#KILLME2

Chapter 2

    #KILLME2

By: theinkslingerr

Chapter 2

     Actually, Finley wasn't really staring at me. Well, he was, but it was weird. He seemed to be having a hard time focusing. I studied the thick black frames on his face. Were they fake?

    We stood there looking at each other; not moving, not making a sound until he stepped forward and...inhaled.

    I blinked, seriously confused. Um...OK?

    Now he looked like he was going to be sick.

    I suddenly got the urge to sniff my pits. Did I smell?

    "Ellis," he said evenly. It wasn't a greeting and it wasn't a taunt. It was like he was acknowledging my presence. I waited for something to follow— something along the lines of an explanation or an apology, but we fell into silence again.

             I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I was truly confused, and more than a little unnerved. I lifted the phone, hoping the action would be enough to convey how dumbfounded I was. It was true that Liam hadn't been Finley's biggest fan, but they'd hardly known each other. How could any self-respecting Robin Hood trash someone's memorial?

    Finley finally told me.

    "Not everyone who dies is a good person."

    I blinked at him, trying to process his words even though we were speaking the same language. He didn't look sick anymore. In fact, his resolve was growing.   

    "We just make them out to be. But a dead wolf is still a wolf."

    I lowered the phone. It was still cycling through the slideshow, but I didn't look. I didn't want to see what else made Liam a "wolf" in Finley's myopic eyes. All I knew was now he looked different in my eyes. I just didn't understand how someone who claimed to use their "powers" for good could do something so nasty. So insensitive. 

    I swallowed, hoping to loosen the tightness in my throat. "First of all, you sound absolutely insane. And second, you wouldn't know if Liam was a wolf or a sheep, or a freaking raccoon, because you didn't know him!"

     My screech echoed in the empty hallway, loud and satisfying as I gripped the phone so hard it creaked. My teeth were bared and my chest burned with the most intense anger I'd ever felt. Finley Klepacki was living in another world, and it was comprised of wolves and sheep, and black and white. There was no room for other animals or shades of gray.

    Finley hadn't flinched during my outburst, and it was clear none of what I'd said had moved him, because his response was, "I think I might've known him better than you, Ellis."

    The picture of Liam using that boy's head as a footstool and fat-shaming that girl on Instagram flashed through my head. My stomach dropped like a broken elevator, but I tried to stay focused, tried to be realistic.

    A few pictures did not sum up an entire person. Especially when that person wasn't around to defend themselves.

    "Everyone has a strong opinion about you too. Liam didn't like you, but I never knew what to make of you until now." I raised the hand with his phone in it. "It's a shame no one's hacked your phone and posted nudes of you, because you're more disgusting than Cody Denson!"

    Finley reacted this time. His eyes widened, because he knew what I was about to do. Too bad he couldn't stop it. He made a grab for the phone, but I chucked it clear across the hallway into a row of lockers. It shattered like a detonating bomb, shards of glass and splinters of plastic and metal shooting toward us. He walked into the spray, catching stray pieces in his hands as if that would do anything. It had made a loud noise, so people toward the back of the auditorium had probably heard it. Someone could stick their head out of those double doors any minute, and if it was a teacher both Finley and I would have to start talking. And talking with an angry or concerned adult was the last thing I wanted to do right now.