Chapter Forty-seven: Pep Talk.
"Would you ladies mind excusing us?" Hale asked with a voice that didn't match the malice in his eyes. "I'd like to do some catching up with my ex girlfriend."
The girls giggled, and waved without a second thought. "Sure thing, Hale! Bye Violet!"
I did make eye contact with one of them but she just looked at Hale and walked away.
I couldn't blame them if they didn't notice the thickness in the air, or the dark, foreboding energy that seemed to swarm around as Hale took a step forward.
"Don't come closer!" I held my hand out to ward him off. "I have nothing to do with you."
My voice was stronger than I felt but my knees wobbled as I turned to leave, causing me to nearly fall when he pulled me back by the arm.
"Get back here, I'm talking to you." He growled.
"Don't touch me!" I yanked my arm back and I nearly slapped myself across the face when I realized my bag was in Angelo's car.
"Well, well." Hale said, brown eyes- the same shade as the ugly, murky things going though his head- giving me a once over. "You think you've finally gone up in the world, eh Violet? Who do you think you are? Miss Popularity? You're nothing."
"If I'm nothing then what do you want from me?!" I yelled and the echo of my voice against the very empty hallway walls was painful. I made one more attempt to scoot around him. "You've hurt me, used me and gotten rid of me, I've got nothing for you."
"That's for me to decide you ungrateful wench!" This time, he grabbed me by my shoulders and the world moved too fast as I was slammed against the wall hard enough to let a yelp escape my mouth. "Shut up!"
"Let me go!" I struggled, kicking my legs as hard as I could despite how light headed I was feeling. I could get out of this, I was stronger than this.
But all my kicking seemed to do was make him press himself against me to prevent me from moving at all.
"Scream and I'll be dragging your limp self out the back." He threatened, too close to my face, to close by far.
I didn't realize I was crying till I shut my eyes and turned my face away. I couldn't force back the whimpers no matter how hard I tried. I couldn't even bring myself to breathe.
"You're so weak. You actually thought you'd gotten away? We watch you, Violet." Hale said in my ear and each word made me cringe.
"We know when you're awake, when you're sleeping, when you work, when you go on your little starlight dates or try to get rid of me by clearing out all that I ever gave you. You think your life can go back to normal? No. Not when I'm watching. You can never escape, I'll just keep coming back and there's nothing you can do about it."
He stepped back and I thought the air would come rushing back into my lungs. But it didn't and my knees failed me so I fell to the ground, searching for air, blinded by my own tears and pure, unfiltered fear.
Why wasn't anyone coming to help?
"And I've barely done anything." Hale's voice taunted over the pumping sounds of my rapid heartbeat. And he was right in front of me once more, on one knee.
"You can never heal, accept that and this would get easier for you. Tell anyone about this, we would know, and we would not go lightly on you, not on your parents, not on your idiot friends and if you think my mother can't have a bullet be put though Angelo's bloody skull just like his parents then you're more than hopeless."
A new cold chill travelled down my back. He just admitted to... He knew it as well. Of course he did!
"Oh and?" He added as his voice travelled so it sounded like it was above me. "As for what I want? It's just you. You're my pretty little prize."
I flinched hard when he pat my head.
And before he was even gone, my legs suddenly remembered how to work, but it wasn't to run for the nearest exit.
Barely even getting there, I burst into the nearest bathroom stall and threw up in the first toilet I could find, my knees slamming into the cold tiles hard enough to bruise.
Even after my stomach was completely empty, I remained on the floor, feeling defeated and at a huge loss, staring hopelessly at the names on my cast and wondering if I'd ever take it off.
It could remain there forever for all I cared, I'd never fully heal. I'd never get out of this cycle, of being free for only a bit at a time.
Maybe if I had no friends, they won't be able to use them as leverage against me. Better yet, I could run away. Leave everything behind and Hale would never find me ever again.
Yeah, that sounded like a good plan.
Mustering all the strength I could find, I reached up and flushed the toilet, watching everything in it swirl away into wherever useless things went.
"I think I found her!" A voice called from outside the bathroom and a moment later, my stall door swung open to reveal Annie standing there in shock at my crumpled form on the floor. "Violet! What happened?!"
I looked up at her, and I was ready to tell everyone the truth, that Hale was back and he wasn't going anywhere. Angelo joined us a moment later and he was the most beautiful thing I ever saw as he immediately crouched in front of me with worry tinting his features, something about that made me change my mind.
I really was weak.
"I must have had something bad to eat today." I mumbled, looking down. "Can you take me home, please?"
ʕ'• ᴥ•̥'ʔ
My life may have started falling apart at the seams all over again but at least I could study. And that's what I did, all day for the past two days.
It was easier to think in calculations and chemical formulas, there was no need to solve for an abusive X.
True, my back hurt from bending over for too long and I'd finished about three whole pencils but at least I'd maintain my perfect GPA, it didn't matter that I had to turn off my phone because of the constant calls I kept getting from my friends.
Even Dad kept coming to my room to tell me through the door that there were people here to see me, or that someone dropped something off for me. I just told him thanks.
The only reason he was letting me stay was because I told him I was dealing with an intense case of period cramps so bad it caused me to have a fever, therefore I just couldn't be in school. Word must have gotten round that I was sick.
It wasn't a complete lie either, I just wasn't myself since Hale cornered me two days ago and I didn't want to see anyone, even Angelo. Especially Angelo.
Getting up from my swivel chair I went to my window to check on Dad who was currently attending to my friends. They all looked upset.
Susan even kicked over a big houseplant in anger before covering her mouth, surprised when its flowerpot broke. Then the next few minutes were spent apologizing to my Dad.
The only car in the driveway was Jason's.
When they finally left, I made my way downstairs into the living room, wading through all the presents and flowers and get-well cards that were arranged at the bottom of my stairs just to get there.
I thought I could make a quick something-sandwich and hurry back upstairs before Dad came in but someone was in my kitchen, someone I most definitely didn't invite!
"This can't become a thing." I told Cassandra, folding my arms but the only thing she did was nod and stand up from the kitchen stool.
"I know. I bet even Jimmy is tired of seeing me here." She snorted, tucking her phone into her cross bag.
"Oh." I said, feeling bad for coming off aggressive at first since she was actually leaving. "Wait. Why are you here?"
"To see if I could... do that thing that people have to do earn paper money and coins?" She grimaced as she tried to recall while I squinted in confusion.
"Y- you mean work?" I asked.
"There's that word" she shuddered and plopped back down onto the stool.
"So the only place you could think of was my Dad's restaurant." I mused, going to take two diet cokes from the fridge and offering her one while trying not to think about having to spend school and after school hours around Cassandra's brattiness and her ogling my Dad!
"Jimmy would actually take his time to teach me what to do, because it's high time I accept it, I really don't know how to do anything." Cassandra Manuel confessed, watching me for my reaction.
I just took a sip of my drink, thinking and thinking some more.
"If you want it bad enough, you can do anything." I said. "Why exactly did Mr. Manuel cut you off? Aren't you, like, his perfect baby princess?"
I shouldn't have mentioned that because the moment I did, she looked ready to cry. "I don't know what I did!" She exclaimed, hurriedly opening the coke bottle to distract herself with a big gulp which made her grimace in disgust. "When I tell you it was random and unprovoked, I mean it! He just tossed me away like used toilet paper and... and he's right! People like you would probably rule the world if there was a zombie apocalypse while I'll be the first to die!"
I could imagine how much more often she'd be coming here if she was actually depressed and I could not let that happen.
"Cassandra!" I slammed the kitchen island and she jumped. "You are not used toilet paper! Firstly you are a person, then you are the girl who holds her head up high when the entire world hates her guts, you're a trendsetter, the girl who got bleach spilled on her jeans from cleaning the bathroom for detention but still got everyone to think it was fashion...!"
"It was fashion. That's how I bought the jeans!" She defended.
"Keep telling yourself that." I nodded. "Cassandra, when you lost that one dodgeball match because someone accidentally tripped you, what did you do?"
"Practice hard and come back even harder with a vengeance to annihilate every single person out of spite?" She asked and I pointed at her.
"Yes! Spite! That's what we're working with here. Don't be sad, be furious, you don't deserve to be treated like that so you are going to prove your Dad wrong!" I slammed the table again and this time she was nodding along.
"Okay.... Alright! I'll learn all the skills I have to to make it!" She said, standing up.
"You don't even have to! You get paid at Francine Noir's clothing store to gossip and find the best outfits to fit people." I said and she gasped.
"You're right! That is a job!" Cassandra said. "Whoa."
"Yeah, you're good at things like that, right?" I shrugged. "You're not useless. So by this time next week, you'll be back in your Dad's graces and you'll never have to come to my house to bother me again! It's a win-win for all of us!"
"No more Jimmy is a win-lose for me." Cassandra pouted but then she looked at the doorway and smiled so I knew my dad was there.
"You heard all of that?" I asked him and he laughed.
"You weren't exactly being quiet." Dad shrugged and held out a hand to shake Cassandra's hand when she walked over to him. "This is goodbye, Miss Manuel?"
"If things go as I expect, then it will be." She said, taking his hand before stretching on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "Bye."
I rolled my eyes. "Give me a break."
"Oh, and Violet, you should follow my lead" Cassandra said, looking back at me. "When life makes you fall during dodgeball, learn everything you need to, get back for the next round and annihilate all opponents out of spite. This is just so you stop looking like a sewer rat." She gestured at how I looked and I touched my hair, offended.
"Wow, suddenly you're Solomon come back to life." I said dryly and she smiled as she left.
Unfortunately, she had a point. Hale might have gotten to me but I wasn't going to let it show, just out of spite.
Someday, somehow, I'd make him regret ever knowing me.
A//N: An update! Yayyyy