Page 7 of Lifebound

“It’s the beer,” Betty said, making herself comfortable with one arm under her head.

“Could be.” I drank another mouthful, then put the can down for a bit. It had been a long night, all right, but it was still only two in the morning. The sky was calm, and though it was a bit cold for May, we’d put on our thickest Snoopy-themed hoodies to keep us warm.

And, no, they were notidentical.

Hers was pale purple. Mine was pale pink.

But the sky really did look beautiful tonight, and I didn’t mind the cold. So many stars that made me think about how small we really were down here. Just a tiny town called Lavender Hill in Oregon, surrounded by woods on all sides, home to a bunch of crazy fucking people who refused to leave well enough alone.

Minutes passed, and the silence of the night, interrupted only by the sound of leaves dancing to the slow wind in the forest that bordered my backyard, was exactly what I’d needed to calm down. There was a good chance that I would regret what we did come morning, but for now, I just took another sip of the beer and smiled.

Fiona didn’t deserve to be treated that way. She didn’t have a single friend to hang out with. I’d gotten lucky with Betty, but there was nobody in school who wanted to be friends with my sister, and when that Owens girl invited her to the party, I thought we’d finally made a breakthrough.Finallypeople were starting to forget and give her a break. They were done being fucking assholes.

And then I’d seen that footage.

I knew people bullied her, but nobody dared touch her—until now. I was known for breaking teeth and I had no problem with getting my knuckles bloody—they healed again anyway. Andfast.

The unspoken deal was that they didn’t touch her, and now they had. They threw their drinks at her while she stood there, helpless, alone—fuck!

No wonder she’d been clutching her jacket the way she had when she came back.

God, the thought of her facing that all alone, not knowing what to do…

Yes, tomorrow I might regret what I did tonight, but for now, I relished in the memories of how I’d ruined the bikes of all those ten kids who’d been in the video, and how Betty and I had gone around to collect dog poop from every yard in town until we had a full bucket, and then proceeded to coat cars and windows and front doors with it. I even slashed the tires of a couple cars in the houses of those kids—obviously nottheircars, but their parents should have taught them better, so now they paid the price, too.

The morning was going to be a mess because everyone would know. And if they didn’t, everyone would find out. People had cameras these days, and we had put on our hoodies, but you could probably tell that it was us.

Most importantly, I wasn’t trying to hide. They could throw me in jail for all I cared—so long as those little fuckers understood one thing:do not mess with Fiona Dune.

Or do—and face the consequences.

“I think my dad got in a fist fight because of me today, too,” I said after a little while because I was tipsy, and I just wanted to get that off my chest.

“Did he hurt them good?” Betty asked.

“I don’t know. He said he fell.” Of course, he did. He wouldn’t want me to feel bad about it. To feel guilty.

But the joke was on him because I already did. The guilt ate at me so viciously, so fast, I had never been more certain that leavingwas the best thing for everyone.

People I cared about suffered when I was near them. Dad barely had jobs despite how good of an engineer he was—the last job he took was in construction.

Fiona…well, that wasn’t going to get any better following what I spent the past two hours doing.

And Betty, too. She was the most creative person I knew, and I didn’t even mean how well she rocked the blue hair and how perfectly she painted her face every day. Dog poop washeridea, and it was great! She was kind, and she always had your back, but she’d had people to talk to, at least, before we started hanging out regularly in fifth grade. Now she didn’t.

My mom was gone, but wouldshehave had to go through the same shit if she had still been here? Being a teacher at our elementary school, I couldn’t even imagine what the kids would put her through—andfor what?!

I doubted anybody even knew why they called me names and why they made fun of me and why theyhatedme and everything of mine with such passion. I bet it just stuck. I bet if I stopped and asked them, especially the kids in Fiona’s class, they would have no fucking idea. They’d just heard the adults talking, that’s all.

All because I’d been stupid enough to tell the fucking truth.

“Let him handle it,” Betty said in a minute. “And let those fuckers harass us—I enjoy coming up with new ways to make their lives a living hell.”

“I’m eighteen, Bet. They could put me in jail.”

She snorted and turned to me, her wide amber eyes full of mischief. She wasn’t wearing her usual makeup right now, which I adored, but I adoredthisface on her even more.

“That’s what I’m saying, woman.Let them!Do you have any idea what I’ll do to that place if they lock you up?” She genuinely looked excited about it, and even though I loved her more for that, it also scared the shit out of me. I’d cost people enough already.

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