CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO / T A S T E
BRIE'S HANDS WERE SHAKING when she hopped off Paula's pink vespa. The party at Wes's house was now in full swing. Loud music and laughter blaring from the inside and bright lights shining on the grass.
Teenagers milled around, phones and plastic cups filled with cheap and diluted beer in hand. She hugged herself as she took long strides, feeling the curious looks from those who were fully aware of the issue between her and Izzy. Her heart was beating so fast and her limbs felt weak but the anger burning in her chest kept her steady.
This was for Paula. She failed to defend herself, she failed to save Jean, but she wouldn't let anyone else from their old friend group tarnish Paula.
As she caught sight of Yuki and Mikayla sitting by the front porch, her mind drifted back to Paula and how much she cried in front of her.
Her bare lips thinned when both girls whispered to each other, giggles shaking their sharp shoulders. Brie had enough of this; of every single time their old friends took advantage of their silence and pretended not to be bothered by everything they've done wrong. They were disgusting, a group of dirty manipulators who enjoyed bullying the weak.
"Oh, you're back," Mikayla said when Brie reached the porch with a huff. Mikayla's button nose was poised up in the air as raised her brow at Brie, amber eyes lined with wing liners. "And here I was thinking you finally know your place."
Yuki slipped off the railing and stood next to Mikayla in a similar stance. Brie could see how she was pretending to be intimidating but the quiver on her lips and the rise and fall of her chest weren't hard to miss.
Her weakness made Brie feel stronger. She tried to remember how Paula looked like when she left her—eyes swollen and shoulders shaking as she sobbed into her hands. The faint echo of Paula's promises to herself played like a broken audio in Brie's ears.
Marriage first. Marriage first. Marriage. He said it was just a quick lay... a quick lay.
"I don't have time for your immature taunts, Mikayla. Nobody wants to hear what you have to say."
The girl scoffed, amber eyes rolling to the back of her head. "Oh, please, Aubrie. Who do you think wants to listen to you? What are you even doing here? What, you weren't able to soak enough attention from Xander and Ollie earlier so now you're back for more?"
"I'm not here for them and nor do I need their attention."
It was Yuki who laughed this time. "You're not fooling anybody with that heroic, play-victim stunts of yours. Do you think no one would know about your plan earlier—guarding Jean and Wes like the fucking bitch dog you are." Then her eyes narrowed with mischief and her thin lips curled in a snarl. "Don't tell me you're after Wes too?"
"What?" she asked, appalled by the idea of getting anywhere near Wes. In another day, she wouldn't have imagined going against two taller bullies, but everything that happened today had her reeling, making her snap. "You're both loose in the head if you think I'm remotely interested in any of your trash. I don't need stupid high school jocks who can't keep their dicks in their pants with girlfriends so insecure they're threatened by me."
Yuki's nostrils flared and before Brie could even take a step back, she was already jumped by Yuki. A tangle of hands and hair wrapped around her as both women tried to get a fistful of her strands. She tried to punch and kick her way out of the cage of bodies they trapped her in but they were far taller than her. A jab in her rib, a scratch on her arm, a shove in her chest.
She struggled to keep her balance, only kept standing by Mikayla's death grip.
A pained cry escaped from her lips when a long acrylic nail scratched at her eyelid, blurring her visions and setting a well of tears.
She heard grunts, running and hooting people but she only felt number with each tug, scratch and squeeze.
"You bitch," Mikayla hissed at her ear, proceeding to tear off her shirt. It ripped downwards, hanging off her arm in a wrinkled mess. Her beige bra was exposed and right when Yuki was about to rip it off too, the tall woman was yanked off her and she was pulled into someone's chest.
"Brie, you're bleeding."
Trembling, she looked up to meet Xander's distraught dark brown eyes. She gasped at their proximity, feeling her body tense at the feel of his cold and shaking fingertips. She tried to push him away and he let her, but remained close.
"What the fuck is going on here?"
Brie's eyes found Izzy Fences furious ones and surveyed everyone around her. Mikayla was already cradled in Queenie Green's arms, crying into her best friend's chest. Then, she saw Ollie, shielding a shaking Yuki with his body.
She tried to catch his gaze, not understanding her need for him to know that she wasn't the protagonist here—she didn't anything wrong! Yet no matter how hard she tried to make him see; to meet her eyes and read the honesty in them, all she got was a shake of his head and his hardened jaw.
Jean came rushing in with Wes in tow. Her eyes took in the sight of her drunk party-goers, her crying friends, Izzy who stood right smack in the center with a scowl on her face, then at Brie who was bleeding and almost naked right next to Xander. She gasped, face blanching at the sight of crimson on the floor. "Oh my god, Brie. What did you do?"
A faint memory of Jean fainting at the sight of her cut finger back in freshman year played in Brie's throbbing head. She wanted to laugh at how ironic this stupid day was. Every single person here didn't want anything to do with her yet she still remembered the things they liked and hated.
She felt a sting on her left eye when her tears started to fall, but she was already dead inside to flinch at the pain.
"I don't know what's your deal," Izzy spat, "but you have no right to hurt my friends. You think you can just go here and attack anyone? Is that how desperate you are, you slut?"
"Izzy," Xander said, his voice edged with warning. "I need to get her to the hospital."
Izzy let out a sarcastic laugh. She turned to the rest of the crowd who were whispering to each other and motioned to Brie and Xander who were huddled together. "See? Look at how manipulative this bitch is, going to Jean's party to steal Wes, my boyfriend and Ollie. And when she couldn't get to them, she goes here to attack Mikayla and Yuki." She whipped back to Brie, eyes ablaze. "Fucking pathetic."
"I'm not here for you," Brie managed to say. "Any of you. I'm here for Simon but your friends attacked me."
"What?" Simon appeared from the crowd. "What the fuck do you need from me?"
Izzy laughed. "Oh! So now you're after Simon? How amazing."
"Izzy, please." Xander tried to grab his girlfriend's elbow but she shoved him away. "Stop this."
"No! You stop defending this whore!"
"She didn't do anything wrong!"
"Of course, you'd say that! You have a special spot for that whore of yours."
That seemed to tick off Xander for the next thing Brie knew, he was already pulling her out of there, pushing past everyone who tried to block them.
"Where are you going?! Xander get the fuck back here!"
Izzy's piercing scream rang through Wes's porch as they rushed to his car.
Confused and almost dizzy, Brie stumbled but Xander caught her and leaned her body against his the passenger door. "Are you okay? Shit. Brie, I'm gonna get you to the hospital."
His breath fanned her cold cheeks. She could feel the trail of blood on her skin as her heart pounded. It had been so long since she the last time he was this close to her. Her hands tightened into fists at her sides, eyes closing and lips parted.
She was hurt. She was exhausted. She was too broken and it all started with this boy in front of her.
The first person who turned his back to her was same and only boy who stood up for her when nobody else would.
She looked up to him. Her vision was limited with her left eye beginning to become swollen. He met her gaze with the same intensity, and that was enough to send her crying into his chest.