The Juniors - The Villains of Valley View

FOURTEEN / "Missing Piece"

My hands fumbled with the phone after reading that. With wide eyes, I immediately closed the application and shut off my phone.

Surge and Havoc? In the same place again? And here?

But the message. It was meant for Renee. Onyx shouldn't still be thinking about her. I'm the best villain in this group. She fucking sucks at running this team.

There's no fucking way she's finding out about this.

~~

CYBER // JOSIE

I could not have found a worse way to spend my afternoon. But here I was; surrounded by idiots in yellow hats who were going to be diagnosed with cheek or gum cancer in ten years tops due to their inability to stop smiling.

I smile to flirt or when something's funny. These Sunshine Club idiots do it for no reason at all. Life isn't that great! Why are you smiling?!

My intrusive thoughts were making it hard to cut along the lines of the printouts for the posters. Pretty soon I was going to use these scissors on either myself or Hartley.

"How ya..."

I heard the voice and promptly ignored it, figuring Hartley wasn't talking to me. And if she was right now, it was a big mistake on her part, so it's probably best if I do just stay quiet.

"How ya doing?" Hartley finished, closer to me this time. In fact, she was standing in dangerously close proximity to my scissors and my mood.

By now my scissors were gliding through the thin, dyed paper, and it was the best thing to happen today, so opening my mouth to talk to Hartley wouldn't serve my mental state very well.

Fuck! I almost screamed because the silver blades just fucking went right through the yellow frosting of the cupcake print I was trying to cut out.

My hand struggled to not crumple up the paper as I threw the scissors down on the table already littered with scraps of paper and office supplies.

"I don't know, Hartley! Tell me what you think I should be feeling, and we'll go with that!" I said in a tone calmer than I expected to speak in.

The upbeat chatter in the room immediately silenced. Nobody seemed to be dragging squeaking markers against poster boards, pulling tape, or cutting with scissors anymore.

I sighed and looked down. Great. I've become more of a freak than the impossibly happy weirdos in this room!

"Jos... you seem more upset, and... um... more annoyed than... usual..."

Great critical thinking, Hartley! Should I hand-deliver your medal or mail it in a neat little box with a cute postcard?!

After thinking that, I stared Hartley down, hoping she would eventually cave and walk away. But she didn't.

Hartley's light brown hand fell onto my involuntarily flexed arm, and her voice was quieter and more direct when she spoke. "Josie, we don't have to talk about anything right now. I don't know what it was, but I get that something happened, so, maybe you should take a break."

At first, I angrily shrugged her hand off my arm. Then I realized that she had no idea why I was so upset. I have been ever since... something happened. And it was just this mix of angry and embarrassing emotions that I haven't been able to shake off or get rid of.