How To Kill a Songbird

Chapter 5: Hello, My Old Enemy

"What the actual fuck?!" I squawked. I quickly hung up the phone. Everyone around me was shocked and stunned at the vile venom of hate that came out of his mouth. I got up quickly.

"I am so sorry I-I need to use the bathroom," I said quickly and walked in that direction.

"Asher, wait," called Soph as she followed me.

I needed to have a safe place to think. That place was the bathroom. Mouse was leading me there too since she sensed the upcoming panic attack. I slammed into someone, not paying attention to where I was going. It took me a second to recognize her. I almost thought it was her brother. Sadly, it wasn't as my stomach dropped to the floor. It was Eve. Oh shit.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in!" she hissed at me. Her hair was a colorful mess as if she threw the entire kitchen sink of hair dye into her hair. It was a mishmash of color that any clown would envy. She had gained a lot of weight since we last saw each other. Her dress was a very ill-fitting strapless tube of fabric. It almost looked like her chest was fighting to escape its hideous confines. It was also pinstripe, but the stripes went horizontally rather than vertically. It showed off her stomach in all the wrong ways. She had a sneer of self-importance as she looked down at me. "Isn't there a no psychopaths allowed rule?"

I had no time for her petty bullshit because I was in a fight or flight. She was used to me being a pushover when she would use her unoriginal and uninspired insults to tear me down. She once said I was acting aggressive when I wasn't, but now she's about to witness my aggression for the first time. She should have been careful what she wished for. I am done playing nice.

"Isn't there a rule against that nasty afro circus thing on your head that you call hair?" I snapped at her. "Also, last time we talked, you said I was threatening your life, but oh my God, you just had to make the first move. If I were scared of you, I would have bee-lined it to the door you stupid cunt. So why don't you do a Harry and leave!"

She rolled her eyes as I used an Australian phrase, however, I could see in her eyes that she was scared of the new Asher that came in today and not the one who might as well have been named Matt.

"There you go again, Dundees talking like aliens," she huffed.

"There you go getting knocked up again," I snapped. Her face fell and she knew she started the wrong fight. "It's proper English, asshole."

I got into her face and into her personal space. In turn, she backed against the wall. She was on the verge of tears. It felt so good to make her cry after all this time.

"Maybe you should drop the fake ass high voice and be a normal human. You are twenty-two for God's sake act like it. What do you identify as this time, dipshit? The motherfucking moon?" I snapped at her.

"You are so transphobic," she said in a last-ditch effort to get under my skin.

"It's hard to be when you are nonbinary, you stupid bitch," I snapped. "I don't even think you are queer because now you are acting straight as an arrow because you fucked the rapist I warned you about years ago. Now you cry and whine to the fucking internet that you can't pay for shit now that the fucker is in jail. If you actually stuck to something for once in your life, you may actually be somewhere in life. Instead, you try to steal other people's personality traits to make yourself feel better because you aren't good enough for your shit stains you call parents. Now, you are just like your deadbeat mother who dumped you on my momma's front porch as a free babysitter as she fucked your granddad- oh I mean stepdad. Your mother is a gold-digging whore. She really knows where to put her money, where her mouth is."

Someone put their hand on my shoulder. It was Soph. She is now behind me, "Asher, let's go. Asher. Leave the girl alone."

"No, Soph! I should have done this a long time ago!" I quickly but unintentionally snapped at my best friend. I shrugged off her hand. I growled at Eve through gritted teeth. "You are lucky that there are witnesses, otherwise you can just see how psychotic I have become. I don't know if anyone told you this when you picked on me in band, but I actually know how to fight. I decided today since I can smell the shit running down your leg that I am going to give you mercy. Here is what we are going to do. Instead of giving into my rage and wiping the floor with your face till there is a bloody stain, you are going to run out those gym doors and never look back. Am I clear?"