Page 6 of Lifebound

“Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!”

At least ten different kids screamed it at her—that word they screamedat me.They did it less often since I started punching people in the face for it. Everybody knew detention didn’t scare me. I’d been to Principal Mason’s office possibly as many days as I’d been in school by now.

But Fiona.

Kind, sweet, loving Fiona.

She was so positive, so full of life it rubbed off on you. Her smile was contagious, and when she saw that you weren’t feeling your best for whatever reason, she made it her mission to turn things around. She’d go to the end of the world just to see you smiling and she wouldn’t even hesitate. She waslife.

How many times had she helped these kids study for exams, understand equations that made them cry, send out her notes and quizzes to the entire class? Hell,Ineeded help from her sometimes—she was so incredibly smart it could have been funny. She was going to make something out of herself, damn it. She was going to be great.

Andthiswas how they treated her?

My fingers had turned white from how tightly I was holding my phone while the video continued to play. Only about eight seconds long, but to me it was never-ending.

Hello???

U there?

Better answer me woman *angry face emoji*

My friend Betty continued to text me. She’d come upon the video accidentally and she’d sent it to me, for which I was thankful. Because Fiona would havenevertold me about it herself. She wanted to spare me, bless her soul, because she couldn’t fathom that I no longer cared about any of it. The laughs and the calls and the middle fingers and the gestures they made when I passed by—I didn’t care, and she didn’t understand it.

Probably because it was bullshit. Ididcare—of course I cared, but I’d gotten good at hiding, and I now fooled myself with ease.

But she was a different story. She was pure. She wasnot like meand she didn’t deserve to be treated this way for something I had done.

So, I pushed off the blanket and sat up on the bed, took in a deep breath and texted Betty—up for some trouble?

She replied,I thought u’d never ask.

Yep. Bethany Rogers was my only friend in this godforsaken town, and that’s because she was even more fucked up in the head than me.

Garage in 5, I texted back and put my phone away to get dressed.

Before you say anything—yes, I realize that they were kids. I realize that they probably didn’t know what they were doing—exceptthey did. In this day and age, we had this wonderful thing called theInternetand everybody knew what bullying was and everybody knew that it was wrong, cruel, that people got punished for it.

And I wasn’t going to actuallyhurtthose kids—goodness, no.

All I planned to do when I snuck out of my bedroom window four minutes later was to have some good ole fun before bed.

two

“To teamwork,”Betty said, clanking her can of beer to mine.

“To dog poop.”

We drank.

Beer tasted nasty, but her dad always kept a lot of it in the fridge and it was the only alcohol we could get our hands on when we met out here at night. We usually ended up on the rooftop of her garage or mine as our houses were almost right across from one another, but tonight, we stayed on mine.

Betty stuck her hand to my nose. “Can you smell anything?”

I pushed it away without breathing because, “We used gloves,” but you still couldn’t really be too sure.

“Regardless. Dog poop stinks and I did a very thorough job on the Owens’ car.” She lay down on the rough surface of the garage rooftop with a sigh.

“That, you did. Cheers to that, too. I’ve never seen a windshield more thoroughly coated in dog poop.” I clanked her can with mine and took another sip. “Also—is it just me or are we sayingdog poopa lot?”

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