PawPaw #21, Vanilla Custard #14 + gummy bunnies
Story: The Age of Heroes
Title: You're Mean
Prompts: PawPaw #21: nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, Vanilla Custard #14: I stand before you desperate to find an exit. + gummy bunnies (500themes#115: deliverance)
Rating: PG13 for bullying, some curse words
Words: 1336
Characters: Sydney Arden, Ian Carter, Hunter Brun
Summary: Sydney inadvertently comes to Ian Carter's rescue again. Sydney's turning out to be a bit more callous than I'd originally pictured her. No one ever said that authors actually had control over their characters!
Sydney didn't really have to go to the bathroom, but if she didn't get away from her friends pestering her about Dylan Matthews she was liable to scream. She'd grabbed a hall pass from their English teacher and made her escape, conveniently forgetting to bring her cell phone so they couldn't text her.
Dylan wasn't here today. His best friend, Eddie Trejo, had told everyone that Dylan was in the hospital because he'd gotten into a car accident last night after he'd dropped Sydney off. Eddie even had pictures of the truck, the front end of which was now doing an impressive impersonation of an accordion. Dylan wasn't in any danger of dying, but he had a concussion, a smashed face, and a couple broken bones.
People had descended on Sydney like locusts. She was the last person to see him before he'd gotten in the accident and they wanted to know everything. She gave them the barest details of the date before Dylan had gone into Dickhead mode, and avoided as many questions as she could. Her friends were being particularly persistent; they could tell that she wasn't pleased with Dylan and they were intent on getting the real details of the disaster/date out of her.
Sydney wasn't at the top of her game either because she was trying to figure out how her mysterious rescuer had managed to cover up the real reason for Dylan's mess of a face. That accident had to have been his doing, but how the hell did anyone pull something like that off? With magic? Maybe he was a director because that kind of shit only happened in the movies.
Sydney was pulled out of her thoughts when she wandered into the mathematics hallway and saw Hunter Brun shove Ian Carter into the wall. Hunter had his fist wrapped in the front of Ian's shirt and the smaller boy up on his tiptoes. He was saying something too low for Sydney to hear but she could read the menace on Hunter's face just fine.
She wouldn't call Hunter a friend, but they had a lot of friends in common so she ended up hanging out with him on a pretty regular basis. He was charming and his revolving door of girlfriends could attest to his cuteness. Still, Sydney had seen him get mean more than once when things didn't go his way. She wasn't particularly surprised to find she could add 'bully' to the list of reasons why Hunter Brun wasn't someone she wanted to get close to.
Her irritated sigh was loud enough that both guys glanced over at her. "Really, Hunter? You're this big of a douchebag?"
Hunter let go of Ian so he could turn and grin at her charmingly. "You got it wrong, Syd. Carter's just being a pal and lending me some money. I don't get my paycheck until Friday."
"Right," she rolled her eyes. "I've always noticed how you and Ian Carter are such good pals."
Picking up on Sydney's skepticism, Hunter stepped up his game. He slung a friendly arm over her shoulder and conveniently blocked her from seeing Ian and any damage he might have inflicted on the kid. "Hey, that sucks about Dylan. I heard he was coming home from his date with you when he got in the crash."
"Yeah, I'm real upset about it," Sydney deadpanned. A flick of color caught the corner of her eye; she turned her head in time to catch Ian Carter slipping unnoticed around a corner. He had probably been in these situations often enough to know a golden escape opportunity when he saw one.
Hunter gave her an odd look, no doubt intending to question her about her distinct lack of enthusiasm in regards to "poor" Dylan Matthews. Sydney distracted him by punching him in the side. It wasn't the first time Hunter had gotten a playful hit from a girl, but Sydney wasn't one of the flighty stick figures that Hunter liked to hang out with. She had enough muscle to make it hurt. He dropped his arm from her and rubbed his side. "What the fuck, Sydney?"
"Don't be such a prick to Ian. He's pathetic enough as it is." She didn't spare Ian any nice words because she knew Hunter wouldn't respond to it. Plus, there was a small part of her that thought Ian Carter was a little bit pathetic. They had lived two streets apart their entire lives, and she couldn't think of a single time when he'd stood up for himself against a never ending line of bullies. He had a talent for being the victim.
"You're mean," Hunter pouted.
She couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Pot, meet kettle."
"What?" Hunter shook his head. "You should buy me lunch to make up for being so mean."
"You mean your good pal Ian didn't lend you enough money?"
"Lay off it, Syd," Hunter said. His tone wasn't quite as light as before, and when she looked up at him, she saw that mean streak peeking through his expression.
Sydney had no intention of causing drama with Hunter Brun, especially for Ian Carter's sake. She shrugged and started walking back to her classroom. "Just smile pretty and I'm sure one of your bimbos will buy you lunch."
The charm was back in place. "I do have a pretty smile," he called after her.
She raised a hand without turning back. "See ya, asshole," she said under her breath.
To her surprise, Ian Carter was standing awkwardly just around the corner. He blushed as soon as he saw her. "Thanks Sydney," Ian said.
She nodded, uncomfortable. She wondered if Ian had heard her call him pathetic. Ian didn't garner much of her respect, but Sydney didn't want him to think of her as another bully. He was harmless.
"What are you doing out of class?" she grumbled, not really caring about the answer but eager to change the subject.
Ian fell into step beside her, surprising her again. It wasn't like they were friends. "I'm a library aide," he said with a shrug. Ian held up the library book he was carrying as if to prove his point.
She glanced at the book but her attention was really caught by his wristband. It was one of those blue plastic bands but it didn't have a website or saying on it, only a white symbol: a series of three thin circles inside each other surrounding a much smaller circle blocked in white. Her heart thumped hard against her ribs. "What's that?" she pointed at the band.
Ian flushed and jerked his arm back down to his side. "Uh, it's the Rondurity symbol."
That's what she'd thought. Rondurity was the magician's religion. More magic. "You're a magician?"
"Uhm, no," he said, his pale face turning an even brighter shade of red. "You can be Ronduri and not actually be, you know, magic."
Ian Carter was Ronduri. Sydney was surprised but when she thought about it, it made sense. He'd always been really big into fantasy. Finding out that magic actually existed had probably been like a dream come true to him. Sydney couldn't say she'd been any more interested in it than the next person in the past, but recent events had definitely piqued her curiosity in the subject. "You know about magic, though? I mean, more than just what they say on tv?"
"I guess. It's not a big deal," he said hurriedly. Probably thought she would tell somebody like Hunter and give the bullies more fodder to torment him with. He motioned towards the library. "I gotta go. Thanks again for..." he trailed off with an uncomfortable shrug.
"Yeah," Sydney filled in the silence. She was as eager to make her getaway as he was. "Bye."
Ian scurried into the library and Sydney made her way back to English class. That was probably the longest conversation she'd ever had with Ian Carter. God, her life was getting weird.