Work Text:
Your face still hurts. And your neck. It’s been a week, but the bruises still linger. It’s sits like a necklace. And it’s your favorite color, purple.
You let the tears flow out as you sit in the last bathroom stall, tucking your knees into your chest and wrapping your arms tightly around your legs. You shut your eyes tight while you look down resting your forehead on your knees. You think that if you can’t see you’ll forget. But you remember.
You can’t remember how long you’ve been in the bathroom crying. You vaguely recall some feet shuffling in and out, but none of the stopped to check in. That’s what you wanted. That’s why you chose this bathroom. In the music performance hallway. There were very little people that came here, and the ones that did, you wanted them to ignore you.
That’s why you didn’t stop crying when you heard someone walk in. You figured it was probably just a band kid. They would come in and out, leaving just as quickly as they had arrived. But you heard the footsteps walking towards you, and suddenly they stopped.
You heard whoever it was say your name out loud. You kept yourself perfectly still. You recognized that voice. And maybe if you stayed silent, she would go away.
"I know you're in there. You don't think I can recognize your pathetic cries?" you heard her scoff. You couldn't see her, but you could tell that she was rolling her eyes.
"Come out of the stall."
You didn't move an inch.
"You can continue crying in there like a loser. I'll just find you tomorrow and make sure the right side of your face looks just like your left.''
The sadness that consumed your heart turned into anger. You stood up and swung the door open. Of course, she was standing in front of you with her signature smirk.
"What the fuck do you want from me?" you asked. You gave her time to answer, but her arrogant smug was left unchanged.
"You win okay?" your croaked out, voice wavering on the last syllable. “I did your stupid homework, I let you hit me. Just, leave me alone.”
She looked indifferent. Rather bored actually. You wanted to smack the audacity out of her face. You waited a second more before starting for the door but a hand on your shoulder stopped you in your place.
”Where do you think you’re going?” She asked.
“Where do you fucking think I’m going?” You retorted.
Suddenly one hand on your shoulder turned into two and before you knew it you were being pressed into the bathroom wall.
“Let go of me you bitch-"
"Don't bark at me mutt," she growled, "do I need to bite you to put you in your place?"
You looked at her incredulously. You knew that you were no match for her strength, so you stopped fighting against her hold and let your body go still against her hands. Only six inches separated your body from hers, and now that you were so close together, your hatred towards her turned into nervousness.
"You'd probably like that though," she said looking down at you. Her fingertips reached the side of your neck, and you flinched. She laughed.
"Dumb little dog just needed Mommy to touch her and suddenly she's not tough anymore..." she sneered, scraping her nails up and down the side of your neck. You closed your eyes. Maybe if you pretended this was anyone else it wouldn't be so terrible. She put her opposite hand on the wall next to your head and bent her neck to put her mouth close to your ear.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was turning you on."
Your eyes shot open hearing her words, and she was only looking at you with a coy smile.
"Don't say that..." you breathed out.
She looked at you for a second, then took her hand off the wall.
”You’re welcome,” she said, turning her back to you and walking away. Dumbfounded, you started to follow her.
”Wait, what are you doing?” You asked her.
She turned around and let out an exasperated sigh. “Why are you following me? I thought you wanted me to leave you alone.”
“Um, I-” you stammered. You weren’t sure what just happened. Now that you got the attention from the girl in front of you, you forgot what you were just going to say.
“Well?” She asked impatiently, raising her eyebrow at you.
“I just,” you swallowed, “I don’t get it. Why did you approach me in the first place? Why did you get close to me and then just walk away?”
She shook her head and laughed to herself. “Silly puppy, you make it sound so serious.”
Was she implying that she casually pushed people into bathroom walls all the time?
“Can you just- can you just tell me why you did that? Please?” Your voice leaked desperation.
“Okay fine,” she said is if this were an inconvenience to her. “What were you doing before I came into the bathroom?”
You stalled for a moment. “Crying?”
She nodded her head. “And what are you not doing right now?”
You pieced it together in your head. “I’m not crying right now…” you said halfway in between a question and a statement. “Wait a minute. You did all that just so I would stop crying?”
She nodded her head.
“But, why?”
“Because,” she paused, looking side to side. Was she… nervous? “You sound really pathetic when you cry, you know that? I mean Jesus Christ, you really sounded like a hurt puppy. I didn’t want to hear you cry anymore. Not that I care about you,” she clarified. “I just didn’t want to hear your annoying wails. Anymore questions?”
You were a little taken aback by what she just said, so you just shook your head no.
“I’m leaving for class. You should too,” she said, all trace of animosity in her voice gone.
Shit, you hadn’t even realized that it was about to be time for your next class. The one that you both shared.
“You coming or not?”
You followed her out of the bathroom, like the obedient puppy you were.