by Nicole Thorn
Poe exhaled, rubbing his hand against his jaw. “This is a big fucking jump from what she’s done.”
My wide eyes stared at him. “She stabbed a bunny to death. How is this a big jump?”
“Where did she get it?” Cathy whispered. “All that blood? She got into my house…where my dogs are. Where my brother lives. My parents. She got into my home, and did this.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, strangled. “This is my fault. Tammy did this because of me. And you could have gotten hurt, or—”
Cathy put her hand on my face. “Shut up. I’m kind of busy internally freaking out right now, and I don’t have the capacity to set your crazy ass straight. Let’s make this short. I don’t blame you. Not mad at you. You equals crazy. Hush mouth. Fuckin’ ginger.”
Poe rubbed my shoulder. “English for: you better not be blaming yourself for this.”
I made a quick grunting sound of outrage. “Okay, well there’s a list of one person who would have done this, and that person is trying to mess up my life. Why not give a shot at making my friends hate me?”
Poe took my arm, and Cathy’s before he started dragging our stiff bodies out of the room. He closed the door, and took Cujo from Cathy. He spoke softly. “I think you need to stay out of there until your brain snaps back to normal.”
Cathy mumbled something either sad about her things, or angry. I couldn’t tell. She paced, staring at the ground as her fists clenched. I believed completely that she wanted to send those fists into the face of a specific girl.
“Okay!” she shouted, and stopped. “Is this enough for those damn cops to care about what we have to say? Is blood all over my bedroom enough? Because people I love live here, and if Tammy can break in, then no one is safe. She can come at night and do god knows what.”
Poe handed me the dog next, and went in to comfort Cathy. “Yes, we’ll call the police. But calm down, because you’re going to hyperventilate, and you’re scaring the hell out of your dog.”
Cathy looked to Cujo, who had her ears perked all the way up as she stared at Mama having her panic attack. Cathy sighed, and rushed to get her pet from me. She gave her kisses and apologized a few times.
“They have to take us seriously now,” Cathy said. “If that psycho keeps kicking it up, I don’t want to know what she’d do next.”
Poe called the police, while Cathy called her parents. They weren’t close enough to get back to town for a few hours, but they were on their way. Cathy didn’t call Jamie, having been instructed to let her father do it for her. I stood in the hall with Cujo, useless as my friends worked to get this mess taken care of. The mess I’d caused.
The police arrived about twenty damn minutes later, and we let them inside. Again, Poe took over, telling two officers what happened. It was a simple story, but I still couldn’t say it. It made me afraid to speak, lest I sound as responsible as I felt.
“You think you know who did it?” one of the men asked Poe.
“Tamara Wartz,” Poe said. “She goes to our school, and has been threatening my girlfriend for weeks. She’s done other things to her, and Cathy, and we’ve come to the police before. We got no help.”
The other officer—a short man with gray hair—said, “Let us take a look at the room. Wait here.”
We did wait, and it took for fucking ever. Pictures had to be taken, and a statement had to be given by all of us. I hoped it at least meant that no one would have taken this lightly. They didn’t know if it was human blood, but I heard the men say that this looked like enough to, if it had all been taken from one person, kill them.
“We’ll have it tested,” the first man told me.
“What about Tammy?” I asked. “What happens with her? We know she did it.”
He held a hand up to silence me. “An investigation will take place, but you need to tell us in full detail about everything that this girl allegedly did to you all.”
Allegedly… I heard it like a mockery, though I knew he didn’t mean it like that. He couldn’t assume like we did, even though we knew for certain.
“She told me she wanted to destroy me,” I said. “Found me after school, sat on my lap, kissed me, and said she would destroy me. She slipped a letter into my ex’s locker, trying to make him think I wanted to ruin his new relationship. She put a dead animal in my friend’s car. Oh, and she had a guy twice my size punch me in the face.”
The man stopped me. “Your ex? What happened there? What did the letter say?”
“Why does that matter? Stuff about how I wanted to get back together with him. He got pissed off, and I couldn’t get him to believe me.”
The officer had been taking notes, and he barely looked up at me for the next question. “You know for sure that this letter exists? You saw it?”
I squinted. “No.”
“So it could be made up.”
“Why would my ex lie to me about that?”
He paused. “What’s your current relationship with him like?”
I turned to Poe, giving him a look of exasperation for this insane situation. He gave me a supportive rub on my lower back while I spoke. “Not great. We fight all the time, and he hates me. To be fair, I’m not a big fan of him either.”
“Because?”
“He’s very manipulative, mean, controlling. A lot of reasons.”
I didn’t like how long the next pause lasted, or the look in this man’s eyes as he scanned the notes. “It seems to me that your ex might be as likely to have done this as the girl you’re accusing.”
It took me aback. “Peter wouldn’t do this. He’s an ass, but that doesn’t make him the kind of person who would paint with blood.”
“Can I get his full name please?” the man asked, ignoring me completely.
It didn’t feel like I had the option of lying to an officer, so I did as he asked me to. Several more times, I make it clear that I didn’t believe Peter could have done this. His version of revenge came in subtler things that he wasn’t always aware of.
“We need to make sure we find who did this,” the officer said. “Because as far as I’m concerned, this is a threat on your friend’s life.”
Bit much, but if it gets the job done. “Peter didn’t do it,” I repeated.
“We’ll look into Tamara as well. Don’t worry.”
Oh, but I would worry anyway, because worrying was a specialty of mine.
After the police finished, Cathy’s parents and brother arrived at the house. They didn’t seem pleased with the news, obviously, but we didn’t stay long enough to see the extent of the freak out. After Cathy told them what happened, she dropped me and Poe off at my house.
“I need to get back,” Cathy said as we left her car. “Mom has to call the police and talk their ear off all night, and my father will need me there to pour him drinks. If you need me, call.”
Poe nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on her for the both of us.”
Poe and I went inside, and snuck right into my room before my parents could notice us. I closed the door and leaned against it.
“Speak,” Poe said. “Because if you don’t, I’ll assume everything in your head is you constantly blaming yourself for this thing that totally isn’t your fault. Which would be insane, and depressing.”
I stared at the floor.
“Clover…”
Huffing, I said, “Well obviously I blame myself for it. Tammy wants to hurt me, and she’s using my friends to do it. She wants you guys away from me, and that means this is only going to get worse. What happens if she goes after you next?”
“Then we’ll deal with it. She’s one person, and we’re three.”
“She wants everyone to hate me…”
“Too bad, because that isn’t going to happen. Nothing is going to make me leave you alone, and I know for a fact that Cathy has told you that before. We’re not taking off because someone is using us against you. The three of us are a team, and will keep being so. So, we need to figure out what to do next. Your paren
ts are in the other room. Do you think we should talk to them?”
What would they have done? Probably blame me, and then lock me in my room until this ended.
“Maybe not,” I said.
“The police might want to talk to you again, and show up here. What happens if your parents find out you didn’t tell them this? It would get ugly.”
He wasn’t wrong on that one.
We walked out of my room together when I decided it would have been easier to get it over with. At least I had Poe with me now, so I’d get a little backup. I found my parents in the kitchen, making a store list while the kids played upstairs. They turned when they saw us, and I began.
“I…don’t know what to say,” Mom started when I’d gone over the afternoon with her. “I really don’t.”
Dad had his hand over his mouth while he stared at the table. You’d think that this wouldn’t have seemed all that bad, considering we dealt with a person willing to hire someone to beat up a tiny girl. Assuming she didn’t murder someone for the blood, that was. It seemed a bit too farfetched for me, and I knew that animal blood could be bought at some butcher shops. Until the police told us if it was human, I wouldn’t jump to conclusions.
“What exactly did the police say to you?” Dad asked.
“That they’re looking into it,” Poe answered. “They seem to be under the impression that Peter might have done this.”
Mom blinked twice. “Peter? Peter…”
“No,” I affirmed. “No way.”
“Honey, he wasn’t very nice to you. He made you cry all the time.”
I cleared my throat, trying not to look at Poe, who I assumed would look upset. “I cry easy.”
“Clover,” Dad said. “That chump was always a selfish kid. It wouldn’t surprise me if he wanted to hurt you, so he scared your friend. What makes you think he wouldn’t do this?”
I opened my mouth before I realized my point couldn’t stand. I would have said that I knew Peter, and I knew what he would and wouldn’t have done. But I didn’t know that boy, and I never did. He wasn’t that person I dated, and maybe that person never really existed.
“Because it’s too crazy for him,” I decided.
Mom stood up from the table, reaching for the phone in her pocket. “I’m calling that station to find out exactly what happened. I’m going to make damn sure that they get this taken care of.” She left before anyone said a word about it.
Poe took my hand on the table. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”
“I promise too,” Dad said. “Peter or that Tammy girl, it doesn’t matter. The police are going to fix this.”
I didn’t have as much hope as they seemed to, but then again, I didn’t let myself hope that often. Not when it crushed me all the damn time. Still, I didn’t want to upset anyone by looking afraid.
I squeezed Poe’s hand and said, “I believe you.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven: They Really Won’t Leave Me Alone, Will They?
“Mom bought me a bunch of new bedding,” Cathy lamented at lunch. “The walls are a little fucked up, so Jamie said he would paint it for me. I tried to tell him not to, but he flipped me off and said I needed to let him be nice.”
I suppressed a groan. “I am so, so—”
“Zip your lip,” Cathy demanded, putting a finger to my mouth. “I swear to god…”
Poe handed me his pudding cup as a distraction. “Really, you need to stop blaming yourself. You weren’t the one who finger painted in blood.”
“I might as well been,” I said.
Cathy growled at me. Like, really growled. “No, that is not the case, so shush before I bite your face off.”
I stayed silent, as to save my face meat.
We’d heard nothing from the police in the whole day it had been, surprising me not at all. No one told me how long this kind of thing took, so that meant I got to come to school every day, with the girl trying to hurt me. It didn’t help that I never saw her in the building anymore. Once in a while, I saw her outside with the cheerleaders. She didn’t pop up in the locker room, or come looking for me after school. Tammy didn’t want to be seen, and that was all the proof I needed to know that she had a game going.
The paranoia didn’t mix well with me. It made me jump at sounds I didn’t like, and search around corners before I moved. Poe made sure to stay at my side so that I wouldn’t go completely insane, but that only did so much. I felt like I put a target on the people I loved. If I mentioned that, I got glared at. I took that to mean that they loved me, and didn’t want me hurting.
“I think my mom’ll give them three days,” I said. “Before she blows up and goes down to the station. She was on the phone for two hours last night.”
Poe confirmed for Cathy. “She didn’t find out anything more, but it was funny hearing her yelling at cops, like that wasn’t a crazy thing to do.”
“The kids liked it,” I mentioned. “They thought it was a game.” Better than them knowing their big sister had gotten herself into some major trouble.
“You see Tammy today?” Cathy asked. “I went looking for her, and couldn’t find a hint she’s here. It’s annoying. Make yourself an easier target, bitch.”
“What? You were stalking her?” I asked.
Cathy rolled her eyes, opening her carton of milk. “It’s not stalking when you don’t find them, first of all. Second, she’s doing a lot worse.”
“Not the point,” I said. “It’s dangerous. What would you have done if you found her anyway? Were you going to hurt her?”
“Of course not. I have more control than that. But maybe I would have pulled the fabric of her shirt over her head, letting nature hurt her as she tripped down the stairs and broke her face open, then get rushed to the hospital, only to die on the way.”
I blinked. “Well at least you didn’t put too much thought into it.”
She winked at me.
“I don’t like sitting on my hands,” I admitted. “We’re supposed to cross our fingers and hope that Tammy doesn’t do anything else to us. Shouldn’t the cops have put some kind of detail on us?”
“I don’t know,” Poe said. “But as long as we always stay with someone, then we should be okay.”
“My room wasn’t okay,” Cathy said. “We must take action!” she declared, slamming her milk down dramatically. It sprayed up, and landed on the table.
“No,” I said harshly. “We’ll do as the police say, because they know more about dealing with this stuff than we do. And if we make Tammy madder, then who knows what she’ll do.”
“Die,” Cathy said through a cough, making Poe laugh.
My boyfriend leaned closer to me, pulling my chair in his direction. If he could have gotten away with sitting me on his lap, I imagined he would have. We had too many people around us to not get called out by a teacher. Of course, that only went for us. If this were a player on the team, then it would have been fine. No one punished them for a thing.
“I should destress you,” Poe offered. “I would be a bad boyfriend if I didn’t try and make you feel better.”
“I’m past feeling better.”
“Then I’ll have to work harder.” Poe smiled, and then tilted my chin up. He kissed me, clearly not caring if a teacher walked by. I didn’t really care either, so at least we were on the same page. He put his hand on my thigh, and I wished we could’ve been back at his house, under the covers.
“Don’t mind me,” Cathy said in the background. “I’ll just be here, eating a burger, and not thinking about how I don’t have a pretty lady to make out with in the middle of the school. I don’t mind. Really. Food is my lover. Is…is my ambiance doing anything for you?”
Poe and I stopped when we couldn’t contain our laugher. I wasn’t mad at my friend for interrupting the kiss, because we’d tortured the poor girl enough already. She’d been a trooper for the most part.
“Uh oh,” Poe said, scratching the back of his head as he looked down suddenly. “Someone isn’t happy
.”
I turned my head to see what he’d noticed, and I should have guessed it already. Peter watched us, but looked away the moment I caught him. I knew that expression well, with his jaw clenched and his fingers curled in tightly at his sides while he stood across the room. He got the same look when something happened with his father, and he didn’t know how to get the icky feelings out.
“Oops,” I said. “Guess he shouldn’t have been watching us make out if it upset him.” Though it still made no sense to me, how it could have bothered him. He had Kelly there even now, with pink cheeks as she tapped her foot on the floor and stared into oblivion.
“His fault,” Cathy agreed. “What kind of a weirdo would watch his ex like that anyway? Do you have any idea how many times I’ve seen him staring at you? It’s messed up.”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. It’s over and done with, and I have more important things to worry about than his feelings. Like not getting murdered while I’m in high school, and passing finals.”
“You’ll do fine,” Poe said. “I can help you study.”
I laughed. “Because I believe that a study session wouldn’t just end with a nap or something equally unhelpful to learning the ins and outs of the Civil War.”
“End,” he repeated. “We can do the studying first, then the other things.”
That wouldn’t work out well, but that made me no less willing to try.
Lunch ended, and we had to split up. I got out of being guarded by saying that while in the middle of the halls, I would have been fine. We all had about five minutes to get to class, so there hadn’t been time for a fight about it.
I hurried down the hall, not wanting to be late for class. That would have gotten a bunch of eyes on me as I walked in, in the middle of our teacher talking. A panic attack about that at the moment, didn’t sound ideal.
I got to the home stretch before something grabbed my arm, and yanked me out of the hallway. That something pulled me into the girls’ bathroom, and closed the door behind us.
Kelly stood there, and then began to back me into a corner. I saw no one else in the bathroom with us, so I didn’t have potential help for whatever was about to happen to me. I’d have to shatter a mirror and steal protection from that, if it came down to it.
