Finley Winter's Killer

1 - Cuts and Bruises

Finley:

I stand in the an empty before school beings, my world seems grey as I try to wrap my head around the events of last night. First I got the text from one of my kind-of friends, whichever one it was seems meaningless to me now, with screenshots of things my own best friend said about me. My eyes saw the words "ugly," "annoying," "only her friend because her boyfriend's hot," but my mind wouldn't accept the information. It seemed as if every positive feeling left my body and i was a betrayed lump of pain.

Then came my boyfriend himself, Grayson, marching into my accidentally unlocked front door as I sit alone watching reruns of some 90s sitcom. I don't remember why he was there, i just remember seeing his face and feeling my own turn bright red and my body turning numb. I remember remembering the words of Harper's text and felt a sudden urge to scream, to tell....and i didn't stop myself.
"You screwed Harper," I shout, my brain yet to catch up with what i just did.
"What did you say?" His calm and cute features turned dark. I couldn't tell if this was because he knew what i was saying was true, or because he'd never seen me yell.
"You screwed Harper," I repeat, louder and even more mindlessly. You've been seeing her, you've been lying to me!"
"Finley, shut up!" He leaned in close, and i remember smelling alcohol strongly in his breath, and i remember suddenly pausing.
"Grayson....you're drunk." I whispered. "After all these times you promised me you'd never do it again....you drank."
The next thing I remember was his hand raising and falling, and the sharp sting of pain all over my arms and face.
"Oh shut it, bitch. You knew i would do it again. Don't act like you actually have an affect on me," his words began to slur and the pain in my body stung until i was completely numb. "Don't act like you mean anything. You're just another girl to me. Sure, I've hooked up with a few others while i was with you. Maybe one was your friend, maybe not."

All I could do was scream. I couldn't move. I just screamed "Grayson, you're drunk," over and over, trying to convince myself that what he said wasn't true, but deep inside I felt it was.

After that is now a total blur in my mind. I remember running to the front door, Grayson pulling out knife, me threatening to call the police. I remember Grayson spitting out more drunk insults. And I remember blood. Spilling down my wrist.

Now, no one at school yet. I subtly pull down my sleeve and see purple bruises surrounded by long, deep, pink scars. What scares me the most is that I know the bruises were from Grayson, but in the back of my mind, I hear a voice reminding my that i made the cuts myself.

I'm woken from my daze by the loud sound of Harpers voice as she rushes into the hallway, probably ranting about some guy. I quickly pull my sleeve back over my arm, but I'm too late.

"Finley!" She says suddenly. I turn as white as paper. I want to confront her about the texts, i want to see the look on her face when she heard how they affected me...but another, much more twisted idea enters my mind, one i can't simply push away.

"It's Grayson..." I say quietly, and turn away, as I can't even look at her stupid lying face. "We got in a fight...I think he's gonna do something bad..."

She tries to fake-comfort me but i turn away even more. "Sorry Harper, I think i need to go to the nurse or something..." She pretends to care some more, but I quickly walk away, a wicked smile creeping onto my face and I devise a plan in my head.