Evergreen Everleigh - The Wattys 2020

Chapter Sixteen - Confrontation

Chapter Sixteen

Confrontation

Once, what seems like a very long time ago, Anabelle was in a fight at school. I can't remember the details but I'm sure it was over a boy. Anabelle was vivacious, hilarious, and fun to be around, but on the flip side, she was quick to overreact. She threw the first punch of many and got a three-day suspension for the broken nose and cheekbone she caused. She overreacted that day and was angry at me for not joining the fight to help her. She didn't understand that the violence I enacted towards myself was about as far as my violent tendencies went.

Now, it's my turn to overreact when I see Aloe holding my journal. By the look of disbelief that is hiding under her sneer, I know she has read it. She has read my detailed account of my grandmother's funeral and how I wrote of the doctors' assumptions of hallucinations when I told them about how dead people visited me.

"You went through my stuff?" I ask, disbelieving at first. Everyone is in the hallway behind me, after trudging through the front of the house from the fields. Wister takes Aster and Teasel upstairs swiftly but unfortunately, Lady Lavender is behind our group, locking the doors downstairs.

"You didn't exactly hide it well and I wanted to know if you could possibly be as boring as you seem," She says and I begin to seethe, watching her nails dig into the front of my journal which is still clutching in her grip. "But clearly, you've been holding out on us." Her smile is dangerous.

Yarrow tries to push between Cedar and Perennial to get to Aloe, to help me, I think but this seems to only cause Aloe's smile to widen. I am frozen, rooted to the ground as my mind replays every time I have ever seen or spoken to a dead person. Once when I was with my grandfather on the beach, then again when I was nine with my aunt, when I fourteen with a little boy I didn't recognise, and now, at seventeen with my grandmother. I replay these memories like a broken record player. Over and over again.

"You don't have to come to her aid, Yarrow. Nor should you want to," I can sense that she is getting to the point of all of this and fast.

"Aloe, please..." I begin, taking a weak step forward.

"Did you know she can see dead people?" Aloe waves the journal around manically, her eyes alight with malice. "Or she thinks she can!"

The silence from everyone behind me is deafening. Someone sucks in a breath. But Aloe isn't done with me yet.

"And you should hear what she thinks of you-" She begins, as the door at the end of the hall opens and Lady Lavender emerges. But it's too late. I throw myself at Aloe, grabbing a chunk of her hair black hair and pulling until she drops the journal and screams. I can feel some of it coming loose and it feels good. Someone is shouting at me to stop, but I am not done with her yet, either.

My hand hits her cheek with a resounding bang. I think I might have cut her, but I don't care.

I let go of her when someone grabs me and pulls me back. Aloe staggers back from me, clutching her cheek and scalp. I shrug myself free from Yarrow's grip and bend down to scoop up my journal. When I turn to see Lady Lavender's scandalised expression, I stare back boldly.

*

Sometime later, after Aloe had calmed down and I had avoided everyone by sitting in part of the garden nearest the forest, Lady Lavender came to see me. Her steps are so light against the grass that I hadn't heard her approach as I brood darkly to myself. Today, Lady Lavender is dressed in a white and violet sundress that clings perfectly to her curves. Her long legs are smooth and blemish-free. Added to her blonde pin curls and delicately thin sunglasses, I was overcome with jealousy as I look down my knobbly knees and the newly added scratch marks I had just imposed.