The Bite (Edited)

*Proud

"I didn't kill him," I said to the policeman.

He smiled kindly at me. "I know you didn't. We found a flash drive in his pocket with a voice recording. He said that if he was found dead, then he had killed himself and that no one else had harmed him. How did you know him?"

"He was my ex-boyfriend. Can I please leave?" I said. "I have school."

"Just one more question. Where was the knife from?"

"I don't know. I really don't."

"Alright, thank you. We'll call you back if we have any more questions."

I nodded and I left the police station. Since the school wasn't too far away, I walked. I had attended Leo's funeral yesterday with Tessa, I did forgive him. I really did. It wasn't his fault. I tried to look at the good side. If my father had not died, I would have never come to this town and met Liam, Tessa or Ronnie.

A few days ago, at the hospital, they all heard what had happened and they all came rushing to me. I was thankful for such supportive and caring friends. They had comforted me and drove me home. My mom was asleep and I was thankful because I didn't know how I was going to explain it to her. And to go to his funeral, I had to lie to her that I was going to Tessa's house for the day.

I walked into the school and everyone in the hallway, waiting for the first period bell to ring stopped their chattering as I walked passed them. All of them either had unreadable faces or sympathetic ones. But none of them came to send me their condolences, and I didn't want them to.

I was about to walk to my locker when I stopped. There, on the metal, blue door was spray painted in red 'MURDERER'. There were a few bumps in it, as if someone had punched it and it was half-way opened with the lock broken, all my stuff were ripped and thrown across the floor. I quickly started gathering my stuff, hoping I could tape it back together. I knew my mother wasn't willing to pay for another set of expensive books.

I was humiliated and embarrassed, I hoped someone would step up and help me, eliminating some of my humiliation, but no one did. They just stood there and watched me like hawks. Who did this? Why did they do this? Couldn't they see that I was suffering enough? Why did everyone have to attack me? It was as if someone had placed some magical curse on me.

I managed to gather all my books and I stood.

"You like our design? We worked very hard on it."

I turned and found Jakes and two of his friends standing behind him. I sighed. "Of course it's you."

"What do you mean of course?" He snapped.

I decided to slap him with words of truth. "You're just mad that I refused to sleep with you."

His face turned red as whispers were heard. "That isn't true!"

"Oh, really? I think that I can get a few witnesses and prove it." I will not allow him to humiliate me and I will not allow him to make me cry. I've had enough of crying.

"She's right!" Cried an unknown person from the crowd of bystanders. "I saw him!" A few other cries of agreement rung out.

I looked at him as he glared at the people around us.

Then something came to realization. "Did you...threaten the people here so that they wouldn't help me? So that they wouldn't talk to me today? So that I could feel even more alone and sad?" I said, scoffing. "They don't even think that I'm the murderer and you decided to drag them into this. That's really stupid of you."

"So you're insulting me now," he said with a laugh. "What are you going to do next? Punch me? You don't have your little Liam to protect you now! Besides, you killed him, it only makes sense!"

"Really? Well, you can think what you want to think, it won't be my problem. Also, I don't need anyone to protect me. I can protect myself perfectly fine."

"Are you sure?" He came up to me and poked my shoulder as his friends laughed. He continued poking my shoulder, taunting me like a child. "What are you going to do, huh? Come on, girl, hit me, hit me."

"You're just jealous of him and me."

"Oh, really?" He continued his pestering.

Then I couldn't stand it any longer. Dropping my books onto the ground, I grabbed his finger and twisted it.

He screamed in pain.

"I swear, if you even are three feet in my vicinity, I will tear you limb by limb and put you in a casket and send it to your family as a Christmas gift, understood?" I threatened, ire coursing through my veins. "You better go, pay for a new locker door for me, or I will report you to the police and accuse you of attempted rape and assault."

He nodded his head vigorously while trying to get out of my grasp.

"Laina, what's going on?" Ronnie's voice came.

I turned to him as Tessa, Liam and Ronnie walked to us. They looked at my locker and looked back at the scene.

"Oh, it's nothing, right, Jack?" I said, twisting his finger even harder.

"It's nothing! Nothing at all!" He cried, his voice shrill.

"Good," I said, I let his finger go and, summoning all the anger in me, I pushed him away from me. He fell to the ground, sliding across it for a few seconds. I've had enough of people pushing me around like I was nothing.

I grabbed my books and linked arms with Tessa. "Can I share your locker for a bit?" I asked.

"Sure," she said. "Are you okay?"

"Me?" I said with a smile. "I'm perfectly fine." Then I stopped and turned around as Jack's friends helped him up. I walked to them. "Oh, yeah. Don't forget about buying me new books. And make sure that you or your friends didn't touch them, I don't want your guys' germs on it. Here are the books I need." I threw all my ripped up ones at them. "Half of the covers are ripped up so you might have a bit of a problem, but you'll have to figure that out yourselves- since I wasn't the one who ripped them up."

I turned back around and went to class, proud of myself.