Bitter

twenty-two - cal

   It wasn't broken, but it hurt. Bad. I was holding a bag all twisted up with ice in it on my nose, and no, it didn't help. The headache tap dancing across my skull was just an added bonus after the fight with Haley.

I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, examining the damage. There was some purple bruising around my left eye and as I felt my jaw, a sharp pain spread outward up one side of my face. Wincing, I moved the bag of ice from my nose to my jaw.

All I could smell was the dried blood in my nose and that made it harder to breathe. West Haley was going to pay for this one way or another, I just had to find him when I wasn't so...injured first.

"Cal!" Mom's voice called from downstairs. She was already home? I heard marching footsteps coming up the stairs and I quickly locked the door. "Cal! Are you home?" she asked. Of course I was home, didn't she see my car in the driveway?

I heard a knock on the door. "Cal?" she said.

"What?" I replied, still looking at my reflection in the mirror. I don't want to talk to you, go away, I thought.

   "Is everything okay?" I heard through the door. "Your father said you just ran up here as soon as you got home and didn't answer him when he was talking to you. I think he'd like an apology," she explained.

Since when did Dad ever talk to me? "Don't I always run up here as soon as I get home?" I challenged. Mom did not like that. She didn't care if everything was "okay" with me, she just wanted another reason to get mad at me.

"Cal, open this door now or—"

I unlocked the door and opened it before she could finish her sentence and when she saw me, she gasped and the color drained from her face. I could tell she wanted to say something, but the words just wouldn't come out. "How..." was all she managed to whisper.

I shut the door in her face again and didn't even lock it this time, but she never knocked. Her footsteps sounded down the hall and disappeared back downstairs and I wasn't the least bit surprised. Maybe getting punched was a foolproof way of preventing fights with Mom. I was okay with that.

———

They let me stay home the next day because my nose was killing me, but they both avoided me like the plague. Mom and Dad. I guess so did everyone else too. I hadn't talked to Jason, Zach, or Marco since the soccer ball incident and I already deleted Meg's number and never took the time to learn it either.

This made sneaking out to go to Jason's party on Saturday night much easier. It was the weekend and I had no one to go anywhere with, so Mom and Dad wouldn't suspect a thing.

It wasn't like I really wanted to see Jason much, but if West Haley was hanging out with him, then I'd have to be there. It'd be the perfect opportunity to get back at Haley. Somehow. Lydia was nothing compared to him. Haley had attacked people in elementary school. There's no telling what he'd do now. And what had Lydia done? Popped my tires? Put snow in my locker? Little, harmless things. Annoying, yes. But harmless.

As the sun dipped below the horizon and Mom and Dad fell asleep, I opened up my bedroom window and slipped out, only half-expecting to see flashing, red and blue lights tonight, but fully intending to see West Haley get knocked unconscious.