Beyond us (all of us #3) 18+

O N E

D I E S E L

Dear April,

Some things really just piss me off. Small things. Like some little bitch running his mouth about some shit he knows nothing about.

About me.

Yeah, that's a small thing. Easy to correct.

A few hard hits, a couple bloody knuckles, and he never opens his mouth the same way again. Literally.

I got suspended for fighting twice already, but whatever.

One more time and they say I'll be expelled. Not that I give a fuck, but fighting off campus makes more sense anyway.

No crowds to distract me.

No phones recording.

No little school police officers to break it up.

Mom didn't say much about the last suspension. You know how she is. She mad-dogged me a little when she picked me up from the office, but much like shit-talking Tyler, her mouth was shut too.

I know, I know. You don't like me fighting, and I'm sorry.

But sometimes? Fuck.

I can't control myself.

Sometimes I only see red and...and I can't stop.

My hands sting under the freezing cold running water and I clench my jaw tight while the shallow pool at the bottom of the sink takes on a reddish hue.

I like seeing it. It temporarily distracts me from the metallic taste in my mouth. From the tight feeling in my chest, and the deep aching in my ribs, just for a moment.

Pain.

But while it was happening, it was a pleasure. It was freeing. Release.

Better than sex. Better than anything.

And then fucking Gio pulled me out of it.

Off of him.

He dragged me away while I was kicking and stomping and reaching out for the kid like it was my prerogative to kill him.

For a solid second it was.

He spit in my fucking face and that fucker was gonna pay for it.

Gio hauled me off to the bathroom by the now tattered collar of my hoodie and shoved me hard against the graffiti tagged wall of a dingy blue stall, shutting and locking the door behind him.

As if to keep them away from me.

Or me away from them.

He glared at me with a dark look in his eye as my body fought to catch a solid breath, still snarling as I came out of fight mode, dragging fingers through my hair before realizing I was only streaking the strands in blood.

Mine or his.

"You have fucking problems!" He shouted at me as I turned to the mirror, pulling my hood up and rolling up my sleeves over the sink. I barely glanced at my cloudy reflection.

Just long enough to register that it was me I was looking at.

Long enough to note the long split down my bottom lip, the sticky streaks of blood in my hair. Dark red coils hanging over my forehead.

My eyes finally shift to Gio's reflection. He's wearing that sick of me look.

Dark circles under his eyes, the downward tilt of his lips.