Fragments (13 page)

“You lying, manipulative, vile bitch. This was you, and you know it. I am sick of all the bullshit you’ve put me through.”

She blinked, but quickly recovered, rolling her eyes and folding her arms.

“Drama much?” she replied. “It’s like a scratch. I barely touched you.”

Robbie watched the exchange between us until her words clicked and his face darkened at Stacey.

“You— ” he pointed at her, “—are the one who’s been bullying my sister?”

He stood closer to her, squaring his shoulders. She rolled her eyes and unfolded her arms to flick her hair over her shoulders. 

"But Robbie, she was getting too close to my man. I had to keep her away. Alex doesn’t see it, but I do!" she reasoned. “Anyway, you wouldn’t want your little sister pestering your best friend, would you?”

What?
In what screwed up universe did she think it was okay to stab people with compasses?

“Oh, no you don’t!” I barked. “You will not turn this into you being in the right. You have hurt me for years, and in no way will you do it again.”

I marched towards her and stood with my face only a few inches from hers. “I learnt something yesterday. I learnt that despite things being completely shit in your life, you can overcome them. You can let go and be stronger. While I will be pursuing my dreams, you will be stuck in this town fucking guys who’ll pass you around like the village slut you are. So what if you’re dating Alex? Do you think he’ll stay with you forever?” I laughed, shaking my head.

Looking straight into her eyes I said, “Tell me something,
Stace
, when he fucks you, does he look at you? Or is the brown paper bag supplied?”

She had been staring until then; with those words her eyes became ferocious.

“You bitch!” she screamed. “You stupid, fucking wog!”

“Oi! Watch your fucking mouth,” Robbie stood protectively in front of me.

His eyes lowered to my wrist, shaking his head, he then glanced up into my eyes. I swallowed and nodded. His head turned at her and Robbie whispered, “So, you are the bitch who’s been tormenting my sister.”

“Oh, come on!” she taunted. “It’s not like it was anything serious. Half the time it was just jokes.”

“Oh, like the time you cornered me in the toilets and kicked me in the ribs?” I questioned sarcastically.  She glared at me while maintaining a sideways visual of Robbie.

“That was a long time ago.”

“It happened at the end of last year. But maybe the time you slammed my head into a locker is clouding your perspective. Or the time you degraded me and my friends, or just generally bullied me
any time
you possibly could. That recent enough for you?”

I indicated to my wrist. “What do you call this then, hey? A fairy kiss? Just ‘jokes’?” I mimicked. I could not believe my ears. I always imagined, in the many times I had envisaged this situation, that she would beg. That she would be sorry. But while looking into her eyes, I didn’t see regret. I saw hatred. “What did I ever do to you? You don’t even know me.”

She huffed and tilted her head to the side. “Oh, I know you alright. Coming here and acting like you own the joint,” she sneered. “Winning that scholarship for school when you’re obviously loaded, like all wogs are. Now you tell on me to your brother, like the pathetic trash that you are. Both of you—” she looked back and forth between Robbie and me, “—make me sick. I don’t know why Alex wastes his time with you losers.”

“It’s because they’re my family.”

I gasped as I heard the steel cold voice behind me, as a figure appeared at my door. Alex stood there leaning against the frame, his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes darkened, radiating a look that I had never seen from him before-hatred.

“These ‘wogs’, as you call them, are more family to me than my own.”

He pushed off the frame and moved like a predator towards Stacey, his movements stiff and unyielding. She quickly recovered her shock and beamed a seductive smile towards him.
What a mole.

“Babe, I was wondering where you were were— ”

“No. You will shut your fucking mouth, right now,” Alex snarled.

He looked at me. “Bea, did I hear correctly that Stacey, here, hurt you?”

Oh, so now he has clicked.
“Yeah, the girl you’ve been shagging has spent the last few years tormenting me. Aren’t I lucky?” I asked sarcastically. “So, you can imagine what I thought about the two of you together.”

He narrowed his eyes and glared at me. “Do I look like a mind reader? You never told me
who
bugged you at school. You brushed it off, Bea. Like it was nothing.’”

“Yeah, well. Alex, meet Stacey. This is the cock-craving whore who has been attacking me for years. On Friday, she decided it would be a fabulous idea to teach me a lesson for being your friend, and some friendship that turned out to be.”

Alex stood there, glaring at me as I made each accusation. 

"You were dating her. The bully who has made my life hell for the past four years. You want to know why my friends and I hate school and want to leave this fucking town? The reason," I said, pointing at Stacey, "is that fucking bitch there."

I knew I was being totally illogical and unreasonable. I knew he didn’t know about her. But I was hurt. Hurt by a friend who had unknowingly betrayed me; called me stupid and immature, whatever. My wounds felt exposed by such a tirade of pain that nothing I could do would  be able to shield me from myself. I wanted to hurt everyone so they’d know how much it pained me.

“
Saturday Night
”

Cold Chisel

Alex

The hell?
Why is she blaming me?
Before I could question Bea, Stacey moved towards me, swaying her hips seductively. The gesture made me taste bile in my throat. I put my hand up to stop her moving closer.

“Stop right there.”

She pouted as she held her arms out towards me. “But baby, I did it for you. She was trying to take you away from me!”

I laughed at her. This wench was in denial.

“You never had me in the first place.”

She raised her eyebrows and then put her hands on her hips. “Oh, I’ve had you all right. What did you think we were doing last night? In the tray of your car? How many times did you have me? Three?”

I flinched at her being so public about it. It was fine for Robbie and me to throw shit around about this, but doing it in front of Bea after everything she’d done to her really pissed me off. 

“You know,” I started, “it makes sense why you were so keen to distract me last night. But I’ll remind you, not once did I kiss you during, nor did you come back to my place. You see?” I stared right at her. “You were just a vessel. A distraction. I’m a guy; any willing woman will do, and you ...” I drove the point home. “… were very willing. I’m done now.”

Her eyes flared as she glared at me. “How dare you? I thought I meant something to you!”

Bea piped up now. “Pfft, hardly. You started to date him to get back at me, and as it turns

out, he used you. That’s hilarious.”

She pointed to her door. “Now, run along. Go spread your legs for someone else. I heard Mr Niles has an appetite for slut. Unless you’ve already let him gorge on the smorgasbord.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. Bea would often tell her friends or Robbie and me to piss off, but we never heard her backchat anyone else. I liked it. A lot.

Stacey stood there darting her eyes between Bea and me, all the while with a sneer on her face. This crazy bitch would not back down.

“I can’t believe this,” she huffed.

“You’re not leaving,” I responded.

She flinched and gave Bea a sneer. “Try not to get depressed and cut yourself.”

“Oh, I don’t need to when there are crazy moles out there like you who can do it for me.” She glared.

“Whatever.”

Stacey gave us all the bird and left, leaving the three of us to stare at each other. I focused in on Bea and noticed her shoulders heaving up and down. She seemed furious but also pained. 

“Robbie, man, do you mind if I speak to Bea by myself?” I had my hands in my pockets, looking for a way in to approach her. We had a lot to sort out, and I didn’t feel comfortable talking in front of him.

He looked at me, and shook his head. “Sorry, mate. I’m staying put. Trice has some explaining to do.”

I huffed out a sigh. I understood, but the selfish bastard in me just wanted to see that she was all right, to check her wrist, to look at her face and hold her.

“Guys, can you just give me a minute? I just … dunno …” She shrugged. The fearless Bea was retreating and disintegrating before our eyes.

“Bea, we need to talk.” I took a step closer. “I need you to understand that I didn’t know who she was.” I tried to touch near her cut wrist, but she flinched back like she had been burned.

“Okay Alex, I know that. But I need you to go. I’m not asking. Please, go.” She curled her arms around herself, refusing to look at me in the eye.

“Trice, why didn’t you say anything earlier? Mamma and Dad would have come up and done something,” Robbie said. She visibly flinched and continued to look everywhere but at Robbie or me.

“I didn’t want them to retaliate again.” She held up her wrist. “I was scared. I used to turn away, but now, not after this. Those girls were going to hurt me whether I told on them or not. They are just evil. I realised it would have been more if I hadn’t screamed. I’m tired of it.  I’m going to tell Mamma and Dad today.”

“You better,” Robbie threatened. “This shit will get sorted now. Monday, we’re going in to school. And that teacher who stood by and did nothing? I want to punch him in the face.”

Bea flicked her chin over at him, scowling. “Robbie,
I
will go in and see the school with our parents. You don’t need to.”

“Uh, I think you’ll find that I do. I need to see which teacher’s arse I need to kick for not stopping it sooner.”

“Uh!” she rolled her eyes. “Do not make it any worse for me. Be glad that I’m going in. Half the time I covered for them.”

I stood there watching the two of them converse, all the while wondering how I could have been so bloody stupid. Out of all the girls at her campus, it just had to be her bully. This was not going to be easy to fix. Time to man up.

“Bea, we need to talk. I just wanna say…” Before I could finish, she stopped me in my tracks.

“No, Alex, we don’t need to continue this. Please, I asked you to go.”

I was determined to make her listen. “Not leaving until you hear me out.” I broke eye contact and faced Robbie. “Mate, I know you want to stay, but I’m not sure how much she’ll let me say if you do.” I gave him a pleading look and he got the hint.

“Five minutes. After that, we’re talking to the folks.” He turned and stepped out.

Relieved, I approached Bea and gestured to her bed. “Please, can you sit? I promise you it won’t take long.”

She huffed and stomped to her bed, crossing her legs while folding her arms across her chest, the same pose she’d do when we were kids if she was mad. I sat next to her, trying to figure out where best to start without getting a kick in the balls.

“Okay, I’ll be quick. So, um …” I inhaled sharply and thought,
fuck it
. “Bea, I swear I didn’t know. She was just a girl at the bus stop. I thought she was hot and we went from there.”

She flinched at my description, but what was I supposed to do?

“Yeah, our whole school knows how ‘hot’ she is. It’s all the guys talk about,” she huffed, turning her head away from me. I grabbed her chin and turned her head back so I could look into those eyes. I couldn’t see my carefree Bea-Bea. All I saw was pain.

“Bea, why didn’t you say anything? You never told me anything about what those girls did. You should’ve told me. I would’ve— ” 

“What, Alex?” she snapped. “You would’ve done what exactly?”

“
Robbie and I
would’ve protected you. If we’d known, those girls would have left you alone.”

“Would have.” She used her fingers to emphasise her words. “Who are you kidding?” She shook her head. “They’ve given me shit for years, and you guys barging in
would have
made it worse!”

This back and forth was beginning to shit me. “I
would have
protected you! They’d have been in the principal’s office yesterday getting their arses kicked!” I huffed. “She cut you, Bea. The school would suspend her at the very least.”

“Ha!” she scoffed. “From the beatings? The humiliation? Not likely. You want to know what it was like? To be publicly humiliated while the teachers pretended they never saw it happen? Do not play the hero here. You have no idea. I cannot believe out of everyone in my school, you had to date her.”

“I’m not a mind reader, Bea. You NEVER FUCKING TOLD ME!” I roared.

“What would I say? ‘By the way, Alex, the weasel you screwed last night slammed my head into a locker once?’ Would you have believed me?” She glared at me. Hatred lingered in her eyes. My hands curled into fists as my jaw tensed. I took a deep breath to calm down.