It All Started with a Lie

Chapter 4

He didn't listen, as always. "Oh come on man. Don't tell me you're throwing a pity party over this. It's fine, we all forget to turn in assignments every once and a while."

"I didn't forget. I turned it in." We entered the parking lot where my bik sat. Unfortunately it was on the top floor.

"Seriously man. Hammon's hasn't lost a students paper in twenty years. If he says you didn't turn it in, you definitely didn't."

"I turned it in." We shuffled into the elevator and Tommy hit the top floor for me. I turned in my essay. Deep breath.

"Maybe you just forgot, like you thought you did but you didn't."

The sound of my heart echoed through my body like a ticking timer. Thump. Thump. The elevator ride seems excruciatingly long now that it was the two of us crammed in such a small space. "I didn't forget."

He laughed but it sounded like more of a scoff. "If you just admit that you didn't and apologize, maybe Hammon's will let you make it. Quit being so stubborn"

Blood pounded in my head as I waited for the elevator to reach the top. "I have nothing to apologize for. I turned it in." Thump. Thump.

The elevator doors finally opened. I practically stumbled out, desperately trying to get away from him. Now was not the time. "You're such an ass! You can never admit when you're wrong." He lightly shoved my shoulder, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Thump. Thump.

I shoved him back into the brick wall as hard as I could and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "I said I turned it in!" I growled.

His skin paled as his eyes grew wide. It was only a moment before I realized what I had done. I took a step away and released him from my grip. Thump. Thump. Without a word, or an apology, I turned away from him and walked away. Tommy never knew when to stop and he ran straight after me. He grabbed my shoulder and clocked me.

I stumbled back, grabbing my chin. Thump. Thump. Suddenly I was a child again, laying on the kitchen floor begging for the pain to finally end. And just as quickly I was my father, pinning Tommy to the ground. I couldn't stop it, no matter how badly I wanted to. My fist smashed his face over and over again until I almost couldn't recognize him, or me.

I tore myself off him, staring at my blood soaked knuckles, and his busted face. I am a monster. I didn't even know how long I had been bashing his face in before I came too. I'm gonna be sick. I stumbled back, nearly collapsing as I ran to my bike. He was too weak to follow me and only moaned in pain as a response. I barely made it to the motorcycle before I hit the ground and vomited on the pavement, the smell of his blood lingering on my body. What did I do?

-/-/-/-/-

After that day, I didn't argue about my grade further. It was a grade I deserved after what I did to Tommy. I didn't tell my sister, I couldn't. I couldn't look her in the eyes and tell her the kind of monster I'd become. So I avoided her, and told her I was sleeping at a friend's for a few nights, just long enough for my bruises to heal. Tommy hadn't reported me, because our school had a no violence policy, and because parking garage cameras showed him hitting me first, we both would have gotten suspended, and he would lose his scholarship. So my only consequence for bashing his face into the pavement was my own guilt. Tommy wasn't even upset with me. We went back to normal the next day and he took the blame for it, since he punched me first. I almost wished he'd blamed me.