Chapter Thirty-Three: "Confrontations, Doubt, and the Painful Truth."
THE WEEKEND went by boringly.
I mostly just lounged around in my room hoping for my back to heal. My cast didn't get too damaged from Saturday's events, so there's just random blood spots on the plaster. Luckily for me, I see the doctor tomorrow to have it examinedâand hopefully removed.
"So then, Annabelle was all 'that doesn't make sense' and then Mary was like, 'it's math, it doesn't need to make sense' and then I was like 'you're both people with a bird brain. Neither of you make sense.' And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Carly Boswell got a black eye from having a calculator thrown at her face." Carly explains to us dramatically on how she went to school looking fine, and by the time lunch came, her left eye was black and blue from an occurrence that happened second period.
"I'm going to knock her teeth out." Bella says, cracking her knuckles and looking towards where Annabelle and Mary are sitting. There's only the twins at the table beside them today, since Lance had to do some more work in the library and Louis left on an overnight class trip to Toronto for a few days to watch some sports game.
"I'm going to shove those six inch heels down her throat and see how speaking feels then." Becca growls.
"I'll kick her ass so hard her intestines will come out her mouth." I input in a very quiet hostile voice.
"What?"
"What?"
"What the hell?"
They all question in unison as I say my little line. I've tried my hardest to not have slip ups with them, but now the comfort is starting to settle in and I'm actually having more slip ups than I am not.
"Oh, whoops. Sorry guys." I say sheepishly.
"Girl, you really need to teach us this shit. It's weird not knowing what you're saying." Jackson says, and I nod, a sympathetic grin on my face.
"Sure, if that's what you want." I reply.
"Hey! Did you see that?" Carly exclaims, looking past my shoulder at the table.
"No. What are you looking at?" Jackson asks curiously.
"The bitch just gave Becca the finger! That's it! I'm going to go over there and tell her not to mess with this set of twinsâ" Bella says, and I'm metaphorically speaking when I say that her mouth is foaming with rage.
"No!" I say, immediately. She can't go alone! Someone needs to back her up!
"What?" She asks incredulously. "She just flipped off my sister! I'm not standing for that."
"No, I know." I smile. "But you can't go confront two demons without someone to back you up! Now, let's go."
Bella's eyes light up and she grins evilly. I smirk at her and look over at the others. "We shall be back!" Bella states in a deep voice.
"Guys, I don't think that's such a good idea." Nathan says, worry laced in his words.
"Yeah," Atticus agrees casually while munching on a carrot stick. "Those girls are as popular as ever. They'll demolish you."
"You're popular, too, jackass." Carly points out.
"Not when I sit with you, baby cousin." He deadpans, then looks at me. "Sweetheart, I don't want to see you hurt. You already have a broken arm."
"Which, is probably healed and maybe getting removed tomorrow! I'm fully functional, O'Connor. I need to do this."
"No, you don't." He says softly, then adds more sternly, "I believe in karma. It'll come back to get them, just leave them be."
"I don't like bullies, Atticus." I say pointedly. "I know what it leads to. I'm talking from experience."
He sighs, but doesn't argue. "Fine, but don't come crawling to me when they make you ball your eyes out."
I won't, I think to myself, I'll probably crawl to Landon.
"No worries." I smile, and Bella drags me off to their table. "I have a hilarious plan, follow my lead."
"What are we doing?" She whispers.
"We're going to grab their attention, right?" She nods. "Then I'm going to say something to you in Spanish, and you're going to look over at them and snicker, and say something back in the same language, then we both laugh, walk away, and that's that."
"That sounds fun, but boring at the same time." She says with a frown.
"If we get the reaction we want, then they'll stand up and cause a scene." I grin.
"Ou, you're good," she trails. "But we have a little problem."
"What's that?" I frown.
"I don't know Spanish, nor can I speak it."
"No problem. I'll just say a tiny sentence that's totally unrelated to being considered bullying, and if I say something, can you repeat it?"
"I'll try."
"Annabelle and Mary are girls. Can you repeat that to me?"
"Annabelle and Mary are girls." She says, a little strain from the pronunciation, but nonetheless did quite a good job. We go a couple more times before she aces it.
"Okay, good. Now, say that, and with both of their names being said, then it should be easy for them to start something." I tell her, and we continue more to their table.
"I like you," she smiles. "None of my friends would confront popular kids if they could help it."
I shrug, but smile back. "I probably wouldn't either if I've been here longer, but I haven't and that's why I'm doing this! So, let's do this."
We walk arm in arm dramatically, and once I know that their table can hear me, I start speaking. "And what about her?" I question, grabbing the attention of the two girls.
"I don't know, she's just really asking for trouble." She laughs.
"True." I giggle. The girls look at us warily, giving us deadly glares. That's my queue. "She's wearing pink, and Mary is wearing grey."
Bella laughs wholeheartedly. "Annabelle and Mary are girls."
I laugh too, and we skip past the group, and I hear them gasp.
"Bullseye." She whispers to me, and I smirk.
"Hey, you!" I hear one of them shout angrily. We slow our pace purposely.
"Ignore them. It'll get them even more mad." I whisper, and Bella giggles, nodding.
Suddenly, Bella arm is detached from mine and I watch from the corner of my eye, her get thrown to the ground viciously. I spin around and see Annabelle hovering over her.
"What the hell did you just call me?" Annabelle snarls.
"Eavesdropping much?" Bella retorts. "It's none of your business, Annabelle. Jeez, stop acting desperate."
"You said my name!" She points out while Bella gets to her feet, standing beside me. "What, do you want me to blacken your friends other eye, too?" She inches closer, and I sense her about to push her.
"Don't touch her." I snap, pushing her away from Bella. "Unless you want me to throw a calculator at your plastic face like you did to my friends. Leave them alone."
"Don't touch Annabelle!" Mary interjects, pushing me away from Annabelle. "Or tell us what to do, you thin little stick!"
"Gross!" I exclaim. "I got slut germs!" I begin wiping my arms frantically where she had touched, and I hear some deep chuckles beside me. I look over and see Landon snickering under his breath. Liam looks at him in confusion, and Landon whispers something to his brother before he too starts laughing.
I try not to frown at the kind name Mary marked me as.
I notice that the cafe is dead silent to the point where crickets could be heard. This seems to be working out better for us. A chance to not only embarrass them, but ourselves too!
Okay, so maybe that last part isn't the best, but at least Annabelle and Mary get what's coming to themâthey deserve the embarrassment given their awful attitude.
Like seriously, have their parents not taught them anything about kindness and manners, or were they raised by the Devil?
"Say it to my face, bitch!" Annabelle yells. I pay attention to Mary, but then realize it's directed to me, and see Annabelle is staring at me so I chortle. "You're too weak to, that's why!" She laughs when I don't answer.
"What are you running your whore-ass mouth about? She's burning you right in your face right now." Bella states, earning her a hard glare from Mary.
"You're just too dumb to understand," I shrug. "I mean, clearly more than one person here knows what I said."
"You better watch it, or else." She threatens, Mary stuffing her fake nose in my face to prove Annabelle's point.
Man, I hate followers. They're just as annoying as the leader.
"Mary, can you, like, I don't know, get your fake nose out of my face? I think I may be allergic to the synthetic." I say, and fake sneeze, getting nothing on her since it's fake, but she freaks out anyway.
She literally, high-pitched, screams. Loudly.
I wince as she carries on, and after a minute passes, I take the risk to shut her mouth up with my hand.
Apparently it was a bad move. I probably would have been better throwing the calculator at her face like they did with Carly.
I'm shoved full force onto the McGibbon table, and I groan when I realize that it just had to be theirs. Well, better them then the others, right? I don't want anyone from their table throwing apples or tiny mirrors or something at me. Unlike them, my face is actually real and I want to suppress any need to go to a plastic surgeon to fix it.
They storm away, each shoving shoulders with Bella as she yells at them to find another surgeon to fix the crookedness of their fake faces.
I sigh and turn to one of the brothers. I don't know which one at the moment, the lights in the cafeteria are quite bright and blinding. "Hello." I grin nonchalantly, like what happened didn't just happen.
"Hi." He smirks incredulously.
"How's it goin'?"
"It was going good until you interrupted my lunch."
"Woo, attitude." Bella mumbles, and I chuckle.
"My bad. Just sticking up for a friend. Something you clearly can't do." I say politely, and heave myself up off the table. Fortunately, I didn't run into their cafeteria trays.
Bella and I walk back with victorious smiles as the cafeteria starts to resume their old conversations.
"That was awesome!" She exclaims in an excited whisper.
"Right?" I agree. "I'm sorry you fell, though. I wasn't expecting that."
"It's okay. We both kinda got it, right? No harm done." She grins, and I nod.
"That last word," I start, and she looks at me, "amazing. You killed it. Especially with the Spanish, having not know anything about it. I'm impressed."
"Thanks, me too!" She chirps. "I was nervous on saying it wrong."
"You nailed it!" I high five her. "We just have a whole bunch of populars on our asses now, though."
I frown. I guess I didn't think that part through. Since we're with Carly and them, and hell, even Atticus, it could affect his popularity and it could ruin everyone's lives who revolve around us.
Is it too late to suck up to the Preps?
"I told you it was a bad idea." Atticus growls when we reach the table.
"And I told you that I hate bullies. The problem is solved and the plan ruled." I say, taking my seat back beside him.
"The problem isn't solved," he argues. "If anything, it's gotten worse. They're already outcasts, you could really ruin their school lives with what you just did. The populars don't mess around."
"Neither do I," I hiss. "Look, why are you fighting me with this? Why are you siding with the people who just hurt your family? I stood up for my friends, something I do! Why didn't you, Mr. Popular? Don't tell me your afraid of girls who can barely pack a punch?"
"I'm not siding with them, Brooklyn." He says lowly. Here's the full name again. I guess he really is pissed with me.
Not to mention that for some weird reason, I don't like my name rolling off his tongue.
"They pack more than punches, May." He growls. "They've driven kids to suicide before and sorry to say that I'm not fucking having my baby cousin be one of their victims."
"She won't be if you just let me handle it." I snap. "Unlike you, I've been on both spectrums and I know more than you do about targeting and being the target, okay, Atticus? So lay off."
"This is my blood, we're talking about, here. I'm not laying off; if anything, you should! You need to back the hell up and realize what you're getting everyone into. We've been here longer than you have. I'm not sure how things work in the States or Mexico, but here, it's way different. Get some knowledge before you act. If you have a problem with that, then go back to where you fucking came from." He says accusingly, and I freeze, the whole table growing silent. If I had a food tray in front of me right now and food in my hand, the food would be dropped and I would probably be choking on it.
Okay, that hurt.
Coming from the boy who's so sweet and kind and friendly and is apparently my friend and wants to go on a date with me, that hurt a lot.
The fact that he just came to conclusions that me confronting the girls about leaving his family and friends alone makes me second guess him. I tried doing him a favour by getting Annabelle embarrassed for embarrassing Carly by throwing an object at her face, and to save him his reputation. Then instead of thanking me, he comes to quite harshly tell me that Canada doesn't work like that?
So what he's saying is that they don't stand up to bullying? That it's okay to drive kids too far into a depression that killing themselves is the better option? Standing up for family isn't what they do around here? I was protecting Carly, and he sat around and watched. For as protective as he is, I never heard him do anything when it came to the populars messing with lower class students. I've been here a month and so and I'm standing up for people I hardly even know.
He's been being distant with me ever since I forced him to leave the barn after the labour incident to save the drama. He's never responded to any texts, and he's cancelled all sessions this week because apparently he has family coming from Windsor to visit for a few weeks.
I laugh and shake my head, trying to not act affected by his blunt and hurtful words. I start to do what I was trying to avoid after getting out of that cell for good: second guess and doubt everything.
The friendship, prolonging my stay here to get my education, and even befriending everyone here at this table. No, befriending anyone at this school at all.
Maybe Landon was right, maybe I should start sitting with them. At least I know who the brothers are and how our relationship stands. I don't have to worry about sticking up for them because I know they're called the Rebel Brothers for a pretty good reason.
Or I should have just been that weird person who sits alone and doesn't talk to anyone. It'd make me more focused on my studies, and even then, maybe I'll get my brain back and become the genius again. I miss not studying for anything and still passing with a 100.
I miss my old life, and him saying all that and not sticking up for anyone and practically defending the bully makes me actually start to have severe nostalgia.
I'm just hoping that when it comes, the flashbacks aren't that bad or that I'm just simply out of everyone's ear and eye shot, because I may pass out from it, and have a returning of PTSD, something I'll no doubt have to talk to my psychiatrist about tonight.
"Fuck you Atticus." I scoff, and storm out of the cafeteria. I need to get out of here before I have an attack.