Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"What's up, cunt?"
Theo shut his eyes.
"Having a rough day, huh? What it's like being stupid all the damn time? You're a worthless piece of shit, you know that? Fucking retarded cunt. You should kill yourself to do us all a favour — "
He ripped the phone from Alex's hand and smashed it to the ground.
"Are you fucking insane?!" Alex screamed.
"Stay the hell away from me!" he yelled back.
At this point, the whole room had fallen silent. Theo could see Zach moving towards them from the corner of his eye, just now noticing the commotion, and Jeff making his way towards El.
"Did he tell you the kid was autistic?" Alex turned to her, and El flinched. "Yeah, just like his little brother. That's fucking sick, right?"
"You're a fucking liar, you know that!" Theo screamed.
"At least I'm not a fucking murderer!"
"That's enough!" Zach yelled, stepping between the two. He glared at Alex, who was grinning lazily at them, while Theo was breathing heavily through his chest. "I don't know how the fuck you got invited here, but clearly there's been a fucking misunderstanding. Leave, Alex."
Alex just smiled. Before he went for the door, he looked straight at Theo and said, "Just so you know, we didn't force you to do anything. That was all you. We just showed you who you really were."
***
She found him in the bathroom.
He didn't know how long he had stayed locked up in there, or how many times she'd been knocking. He spent the better of his time gripping the sink, looking at the mirror every now and then to recognise the boy in the reflection.
Instead to see a fucking monster staring in front of him.
"Theo?"
He closed his eyes. How could her voice calm and unnerve him at the same time?
No response, because he didn't feel like talking, and no words, because she was holding her breath. But he heard the door slowly open.
He could feel the tension in the room heighten to a thousand volts. Even without looking, he felt her presence with him, the scent of sunflowers and the warmth of her body enveloping him like a warm blanket. Everything felt twice as heavy. It's too much.
