Tratie Days

black eyes and battle scars

I always thought that Katie would be the one to take care of my injuries from a school fight but here we were. I had split up the fight between Katie and this other kid. I think his name was Jona but I'm not too sure.  She held the ice pack against her black eye as I cleaned out a cut on her forehead.  We arrived back at my house around an hour ago and Katie hadn't said a word since. It began to get irritating. I had walked out of my chemistry lunchtime detention to see Katie's fist pounding into this kids face in a rhythm that mirrored iambic pentameter. She straddle his chest and had the collar of his shirt gripped in a clenched left fist. A crowd had formed around the beating of the most popular kid in school. Jona was bloody, his shirt was stained from his nose bleed and and he had a lump beginning to grow out of his forehead that was coincidentally the same size as Katie's brass knuckles.
"What happened" this was either the 16th or 50th time I asked the question but the first time I got an answer.
"He was threatening me," she said bluntly as if she had just finished a cup of tea on a normal afternoon as a mortal.
"About what Kates?" Silence. Great. Why was she so stubbornly annoying today? "Katie tell me. What was he threatening you with."
"Lyssia had received a few unwanted pictures from him. Flirtatious texts. He refused to stop. So I showed him what happens when you mess with my friends"
"You get beaten up?" She shook her head.
"You get humiliated in front of the whole year for getting what I like to call self inflicted pain in consequence by the year's biology nerd. He won't hear the end of it for weeks." She seemed unfazed by her actions. Despite Jona being a friend of mine I know he could be a bit of a...how do I say this? Little S-ugar H-oney I-ced T-ea. If Kates smacked the Hades out of him there must be a good reason.
"Oh and he smacked my butt and told me I should be on my knees before him. So I smacked the Hades out of him, may have broken his arm. That womanizer is a creep I'll tell you that, he tries to use women and...Travis are you okay?"
How have I never realized what a jerk he is. Katie's right. He treats the cheerleaders like trophies. The skinny girls as prostitutes. The nerds as punching bags. Smart girls like Katie he tries to get them to do his homework by 'flirting' when all he is doing is making them all feel even worse about themselves.
"He's told Cara that she's fat all through last month. He's told Lucia that she's ugly, that was last week. He told Alexa that she's too smart and no one would like her for being smarter than them. He told CeCe that she looked like a sea witch with her pink hair..."
She was still talking about everything that he had done but I was so distracted by my realisation that I didn't recall it all.
Cara was taken to hospital for an eating disorder, which I only know about because I went with Katie to bring her flowers. Lucia started wearing make-up. Alexa's been acting different lately, stupider than before and being more stereotypical. Cece dyed her hair.
"I don't know how you haven't noticed Travis, you're his best friend. You've not even batted an eye at what he does to people. What he starts." She was right of course. How was I so blind to his behaviour? 'What he starts'. Picking on people? Riots within school?...Fights?
"He hit first. He gave you that black eye. He started it," I don't think Katie could hear me but she seemed to make out my tone. She gave me her 'I told you so' smile but it was sadder, she shrugged at me. No way was he going to do any of this to people and get away with it.

"Travis! Wait!" She grabbed my arm. Her ice pack was forgotten on the floor. I hadn't realised I'd stood up until she stopped me. "I've already served justice. I don't need you doing it for me."

"But Kates he needs to learn a his lesson." I turned around to see her bruised face. The splodges of purple and blue made her jade eyes brighter, how could something so awful make something noticed?

"And I've already taught it" We sat back down on the stools and I handed her the ice pack. The language spoken from then on was one of facial expressions and subtly movements. I had never felt this ashamed.

This took me ages sorry about that but I do 9 hours of school a day plus homework and family time.
-randoms

Just because Katie told me tgat she had taught him a lesson doesn't mean he doesn't need me to revise it with him.