The minute I feel the lit cigarette burn into the hairs on my arm, I cry out in pain and start rocking in place. No one knows this, but rocking is a coping mechanism for me. It can take me out of the most stressful place and calm me, but it isn’t having the desired affect this time. Not even close.
That’s when it happens, the pounding of my heart, the fear in my mind and heart all crashing into me at once. The laughter stops immediately and all three girls release me, letting me fall back against the wall.
“Gross, she just pissed herself.” I hear Charlotte say, though it’s muffled with how blocked my ears are with the sound of my own sobs.
“Eww, there’s a puddle and everything!” Eve joins in. The only one completely silent is Amy, but it doesn’t take much to find out why. Opening my eyes slightly and looking up, I see her face. The sneer is still in place and she looks pleased.
“Stay away from Dillon, you hear me, stupid? Or the next time this happens, it will be a lot worse than a burn on your arm.”
I see her move out of the corner of my eye, going into one of the stalls and after a few seconds, she comes back out and throws what she’s grabbed at me. Looking down, I see a long strip of toilet paper and I know what it’s for.
“Now clean yourself up. You’re pathetic. If I hear that you went and snitched about this to that retard teacher of yours, I’ll come back again.”
I feel the blast of air as they finally open the door to leave, but I don’t dare make a move to get up until I’m sure they’re gone. When I’m sure that I’m alone, I wipe at my eyes before looking down at the stinging spot on my arm. It’s when I catch sight of the real damage they did, that I start to cry again.
Right above my wrist on my left arm is the red circular burn, so bright that it looks like it’s flashing at me. Running my finger over it, I flinch in pain as it begins stinging even more. I know that I need to get up and deal with the other thing that happened, but I can’t seem to move from my spot on the floor.
Not only is my hair completely pulled out of the ponytail holder, but my shirt is broken where the other two grabbed me so hard it popped the buttons. Add to that, the very large wet stain that’s now covering my pants and I don’t think I ever want to get up again.
I don’t understand why they did this to me. They should know that Dillon didn’t talk to me because he likes me. He did it for a completely different reason. Considering what they all did to me two days ago, it should be obvious what he’s doing. I don’t deserve any of this.
I just want this to end. There’s only one way that it ever will though.
When I’m dead.
Kayden
“You should have been there D, it was hilarious. The minute we lit the smoke, she pissed herself. I mean it was pouring out all over the floor. We all had to jump back before we got hit with it.”
“Did you do what I told you to?”
“Yeah, we did it, baby. Lit the smoke and put it right on her. She did a whole lot of squirming, but it’s done. We might have been able to do more if she hadn’t tried spraying us.”
This is what I walk into when I leave the library after returning Isabelle’s assignment to Ms. Taylor. This isn’t the first time I’ve walked into this exact conversation, though this time I have no idea who the target was. Truthfully, I don’t want to know. I always said that burning people would come back to bite us and with this newest one, I can’t help feeling that way even more.
“Yo, where the hell you been man?” Dillon asks as he finally notices me walk up.
“I had a meeting with Coach.” I answer, lying my ass off. As much as what I read earlier got to me, I’m not ready to be open about it, especially not with these guys.
“I was wondering if you were gonna show up. I missed you.” Charlotte says as she scoots across the bench the minute I sit down, sliding her legs over mine, as if I wouldn’t get the hint just from her words that she wants me.
Girl’s man, I wish they’d get a clue.
“So what’d I miss?” I ask completely ignoring Charlotte, which I see the minute she realizes it, earns me a pout. “Who did you guys burn this time?”
The way everyone looks at each other puts me on edge. The sick feeling that I finally got rid of is back again and this time it’s even worse than before. I put the pieces together at the exact second Tim speaks up.
“The retard. Dillon came up with the idea in study hall and man; you missed out on some fun shit. It went down perfect.”
“Beyond perfect.” Amy chimes in with a grin. “At least until she pissed on us.”