Chapter 10

Summer was now firmly in the air, and at Sophie’s school the girls’ hormones were running wild. Sophie felt she had shot up an inch over the last few months but her skirt was still that of the short tween who had started seconday school years ago. She enjoyed the sun on her skin but not so much the attention of the men on the street or the other boys in class. She had begged her mother for a new uniform as her limbs were outgrowing what was covering her, but her mother refused saying they were always broke. Never so broke as to skimp on buying alcohol though, she thought to herself.

She was growing to like her figure as it stretched out, but much preferred looking at in the mirror than daring to show it off to others. She liked her denim skirt and how it made her legs look but could not stand how men could not control themselves around her. Could they not just ignore her? She was fourteen, for God’s sake. She had seen so many filthy looks from men who were with their wives and daughters, it made her sick.

She looked at the photograph of the man who had stalked her on the bus and stared at her. He summed up everything she hated in men. Fat, ugly, out of shape, and interested in girls far too young for them, and so bold and selfish they thought nothing of how much fear they struck into girls like Sophie, who just wanted to live their lives in freedom without being intruded upon or worse, like pieces of meat.

Then again, what did she have to offer? She had few friends, she liked the sisters, Aisha and Maryam, that she hung out with on Saturday but she was very much a third wheel. People just did not seem interested in her, other than as a sex object or as prey for bullying like the girls.

She chatted online, trying to ignore the sex requests. She chatted again with Luke, telling him about her day out, lying slightly about the friends she was with to make herself sound more popular, but mentioning she had lost her bag and would need to get new sports clothes somehow. She talked about how she didn’t really mind as she hated hockey, but she would get into trouble if she tried to get out of the team and her mum wouldn’t buy her a new outfit.

She also spoke about how nice Luke seemed, and the creep she had met on the bus. Luke seemed interested and apologetic about how gross some men were. Sophie chatted about how she thought he was following her all day, and maybe he had stolen her bag, and was her stalker. Luke asked to see the photo and she sent it across. It was of Edward Pembroke, facing down on his phone, on a bus.

Luke sent across a few “vomit” emjois and then laughter emojis. “Imagine having him as your boyfriend, haha,”. On the other end of the screen, Pembroke had activated her cam, and was watching her stifle laughter as she typed “OMG I am trying to imagine that fat bastard with any woman.” Luke replied “Maybe you might like his personality lol, or like fat guys”

He watched Sophie start to giggle harder, and tears run down her face as he suggested that she and this strange man could go on a date together. “OMG, I may be weird but that guy was so disgusting. LOL I think I would kill myself if I had to kiss him” Luke then playfully suggested she should follow him and maybe check him out on the beach to perv over him. Sophie was doubling up with laughter, Pembroke had never seen her laugh like this. Tears were strolling down her face. “Why do men get like that, OMG I think old men like that should just die, what is the point of being alive if you look like that” Luke laughed back with emojis. “I feel so sorry for women that have to be wives to men like that, God it must be so depressing, and so icky, I would be showering myself every time I came into contact with him” She shuddered before laughing again.

Pembroke did not mind. He knew he was ugly and knew he should lose weight. He had not expected a girl like Sophie to be attracted to him and had made his peace with it. He instead found it amusing to see her disparage him, knowing there was a possibility that what seemed to her to be an abstract possibility of horror may well become her entire life in the near future. He was a little concerned about the photo though. Would she share it?

“I feel sorry for those men to be honest.” Luke went on “I know I’m lucky, I am young and been blessed with good looks. Old men like that are often just lonely and mentally ill. I don’t think you have to worry about him though. You are too beautiful to have to think about ugly people like that, and don’t tell your friends about him. They will associate you with ugly men like him. I think you should delete his photo and not think about him again, only positive thoughts J”

Sophie agreed, and thanked Luke for being so considerate about others and herself. She agreed, this old man must be lonely and desperate, but he was not her problem, so she went to his photo, and deleted it from her phone.

Sophie assured Luke that she would try and keep her dignity, she did not want to end up like a horrible person like Emma, or a repulsive mess like the man on the bus. She also did not want people to laugh at her and disrespect her or look down on her, no matter how poor she was. Having pride in herself was something, she said with determination, something she would always want to keep. She would never lower herself to girls who did porn or threw themselves at men, any man who wanted her would have to work hard to earn her respect, and would have to be open hearted, chivalrous and respect her as a human being.

Pembroke smiled, he really wanted to show himself now to her on the cam, it would be a hilarious reveal, but he told himself : patience.

Pembroke wanted to provoke more turmoil in Sophie’s life to make her become a little more wayward. He admired her steadfastness, her home life was chaotic but she was determined to live a moral life at least for now. From Luke’s conversations he knew that she had a favourite Teddy bear, given to her by her father. It was a weathered old white toy, but he knew Sophie was very fond of it. He also knew she would bring it with her to school on exam days for luck and companionship.

Pembroke had been avoiding other girls but had been able to track down Sophie’s “friends” including Emma. Emma was chunky and blonde with a hard face, exactly the kind of bully Pembroke had imagined. Pembroke frowned. He did not like anyone hurting Sophie, but on the other hand he wanted her humiliated. He did wonder that a prison psychologist would have a field day with him if he was ever found out.

It was one among many tactics, but this particular one worked. He sent an anonymous text to Emma after finding her number, mentioning that Sophie had a child’s teddy bear in her bag for exams, the stupid bitch. It also mentioned that this “bitch” Sophie was calling her a dyke.

Emma was curious who had sent her the message. She did not want to be a pawn in someone else’s game and quizzed her friends as to who had sent her that text. She also asked her friends if Sophie had been calling her a lesbian. The gossip gave birth to itself, and Emma found herself facing the rumours and blamed Sophie for the whole thing starting.

Sophie remained oblivious. On one test day, Emma approached her and asked her “got your teddy bear, bitch?” then accused her of spreading rumours about her. Sophie tried to ignore her, this was nothing new. In the classroom a few minutes later, she heard Emma loudly shouting “Hey, Sophie, check out your nice boyfriend” and she was holding up Tuku, her beloved Teddy bear!

Sophie swallowed hard, she did not want to give away that this was one of her most prized possessions, nor that she was upset. She tried to stay calm and asked for it back, then said “its just a toy.”

“Oh really?” Emma taunted, and then started to take her hairpin and put it through the teddy bear. “You don’t mind me poking him then?” Sophie started to panic and pleaded “Please just give it back, don’t be stupid Emma”. Emma was pleased to see this reaction, and knew she now had power over her. “Stupid Turkish bitch” and then threw it out the window onto the pavement below.

The racial abuse from Emma excited some of the Asian girls and before long a full scale argument was happening. All Sophie wanted to do was run out of school to get her teddy bear. She tried to spring out while other girls were gathering for a brawl. But one girl stuck her foot out and tripped her. Sophie fell over, and tried to get up. She ran out of class and out the school to the pavement, but when she got outside, she couldn’t see the toy anywhere. It was a fairly busy street. Unknown to her, the toy, Tuku, had fallen in front of someone, who in boredom had kicked it further down the street where it had nestled under a parked car.