it’s worth! I hold up my hands and pump my fist, shouting.
“Take that, Jackass Hunter!”
The party laughs, some people shake their heads. I go back inside, squishing over to a shocked Kayla.
“Sorry about your floor. I love you. Have I mentioned that lately? I really love you and please don’t be mad I shoved your crush into a fountain, please, it was an accident but I’m making it look like it wasn’t because that’s how smooth I am.”
There’s an anxious span of quiet in which I reconsider all my life choices up until this moment. She wrinkles her nose, and smiles.
“You smell like pee.”
I exhale in relief, inhale, and immediately regret it.
“I smell hells like pee.”
-7-
3 Years
14 Weeks
3 Days
Jack Hunter’s level of menace is steadily increasing.
For a while back at the party I thought our pretty-damn-secluded moment of secluded-feelings-sharing was going to diffuse the tension between us, but alas. It appears, by the pictures plastered all over the walls and lockers of East Summit High, that I was wrong.
The pictures are of me. Fat. Coming out of my old high school building in Good Falls, Florida. My butt crack is showing, and I’m practically swimming in the old baggy clothes I used to wear.
People look at the pictures, then point at me and laugh.
I immediately weigh the pros and cons of throwing a tantrum.
Kayla sidles up to me, a nervous look on her face. She walks with me to class. People really are huge meanies. Just really big fat meanies. This has to be Jack’s doing, since we are at war and all, but this is the cruelest thing he’s done yet. I’ve been pretty cruel too, but I didn’t dig around in his past or anything. Okay. Maybe I did. A little. I talked to Wren and he told me about Sophia and I mentioned Sophia at the party. So I guess this is Jack’s way of telling me to butt out. I ticked him off. Super ticked. A very large tick that has drank a lot of blood and been stuck in an armpit for so long it became a Godziltick. That’s how ticked off he is. As if I care! He’s brought out the big guns, the guns of me being fat, and I still look fabulous even fat but how dare he reach his shitty little fingers into my past and air it out for everyone to see, and if I ever see him again I’ll tear his esophagus up out of his mouth and use it as a ceremonial headdress –
“Isis,” Kayla pats me on the back. “You’re thinking out loud again.”
“I am upset,” I sniff. “With certain persons in the immediate vicinity.”
“Not me,” Kayla clarifies.
“Never you.”
“To be fair, it’s a very pretty butt crack,” Kayla offers.
“Thank you. What’s Jack’s first period?”
“Trigonometry with Mr. Bernard –”
I storm over to J-Building and casually kick Mr. Bernard’s door open. Jack’s in the back. I stride over to the whiteboard, pick up the eraser, and chuck it at his head. It dings off with considerable force and Jack looks stunned.
“You’re a horrible little boy, Jackoff Hunter McShittington!” I shout. “I bet you have potted cactuses - ”
“Cacti,” Mr. Bernard offers timidly.
“ – CACTI, and you smell horrible and you’re the stupidest asshole I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting and if you could just go jump off a building and die alone I would be very grateful!”
I slam the door behind me and lean against it, breathing deep. With all the angst out, I can smile again, think straight again. I skip to class. Kayla quirks a brow.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m currently devising terribly fiendish torture scenarios in which Jack doesn’t get out alive with his penis intact.”
“Oh.”
“He is getting crossed off the decent human list,” I assure her. “With red ink! And a million exclamation points!”
“Do you think he really did it? He taped all those pictures up by himself? Where did he even get them?”
“There’s only one person who has access to my past like that,” I
“Take that, Jackass Hunter!”
The party laughs, some people shake their heads. I go back inside, squishing over to a shocked Kayla.
“Sorry about your floor. I love you. Have I mentioned that lately? I really love you and please don’t be mad I shoved your crush into a fountain, please, it was an accident but I’m making it look like it wasn’t because that’s how smooth I am.”
There’s an anxious span of quiet in which I reconsider all my life choices up until this moment. She wrinkles her nose, and smiles.
“You smell like pee.”
I exhale in relief, inhale, and immediately regret it.
“I smell hells like pee.”
-7-
3 Years
14 Weeks
3 Days
Jack Hunter’s level of menace is steadily increasing.
For a while back at the party I thought our pretty-damn-secluded moment of secluded-feelings-sharing was going to diffuse the tension between us, but alas. It appears, by the pictures plastered all over the walls and lockers of East Summit High, that I was wrong.
The pictures are of me. Fat. Coming out of my old high school building in Good Falls, Florida. My butt crack is showing, and I’m practically swimming in the old baggy clothes I used to wear.
People look at the pictures, then point at me and laugh.
I immediately weigh the pros and cons of throwing a tantrum.
Kayla sidles up to me, a nervous look on her face. She walks with me to class. People really are huge meanies. Just really big fat meanies. This has to be Jack’s doing, since we are at war and all, but this is the cruelest thing he’s done yet. I’ve been pretty cruel too, but I didn’t dig around in his past or anything. Okay. Maybe I did. A little. I talked to Wren and he told me about Sophia and I mentioned Sophia at the party. So I guess this is Jack’s way of telling me to butt out. I ticked him off. Super ticked. A very large tick that has drank a lot of blood and been stuck in an armpit for so long it became a Godziltick. That’s how ticked off he is. As if I care! He’s brought out the big guns, the guns of me being fat, and I still look fabulous even fat but how dare he reach his shitty little fingers into my past and air it out for everyone to see, and if I ever see him again I’ll tear his esophagus up out of his mouth and use it as a ceremonial headdress –
“Isis,” Kayla pats me on the back. “You’re thinking out loud again.”
“I am upset,” I sniff. “With certain persons in the immediate vicinity.”
“Not me,” Kayla clarifies.
“Never you.”
“To be fair, it’s a very pretty butt crack,” Kayla offers.
“Thank you. What’s Jack’s first period?”
“Trigonometry with Mr. Bernard –”
I storm over to J-Building and casually kick Mr. Bernard’s door open. Jack’s in the back. I stride over to the whiteboard, pick up the eraser, and chuck it at his head. It dings off with considerable force and Jack looks stunned.
“You’re a horrible little boy, Jackoff Hunter McShittington!” I shout. “I bet you have potted cactuses - ”
“Cacti,” Mr. Bernard offers timidly.
“ – CACTI, and you smell horrible and you’re the stupidest asshole I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting and if you could just go jump off a building and die alone I would be very grateful!”
I slam the door behind me and lean against it, breathing deep. With all the angst out, I can smile again, think straight again. I skip to class. Kayla quirks a brow.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m currently devising terribly fiendish torture scenarios in which Jack doesn’t get out alive with his penis intact.”
“Oh.”
“He is getting crossed off the decent human list,” I assure her. “With red ink! And a million exclamation points!”
“Do you think he really did it? He taped all those pictures up by himself? Where did he even get them?”
“There’s only one person who has access to my past like that,” I
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