Mean girl_A dark, disturbing psychological thriller

by Natasha A. Salnikova

  Unfortunately, her worst nightmare happened. After her mother appeared on the screen in a pink suit, with pink lipstick and neat curls, after she greeted her colleague, a man of Hispanic origin who, according to Mother, was popular among all the women at her workplace, there was the video. The one that Abigail told her about and the one she watched over and over. Corby was convinced that it wasn’t clear whether she and Jacob held hands or hugged, which meant there was room for denial if her parents thought he was her boyfriend. She didn’t want to deal with the boyfriend situation yet. Jacob’s strike was amazing and Corby was really proud of him and hoped that Dick’s jaw hurt really bad. Then something happened that Corby didn’t anticipate even though she should have. She should have predicted it after the video was shown, but she was counting on her mother’s common sense. Her mother said that she was going to do everything right and that was what she tried to do in her opinion. However, if she thought she was doing something good for her daughter, to Corby it was more like a stab in the back. It was the worst horror she could imagine.

  “In this video is my daughter, Corby,” Mother said. “You can’t really see her and perhaps that’s a good thing, but I was able to recognize her. The boy hit his classmate only to defend her. To protect her from those who bullied her. My daughter was bullied at her school for several years and it was only after this outrageous incident that we realized how serious the situation was.”

  And then she told Corby, who listened with her mouth open, what happened and about this issue in general.

  Corby couldn’t watch the show to the end and she turned off the TV then launched a remote control into the opposite wall. It bounced, but didn’t break.

  “A-ah!” Corby screamed. “You idiot! What has she done? How could she?”

  The pillow followed the remote. Then her phone started to ring and didn’t stop ringing for several hours. The first call was from her grandparents, who hadn’t called in a hundred years, and then Jacob and Abigail. Some strange people from some obscure newspapers, schools and organizations somehow got a hold of her number and demanded an interview. Finally Corby turned off the phone and climbed into the closet along with her favorite stuffed animal, the elephant, Dumbo. She sat in the dark, listening to the silence and waiting for her mother to come home so she could tell her what she thought about her “help.”

  “You wanted her to take part in your life,” the nasty inner voice said.

  “Not like this!” Corby said.

  “She did what she could. She’s a public persona and did what she thought was necessary. Imagine that she can help not only you, but also other children.”

  The last words her inner voice said, or maybe it was her stuffed toy, which she held in her hands. Corby turned the elephant to herself.

  “Did you say that?”

  The elephant was silent. The inner voice too.

  “Am I going crazy?” Corby asked the darkness, then put the toy away and got out of the closet. She decided to go downstairs and eat something before her parents came home. She found yesterday’s spaghetti in the fridge and warmed it up in the microwave. She brought the phone with her and checked messages and voice mail while eating.

  Abigail wrote that there was nothing to worry about and everything was going to be okay.

  Jane wrote that it was the worst idea in her life.

  Jacob wrote that his mother said she was proud of them. He wrote that he was going to find that asshole who downloaded the video and send him to the hospital. Then he asked her to meet him again. He added that they had to meet. He couldn’t talk on the phone because he had a babysitter at home. His mother was proud of him, which was probably why she hired a babysitter to watch him while he was suspended from school.

  Corby answered that they would meet soon and tried not to think about her desire to get back in the closet.

  CHAPTER 37

  Three days lasted unspeakably long, but a lot was done during this time. One of the matters that Corby’s parents had to deal with was finding her a tutor. Corby didn’t want to return to her school or any other school for any reason after her mother’s performance. People would recognize her everywhere and would not let her live. Even though Corby’s decision to start home schooling became another shocker to her mother, she realized that she made a mistake with the news and had to concede. Dad rushed from his wife’s side to the side of his daughter and back until he agreed that at the end of the day it was the only right decision. Mom put a lot of effort and time into selecting the best tutor and didn’t even ask her husband for help. On the fourth day, Corby greeted a new person in the house. She was a plump, blonde woman of thirty-two who laughed a lot and Corby instantly fell in love with her.

  During this period, she rarely answered her phone because more than half of the calls and messages came from journalists of different degree. By the fourth day the flow had decreased and by the end of the week she received nothing. Corby Mackentile and her school life became old news.

  A week after the incident, Jacob’s mother finally agreed to tell the babysitter to come only to cook and not watch him all day, so he immediately set up a date with Corby. He offered to pick her up, but Corby didn’t want to talk to her parents about meeting a boy, so she asked him to pick her up at the same spot where they had met before. They decided to go to a place where no one knew them. Corby didn’t worry about being recognized on the street. Her name was in the show, but not her picture and really—no one was interested in her anymore. At that time, some teenager shot his dad and wounded his sister, so all the press had switched to the unfortunate girl.

  Once in the car, Corby didn’t expect Jacob to kiss her right away, but he did. On the cheek, and very gently.

  “I missed you,” he said, leaving the parking lot.

  “I did too,” Corby said. These words didn’t come easy to her. It was much harder to say face-to-face than on the phone, but she was glad that her tongue didn’t go numb and she was at least able to respond.

  “You look great.” Jacob gave her a quick once over then turned back to the road, following the dense traffic and, to Corby’s surprise, he took her left hand while continuing to turn the steering wheel with his other hand. Corby carefully wrapped her fingers around his hand. It was as nice as his compliment. She knew that she had lost more weight these past few days. Just a little, but still some. On the second day of her “imprisonment” her mom took her to the mall to shop and now Corby was wearing new jeans and a blue turtleneck sweater, which emphasized the color of her eyes. She also curled her hair, touched her lashes with mascara, and couldn’t get enough of her reflection. She even took a selfie and compared it to the one she did two months ago, hardly believing the difference. She could have always looked like now and then nothing would have happened. Vera and Sylvia would still be alive. Appearance, in school, meant much more than brains. She didn’t impress anyone with her brain that was for sure.

  Corby didn’t want to think about them. She didn’t even go to the shop because she didn’t want to look at them or think about them. The inner voice that no longer wanted to leave her alone, constantly reminded her of what she had done, shamed her, and at some point on the third day, Corby even wanted to find some drugs in her mother’s medicine cabinet to help her get rid of it. It destroyed her mood so much that she didn’t even want to eat. This fact troubled her mother even more than when she ate too much. Corby, of course, growled that she couldn’t understand what her mother wanted.

  Now Corby didn’t think about her mother, or her inner voice, or Jane, or Vera and Sylvia. All she thought about now was Jacob’s hand holding hers and the warmth that emanated from it.

  “I was hoping to see you at school every day,” Jacob said, “but I understand and support your decision. I wanted to talk about that. Partially. River is dating Bronson, officially now. That dick doesn’t even look in my direction. I don’t know how we are going to play on the same team. We’ll have to ignore all of this.”

  “I t
hink you’ll reconcile,” Corby said.

  “I don’t know and I don’t care. He followed River and betrayed his teammate. That is hard to forgive, but during the game I’ll have to. Only during games and practice, that’s it. It’s all River. It’s all her fault.”

  Corby didn’t argue. Jane was the last person she would try to defend. If it was her fault, it was her fault. In any case, Corby hoped to never see her again and to forget with time. They both had to forget each other and move on. River had to find a new scapegoat and Corby sincerely sympathized with the unfortunate girl, but didn’t want to go to the school and sacrifice herself. This part of her story was over and she couldn’t believe that she had never even thought about going to another school. She had just never thought of it.

  It was warm outside and Jacob invited Corby to enjoy the fresh air at the riverbank. They walked hand in hand from the parking lot and sat on a bench where he immediately put his arm around her shoulder. Corby felt comfortable and proper as if it was meant to be.

  “I like being with you,” Jacob said and then turned to Corby and ran his hand down her cheek. Corby tensed, she felt hot, then cold, then her head started to spin from fear. Fear and the desire to feel him as those women in the video that she found on the Internet. He kissed her gently at first then with force and Corby didn’t know what to do. How to return his kiss and not disappoint him, so he wouldn’t be discouraged from kissing her again.

  When Jacob moved away from her and looked into her eyes, he was smiling.

  “You have a natural talent,” he said.

  And Corby smiled, lowering her eyes.

  “Thank you,” she said because she didn’t know what else to say.

  He ran a hand through her hair.

  “I’ll never forgive River for keeping me from seeing you every day,” Jacob said.

  “We can see each other.” Corby looked at him. “I don’t want to think or talk about her.”

  “I can’t not think and not talk about her. Instead of you, I see her every day. And you know what? Everyone is acting like nothing happened. Her father paid the school and everything is fine. You know what she thinks?”

  Jacob paused and Corby had no choice, but to ask what.

  “She thinks she can do whatever she wants without consequences.”

  Corby nodded, but didn’t know whether to agree with him or not. All actions had consequences. The police, for example, didn’t catch Corby, but her inner voice tortured her and wouldn’t leave her alone. Sometimes she thought she was going crazy, other times that she already was, but more often she thought she was just tired of keeping everything secret.

  “Sylvia thought so too,” Jacob continued. “If River learned what happened to her friend, she would sit on her skinny ass and kiss your feet.”

  “Don’t tell her!” Corby exclaimed.

  “I’m not going to.” Jacob moved his arm from her shoulder and began to rummage in his pocket. “I’m not going to tell her and I’m not going to just let it go. She should have thought twice before messing with me. She should have thought very carefully.”

  He pulled out something wrapped in white paper and stuffed inside a plastic bag. He removed paper from the package and put something on his hand that looked like two cigarettes.

  “What is it?” Corby asked.

  “Marijuana,” Jacob said as if nothing happened.

  Corby looked at him wide-eyed.

  “It’s already legalized in many states, calm down,” Jacob said. “Good for your health. My whole team smokes weed. Everyone.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Not yet.”

  Corby heard about marijuana more than she wanted to. She heard it on TV and also from her mom and dad. They didn’t discuss it at the table, just in their room, and Corby caught only snatches of conversations. From these, she understood that Dad smoked marijuana occasionally and Mom didn’t like it. It helped Dad to enter what he called Zen and it helped Mom to enter what she called the beginning stages of a nervous breakdown. All shows on television kept saying that marijuana was an illegal drug that some people used as medicine, but some were periodically arrested. Since Corby wasn’t interested in this topic, she didn’t try to understand the logic of this phenomenon.

  “My mother…” she began and paused. Mentioning her mother at the moment was totally unfitting.

  “Of course she wouldn’t approve,” Jacob said, holding out a cigarette to Corby. “You think my mother would be happy? That’s why they are mothers. It would be strange otherwise. You did things a little heavier than smoking weed and didn’t ask your parents’ permission.”

  Corby pressed her lips.

  “I’m sorry,” Jacob patted her hand. “I’ll show you how to do it, but if you don’t want to try, I’m not gonna force you. I need it right now. It chills me down.”

  Corby nodded. Anything that could chill her down was on her list. She even took her mother’s pills for that effect, why would she refuse to smoke with her boyfriend who did it all the time? That would be nonsense.

  Jacob looked around to make sure they were alone and Corby realized there were few things in their actions that were legal at this time. Then he took out a lighter and lit the roll, releasing a stinking cloud of smoke into the air. Corby didn’t wince.

  “Inhale smoke,” Jacob said, “then swallow.”

  Jacob offered her a lighter when Corby took a cigarette in her mouth. She couldn’t start it no matter how hard she tried to inhale and Jacob gave her his. After the first puff Corby coughed, the same happened after the second, she managed to hold the third one, and the fourth one didn’t bother her at all.”

  “That’s enough for a start.” Jacob took her unlit cigarette, put it in the bag, the bag went into his pocket, and he continued to smoke.

  Corby felt dizzy after a few seconds, another few seconds and she forgot about the existence of the voice, and then all her fears seemed suddenly ridiculous to her. Then she began to laugh.

  “Excellent,” Jacob said, pulling her closer and kissing her again. Corby wasn’t shy and wanted more. His hand did more, sneaking under her sweater and caressing her belly, then her chest over the bra. Corby didn’t care. She felt good.

  “I like your body, Mackentile,” Jacob whispered, getting under her bra and touching her nipple. Corby felt heaviness in her abdomen, it was a pleasant heaviness. She didn’t care. She wanted more.

  “Yes,” the only word Corby could whisper. “Yes.”

  “I wish there was no one here at all,” Jacob said, examining her breasts. “I want you. Right now. Let’s go to the car.”

  Corby nodded. She knew what could happen there, but she didn’t care. Jacob dragged on his cigarette again, put it to Corby’s lips, and she made another sweet puff, sending a warm wave to her head and stomach. She swayed and held his hand as they walked to the car, located at the end of the parking lot, under a tree. The windows in his Toyota were tinted and he promised that no one would see them. He pushed the front seats forward as far as they would go so they had more room, and began to kiss her and unbutton her jeans, as soon as they closed the door. Corby didn’t care. Her head was spinning, she felt as if she were flying. His hands were everywhere on her body and she didn’t care. She was not ashamed, no longer scared, and only wanted it to last forever.

  She didn’t even comprehend the moment when he stopped moving and just panted, pinning her to the seat.

  “Did you feel good?” he whispered.

  “Yes,” Corby said and realized that everything had become clear. Her head stopped spinning and the lower part of her body started to hurt. When she brought herself up and got out of the car, she saw a woman with a stroller, gazing at her and tourists who weren’t here before. She froze, ashamed, then the pain became stronger and the voice returned.

  “What did you do?” it asked sarcastically. “He fucked you, took your virginity. That was all he needed. And where? In the car, in the parking lot, with people walking around.”

&n
bsp; “I want to go home,” she said to Jacob and sat down on the passenger seat. At least the police didn’t notice and didn’t catch them. That would have been horrible.

  Jacob sat behind the wheel, took her hand.

  “Are you okay?”

  Corby pulled her hand out of his and leaned her forehead against the window.

  “Corb?”

  “Take me home.”

  “It’s because the marijuana stopped working. That happens the first time with some people. Everything will be fine.”

  He patted her on the back and drove away from the parking lot.

  “Tomorrow my mother is going away for two days. The babysitter is going to stay with me at night. She’s old, by the way. I think I’ll skip school. I’ll pick you up. Your parents should work too, right?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know if they work or …”

  “Second.”

  “All right, Babe, let’s talk tomorrow. It sucks now, but it’ll pass pretty soon.”

  Jacob was right. By the time Corby entered the house, she didn’t know why she was so pissed. Now she only thought about passing her parents’ guard and feeling a burning sensation in a place where it didn’t exist before. She also felt that her underwear was wet and after reading enough material on the loss of virginity, she understood what would be the cause.

  “Where have you been?” Mother demanded as soon as Corby stepped inside the house. “I called you, but the call went directly to your voice mail. I wanted to call the police.”