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.
I hang back, hiding out, waiting to see what Barbie does. She exits the bathroom with puffy eyes, messed-up blonde hair, and slumped shoulders. I expect her to go straight to Principal Cooper, but she veers in the direction of the cafeteria. She hesitates at the doors and Tish follows hot on her heels, asking her what’s wrong. But when she turns to look at Tish, she spies me, and there’s genuine fear in her eyes.
It almost makes me orgasm. Fuck me. That’s amazing. I love it. I live for this.
I keep close watch as I enter through the other doors and sit back with Loki while she actually approaches Nok who tensed the second he saw her coming his way.
His arms fold across his chest as she speaks, and I shush Loki while I concentrate.
Barbie breaks down and starts sobbing but all Nok’s friends are glaring at her. One of them says something to her that makes her cry harder.
And then Nok, who looks perplexed by the entire thing, looks up and finds me.
I smirk at him and lean back on my chair just as Barbie runs away crying, leaving Tish to stare after her with a gaping mouth.
I see Tish look at Nok and mouth something that looks like an apology, before she moves to a group of girls looking pasty faced and horrified.