Avenging Girl
If I was smart I would've taken August's threat seriously. But of course, I didn't. Despite how sketchy and creepy he was, I just assumed he was bluffing. Because, of course he was bluffing. He wouldn't really do anything to hurt Will, would he? He was just trying to scare me into being with him. Well, I'd refused to back down. Which had been a huge mistake. If only I hadn't been so damn proud.
I was sitting in psychics, waiting for Will to show up the next morning. We'd more or less made up since yesterday's incident. We'd agreed to disagree. I'd promised to stay uninvolved for now but he'd promised to come over to my house whenever things at his dad got rough. I wasn't exactly happy with it but I hated arguing with Will, plus he was so stubborn that he was never going to believe me until his dad crossed the line and he really got hurt.
I was standing by my desk, talking with Heather. I now sat in the front with Will, where Kristy used to sit. But she'd relinquished her seat to me after some prodding. She was sitting off alone while I talked with Heather, since our teacher always went for a smoke off campus this period so we had about ten minutes to ourselves, most days. We were just sitting and chatting, but my eyes kept straying to the door, waiting for Will. He'd probably gone to the bathroom to smoke or something.
When he finally did come inside I was pretty sure he'd just gone to smoke pot. He looked pretty stoned. He stumbled inside and braced himself against the door frame. His hair was a little disheveled, his cheeks heavily flushed, and his eyes glassy. He put a hand to his forehead, where beads of sweat were beginning to collect. If he was stoned, he must've been having a bad trip because he looked bad.
"Will," I said, getting up from where I'd been leaning against my desk. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah yeah," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes and taking a stumbling step inside, "I'm fine."
"Did you take something?" I asked, not bothering to pitch my voice low. There were only kids in this room and all of them knew Will was a druggie.
He shook his head no, and that seemed to make him dizzy so he shook his head again, faster though, as if trying to clear his head.
Heather gave him a once over. She was concerned. "Amunet maybe you should take him home," she said quietly to me, "He doesn't look so good. Maybe he's sick."
"You're probably right," I agreed, going over to get my bag, "C'mon Will I'm taking you home."
"No Nettie it's fine. I-I'm fine," he said, taking a few steps inside and then stumbling.
"Will. I'm taking you home." Or maybe to a doctor.
"I - I'm fiiiine," he trailed off as he stumbled again. He reached out blindly for something to support himself but there was nothing there. He took another step, veering slightly off his given path, heading towards the left. He took another blind step before suddenly collapsing to the ground.
"Will!" I exclaimed in shock, dropping my bag and heading straight for Will.
"Oh God!" Heather shouted as she followed hot on my heels. The rest of the class basically followed suit. I knelt down next to Will, along with Heather and Kristy and a few others. The rest all hovered around.
"Will? Will? Will?" I said frantically shaking his shoulder. He didn't move.
"I think he's unconscious," Heather said worriedly.
I rolled him over gently to see that he really was out cold. His hair messily fell into his closed eyes. His sooty lashes brushed against his cheekbones, which were flushed a bright red. His entire face was covered in a sheen of sweat. His breathing was shallow, his breath coming in quick little gasps.
"Go get a teacher!" I snapped at nobody in particular. Instantly, a girl closest to the door took off down the hallway.
"What do you think happened?" Heather asked frantically.
"I don't know," I admitted, hating those three words with all my might as they passed my lips.
"Did he take something?" Kristy chimed in.
"No," I said, "Well, he said he didn't."
Just then the chem teacher from next door, a younger man named Mr. Kaleb, whom I didn't know, rushed inside, with both the girl who'd gone to fetch him and Mike hot on his heels. The teacher knelt down next to Will and so did Mike, while the girl hung back.
"What happened?" the teacher, Mr. Kaleb, asked. Mike put a reassuring hand atop Heather's but both of their eyes were on the unconscious form that was Will.
"He just collapsed," I told him.
"How long ago," he demanded.
"A couple of minutes," Heather said.
"If the fall itself doesn't wake a person who passed out it's something more serious," he mumbled thoughtfully, "Someone call 911."
Kristy whipped out her cell phone and started dialing. She stood up and backed away from the little circle for some quiet.
"Did he have anything to eat today?" Mr. Kaleb asked.
"He had some coffee during homeroom," I said.
The teacher didn't say anything, but he was observing Will and thinking to himself how it seems as if he was more then just fatigued. "Someone go get the nurse," he instructed.
A boy near the door bolted off.
"They're sending an ambulance," Kristy said, closing her phone, "I told them which room."
"Good," Mr Kaleb said just as the boy returned with Nurse Orkal, who immediately bent down next to Will, shooing away some of the hovering kids to make room for herself.
"How long has he been out?" she asked as she checked his pulse.
"About five minutes," I answered automatically.
She clucked her tongue in disapproval but didn't say anything. "What happened before he passed out?" she asked, noting how his pulse was very quick.
"He just walked inside . . . He seemed sick so I was going to drive him home and then he just collapsed," I said mournfully, worry making my mind blind to anything but Will.
"Did he hit his head when he fell?" she asked, putting her hand to his forehead. She didn't bother checking his temperature - it was obvious he had a fever.
"No," I said, sure of it.
I could hear faint sirens in the background - the ambulance. Thank God. I promised myself then that, no matter what, I was getting in that god damn ambulance with Will. They could try and pry me out with the jaws of life and I wouldn't leave him. Nothing was going to make me leave him. I reached out for his hand and laced my fingers through his. I told myself that I wouldn't let go . . . Until I saw him. August. Leaning in the doorway with a smirk on his face. And then there were the mental images. Usually I only got flat thoughts from August - ever anything more then what he was doing at the moment. Only now, I saw a flashback, a play-by-play of when August had slipped some sort of liquid into Will's coffee when he'd left on the table in the cafeteria for a brief moment to get some milk for it.
"I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, louder then I had ever screamed in my entire life. Six months ago I would have thought it wasn't possible for me to scream that loud. I would have thought that it wasn't possible for someone to make me that upset. I would have thought it wasn't possible for me to be this passionately furious.
Six months ago, I hadn't been in love with Will.
I realeased his hand and jumped to my feet, and in an instant, I was lunging at August, not a single coherent thought in my mind. Only hate. But before I reached him . . . everything froze. Something like this was enough to momentarily distract me from all the hate I felt. The entire room had gone dead silent - there wasn't even the sound of their breaths. I looked back at everybody to see them all frozen - like sculptures. Except for two people. Me. And August.
I whirled around to face him. "I don't know what you just did and I don't care," I snarled, "All I care about is ripping of your miserable head." I pounced on him, focused solely on ripping (not wiping) that sardonic smirk off of his face. I collided with him and the force of the blow caused him to slam back into the wall. I grabbed at his hair, intent on ripping out every single blonde curl. But then he grabbed my wrists and easily disconnected my hands from his hair. I screamed loudly in rage and struggled against his unusually strong grip. I kicked at him and thrashed.
"LET ME GO!" I screeched, "LET ME GO YOU SON OF A BITCH SO I CAN FUCKING KILL YOU!"
"Easy there princess," he soothed, kissing my forehead.
I thrashed even harder, recoiling from him. "DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME YOU BASTARD! I SWEAR TO GOD I'M GOING TO RIP OFF YOUR TESTICLES."
"Ooohh. I see. My little warrior princess," he noted, seeming fondly amused.
"I'M NOT YOUR PRINCESS!" I continued to shout, realizing that once you start it's impossible to stop, "I'M NOT YOUR ANYTHING!"
"You're wrong," he said, his eyes burning into mine with a scary intensity, "You're my everything."
"YOU'RE NOTHING TO ME AUGUST! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? NOTHING!" I screamed, wishing he would get the message. It's not like I was speaking in Morse code. I'd practically put it on a billboard.
"One day you'll see, my little princess," he crooned, kissing my forehead as I thrashed, "One day you'll see that we belong."
"YOU'RE A FREAK! A FREAK! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE AND I DON'T CARE! ALL I WANT IS TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"
"Why sweetheart?" he asked curiously, "Because of your little boy toy in there? You shouldn't be my love. I haven't done anything that horrible . . . yet."
"YOU POISONED HIM!" I screamed, "YOU KILLED HIM."
He look at me for a long time with penetrating eyes. "Last time I checked," he finally said, "He was still breathing."
That caused me to momentarily freeze in my struggles. I stood like that for what felt like an eternity, trapped in August's intense gaze. Like a bird caught in the eyes of a snake - or a deer in headlights. His strong hands were still clamped around my wrists.
Suddenly, noise flooded through the silence. I could hear activity behind me. Breaths, thoughts, words, movement. Whatever August had done, he'd undone it. He'd somehow froze everybody - froze time - but now everyone had unthawed. Their thoughts showing they had no memory of the freeze.
"Consider what happened today a warning," August said quietly before disappearing.
