MUSIC: I'm not the one - 30H!3

Derek above^

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Derek's P.O.V: 

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"Arsehole. An absolute Arsehole!" I growled loudly to myself as I paced the length of the common room. Cher had managed to calm Amelia down after another round of tears when she'd realised that Ryan had actually left. She took her to the bathroom to clean her up and 'talk about girl stuff'.

More like talk about and slag off Ryan.

Eventually Jimmy stormed up to me and grabbed my shoulders forcefully. He pushed me down onto the couch as Tommy and Aaron towered over me. They gave me forceful, serious glares. To be honest, it intimidated me. I'd never seen all of the guys so serious at once.

"Just stop. Yes, he was an arsehole but you should be used to that by now. You have known him for quite a long time, you seem to forget. Remember that being an arsehole is part of the 'CAUTION' writing on the back of the package." Tommy told me.

"Not to mention what else is on that package..." Aaron trailed off tiredly. He flopped onto the couch next to me and rubbed his temples.

"Yeah. There's: Arsehole, arrogant prick, shit head, irrational thinking chicken nugget, bad vibes and a whole lot of trouble, rudeness and mischievousness." Jimmy pointed out matter-of-factly. I just shook my head sadly.

"I know. It's just the whole time he's known Amelia it's cooled off and he just seems like that young, cheeky boy he was a while back."

"We know Derek. Why do you think we're about to ask you this question? Not only for Amelia but for Ryan too." Aaron mumbled and I groaned, knowing that they were going to pry into what I know of Amelia's business.

"Guys I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"It's not my place." 

That was true but that wasn't all of it. Amelia had a bad past which included bad people that still had the possibility of returning. I didn't want to be the reason for that. If they came back, chances are, Amelia wouldn't. That or she'd disappear just long enough that a bruise would heal enough that she could say she got caught on a door handle, frame or corner of a kitchen counter top...

"Who gives a shit about your place. This is serious Derek. It's affecting Amelia in more ways than one and we need to help her." Aaron said.

"She's in emotional pain, Derek, psychological pain and who knows how Amelia will react to that. Sure, she can react to physical pain, and we know that. But from what I can work out she's never been affected by psychological pain and people like Amelia don't react to pain like that well. They just spiral down and down and down into a pit of nothingness and if that happens we won't be able to stop her from the inevitable. Sure that may not happen for years but with a girl like Amelia she's more likely to go to jail for a crime that she's committed to let out the frustrations of her pain. And so, we need to drag her from that pit now before it's too late."

We all stared at Tommy for a long time. We'd never heard much more than a few sentences from him before at a go and when it was more than that it was something about his childhood memories or something. Something of no importance to him. Because that's just the way he was. He was a naturally quiet person. He was closed off. And that's how he fit into our group because he was the most sensible and the most secretive. He knew things about everyone and everything. He could tell 1000 things about 1 person by just glancing at them. And you need a friend that's loyal and in every other aspect, the complete opposite to you. But you're so much of an opposite that you get along well and find common grounds.     

And that was Tommy with every single one of us.

Sure, he had his moments of confidence and arrogance, but they only came out when the time called for them. And that's what made Tommy so special to each of us.

"He's correct. Now tell us." Jimmy said.

I sighed and groaned all at the same time, making some type of weird, un-humane sound and decided that it was for the best. For all of our sakes.

"Alright. But swear down that you won't tell her that I told you or that you even know?" There was a chorus of 'I swear's' from the 3 boys and I closed my eyes briefly to gather my thoughts.

"Okay. This is absolutely everything I know. So if there are pieces of the puzzle missing I can't help you.-" I gathered my breath and got ready to tell the personal story that Amelia wanted no one to know.

"-The reason Amelia is so upset today is to do with a mixture of things. But she struggles with those things everyday. The reason that she's broken down is because it's her mum's death anniversary today. And her dad has just gotten back, and has more than likely forgotten. Hence why she is so emotional. But the reason that she didn't want you guys knowing that is because her mother's death is related to her. In more ways than her being the daughter of the deceased.-"

"-She didn't... She didn't kill her right?" Aaron butted in, his voice was hoarse, laced with the fear from the thought of one of his best friends being a murderer. 

I shook my head no.

"No. She did not kill her mother. But she was brought up with the suspected killer. The one that wasn't there at the time of the kill but everyone knows had something to do with it. As you guys more than likely already know, Amelia grew up in care, not because of her mother's death but because of the way she was living. I can't tell you that story because I don't know it. All I know is that her mother and father were poor. Very, very poor. And Amelia struggled with food and living arrangements at home. That's all I know. But anyway. She was always a good child, astonishing grades and perfect behaviour. Even through everything that went on with her home life, she managed to keep a track on her school work since she wanted to go far. She wanted to do something good in the world and not follow in her parent's footsteps. She wanted to become a doctor, or something to do with helping kids like her. But she always had a front. A front where everything was perfect in her life, at home everything was "perfect" to her friends and anyone who asked. Mummy and Daddy are married and own nice cars and they own a gigantic house and maids and every thing's is just... Amazing.  But it wasn't it was the complete opposite. She was breaking inside since she was old enough to remember and recognise that what was going on wasn't right. Luckily, my mother and hers had always been close and when we found out about Amelia being put in care there wasn't anything we could do but keep in contact with her because of our situation. Which you guys already know about. But we were super close, she would tell me everything that was going on with her life. But she stopped talking to me for the period where she would have been 11-14. And I never knew why until this day. Something went on in those years that she's never told anyone. And i'm pretty sure that she won't. Maybe the person she loves if she trusts them enough, but other than that I don't think she'll ever talk about them years or the ones that have happened a few years ago, that she's just come back from. And that's something that is a big part of the puzzle that we'll never know about. But anyway, her mum died when she was 10 and it ruined her. She confided in her school ''best friends" about being in care and about her mum. But they acted like they cared then ditched her. And told everyone about it. They then started to bully her as a class. There was nothing she could do but try and ignore it. Why does she hate big groups of girls? Well this is the reason why. Because you can tell 1 person something and suddenly no one will want to talk to you because they've told everyone else, and they act like they're disgusted with you and your situation to everyone else even though they said to your face that it doesn't change the way they feel about you. I guess people are good at keeping their crossed fingers out of sight when it's to do with a gossip worthy secret.

When she was 12 she completely broke down. She had had enough. Enough of the bullying, enough of the bitchiness, enough of not being able to be herself and enough of having to trust people to get anywhere in life.  And so she changed. She dyed her naturally dark blonde hair bright blonde, she chucked out all dresses, skirts, shorts - anything that reminded her of the person she was before. Meanwhile she was getting fostered at this point of time. She still wasn't speaking to me and it was only after when she told me what she'd done that I realised what had happened. She'd become Amelia Russell, the Town's resident Bad Girl. She'd already got involved with the police, trouble in school, fights, vandalising, whatever there was to do that got her in trouble she would do it. And for a while it worked. She got away with it. People feared her, people did what she told them to. She was powerful and she liked that feeling. She became everything she hated in a person. She became her worst enemy.  And I think that that is what is most dangerous about Amelia. She's her worst enemy and so she doesn't fear anyone else since she sees herself as the worst there can be. She practically sees herself as the devil. And she scares herself. Sometimes i've watched her start on people and become a completely different person. Someone that no one would recognise. Someone that she doesn't even recognise. You know when that thing happened with Ryan and he turned and no one could stop him. No one could stop what he was doing and it was only when the police and us got involved that we were able to stop him and even then he was seething?-" The boys had nodded, grimacing at the memory.

"-Yeah well Amelia could become him at the snap of a switch. She could go out and murder people and she wouldn't even register what she was doing until it had already happened.She gets so full of rage that all she can see is red and anyone that gets in her way will be destroyed, no matter the consequences. But I haven't seen that side of her since we were 14. And i'm hoping no one ever has to witness that in their lifetime. I'm hoping that it never gets to that point in her body where that happens."

"Well if it does we'll destroy the person who made her that way." Jimmy spoke subconsciously.

"Of course we will Jimmy.  But all I know is that when Amelia was fostered and she started to change the man she was with didn't like it. In fact he despised her for it. So much so that he turned to violence. She's never explicitly told me that that is what happened but I could tell. The way she'd do something bad a school and wouldn't come into school for a few days then would just miraculously appear again like nothing was ever wrong.  Then he took her away, on her 13th birthday. She was gone. The care place couldn't tell us where since the man asked for it to be confidential. She came back on her 14th birthday and that's when I saw her turn. And that's when I knew that that man was doing something to her and yet there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Sure, before she left she may have been our town's Little Bad Girl but when she came back after being with that man... There was this glint in her eyes. She wouldn't give away a thing. It was like she was an agent, not aloud to show expression or give away anything. She had this glint, it was dangerous. I didn't get closer than 1 meter to her because I was scared, of her. He did something to her that made her turn and she's been like that ever since. The man who fostered her was a bad person. When she stayed with him she was around bad people, people that no one would ever want to deal with. Those people have power and are dangerous. It's why I didn't want to tell you. I don't know who they are but I know that they are dangerous. I don't know if you guys have ever seen it but when she's upset or angry her eyes switch from her natural eye colour to something different and that's when Bad Girl Amelia is activated. But since that one time she went off she's learnt to control it. I can see it in the way she acts. She takes in the others around her before she acts. Because trust me if she didn't learn how to do that we would not have our title anymore because she would have it, she would be the equivalent of hundreds of us and she would be locked up in a prison cell along with the other psychopaths. Now i'm not saying that she is a psychopath but I think that man is and I think he may have rubbed off on her but  the difference is she's smart and has been taught how to control it.

Eventually her dad took custody over her again, I have no clue why and then she moved back here and ever since Ryan met her she has been here. And here we are now. However long after."  I finished explaining in detail what I knew and it took the guys a few minutes to process it all.

"She isn't crazy. She isn't dangerous and she sure as hell isn't a psychopath." A deep voice spoke coldly from the door. His arm above his head, resting on the door frame. He had a cigarette hanging from his mouth, unlit and was smirking when we noticed him.

"You were spying on us?"

"Not really. The story mentioned me and so I figured that it really is my business if you are to talk about me.  Plus you all swore to never mention that day and night again. I see you broke our promises?" Ryan laughed out bitterly, cigarette still hanging between his lips. I saw Tommy roll his eyes before he stormed up to Ryan and snatched his cigarette out from his mouth, effectively flattening it with his foot after.

"Smoking really isn't cool. What would your grandmother say Ryan? Oh and get over yourself. We swore never to mention it to anyone else. Not to each other." Tommy had sassed Ryan so much that it stunned him but before a second had even passed he went back to Arsehole-Mode.

"How about you stay out of my personal life you knob. And for the record, as I was saying." Ryan glared at all of us individually to make sure that we were listening. "You are correct Derek. Something happened in the time that she was gone. But we can't do anything about it until we know exactly what happened.And like you said she might only tell-"

Aaron had cut Ryan off suddenly with;

"-Someone she loves. Ryan. You're the solution to this."

"What?"

"She is quite obviously in love with you and you with her- UH. Don't even bother denying it!-" Aaron screeched at Ryan as he pursed his lips in annoyance at the accusations being thrown his way.
"-So if you speak to her about it you can find out what happened and tell us or get her to tell us!" Aaron exclaimed excitedly like he'd figured out the puzzle completely.

"It's not as simple as that Aaron. Amelia is very closed off, it could take years for her to open up." I piped up.

"Then we leave her be. We can ask her to tell us and if she doesn't want to then it is up to her. She has her reasons just like we have ours for all of our secrets that we haven't shared with each other because I know that we all have secrets and we respect each other for that. We aren't ready to tell each other and that's okay. If her secret was that serious she would of told someone. So leave her be. She isn't stupid. She knows what she's doing and you know it. So let's just leave it for now and respect everyone's privacy." Tommy offered a solution and we all agreed. He's right.

We all have secrets we don't want anyone knowing...