Viral

Ten

Sticks and stones may break our bones but words will never hurt me.

-Children's Nursery Rhyme

Words can be sticks sometimes. They can be sharp and pointed enough to break skin, leaves scapes, and lodge splinters deep into the skin for you to pick at. As if it didn't hurt enough going in you get the pleasure of being victimized twice having to pry it out.

I can't determine if words are better as sticks or stones. Words like stones are heavy, they weigh you down until you can't move. They apply so much pressure you can't breathe under their weight. Sometimes they're sharp. Deadly. Their jagged edges bruise and break you down in ways you never thought imaginable.

Put sticks and stones together like arrows and no matter how thick your skin of armor is it will pierce through. Maybe not at first, but after they fly at you in every direction the mind can only take so much. The body bends and breaks until those throwing sticks and stones are too tired or too bored to continue.

Maybe it's enough to say you survive being clobbered with sticks and stones. Or maybe you should start throwing them back.

I've never been one for confrontation. I'm not saying that I'm not good at physically fighting or arguing, I've just never had to practice those skills. Some people or situations just bring aggression out of you.

I wiped my face and pushed open the bathroom stall, I had a few inches on Carly and chose to use it to my advantage. I felt intimidating but her response to me getting in her face didn't show she felt it. "What the fuck is your problem Carly?"

"My problem?" The way she contorted her face signaled that I had asked a stupid question. "My problem is your need to be up under my man. I've told you once and this is the last time I'll say it. Stay away from Finn, or I'll end you Beckett."

Her threat vibrated in my ears. I've heard those words before just days before my pictures spread through the cafeteria like wildfire. My hands reacted before my mouth could form the words I wanted. I pushed her hard enough that she staggered back into the bathroom sink. "It was you! You leaked my nudes? Are you nuts? You can't hate me that much that you would literally try to ruin my life!"

I took a step forward to close the space between when her hand shot out as if to signal me to stop. The action was so simple yet powerful enough for me to stay planted in place. Or again it may have been my lack of confrontation skills. Thinking back I should have charged at her and let my hands do the speaking for me.

She pointed one perfectly manicured finger in my direction but not close enough to my face to draw a reaction out of me. The corners of her lips rose into a smile as she spoke. "Don't touch me Beckett. I've seen what you do with those hands."

A gasp escaped me. I hate Carly and her exquisite skills at cutting with her words. "You want Finn to yourself so bad, imagine what he'll say when he finds out what you did."

She shifted her weight from leaning on the sink to standing tall and unbothered. She was able to get so far under my skin and she was barely trying. "Tell him. Tell the world for all I care. Who would believe that?" She smacked her teeth and started to leave, but I wasn't done. She wanted to interrupt my healthy cry for a chat and I had a lot more to say.

"You're right. Perhaps no one would believe me. Maybe I won't tell a soul...maybe I'll just get even."

Carly quickly turned to face me after dropping her grip on the bathroom door. "And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

I flipped my hair over my shoulder feeling powerful for the first time since I received the link to my video on that porn site. "I'm not the only one with nudes."