Your Teeth In My Neck

What Happened

The next day she wore a scarf with her outfit. It was a spare for her and Campbell was still in class when Sam approached her at her locker, "Hey." He said shakily out-loud.

"Hi." She smiled and started exchanging her books, "What's up?" Maggie had very little contact with her boyfriend's brother, the two were the opposite of close and they had both maintained their distance.

"What did he do to you yesterday?" Sam asked.

"Campbell?" She raised an eyebrow in surprise," What do you mean?"

He stumbled for the right words. "I saw you." He finally managed to get out, signing frustratedly to himself in between, "I saw you on the floor." He was waiting for her to react- panic, frown, but she didn't even blink, "He hurt you. It wasn't the first time."

"I don't understand." She furrowed her eyebrows, "I just slipped Sam, I'm fine." She moved to get away but he quickly blocked her exit and shook his head imploringly, "Look we were fighting, he pushed me a little too hard. It was an accident. I know you and your brother don't get along well but I really don't understand why you're making such a big deal—" Sam grabbed her scarf and pulled it off, revealing a smattering of little bruises where Campbell's fingers had pushed into her throat.

"Not an accident." Sam pronounced slowly, "It is never an accident." With that her locker was slammed shut and they both turned to see Campbell smirking down at them. Sam let go of Maggie's scarf and she dropped automatically to pick it up off the floor and put it back on.

"What's up bro?" He said while he signed, he glanced at the scarf, "Thought that would be a good look for you?" Sam didn't respond, Campbell was physically dominating in his presence. He leaned over and kissed Maggie hard on the mouth. She clutched her books to her chest and forced herself to smile into the kiss.

"Just a misunderstanding." She said sweetly, "Can we go out for lunch today, I'm really hungry?" Sam could no longer hold Campbell's gaze and signed a quick 'See you at home'. Before taking his leave.

"Why were you showing off your neck to my baby brother?" Campbell asked, his grip on her hand tightening slightly painfully.

"I wasn't!" She protested, then looked abashedly at the ground, "He confronted me, he thinks you're hurting me."

"And what did you say?"

"The truth. That'd you'd never hurt me." She reached onto her tippy toes to kiss him, but he brushed her off, "Then he grabbed my scarf and that's it." He knew she was telling the truth but the anger made him conflicted. 

"Fucking fag." Campbell hissed. Deciding letting her win this one would yield the best outcome. He sighed dramatically and let his head lull to the side as she stared up at him with a look of total adoration. That wide-eyed look that made him hard. His hand loosened around hers, "So. What does my little brat want to eat?" 

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"Do you know what I'm going to do to you on this trip?" He said nonchalantly in the booth of the local diner while they waited to be served, "Do you know how hard it's going to be for you to walk afterwards? How often I'm going to fuck you when it's just us?"

"Do you know we're being supervised?" She teased in return but he had already been distracted by Harry and Kelly walking in. When they saw each other he planted a smile on his face and lifted his hand in recognition. Kelly looked less than pleased but Harry was more than eager to join and motion for a waitress. Blatantly over-assured as he did so. Campbell had fixed a smirk on his face as the couple sat down across from them in the booth. The wait staff was quick to respond to Harry Bingham and they all ordered a couple of classic breakfast choices, agreeing to share certain particulars between themselves. 

"Thanks Harry, we were trying to get someone's attention for ages." Maggie commented kindly.

Campbell let his nose drop to caress the crook of her neck and he grinned wickedly, "Well," He responded lowly, "We weren't really trying that hard."

"No shit man, we've barely seen you after business hours at all this year." Harry responded with a knowing smile and an appreciative once over of Maggie, who had started making small talk politely with Kelly. 

"You're the head of the Prom committee right?" She was asking. 

"Technically but everyone's been so helpful and great. I think with the smell coming back and how stressed the community vibe has been around town, we just really want it all to be especially beautiful this year." Kelly answered. In her head she was wondering how long it would take for Campbell to completely drain all the sweetness out of the young girl in front of her. At school, and at Harry's parties, they'd all speculate how long the two had actually been together. Since the first day of school that year, Campbell'd made sure everyone knew he'd laid his claim on her, plus freshman girls were always more than happy to gossip about Maggie's sudden disappearances from school and social events while she was still in Junior High. How she'd quit the student council, stepped down as captain of the swim team, and the field hockey team... and the soccer team. At the time they had all attributed the changes to her father's death in Afghanistan. A roadside IED. But now they all knew it was more than that. "How's your mom doing Maggie?" Kelly asked out of the blue, cutting through the fodder of Harry and Campbell's conversation. Maggie said nothing and stared back at her blankly, as if she had been reciting the digits of Pi. Utter detatchment. A long moment of silence followed between the foursome.

"She's been holding up Kel, thanks for the concern." Campbell said and rubbed Maggie's shoulder aggressively. Harry shot his girlfriend a look, just grateful to see the food arrive. 

"I just have to go wash my hands." Maggie announced and fled the booth for the washroom. A flush of humiliation stained to her face. Campbell's pleasantry fell from his eyes as he watched her go and Harry knew better than anyone that that was a bad sign. 

"Kelly..." He mumbled as if to ward off the words to come. Campbell slowly folded his hands in front of him on the table between them. 

"Maggie's mother is a drunk, collecting the bare minimum of widow's severance while whoring herself out to any singleton in town horny enough to pretend to listen." Campbell said matter-of-factly,  "She screams bloody murder at her own daughter every time they come in contact and can't get through the day without at least seven prescriptions." His smile grew menacing as he leaned forward, "But you'd already know that, wouldn't you Kelly? The whole town knows that." 

"I was just asking Campbell." Kelly muttered back. She didn't know what had made her say it, she had known it would be cruel.

"Why were you asking Kelly?"

"C'mon guys let's just- just let it drop. Doesn't help anything." Harry interjected nervously. He liked Maggie, he liked the gap-toothed smile she had when she looked up at Campbell. More than that he liked the way his friend had been ever since getting together with her. There was a warmth to him now. However slight and fleeting that change seemed to be.

Campbell picked up his fork and speared the yolk of a fried egg in front of him, shoving it into his mouth. "Fuck, this is delicious." He chuckled to himself and went back to eating. In time, Maggie came back to the table all smiles and joined in on the group chat about the trip to come the next day. The things they would and wouldn't be able to get away with. Kelly watched Maggie. How easily she molded back into Campbell when it was needed. How possessively he held her and how often he kissed her face when he happened to approve of something she said. Harry didn't seem to notice. But it sent chills up her spine.