Logan
“Hold on, Damien. Whatever you’re thinking of, don’t do it. Hold on!”
I’m trying desperately to catch up to Damien as he heads back to school. Everest, as usual, is behind us, following like a clueless golden retriever.
We’re very late. The bell for classes must have rung thirty minutes ago, but that’s the last thing on my mind right now.
“Damien. It wasn’t her fault. It was mine.”
He snorts at those words, but doesn’t slow down. “Yeah, it was. What kind of a fucking softie are you? I’d kill myself before I submitted to some stupid girl.”
Anger flares in my chest, but I don’t want to yell at him. “She’s not a stupid girl,” I say in a strained voice. “And I didn’t submit. I just chose my battles.”
“Uh huh. You certainly did make a choice. It took only thirty seconds for the entire school to start talking about how pathetic it was that Damien’s best friend got called a loser by some silly girl, and took it like a whipped dog.”
“Damien!” I’m shaking with rage, my hands fisting at my sides. “I did not fucking take it. I just don’t give a shit about her. I’m not about to lose my cool over a girl.”
As we enter the school building, he looks at me with a smirk. “Liar.”
By now I’m seeing red. “How? How am I a fucking liar? When have I ever lost my cool over a girl?”
Damien’s smirk deepens. “You’re lying when you say you don’t give a shit about her. I know you do.”
I open my mouth a few times, but not a sound comes out. I have no idea what to say to that. But something in Damien’s expression scares me.
“Fine. I’ll deal with it,” I say at last. “I don’t need you to get involved, Damien. Okay?”
“I don’t believe you,” says Damien, as we walk down the deserted hallway to class. “I don’t believe you’ll deal with it. And I am going to get involved.”
“Damien!” I beg, grabbing him by the arm. “Please don’t. Please. I’m sorry I came off as weak. I’ll figure something out so your reputation doesn’t take a hit, okay? Don’t take it out on her. Please.”
He stops and turns to me, all danger leaving his eyes as he gazes at me. “You’ve got it all wrong,” he says softly. “I don’t care about any of that. I care that someone insulted you. No one gets away with that.”
“Okay.” I lick my dry lips. “Please don’t take it out on her.”
“I’m not taking anything out on her. I’m teaching her a lesson. No one fucking messes with my best friend.”
Before I have time to react, he’s entered the wrong classroom. The one Lia is in.
“Fuck, Damien,” I groan.
“What the hell is he doing?” questions Everest. “We have math right now!” He marks a beat. “Okay, well, I’m going to class before we get into any more trouble!”
Not bothering to answer him, I walk into the classroom after Damien.
He’s already at Lia’s desk, hovering over her.
There isn’t an ounce of the usual condescending superiority in her eyes.
She looks as pale as a sheet, but her mouth remains set in a firm line, as if she’s trying to hold in her fear, and face the music courageously.
Fuck. What the fuck are you doing, Damien? Stop it!
No one else is moving a muscle. The teacher looks on mutely from the side of the room. I can tell he’s just as scared of Damien as the rest of the class is. They all know better than to get involved.
The only person who could possibly put a stop to what’s happening is me. But all I can do is stare, helplessly, as Damien gets in Lia’s face.
“You called my friend a loser?” he growls at her.
“Yes,” she snaps with a show of bravery, though she can’t quite keep her voice from shaking. “Because he is. So fuck off, Wells.”
Hooking a hand around her arm, he pulls her up from her seat. A whimper escapes her lips as he forces her to the front of the classroom.
“I hear you wanted to eat without having him in your sight,” he says as she struggles uselessly to get back up.
I don’t even wonder how he could possibly know the specifics of what happened moments before we left school to go to the bar. I’ve long ago learned that Damien knows everything.
Besides, I’m far too worried right now as I take in her eyes, wide with fear, darting around the classroom as if begging for help… before settling on me.
I wish I could help you, Lia. I fucking wish I could help you.
She seems to understand my unspoken words. Or maybe she just realizes nothing and no one can put a stop to whatever’s about to happen to her. She’s fucked, but she’s not going down without a fight.
“Yeah, I did,” she lashes out in answer to his comment. “I didn’t feel like looking at scum while I ate.”
There’s a collective intake of breath in the class, but I don’t even feel insulted. I realize the words aren’t really directed at me right now. She’s trying to get a rise out of Damien. Daring him to do his worst.
The thing is, Damien’s worst is really fucking bad.
“Damien,” I whisper, but he doesn’t even look at me.
Instead, he grabs the garbage can in the corner of the class. It’s supposed to be for paper only, but somehow, like all the trash cans in this godawful school, absolutely everything finds its way into it: wads of gum, half-empty bags of chips, old, rotting sandwiches, used condoms.
I nearly throw up just at the sight of it as he grabs it and carries it back to the center of the room.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
The breadth of what he’s planning begins to form vaguely in my mind, and it makes me sick to my stomach.
When he turns the can upside down over her, I know it’s just the beginning.
She starts gagging as its disgusting contents fall on and around her, a piece of chewed gum and a used condom getting trapped in her thick curls.
“How’s this for scum?” he asks harshly.
She manages to stop gagging long enough to spit out, “Still better to look at than him.”
Shut up, Lia. Shut up!
Too late.
He pushes her down and shoves her face into the pile of trash that he’s just dumped out on the floor around her.
It’s hard to recognize anything in the brown mush, but I make out a half-eaten moldy apple, something that looks like it was once a sandwich, a banana peel, and some more gum.
At least I can be thankful that the condom is in her hair, rather than pressed to her face.
I realize I’m grasping at straws though.
She shakes her head furiously as he keeps her down so that her face makes full contact with the wet, moldy mush.
“Glad you like the look of that scum,” growls Damien. “Now eat it.”
She shakes her head even more furiously as he rubs her face in it. “Eat it,” he barks, “or things are going to get a whole lot worse for you.”
Any trace of the old bravado has melted. Great big sobs rise in her throat as her hands go up to claw pitifully at Damien’s jeans. But he merely keeps her there, on hands and knees, her face in the pile of trash.
“I’m going to count to ten,” he threatens, “and you’re going to fucking eat it. If you don’t, I’ll string you up by your ankles and leave you dangling from the ceiling for the rest of the school day.”
“Damien!”
I’m a mess of emotions right now. Anger at him, anger at myself for my own helplessness, sickening pain for the girl I can’t do a thing to save.
I feel a whole lot weaker now than I did back in the cafeteria, when Lia was calling me a loser.
“Damien,” I say again, my voice thick with everything that’s coursing through me.
He glances back at me, and whatever he sees in my eyes must convince him to at last let her go.
She’s still crying as she slowly sits up, her face entirely coated in the wet garbage, her hair still tangled with trash.
A shout of laughter erupts in the classroom, and fuck, if I had a gun, they’d all be dead. I’m incapable of raising a finger against Damien, even to protect Lia, but I’d happily kill each and every one of the assholes who are laughing at what he did to her.
But before I can react, Damien faces the classroom. “If any of you idiots make another sound, Logan and I will slit your throat. Got it, fuckers?”
His threat has an immediate effect. The laughter dies down abruptly. It’s like they barely dare to breathe as Damien heads over to the teacher’s desk, grabs a stack of napkins, and tosses them back to Lia.
“Clean yourself up,” he grunts. “You’re filthy.” Then he turns to the teacher and adds, “You should be ashamed of yourself for letting something like that happen in your classroom.”
The latter’s eyes bulge out of his head while Damien saunters right back out of the class, as if nothing happened, not even looking back to check that I’m following.
I am. As always.