acetone

002

Corinthia was mad. She was very mad. She was mad enough to jab me in the stomach and claim that it was justice for the kid I had kneed. She took my laptop and my books and dropped them in a cardboard box that she kept in her closet and said, "Until your suspension is up, you're a lonely Rapunzel." She pushed me through the door. "You can come out to pee and eat but that's it." She slammed the door behind her and I sat on my bed and lifted up my shirt. The door opened and she added "And stay away from your window." The door slammed again.

I began to examine my stomach again to see that a bruise was already forming.

I laid on my bed with my head facing up towards the glow in the dark constellations on my ceiling and took a second to recall the events of this morning. Particularly the me kneeing a kid in the stomach. I wasn't even aware that I possessed the ability to come back from a punch being caught and to retaliate with a stronger move in response.

"It was probably just the adrenaline and fear and stuff." I said aloud.

I poked the bruise on my stomach and winced. In her eyes justice was black and white eye for an eye. I didn't agree with her, but that wasn't new.

To me justice was punishment for what you had done with careful contemplation to the reasoning you had for the action and the environment that surrounded you. To me justice was sympathetic but strict. It understood what you did and why but it also took into notice that you needed to be punished for your actions. It wasn't you shoved your knee into someone's stomach so you get a jab in the gut, it was you shoved your knee into someone's stomach someone in the gut here's a place where you can't hurt other people and here's how to stop you from doing that again.

But Corinthia wasn't like that. She was strict and brutal and nothing else and so I laid with no company but the neon green constellations stuck to my ceiling. Maybe I could sleep the week away, that seemed beneficial.

I peeled my clothes off and pulled my light purple comforter over my body. If I just closed my eyes and breathed lightly I would eventually fall asleep. Well as long as thought of nothing but the way I breathed, I would eventually fall asleep. My eyes closed eclipsing the glowing plastic stars in darkness and I breathed.

Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Tap.

Tap? Two more came, the sound of knuckles on glass weren't that hard to distinguish from my breathing. More came, more rapid, more urgent, louder. Corinth was going to hear them, but he needed to go away. She would be upset. I wrapped my shoulders in my comforter and pulled my blinds up just enough so he could see my raised middle finger.

The knocking stopped for a brief second and then returned more obnoxious than the first time. I yanked on the cord and made eye contact with none other than Dash. I could feel my grip on my comforter waiving, to say that I was surprised would be an understatement. Romeo appeared on Dash's left and N ran his hand through his hair on Dash's right. Romeo tapped on the window again and I grimaced.

I let my blinds fall again and reached for the first shirt I could find. The first one I found was a white t-shirt with a huge coffee stain on the front. I put it on backwards and opened the blinds again. I let my comforter drop around my hips as I cracked open my window just enough so I could quietly say,

"Screw off." Romeo gasped in feigned offense. "Corinthia will have a cow if she sees-the...what are you supposed to be?" I gestured to all three of them, "The Three Musketeers?"

Dash slithered his fingers under my window and pushed it up. "This is serious, we need to talk."

"This is serious, you need to-" Their eyes widened and Dash let the window fall.

"Need to what?" Dash stood up and grabbed his brother and yanked him further up the fire escape while Romeo's face hardened. I felt her looming behind me. She grabbed me by the back of my shirt and threw me down on the ground. As soon as she had touched me I started crying.

The tears weren't working.

She slammed the window hard enough that the frames on my wall began to shake and then she turned to me. She pulled me up, lifting me by my shirt. My toes were barely gracing the ground. She pushed me back into my closed door.

"Why can't you listen?" She banged my back against the door, "Why is it so hard for you to listen?" Bang. My back was thrown against the door again. She was close enough to me that I could feel her breath, that I could feel the spit that dripped off her lips as she screamed.

A voice in my head urged me to fight back. But what could I do? She was stronger, venom ran through her veins, I couldn't fight back.

I can't. I can't. I can't. Bang. I can't. I can't. I can't. Bang. I can't. I can't.

"You can." She went to bang me in the wall again, that was next in the pattern. I quickly raised my arms and slammed them down on hers with as much strength as I could muster. Her hands were off of me. I pushed her farther away. I opened the door behind me and ran.

I ran out the front door, down the stairs, out of the apartment complex. I had never run as fast as I ran that night. I heaved in and out and watched my breath cloud in the air as I tried to catch it. Standing on the sidewalk in nothing but a dirty t-shirt and underwear was never a good idea, so I sat on one of the bottom steps of the complex instead.

I don't remember when they sat near me. Dash on my left and N on my right. I don't remember when my sister walked down the steps, and disappeared in her car. I don't remember Romeo trailing after her. I don't remember coming back up stairs and I don't remember agreeing to letting The Twins stay the night, but life is full of things we forget.