Bullies With Benefits

PART 31

I swear, the capped boy beside the one who's
covering himself with a newspaper awfully looks like Pugsley but I haven't seen him since that night so I could be wrong.

"Hey can I ask you a question?" Yoko asks me,
scooping a spoonful of rice as we happily eat
our meals that are now for free because of the
accident.

Smirking, I giggle. "Isn't that what we've been doing for the past hour?" I fire back innocently with a tilt of my head as Yoko bites on her lower lip.

"Touche Enid." She jokes back as we laugh along.

"But uhm, what did you do to Wednesday to
make her so mean to you all the time?" she asks,
furrowing her eyebrows in wonder. "Like-from
what I heard from Nancy-you never even had a
minute conversation that didn't involve slushies
with the Captain."

I smile weakly and tuck my lose hair behind my
ear. "I-I don't know actually-" I start off, playing
with my drink with the use of my straw. "I've been asking myself the same thing for years."

"For years?" Yoko asks, sipping her cool iced tea.

Nodding my head, I sigh. "Yeah-ever since we met in kindergarten, she's been bullying me like there's no tomorrow." I joke, trying to make light of the conversation as images of a mini-Wednesday comes swirling through my head. "I just-I just said hi to her and asked if I can swing on the swing next to her when-before I know it, she's pushing me to the sandbox."

Yoko's eyes widen in surprise. "She did that? In
kindergarten?"

I laugh, amused as well. "Yeah." I mutter, shrugging my shoulders. "I just wanted to make friends with her and swing together but she-she pushed me away."

Smiling sadly at me, Yoko reaches out to hold
my hand. "I bet it was because she was a grumpy kid." She jokes, trying to lighten me up but it's not even half-working because for years I've been asking-wondering-assuming-processing why Wednesday pushed me away. Why she didn't
want me to swing with her and why she didn't
say hi back to me. If she did all those things, I'm
pretty sure our situations would be different now and it doesn't hurt more than it already is when I remember Divina laughing at me as I lay flat on sandbox beside Wednesday.

I guess it was always Joy from the very start.

"Still grumpy now." I comment, letting go of our
hands as I wipe my sweaty digits on the sleeves of my sweater. "But enough of th-"

"It's a good thing you didn't sleep with her then."
Yoko says, cutting my words and my thoughts as I stare at her, agape. My jaw's nearly down the floor and I'm pretty sure I'm as pale as a snowball as I let her words sink in.

What?

Yoko doesn't catch my blank-shocked face though, as she laughs, rolls her eyes and shuffles closer in her seat, flicking her hair to the side. "Like, Im honestly giving props to you for not sleeping with her." She goes on, chuckling with a wink as if to say good job girl.

Did Wednesday tell her something? Why does it
seem like she knows something I don't? And what does she mean by me not going to sleep with her? Yoko shouldn't know about that night, heck-no one but Wednesday and I should know, she told me to keep it a secret.

"W-What are you talking about?" I ask, gulping
hard as I feel my heart beating erratically out of my rib cage.

Yoko gives me this sympathetic look. "I know
"she starts, sighing. "I know about that night,
when Wednesday tried to have sex with you? And you didn't go through with it by climbing out the window? Smart choice, Enid." She tells me, nodding her head as I clench my wooden chair tightly with all the strength I could muster, feeling my head start to ache.