Chapter Sixteen

I hadn’t planned on using Loki as bait for Nok but it is working out quite nicely. It’s Tuesday lunch break and Loki, bless his heart, insisted I sit with him. Now, I was going to say no because I’m still mad at Loki for talking about my business. But… he asked me before school, by my car, right after Nok pulled up in his truck.

He didn’t just ask me; he also picked a bug off my collar and I saw Nok’s eyes find us and slowly change from normal to angry.

Nok had stared, glared, foamed at the mouth. I swear I even heard him growl when I looped my arm through Loki’s and let him guide me inside.

He’s possessive but in a really sexy way. Or maybe it’s just because I’m attracted to him, because in other men I’d find it irritating.

Loki slides his tray closer to me. “Want anything?”

I take a grape. They have those here.

“How are you feeling?”

“You asked me that this morning.”

He smiles sheepishly. “Maybe you’ve changed your mind since then.”

The look I level him with is flat.

“Or not.”

I look around the cafeteria, wondering why I even bother with this place. It’s boring and typical as fuck. I’m not learning anything worthwhile here. Not anything I need anyway. I’m just wasting precious time.

Yet I can’t help but find this place intriguing and endearing. The way people are with each other. How they help each other. It’s not as stuck-up as I thought.

Bullying here is at an all-time low from what I’ve seen. Girls who wouldn’t normally interact are hanging together in little bubbles. There’s no jock worship for the most part.

I’m going to be sad to see it in life’s rearview mirror.

All except one.

One whom I’ve seen today laughing and joking amongst their peers. I hate them by default, but they deserve it.

“I’ll be back,” I murmur to Loki who was talking about something I wasn’t listening to.

He huffs, but he won’t take it personally. He wants in my pants too much.

“Where are you going?” Nok asks me as I pass him and his group of friends. I know their names, but we’ve never spoken.

“Nonya.”

They look amongst themselves, confused, waiting to see if anybody knows what I said.

“Nonya?” Nok’s lips twitch.

“Yep. Nonya business.”

His friends laugh as I saunter past, one of them makes a comment about what a great ass I have. I give it a bit of extra sway until I’m out of the door. Gunning for one person in particular.

“Barbie,” I say, making my voice high and welcoming.

“Hi, Lilith,” she replies, making her voice equally as high and welcoming. Her eyes move to my swollen temple as students move around us at her locker.

Tish is looking at her phone, disinterested in this exchange.

“How are you? I heard you got into it with Nokosi?” Barbie winces when she sees the yellowing bruise. “What happened?”

“Can I talk to you?” I whisper, swallowing dramatically as my eyes fill with tears. “I just… I need to vent.”

She places her hand over her heart. “Oh wow, of course.”

When she clicks her fingers at Tish, the girl looks up at last and smiles. “Hey, Lilith.”

“Hey, Tish.”

“We’ll be back.” Barbie links her arm through mine. “I’m so glad you came to me. I know exactly how you’re feeling.”

“I know.” We enter the girls’ bathroom around the next corner, only unlinking arms to get through the door. It smells like peaches. Even the bathrooms in this place are fucking insanely clean.

“Talk to me,” she instructs and moves to the mirror to check her purple lipstick. I have to admit the girl chooses a great lip color.

“I should never have gone with him,” I mutter, shaking my head as though I’m the stupid one. “He told me you’re a liar and that you came on to him.”

With a dramatic roll of my eyes I move to stand beside her and we look at each other in the mirror. She’s soft and pretty in a way I’m not. I’m gritty and real, and I have a dead silence to my eyes that creeps people out. Barbie is way more dangerous than me because people don’t expect evil from her. Whereas that shit emanates from me like a fever.

“What a dick,” she grumbles, but her eyes flicker to the left.

“He’s so charming.” Now I’m the liar. “He gave me this spiel about how I’m different and blah blah…” We both laugh, a gentle lilt in the empty bathroom. It bounces around the cubicles and lingers for a moment with our shared smiles. “Said you attacked him in his car.”

“Of course he said that. I’m a black belt. If I’d attacked him, he’d know about it.” She’s lying again.

Or maybe I’m wishful thinking so I don’t get my ass kicked?

Nah. She’s definitely lying.

But about what? Being a black belt or about everything she said about him?

“I heard he tossed you around in the back of his truck?”

“Kind of,” I place my bag on the water-splattered counter between the sinks. “Have you seen my face? I’m hideous.”

“Want me to kick him in his dick for you?”

I shake my head, letting her brown eyes hold mine when I turn and rest back against the counter. Taking a casual nonthreatening stance. “Nah. I want you to tell me the truth.”

She blanches, pulling her head in so her chin touches her neck. “The truth?”

“About what happened that night with Nok.”

“I told you what happened. You’ve witnessed firsthand his aggression; you know it’s true.”

I hum thoughtfully. “Yeah. Maybe you’re right.”

“Of course I am.”

“But you’re not though. Are you?”

Her lips part. She’s offended and gasping and spluttering for something to say. I love that I’ve trapped her.

My fingers tap against the counter side, curling over the soft, curved edge. It’s cold like my soul. “You wanted him, and he turned you down, didn’t he?”

Her jaw hits the floor. “Are you kidding me? How dare you?”

“I dare do a lot of things.”

The bathroom door opens and a girl I don’t recognized steps inside.

“Pick another bathroom,” I bark and her eyes round with surprise. She slowly backs away and I turn back to a panicked-looking Barbie.

“Why are you doing this? Why are you picking a fight?”

“Meh…” I shrug my shoulders. “Boredom probably.”

Her brown eyes narrow. “Boredom? Or is it because you like Nok?”

“Mixture of both I guess.”

I bring up my booted foot and kick her in the stomach before she even knows what’s happening. The trick to winning a fight is to always have the element of surprise. Fuck that “don’t hit first” bullshit. If you know they’re gunning for you, get your scope on them first and do not fucking hesitate.

She heaves and drops onto her hands and knees, looking about ready to vomit. “Thought you were a black belt?”

She wheezes, unable to talk or do much of anything really.

Saliva drips from her lips to the floor. I hit her really hard. I wonder if I broke a rib.

“Tell the truth,” I demand, putting my phone on the counter.

“I am,” she rasps, her voice a fraction of the tone that it was before.

I grab her hair and yank her up onto her knees.

“Stop,” she begs, and a thrill courses through me.

I love this feeling. I love this power.

Dragging her to the middle stall, ignoring her shrieks, I kick it open and show her the toilet. She very quickly goes quiet.

“I’m gonna dunk you and I don’t think it’s been flushed yet.” I peek over the basin and sure enough, there’s an oily sheen of yellow resting on the water surface.

I kick up the toilet seat, but it clatters back down, so I do it again but slowly this time, with more patience. “Last chance. Tell the truth.”

“Somebody is going to come in here and stop you.”

“I wouldn’t count on it.” Her hands claw at my wrist, her nails dig into the skin drawing blood, so I step on the back of her ankle until she screams in pain and sheathes her claws. And then I force her face into the toilet, stopping only an inch from the water. It is so much easier to manipulate a person’s body when you’re pressing against one of their most painful places. Her forehead is against the basin. So gross. “Tell the fucking truth!”

“I am!”

I step on her ankle harder and push her face closer, so close the tip of her nose is also touching the basin. My hand in her hair is starting to ache but the thrill of this torture overrides that feeling. She sobs uncontrollably.

“Please.”

“If you want it to stop, tell the truth!”

“OKAY! Okay…” I allow her some slack by bringing her head out a bit. “I lied. Okay? I was embarrassed and my dad was about to ground me so hard. I panicked.”

“And you came on to him?”

“Yes.”

“And you showed up at his house?”

She nods.

“FUCKING SAY IT!”

“YES!” she shrieks when I thrust her back into the toilet. “Yes, I showed up at his house.”

My hands are shaking. I feel so fucking alive right now. Does that make me a sick person? Do I care?

Fuck no.

I pull my switchblade from the inside of my boot and raise her head so she can see it. I don’t unleash the blade, I just need her to see it and know that it’s there.

“Little miss black belt bullshitter. When you leave this bathroom, you’re going to apologize to Nok. You’re going to start telling the truth about what you did to clear his name.” I whisper the last part for added effect and so the voice recorder doesn’t catch it. “This right here is child’s play in comparison to some of the shit I’ve done. Do you understand?”

“Please,” she begs, sobbing. “It’s over for him now. It’s done. I’ll be persecuted.”

“You mean like he was and is?”

“Hardly, he got to stay in school.”

This bitch. “Are you fucking deluded? You almost ruined his life!”

“I know. I’m sorry. But admitting it won’t change anything.”

I release the blade, unable to control my shaking rage, and she shrieks with panic and fright. I can feel her trembling, worse than jelly in an earthquake. If I wasn’t holding her up, she’d be a puddle on the tiled floor beneath my feet where she fucking belongs.

“For every word you say to argue from this point, I’ll carve a line into your neck. Do you understand?”

She nods, pressing her lips together as her breath comes out in staggered gasps.

“You’re going to tell the truth, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she sniffles, her breathing uncontrollable now.

I put my booted foot on the toilet rim and tuck the knife away. “Good girl. Let’s keep this between you and me, huh? Your word against mine after all and I’m the one with nothing to lose when I creep into your room at night and cut your face from ear to ear.”

“You’re a psycho,” she whimpers.

“At least I’m an honest psycho. I don’t just ruin people’s lives because they rejected me.” I throw her face-first into the side of the stall, leaving her dazed and crying. Then I wash my hands at the sink, put my phone away and zip up my bag. “Good talk, Barbie. We should do this more often.”

I exit with a skip in my step and adrenaline pulsing through my veins.

That felt so good.