Behind Every Smile

Tolerance

Over and over I thought about Earnie's description of "the real Colin". I couldn't confront Colin, considering one of his terms was "not to question" his methods. However, something about his "methods" seemed to change.

I noticed over the weeks, Colin hardly spoke, but when he did, it all came out in frustrated pieces. I could see it in his gloomy eyes that there was something else going on he refrained himself from telling me.

All was revealed on one particular afternoon.

Colin beckoned me inside with a quiet glare, eagerly shutting the door behind me. "Follow me," He mumbled, pacing past me.

"I-Is anyone here?" I asked him curiously, hearing nothing but the echo of his impatient voice. "No, now come on!" He spat, shouting at me from across the house.

Ushering towards him, clueless of what's to come next, I followed him into the darkness of the garage, a cold shiver running up my spine.

"Are you...okay?" I shrugged before finally gathering the courage to ask.

The dim lights flickered on. I shivered at the dramatic temperature change of his garage, my eyes drawing attention to the row of long leashes hanging on a pin against the wall. Eagerly, Colin snatched one of them. It was thick and bright red. With determination in his dark eyes, he wound half the leash around his hand, his thumb rubbing against the metal clip of the leash.

He began finally, stepping towards me, "How much do you think you can tolerate?"

"I-I don't..know," I told him, my voice beginning to quaver in fear.

"Let's find out, get on your knees, over there." He pointed to one of the corners of the garage.

Every step I took towards that dark corner of the garage, the harder my heart pounded against my chest-something wasn't right. Though, I still believed this would help me. That Colin knew what he was doing.

My knees shook against the cold cement, I clenched my wrist to refrain myself from shivering too much.

"You get up, or try and block this, the deal's off, understand?" He snapped, his fingers tightening around the leash. "This is to test how much you can handle,"

Course, I believed this, because no one was there to tell me otherwise.

I shut my eyes tightly, "C-Colin...I-I'm not-"

The sharp pain and quick clap of metal strike my face knocked my trail of thoughts off balance. My heart pounded faster, I could hardly make out Colin's words.

"You're not what? Strong enough? You pathetic wimp!" He growled, swinging the leash against the other side of my face, a loud whimper leaving my lips.

"You're an idiot. A real pathetic idiot!!" Colin screamed, continuously thrusting the leash against my skin, despite my quiet sobs and deep cuts.

"You'll never ever be strong enough! Ever! You're a stupid freak!! Surrounded by a bunch of liars!!" My ears rung after a harsh blow to the side of the head.

"Stop it!!" I screamed, feeling my body tremble with anger.

"Shut up!!" He snarled back with rage, swinging the leash towards my face at full force. Except, this time, I couldn't feel the blow-adrenaline was consuming me.

Quickly, I snatched the leash, pulling myself towards him, and angrily snatched his throat.

I jerked him against the wall, feeling him gag for air against my fingers. Except, I had forgotten to grab his other wrist.

Grabbing a fistful of my hair, he pulled my head back as hard as he could till I released his neck, clipping the leash around my neck, tightening it around my throat.

I gasped in pain, but chocked on my own breath, struggling to breath, or move. I'd fallen to my knees, I was so weak.

"Fight me, and every single friend of yours at school knows every secret about you. Fight me, and I go after every single friend you have left. I'll start with Ben." He warned, looking straight into my eyes.

At that moment, I froze, completely. My mind was phasing in and out of consciousness, every memory I had of my friends flashed through my mind, tears streaming down my face. I began to feel the sharp pain of the marks all over my body.

Colin unclipped the leash around my neck, letting me fall to the floor. "Fight me, and I'll go find that little girl you like so much, Kate? Was it?"

My mouth dropped open, fists tightening. "Leave Ben's sister alone! Leave everyone out of this!!"

Colin knelt beside me, chuckling at my response. "I'll make sure they know this was all your fault."

"P-Please.." I sobbed harder, interlocking my hands. "Don't...hurt..them..please...I-I'm sorry! I..I won't..fight..I won't scream..I won't do anything..please."

I watched his eyes narrow and head tilt in amusement. "Earnie told you I was a psychopath, didn't he?"

"Don't hurt him...he's a good kid..please." I continued to beg him, choking on tears.

"He told you I enjoy watching people suffer..and using people to do things for me. He told you I enjoy hurting people." He went on, leaning closer, only to whisper two, haunting words in my ear. "He's right,"

"You..You tricked me.." I muttered, "This was all..a trick?"

Colin stood up, chuckling , crossing his arms. "Did you really think I cared about you? You're pathetic. You're so easy to trick, I almost feel bad."

I went into a state of pure shock, confusion whirled in my mind.

"I-I trusted you..y-you..you're my..friend!" I could hardly whisper without choking on my own breath.

I'll never forget his sly smirk that stretched across his face, his dark eyes seemed to gleam as I spoke in such fear.

"We're not friends, Bella. We never were."