Cracks Within

Chapter 9

Thursday 2nd September 2010.

"Sam, I swear to god, you're being a fucking moron!" I scream.

"And you're being a fucking bitch!" he shouts, inches away from my face. "Do you want to have a fight?!"

I square up to him. "Fuck yeah Sam, right here, right now!"

He grabs my arm and bends it the wrong way. "You gonna pin me down and claw my cheek like you did with Nina?!"

I pull my arm out of his grasp. "She fucking deserved it, she tried to kill me!!"

He stumbles backwards, glaring at me. "No, she didn't!"

I squint my eyes at him. "She strangled me until I could barely breathe! Hello, attempted murder!"

We both scowl at each other, breathing heavily. I feel my hands tightening into fists the more he defends Nina. I keep thinking about how much has changed between us in the last year. Nina blabbed as soon as she could, and Sam had gone mental. He stormed up to me after school on the Monday and we had a screaming match. Since then, all we've done is battle against each other. He looks down at my hand, as he always does, studying the thick scar that was now a permanent accessory. He looks at my face, where a small scar sat at the side of my eye, a scar he had made. Our eyes meet. I know that somewhere in there, he doesn't want to fight me. I just need to tap into it.

I grab his hand. His eyes flash with a mix of shock and anger. "It doesn't have to be this way. We can stop fighting." He looks away but keeps his hand in mine.

"I want too. If I stop fighting with you, she will kick off. I don't know what she's capable of or what she might do if she finds out that we're not really fighting." he says, regretfully.

I close my eyes and nod my head.

"Hey." he says quietly. "It'll all be okay." He puts his other hand on my chin and lifts my face up.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" Nina's voice came out of nowhere. I immediately let go of Sam's hand and his hand falls from my chin. Nina looked as if she had fought with a god. Her hair was everywhere and tangled, her eye makeup smudged, her jeans ripped at the knee. Her eyes were wild. "Why were you holding hands?! WHY?!" she screams, alerting a cat from ten feet away. I looked at Sam helplessly.

"Nina..." he starts to say, before she grabs him by his t-shirt.

"You fight her NOW." she exclaims. "Fight her. Hurt her like you never have before. You hit her once? Hit her again! PROVE who you love!" Her eyes get wider and she starts to laugh menacingly.

Sam pushes her away. "No. I regret hurting Anna before, I won't do it again."

Nina's mouth curls into a snarl. "If you won't Sam, I will." She pulls a silver pocket knife from out her boot.

My mouth drops open. "Fucking hell, you're mental! You're fourteen, how do you have a pocket knife?"

She looks at the weapon in her hand, shrugging. "My dad bought it me for protection." She turns to Sam. "Up to you, baby. If you loved me, you'd hurt her."

I throw my hands up in the air. "Whoa. Do I not get a say? I'm pretty sure that I can just go without anyone deciding to hurt the other." I put my hands down.

"Scared?" Nina teased.

I raise my eyebrows. "Nina, you're not gonna touch me with that, you're too much of a pussy. True, you strangled me but you got off the minute you thought you killed me. So, run along. I've got shit to do."