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"he was her peace in all the lies and chaos"
- anonymous
song to listen to: je te laisserai des mots by patrick watson
warning: drug mentions, shouting, headaches, swearing, mentions of violence & death
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july nineteenth , nineteen seventy-eight , about 1:30 P.M.
"Either of you got some type of history with her? She had a grudge against you guys or something?" An officer asked Tommy and me after we'd gotten patched up.
This Officer-heaven's forbid I remember his name in my state-had been asking us questions for about ten minutes now. I primarily let Tommy answer them, only for the sole reason of my head hurt like a bitch.
"No grudge, no," Tommy answered for both of us. "No, we barely ever talked. I...I go to get bug spray from her, that's it."
"What about you, Miss Peters? Do you have any idea why she might've done this?" The balding officer looked my way, and I only made eye contact with him for two seconds before looking blankly past him.
"No...no grudge, same as Tommy," I explained, my voice barely a whisper.
"It just doesn't...it doesn't make any sense." Tommy shook his head, and I leaned my own upon his shoulder.
My head hurt like a bitch-the paramedic that patched me up said I had a minor concussion, but I refused to go to the hospital. So they wound up saying that I just have to be careful, and if I have any strange or abnormal behavior then one of my friends should bring me to the hospital. They couldn't give me an explicit answer when I asked them to specify what 'abnormal behavior' would include, which didn't help my case at all. I don't think I'd be expected to know what 'acting normal' meant on a day that was far from normal.
"Why-why would she do something like this?" Cindy spoke up from the left side of me, bringing me to look in her direction.
"She was nuts just like her kid," the officer said absentmindedly whilst writing something down on his notepad.
"But Nurse Lane, she never seemed crazy," Cindy argued in lowercase, briefly glancing at Tommy and me before returning her attention to the officer.
"That's what she said about her kid," Officer McBaldy mansplained. "But sane people? They don't chop up their friends. Now tell me again: what happened? Starting with you, Miss Peters."
"Wh-what? Explain it to you again? Officer, I've already explained it to you and other officers three times," I complained, sitting up a bit straighter than before.
"Listen, Miss, I do understand that you've been through hell today, but I haven't heard your statement myself. It would be a lot faster and easier for all of us if you would please just-"
"You can get my statement from another officer!" I stood up, my voice raising along with my body. "God, can you please just leave me alone for five seconds?!"
"Mimi, hey, calm down-" Tommy put a hand on my forearm, trying to reassure me.
I knew I shouldn't be so upset right now, I knew how ridiculous it must look to everyone else-Tommy and Cindy included-but I just felt angry. Why? That was beyond my total lack of general know-how, but I didn't want to save this anger for something else. Something more inconvenient-none of that, I needed to let this anger out now.
"Miss Peters, I understand that you're upset right now, but-" And with those words from Officer Dipshit, I snapped.
"Upset?! No, I'm not just upset!" I lunged towards the officer, unfortunately being pulled back by Tommy before anything bad could happen-before any pain could be inflicted.
"Hey hey hey, Mia, it's alright! It's okay, it's okay just calm down," Tommy urged me, and just as quickly as that anger had surged into my body, a calmness pushed all that anger away.
Looking around quickly, I realized a bit of attention had been attracted to my general direction. Shit. The ringing in my ears that had started during the attack became present again, only this time I could've sworn I heard a scream. Was the ringing noise a scream, or was it just my concussion acting up?
"Mia, I'll be contacting your father about this-"
"Sir, I can guarantee you that that's not necessary, I'm just gonna talk to her and it'll all be okay. D'you hear that Mim? It'll all be okay." Tommy's voice continued to soothe me, until the exact moment where I was able to fall straight into his arms.
The hug felt safe, it made me forget about everything else in the world. It was only him and I until the day we died. Everything felt normal again-I was able to forget about all the cons for just two seconds. It felt normal again. I was always going to be safe in Tommy's arms, no matter where life took us.
All of a sudden, the bell rang for what we called 'late lunch, early supper'. The moment was over again; another moment between Tommy and I interrupted. But how we were interrupted was the tiniest bit different: both of us seemed to jump when we heard the ringing. It was almost as if it frightened both of us.
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"How come Shadysiders always fucking ruin everything?!" An angry Sunnyvale camper shouts from the table behind Cindy, Joan, and I's backs.
Most of the campers were discussing Ruby Lane and her equally-as-crazy-mother Nurse Lane, but some Sunnyvalers seemed oddly pissed off about this. A good example was the one that I just overheard shouting. Lunch was all set up in front of me-it was a cheeseburger and fries-but I felt no interest in eating. I picked at the fries, for sure, but it felt like if I was going to eat anything that I'd just throw up. Cindy, who was sitting on my right side, had tried to get me to eat, but nothing much had worked. Joan was to the right of Cindy, preparing a joint instead of eating. Gary and Tommy were sitting on the table's bench across from us, and Gary being Gary, could not stop asking questions about the attack.
"She just said one way or another, we were gonna die tonight," Tommy looked around at the lot of us while replying to the endless questions on Gary's end.
"Spooky!" Gary drew out the 'o''s in that sentence as he grabbed Tommy's shoulder firmly, an unerasable smile upon the curly brunette's face.
"The kiddos are right," Joan commented, causing me to lean on the table just to look at her. "That's, like, totally witchy behavior."
"It's just-" Cindy sighed, making it official that I was the only one not contributing to this conversation. "There must be some explanation. The witch isn't real."
"Like what?" Tommy asked, shaking his head a bit.
"Well, maybe..." She looked at what Joan was preparing, and her voice changed. "Maybe she was on something."
Joan's scoff caused my attention to return to her once more. "Drugs are peaceful, not violent."
"Says the hippie," I said under my breath, looking down at my food again.
"I'm not talking about marijuana," Cindy argued back.
"Just admit you're jealous that the witch wanted your hubby-" Gary's smile was still shining brightly as he side hugged Tommy. "-all to herself!"
Tommy shoved Gary off of him, and I covered my mouth as a yawn escaped. For some unfathomable reason, I found myself tired. Was it because Tommy woke me up super early, or was it the 'concussion headache' that was making my head throb?
"Be serious, man, c'mon. Why would Nurse Mary wanna do something like that?" Tommy's voice became hushed as I recovered from my yawn, and I pressed my lips together with worry. "Why would she-why would she want me dead?"
"Oh, no. She wouldn't." Gary shook his head, and I rolled my eyes, as I knew what was to come.
"But the witch might!" Gary and Joan antagonized Tommy in unison before bursting out in laughter.
"This isn't funny anymore, guys." I tried to contribute to the conversation now, but my voice chose to still be a mere whisper. The only difference was that Cindy and Tommy heard me.
"Hey, they're just...playing around," Cindy tried to soothe Tommy and I, her voice soft. "This was nothing, I promise."
"Did you see her eyes?" Tommy asked in an almost doubtful tone, and I nodded in agreement. "There was something in there, something wrong."
Tommy and Cindy had just a split second more of eye contact, and I had just a single moment of zoning out before loud clapping and shouting made me jump straight out of my skin. Fucking Kurt.
"Alright," Kurt shouted to let his annoying existence be known to everyone. "Chicks, dicks, listen up! We had a scary situation earlier, but we cannot let that mess," he paused to breathe. "With the most important night of our summer. Tonight is Sunnyvale versus Shadyside. It is red versus blue. It is good against evil! Tonight, we commencicate Color War!"
"It's commence. My God." Gary's voice, although not exactly a whisper, was only loud enough for our table to hear.
"He might be dumb," Joan spoke up, and I knew I didn't want to hear the words that were about to come from her mouth. "But he's kinda shagadelic."
"He's disgusting. You're disgusting." Gary spoke the words that the rest of us didn't have the courage to say.
"There is something deadly wrong with you, Joan Vene." I was only semi-joking about the words I spoke.
"Tonight's first event is Capture the Flag, baby!" Kurt reluctantly got a hold of my attention again, and the campers were cheering as my head's pain grew worse. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Now Sunnyvalers...we have never, ever.....lost a Color War! So let's not let tonight be a stain on our legacy! So let's go out there like our ancestors before us-"
I couldn't pay attention to Kurt anymore, all the noise and general ruckus the Sunnyvale campers were causing was way too much for me to handle. I put my head in my hands at first, then proceeding to rest my head on the table itself. From staring at the ground, I could tell Joan got up to deliver the 'pep talk' for Shadysiders, but I still couldn't bring myself to listen. My head was throbbing like nobody's business, and the rowdy campers and Kurt's existence wasn't helping my case at all. And then something strange happened: I saw Cindy's shoes standing up and walking away from the table.
As badly as I wanted to look up and see where she was going, my head felt like a million pounds, so I just kept it lowered. I can see Tommy's feet moving, and as the fear of being at a table alone with Gary starts to settle in, I feel the gentle touch of the blonde's hand on the small of my back.
"You alright, M?" Tommy made sure to keep his voice at a whisper, probably for my own sake.
Not feeling the need to talk, I simply shook my head 'no' as an answer, then turning so I could look into Tommy's eyes. His eyes are really pretty. Yup. I'm concussed.
"It's loud, right? That's the uh...the reason?" Another question that I nod 'yes' to. "You wanna head back to your cabin?"
"Can we just get out of the hall instead?" I finally spoke-my voice, however, seemed to be stuck in a permanent whisper.
"Yeah," he laughed a bit. "Yeah, we can always do that too."
And so, without Tommy's hand leaving its place on my back, we walk out of the mess hall together. Joan yelled something to me about some purple-blue shirt she left on my bed that she'd like me to try on, and as excited as I am for that, I'm more excited for this headache to leave me the fuck alone. To be completely honest, the severity of said headache lowered itself when Tommy was near me, and I don't mean that in the cliche way. Or maybe I do mean that in the cliche way...oh, whatever. Fuck it.
My answer to his question is getting clearer with every passing minute.
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author's note:
anyways that was a lot to take in
MY 1666 will explain a hell of a lot as to why mia is...being and feeling the way she is right now
opinions on this chapter???