Short Stories

[Five]

What in God's name happened to me?

I looked into the mirror and I didn't see me. 

My stormy blue eyes were bloodshot and there were bags beneath them. My skin looked slightly sickly in color, paler than normal. There was a growing purple splotch on my right cheek and I winced as I touched it. My nose had a trail of dried blood coming from the bottom of one nostril. 

Then my eyes moved to the split and cracked scab that had formed on my bottom lip. I moved to lean forward to look at it closer, but gasped as a sharp pain bloomed along my ribs. I lifted my t-shirt up and grimaced at the large blue and purple bruise that coated the side of my torso. 

My head pounded like a drum going off ever few seconds. I tugged my shirt back down and ran a hand through my messy brown hair in an attempt to tame it a little. My mind throbbed with pain as I tried to pick through the haze that I was sure alcohol had left. 

My stomach turned in nauseous waves and rocked my torso with a terrible feeling that made me close my eyes. I grasped the sink with one hand and used the other to open the bathroom cabinet. I fumbled for the Alieve bottle and shakily got a couple pills. 

I knocked them back and tried to wrack my brain for answers as I made my way back to my bed. I sat down with a sigh of pain that sang from my diaphragm of bruises. 

I glanced around my room. It looked like a disaster. I hadn't done laundry in a while so my basket was overflowing. Papers were tossed on random surfaces. The only neat area seemed to be my ngiht stand where my lamp, phone, and clock made a home. I grabbed my phone and clicked it on. 

My notifications were blowing up. I had messages from about 5 different people including my best friend. Snapchat seemed to be about the same as any other day. It was probably people just sending out streaks. Twitter was blowing up with mentions of my username in posts and comments. 

My scrolling was interrupted by a phone call. 

'Ray Jennings'

I pressed the green 'answer' button and held the phone to my ear. "Hello?" 

"Hey, how you feeling?" The soft voice of my best friend met my ear. I let out a shaky breath and winced a little. "Ray, what happened last night. I look like I just got dragged out of a bar fight." I asked, my voice was hoarse and cracked slightly. My throat ached. 

"You don't remember?" Ray asked quietly. "No." Was my short answer back. 

Her sigh met my ears loud and clear. "It's all over social media now. But I guess you haven't seen any of it yet." She paused and I began to get annoyed that she was dancing around the subject. "Ray, just tell me what happened. What did I do last night?" I asked, my voice showing my emotion. 

"Well, we went to that party and you got a little plaster... Ok, a lot plastered. But, Annabeth Gibbs also started to run her mouth cause she got a bit drunk, too. She started to talk about your little brother in a not good way. I'm not going to tell you what she said cause it will only make you want to kill her... again." She stopped for a breath. I was taking it all in silently. 

"Well, you told her to shut up and left it at that, but she kept going and was said some pretty bad stuff. Apparently, you were so drunk you had lost all rationality and snapped..." It was then that the haze within my mind began to clear. 

"You have one of two options, Annabeth." I threatened. Her green eyes snapped to my blue ones in a hard stare. "You can either shut the hell up and leave my brother's name out of your mouth or you can pay for a new nose." I seethed. She rolled her eyes and waved her beer bottle around nonchalantly. 

"Oh, please, Bentley. Like you would actually do anything." She began to turn but I was already grabbing for her. I threw her down on the bar and sent a hard fist at her nose. She squealed in pain and squirmed beneath me. Blood poured out her nose and I felt satisfaction rise in me. 

A hand grabbed me and spun me around before I could get in another hit though. A sharp nailed hand made its way across my cheek. My teeth bit into the inside of my cheek, the tang of blood meeting my taste buds. Stars were in my vision and I blinked rapidly trying to clear them away. 

I could see the blurred figure of another girl with dark long hair. A smirk could be seen as I regained some sense and I felt my own lips curl up at it. She pulled back a fist and I caught it just in time. I twisted her arm around and shoved it up towards her shoudler blades. "Back off, Elena. This isn't your fight." I snapped. I shoved her away into a near by table and turned only to have a hit to my ribs knock the wind out of me.

I stumbled and grabbed the bar that was behind me for balance. Another fist to my lip and nose caught me, and I was leaning backwards onto the bar. I looked up at two sets of green eyes that were trying to focus back into one pair. 

"I don't understand why you're defending that bastard brother of yours. He is nothing but a low lying-" I launched myself at Annabeth, slamming her back into a table and all I could clearly feel was the anger that pulsed wildly in me. 

I held her down with one hand and wiped under my nose with the other, examining the blood that appeared on it afterwards. I gritted my teeth and glared down at the girl. "Brantley may not be the best of people, but at least he tells people the truth and everything he has was got through hard earned money and not daddy's money." I took a jab at her before punching her square across the face. 

I got off of her and turned away spitting blood onto the floor. "Go run back home to daddy, little girl, before I really get mad." 

I came back into the present as Ray was saying my name reptetively into my ear. "Are you there?" She asked skeptically. I hummed a yes and touched my lip, gently pressing on it. A smile was creeping onto my cracked lips. I laughed a little. "I gave her what she had coming, didn't I?"