The rock blasted from Amity's phone, but she was already up. After an awesome (not weird like her siblings insisted) "getting ready for the day" montage of sorts, Amity for the first time in the last week or so felt refreshed. She had some kick to her today, and she had finally slept well, something that hadn't actually occurred since the whole trying to decipher the motive of Luz thing began. Yesterday had brought a lot of stress off the girl's shoulder, and she very diligently attended her first few classes with a smile that beamed in the light.
She decided to catch up with Willow, Boscha and Gus, doing her best to explain what had happened and make it not sound like she had gone totally senile.
"It was...It was seriously nice. I guess even Luz can have a softer side. "
Boscha grinned, taking a sip of her coffee, "That's awesome! I'm glad something good came out of that girl."
Willow and Gus looked perturbed.
"...What?" Amity asked, looking at them after they had stayed especially quiet.
"Well, I think it's pretty obvious," Gus said.
"The beach wasn't the trap. It was the bait," Willow said, just a tad more dramatically than she needed to.
Boscha giggled, "You can't be serious, can you?"
"Think about it! Amity has never had her guard down this much!"
Amity scoffed, "I'm right here you know."
Willow nodded with Gus, adding, "Amity is always so on edge and tense that Luz decided that to get the best reaction with her would be to get her guard down and then pounce!"
"Right here! Hello!" Amity sighed.
Boscha set her drink down, standing up and putting her arm over Amity's shoulders.
"Ok, I mean, I expect some mean shit from Noceda," she said, "But I don't think that she's that low of a person! Those kinds of people only exist in poorly written fanfiction. This is real life."
Amity grew an unnaturally cocky grin- Too much time spent around Luz, "Yeah!"
As if on cue, Luz had waved Amity over from across the yard. Amity's smile grew, and she made her way over while her friends looked on. While Amity and Luz spoke, Boscha took a moment to observe.
"See? Look at that! They're talking! And it isn't like they're trying to spit poison into the others mouth!" Boscha said.
Willow and Gus held their tongues for the time being, mentally scratching their chins as they watched. Their conversation seemed to be going pretty well, they were even laughing, smiles and all.
They all saw it. Amity didn't. But her friends didn't quite see it coming in time.
"Seriously, they saved my life," Amity laughed. Her grin couldn't be wiped, her heart felt all tingly and she felt like she might actually be starting to see a side of Luz she had never seen before. And it felt special.
"No need to thank me, Blight," Luz said, her grin turning into a smirk, "my pleasure!"
Amity yelped as Luz shoved her, and she only just managed to get her arms behind her quick enough to stop her head from hitting the sidewalk. As the pain settled in, she looked down, and saw Luz high fiving one of her friends. Snorting, laughing at her, pointing. Amity's heart fell down into her gut.
"Christ, you're still a loser, Blight! I thought I was teaching you better!"
Amity was left speechless, her mind was racing too much for her to think about any sort of retort. Her friends quickly ran to help her up, each glaring at Luz. Boscha was the one to chew her out first.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, Noceda!"
Luz scoffed, smile dropping as she picked at her nails, "Oh, look, the fuckin' doggy rescue squad showed up."
Boscha growled, "Fuck you! Seriously, fuck you, Noceda!"
"Nah, I'm good, I have standards."
"You keep fucking laughing! I'm gettin the team on your sorry ass!"
Willow and Gus took Amity away from the shouting match, walking her back to the central fountain.
"Are you ok?" Willow asked.
"I think she scraped her hands," Gus said, lifting one of Amity's arms to see some blood starting to bead up on her palms.
"Cmon, Am, let's get that taken care of."
Amity nodded on autopilot, she couldn't think too much. Her throat felt tight, and it stung. Like she was choking on steel wool. Her arms and back ached from the ground, and she was starting to get a headache. But above everything else, she just felt hurt. Not in pain, hurt. Like she was kicked down an emotional staircase.
Her heart felt like it was in her gut, being eaten up and knotting everything together in a tangled mess. It took a minute, but her shoulders racked once. Twice. She watched the tears fall down the tip of her nose, and shut her eyes.
"It's ok to cry, Am, we know it stings," Willow said. Apparently she was being bandaged. Time felt wrong.
It's not the only thing that does.
How could she explain to them that she wasn't crying because she fell without sounding crazy? She looked down at her hands, small bandages covering the cuts from the cement. She couldn't help but feel like she was missing something else.
Boscha had called a "team meeting." The four were sat in the law wing, quiet in the afternoon. After successfully convincing Boscha to not sic the football team on Luz (mostly at Amity's request), she decided that Amity needed a pep talk.
Amity sighed, struggling to get even a half smile onto her face.
"You need to learn to stand up to her," Boscha said.
"And to increase her peripheral vision- Ow!" Gus had added, before catching an elbow from Willow.
Boscha glanced at them, but then came back to Amity, "At this point, it's clear you can't have your guard down around Noceda. You need to be prepared to fight back. And fast."
"What about words?" Willow suggested.
Amity spoke for the first time in a while.
"We tried words, and that all ended with me up here," She murmured.
"Exactly. So time for plan B! For Boscha!"
Willow and Gus rolled their eyes, and decided to sit back and watch the show.
"So, you need to learn to stand up for yourself! You know, have some spine!"
Amity looked at Boscha, deadpan, but let her continue.
Boscha grinned, throwing an arm around Amity, "That part will come with time and adrenaline, once you get pissed enough at her you'll push back! But for now," she said, trailing off, "You need to learn to throw a punch!"
Amity, Willow and Gus all let out a collective "What."
Boscha, ever the clever one, smirked.
"She only thinks in terms of hurting people," she said, gesturing, "so words mean nothing! It's all in one ear, out the other!"
"Boscha, I hate to say I actually get where you're going with this," Gus said.
"I hate that it makes sense," Willow added.
"Exactly! So," She spun to face Amity, who already looked like she was ready to put out new friend applications, "Put your fists up!"
Amity sighed, for reasons she couldn't really explain, she just wanted to head back to her apartment.
"C'mooon, Am!" Boscha said, grabbing Amity's wrists and putting her hands up. She held them there, barely, fists just sorta...there. Boscha grinned regardless though, and stood next to her. She adjusted her pose, turning to the side, bending her knees a little, and putting her own fists up.
"Alright, now do as I do…"
The training session had not lasted long, as if the universe knew just how done Amity was with today. Of course, the universe wouldn't tell her why she felt this way though. Of course, Luz was a bully, bullies made people feel down. They did it to make themselves feel better. But Amity had never let any of Luz's bullshit get to her before. So why was this making her heart sting so much?
Luz was in her head. Luz was playing games, and how Amity didn't see it sooner she had no idea. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. It was all really clear. At every turn Luz has taken the time to make Amity feel...Special? Not like a target? Like she actually cared about her. Only to turn around and knock her attitude five pegs down the next day.
She was right. She was right from the very start, and it pissed her off.
You're a Blight, Amity! You saw this coming! And you fell for it!
The sadness she had been feeling ever since Luz decided to knock her down- Literally- was quickly morphing into anger. A lot of anger, anger that Amity was pretty sure that wasn't even about Luz. She balled her fists, fingers digging into the bandages. She was letting herself be walked over! God, she was ready to just...Just punch something!
Luz was walking behind Amity with her friends, talking just quiet enough to not be heard by the fuming girl in front of them.
"Watch this," Luz whispered, walking up to match Amity's pace.
Amity glued her gaze to the floor, and kept her mouth shut. She acted like the dirty Converse shoes in her periphery were just figments of her very angry imagination.
"Blight," Luz said, voice low, "Sit."
Noceda's fingers dug into the pressure points on Amity's neck. It nearly toppled the girl to her knees as they buckled underneath her, the aching pain slowly emanating from her neck to the back of her skull like an awful migraine. She tried to stand back up properly, prompting Luz to push harder, pinching her fingers together and forcing her hand down. Amity fell onto her knees, Luz letting go as her friends walked past, comments of "I told you she was a dog!" being shared in passing.
But Luz stood over Amity, looking down at her.
"On your knees for me and I haven't even bought you dinner," she said, the words having an unnaturally toxic sharpness to them.
" ."
"What was that? What was that, I couldn't hear you, doggie," Luz taunted, leaning forward and cupping a hand around her ear.
Amity leaped to her feet. Her fist was on autopilot, sending itself straight at Luz's nose, palm up (thanks Boscha). What should've been a total suckerpunch that would've ended in a proper scuffle that Amity would've had zero chance of winning was stopped dead in its tracks. Luz nonchalantly caught Amity's fist. And when the second one tried to make a move, she caught it, too.
Luz brought her hands down and pulled them together, taking Amity's along with her, an act that closed the distance between them very quickly. Amity's shock went to...Well she didn't know what it was. All she knew is that she was blushing, their foreheads were touching, and Luz was looking down into her with that same devilish gleam in her eyes.
"Come on Blight," Luz said, voice quiet, low, almost sultry, "We both know you don't really want to hurt me."
Luz held Amity there for a beat. Was she watching the fear build up in her? Was she unsure of what she wanted to do? Or was she just trying to get into Amity's head? Amity's brain was racing in circles, quickly becoming overwhelmed and leaving her a speechless, blushing, shaking idiot standing there as Luz just stared, coldly.
After Luz eventually let her go, she walked off without another word. And once Amity got control of her feet, she sprinted back to her apartment, doing her best to wipe her eyes.
The good thing about growing up in the Blight home is that you learned to cry really quietly. Turns out neglecting your kids can scar them for life! Who knew!
Amity sat with her ear buds in her ears, head tucked down and arms wrapped around her legs. She hadn't had feelings like this since...High school? Middle school? Something like that. She had been played, and now she was listening to sad music like it was sophomore year of high school. Ok, it wasn't that childish, but that's certainly how she felt.
She was a Blight. She's smart, she knows better, she saw it all coming.
Yet here she was. Crying. Alone.
She was heartbroken.
She had thought that maybe, just maybe, that day at the beach would've been a turning point. Something that revealed that Luz actually felt the same way about her, because Amity was done pretending she wasn't in love at this point. She thought that maybe she could start digging up more of the soft side of Luz. The side that called her a loser in a nice way while pointing finger guns at her with really cute look on her face.
And instead she got her reality checked.
The more she tried to think about something, anything else, the louder her own heartbeat got in her ears. The more her throat closed up and ached.
She had hoped that Luz would have something to her. Something good about her. That she wouldn't be so low as to pull this game with Amity- Scratch that, with anyone. No one deserved what she was going through.
As the last few tears her body could muster shook themselves from her face, she finally thought of something.
The look on Luz's face when she just...Stared at her. She could've thrown her down, she could've hit her back, she could've done anything, and she stared.
No, she didn't stare.
She hesitated…