I head to school, swinging by the drive through to grab coffee for Indi and I, all while losing myself in today’s song of the day, “I Am Defiant” by The Seige. The beat of the song has me all kinds of hyped up, which is definitely new for a Tuesday morning. The beat makes my heart race as my blood pounds through my veins. I’m a strong believer that the right song in the morning can set up your entire day properly.
I pull into the parking lot, swinging into the space next to Indi with the music blaring. As I bop along to the end of the song, Indi jumps along to the bass outside of my car.
Fuck, I love her.
I lean over and grab the coffees from the passenger seat before shouldering my bag and sliding out of the car.
“Thank you,” she practically sings as I hand her the drink.
“You whore!”
I turn around at the screech and let out a sigh as Blair storms toward me, her hands clenched at her sides as her hair blows around her face in the breeze. She looks pissed.
I glance up at Indi, who looks ready to bitch slap Blair already. She’s been too quiet lately. I sigh. I knew it couldn’t last. “I wonder what I’ve done now.”
Blair closes in on us, her blonde hair a wild mess as her rage makes her shake. What the actual fuck?
I hand Indi my drink before stepping around the front of the car to meet my cousin, placing my bag on the hood. She reaches me and pulls away before slapping me across the face so fucking hard I swear my brain rattles.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” My voice is quiet and calm despite the rage pulsing in my veins. I’m not the screeching type, but if she thinks I’m going to take this lying down, she has another thing coming.
Her eyes are wild as she comes at me again, trying to claw at my face. “You just had to come back and ruin everything, didn’t you? You couldn’t be happy with what you had. You had to take what was mine too.” Her words come out in pants as she tries to attack me. I try to hold her off, but her fingernails rake down my cheek, and I hiss as she breaks the skin. You’d think with the amount of self-defense classes I’ve taken, I’d be better at fending off bullshit attacks like this. I really am rusty. I reach up and touch my cheek. The warm, wet of the blood on my fingertips makes me see red.
Fuck this shit. I push her backward and punch her in her already delicate nose. She should’ve learned last time.
Her wail is enough to pierce my eardrum as she falls flat on her ass, clutching her nose. Her eyes narrow at me, and she actually fucking smiles. She’s a fucking psycho. “You’ll pay for this, you little bitch.”
Blair gets up and stalks away, leaving me wondering what the fuck just happened. I reach up, hissing as I touch my stinging cheek. My fingers touch the blood that trickles down my face, and my rage pulses inside of me again. I turn back to Indi, who is sucking down her coffee like she’s watching a movie, and I can’t help but laugh. “Enjoy the show?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” she grins. “Watching her fall flat on her ass with a potentially broken nose, again, brings me way more joy than it should.”
“Any idea what any of that was about?” I ask as I grab my bag, and she hands me my mostly melted iced coffee.
She shakes her head and pulls a wet wipe from her bag, handing it to me. “For your face. And no, I have no fucking idea. She’s a legit psychopath, though, so it could be anything.”
I take a sip of my drink and take the wet wipe compact she offers me so I can clean up my face. I swear cuts like this sting way more than a deep wound. I’m generally fine with pain, my threshold is pretty high, but fuck, that stings. “Well, that was a fun start to the day. I wonder what other joys this day will hold.”
“At least life is never boring?” Indi offers as she tucks the compact into her bag.
I shrug and let out a sigh. “A little bit of boring might be a nice change of pace, though.”
I finally turn back to head into school and notice the large crowd of people watching us. Of course there were people here. That’s probably why she did it. And I reacted. What adick.I should know better by now.
Do not react to the crazy people.
I keep my head held high, ignoring the whispers that follow me into the building about being an unhinged whore. Because despite no one being in my face about it, and the fact that all traces of the sex tape are gone from the internet, I know some of these assholes still have it. They still talk about it and call me a slut or a skank. But these people don’t mean anything to me, and that’s what I have to keep reminding myself of.
The world has written lies about me and my family almost my entire life. This is just another one to add to the list. The people who know me know the truth.
At least, I hold onto the hope that they do.
I take a breath and steel myself against this day. It can’t get any worse than this, right?
* * *
Yesterday morning was such a shit show that Indi and I chose to have lunch off campus at Joe’s. There was no way I was heading into the cafeteria for more bullshit. First Blair, then the whispers, and then in Music, Raleigh acted like he didn’t even send those messages while we were at the spa, trying to be my friend again.
I can’t even deal with this place this week. Lucky for me, I have the world’s greatest bestie.