glares directly up at me. “Why are you going through my phone? Why are you in my property?”
And just like that, he turns it around. Instantly, he’s the one who gets to be angry. Suddenly I’m on the defence, despite the fact I just caught him fooling around with a ton of girls. “You’re an asshole. You know that?” I start to walk away.
“It’s nothing, babe. They’re just texts. It don’t mean nothing.”
“I’ve read them.” I raise my pitch to a flighty-girl voice. “Miss you. Love you. Baby …”
“They don’t mean nothing.”
“Who—the girls or the texts?”
“Both.” He comes toward me, all sexy with a sweet smile. His shirt is off and his skin is still wet. “Come on, babe, you’re the only one. You’re the one for me.”
“Puh-leeze! You think I’m an idiot?” I push him away and grab the cellphone off the bed. “Get away from me, prick. You can take those girls. All of them. Go fuck them. Go use them. Go party with them … You can have all of them. Know why? ’Cause you don’t deserve me.” I’m talking fast and crazy and can’t stop myself even though I know I should shut up. I keep going, blah blah blahing, clenching the phone in my hand. I head toward the window. “’Cause I’m better than that. I can’t believe I fell for a stupid loser like you, driving around in your stupid-ass car like you’re all that. And you’re nothing. You’re a piece of shit. You’re a fucking dumb-ass—”
“Shut up!” he shouts forcefully. He reaches out to grab my arm as I’m about to chuck the phone at the window. He squeezes so tight I drop to my knees in response. He holds my arm up above my head and I feel like it will rip out of its socket. “Let go,” he warns in a growly voice. I drop the phone. He releases his grip, leaving my skin burning. I quickly stand up, but then he pushes me. “Bitch!”
He pushes so hard I go flying and hit the corner of the dresser and then fall to the ground. My ribs pain. I lose my breath.
It’s like everything is still for a minute.
I don’t breathe.
I don’t blink.
My face is flat against the hardwood floor.
My lips hang loose from my face, my mouth open wide.
I look out of the corner of my eye and see his expressionless face towering above. He doesn’t move to help me. And for a split second it’s like I have become my mother. That night she fought with Scott. And it’s like I’m in her skin. And I see myself and her all at the same time, like we’re this overlapped person in the same body. And then … “Huuuhhhh.” I take a choky, choppy gasp.
Breathe.
I scramble to my knees, onto all fours, and then up. I grab my backpack and coat and rush toward the door because I’m afraid of what might happen next.
As I run down the stairs, trying to put my jacket on, his voice trails after me. “What about you? All the guys you fuck? Everyone knows you’re a slut! You know what they call you? Black hole. You bitch. Yeah! You hear me? ’Cause guys disappear inside your huge, slutty pussy.”
His words are like forceful blows as I pass through the front door. I run down the porch stairs, but it seems as if my feet are barely moving. I stop a second to catch my breath.
Everything before me is in slow motion. I take it in all at once, like a painting. A sharp, cold wind blows the single remaining yellow leaf off a tree. Threatening black clouds surge. A woman walks her little white mutt past the driveway. A red car goes by. A squirrel prances across the road then up onto the fence that separates Fortune’s house from his neighbour’s.
A bang from inside the house brings me back to reality. I begin to move again. Another gust of wind takes my hair and blows it up and all over my face, into my mouth, but I don’t stop to take it out. My legs just go. Too scared to think. Just running against the strong wind. Fight or flight. I choose to fly.
I start bawling again when I get into my room. I take off my top to inspect my ribs. Already my skin is red and purple from hitting the furniture. Slut? After being with me, after saying he loved me even though