couldn't just pack my bags and leave; I had spent my whole life there. Tears threatened er my eyes and my body shakes in terror. All I could feel was this horrible choking sensation in the back of my throat. It was terrifying. The feeling of losing your home, it was horrible. I couldn't go on, I just wanted to kill myself right there and then.

I ran back to my house and slammed the door shut, turning the lock and hooking the chain up. I didn't run up the stairs, instead I just buried my head in my hands. Let it out. Just scream. Do whatever you have to, but please don't take my roof away from me. It was all I had left.

My legs gave way and I slowly sunk to the floor; my back pressed against the door. Oh, please. Just kill me, someone kill me. I just want to die. Where was I going to go? His was my life. A puddle of nothing, no one and nothing. Miss Harrison was someone I could always trust, but now...no way in hell was I ever going to trust her again. My roof was all I had and not even that had been taken away from me.

Everything was now gone.

"Hey, Alice!" A familiar voice called from far behind me. Oh, God help me! It was one of the really artistic boys from my science class. Ryan...

He was the smartest person in the whole of our science class, and everyone always teases him for being so far up his own ass. I always refused to socialise with dumb fuckers like that. I mean, who would want to? I ignored his call and just continued walking, slowly turning a corner towards the Maths block, he obviously expected me to walk down the English corridor as usual.

"Alice! Wait! Alice!" He continued to shout down the corridor to me. I winced, my head beginning to ache from his annoying voice. I still refused to respond and turned another corner. For fuck sake! How was I going to escape him? And more importantly why did he want to talk to me anyway! God, people like him were SO annoying! Just leave me alone! Leave me be!

I turned another corner only to have gotten no further, and before I knew it, he had caught up with me. Now, here he was jogging beside me. 'Fuck off' I thought. I daren't say it though as I've insulted enough people already. I just really wasn't interested!

"Hey, Alice! What's up?"

"Nothing." I gritted my teeth as I stomped through the Maths corridor. He slowed down to a walk and followed me down through the Maths doors. "You blanking me?"

Yes, because funny enough...you are the most annoying fucking dumb ass anyone would ever talk to! I held my breath, "No." My tone was edgy and unconvincing. He knew I was lying because I caught his expression in the corner of my eyes. "Why did you ignore me when I called you then?" I growled I frustration, "Because I just want to be left alone! Ok?"

He didn't retreat in shock like everyone else did, he seemed unaffected by my reaction. His black hair was slightly spike and its eyes burned a dark green.

"Ok, fair enough. But...I just wanted to ask if you've heard anything about Olivia Smith." I wrinkled my nose in disgust at the sound of her name. "No, why would I?"

"Er, ok. No reason." He scratched his head, a little baffled with himself. Was there something I was meant to know?

"Why would you care anyway? You don't even know Olivia."

"Nothing...it's nothing. Sorry." He quickly scrambled away like a frightened rat. And a rat he was. I let it slip off my mind, as if I actually gave a shit about Olivia! She was the last person on my mind.