Act 1 | Chapter 17
It was warm today. Not warm enough to only wear a shirt, but the kind of warm you always wished the weather would be. Not too hot, and not too cold. I stood at my driveway, waiting for Riley, but unlike most days, she didn't show up to pick me up. I waited a few extra minutes before concluding that Riley wasn't going to show. The bus stop wasn't too far from my house, so I made a mad dash to it, making it just as the bus was arriving. Kids piled on, and I climbed in behind them. There had only been a few time's in my life that I had to ride the bus, and every time, it always felt so weird Not having a seat belt, and sitting on long two people seats. One thing I did notice as I climbed on, however, was that people were staring at me. Some gave me dirty looks, and others simply laughed and grinned.
I sat down and glanced at my clothing. There wasn't anything I was wearing that was revealing so I wasn't sure what the looks where for. All I was wearing were my jeans, boots, and my usual hoodie. I shook the feeling off and looked out the window as the bus pulled out of the neighborhood, and started making its way to Bate's High.
The bus arrived at school a little later, and I got off, again greeted by student's staring at me. There was a slow feeling of unease sneaking up behind me. More and more eyes started looking up in my direction, as I walked past. Soon, I made it to the cafeterias back entrance and walked into the school. The lunchroom was again busy with people walking around and talking before classes started.
"Zoey!" I heard Riley yell. She was running my way from the main hall. "What are you doing here!?"
"What do you mean?" I tilted my head, "I'm going to school?"
"I texted you not to come!"
"Why? I pulled my phone out and checked my messages. Riley did send me something earlier, but I didn't see it until then. My eyes opened wide as I saw what she sent me. Dozens of screenshots taken from social media. My mother's pictures posted and send everywhere. Me naked, and drenched in paint. My name plastered over each one with a date. The account image was blank, and the name was the standard unknown username. My heart started beating harder and harder. I glanced up at Riley.
"H- How did..." My hand started shaking as I looked around at everyone. Somewhere snickering and somewhere grinning, eyeing me. Some people even looked at me in disgust.
We have to go," Riley said, grabbing me, and trying to push me out of the school but I didn't stop her. My eyes started to water, as I instinctively folded my arms over my breasts as to cover them, despite already having two layers of clothes over them. They could all see me. Every one of them. They all saw me naked. My mother's pictures, the body art she did. Even the more revealing ones were posted online.
"I... I..." My face flushed with embarrassment, and I started breathing heavier. Everyone was judging me. Everyone.
"Come on Zoe," Riley said, leading me out of the school, and trying to shield me from the dozens of staring eyeballs. As we walked out the door, I could see Maria with her group of friends. They were snickering, holding their phones out in front of them and glancing up at me. I whipped a tear from my eye and frowned at her, as she gave me a wink, and turned to walk into the cafeteria. "She did this." I thought to myself, "Of course she did this, who else would?"
Riley led me out to her car and helped me into the driver's seat. Once the passenger side door shut, I started tearing up more. My bag was put into the back seat, and Riley climbed into the drivers. She glanced at me, as I wiped the tears from my cheeks. "I can't believe Maria did something like that." "How did she get those?" I wondered. My mind was too cloudy to think straight, however. "How many people did she send them too? Everyone?" I curled up in my seat, and wrapped my arms around my leg's, pulling them closer towards me, as I cried softly. "They all saw me. They all saw me naked." My face was red with complete embarrassment.
"I'm sorry Zoey," Riley whispered, reaching over and tried putting her hand on my shoulder. I sat there for a few minutes, breathing deeply, and trying to calm down. I needed to relax, but I just couldn't. "Why?!" I wanted to scream, "None of this would be happening if my mother didn't take those stupid pictures!" My hands clenched into fists, and my nails started to dig into my skin. "Everyone saw. Everyone." I couldn't get it off my mind. My head started to ache from the crying, and after I finally managed to calm down enough, I looked to Riley and whipped my eyes with my sleeve again.
"Just take me home," I mumbled, my voice hoarse and rough.
"Home? Are you sure?" Riley asked me, tilting her head, and taking her hand off my shoulder.
"I... I can't go back in there. I can't..." My voice cracked.
"You can stay at our place?"
I sat their, sniffling, while I thought of the offer. Maybe it would be better. I just needed some time alone.
"A-Alright... can you take me home first though... I need to get something."
Riley didn't say anything as she nodded. I kept quiet the entire drive. We both did. No music, no nothing. Just the sound of the car humming. After the long drive back home, I climbed out of the car and started walking up to my house. Glancing back at Riley, I saw that she parked and was going to wait for me. I took a deep breath and opened the garage, climbed under the door as it slowly rose, and entered through the kitchen. John was at the table, eating his breakfast while talking to someone on speakerphone. It was leaned up against the napkins bin, and he was eating while he talked.
"You should've seen it, John! She ran away like a crying little bitch." I heard Maria laugh on the other end. My body froze, and my hands clenched up into a fist. "John showed her." I thought, glancing over to the table. I shook a bit, and tried to hold in a scream of anger, but couldn't help it. My face turned a bright red, as I loudly screamed,
"FUCK YOU, MARIA!"
There was silence for a moment.
"Oh, is she their?" I heard her say, "Tell her that the boys here think she looks nice. They want her to send them some more pics." Maria laughed. I let out a loud groan and stormed up to my room, bumping into the vase of dendrobium orchids, and spilling water onto the carpet. The vase didn't fall or anything, but at this point, I didn't care if it shattered into a million fucking pieces. I swung my door open and walked inside, slamming it behind me. I wanted to punch something, I needed to hit something. Grabbing my pillow, I threw it at the wall and started aggressively kicking art it, holding in my screams of both sadness and anger. "I can't believe she did that." I kept thinking, "That bitch. That stupid, fucking slutty bitch!" I screamed loudly in my head.
After some time, I calmed down. My left foot was aching from kicking a pillow against a solid wall for a couple of minutes. I slept down against it and slowly slid down onto the floor in a seating position. Another few minutes passed of me crying, wiping the tears from my eyes and blowing my nose. Glancing over at the large body-sized mirror didn't help much either.
Have you ever had that one moment where you wish someone would literally die? To be hit by a bus, or had a pole impale them through the eye? Wish to see them burn to death, and just be gone from your life altogether? That's how I was feeling. I wanted Maria dead. I wanted to see her die, to see the life leave her eyes as she bled out in agonizing pain. "She deserves it." I thought, "She deserves to fucking die." My eyes started to tear up again.
"I wish I could kill her. I wish I could just murder her and get rid of her completely. It would make my life so much easier." I stood up, and took a deep breath, "They always make it look so easy in those movies. Kill the victim, hide the body, never speak of it again. Leave no evidence." Slowly, I started packing up a few extra things into the large trunk at the foot of my bed labeled 'Art Supplies'. "It can't be that hard. Can it?"