And if they’ve done it once, they might do it again, no matter what he says.
“It’s fine,” I say with a foreign laugh. “I mean, it’s not. But we’re over it, right? River apologized. Blaze apologized. They might even have meant it.” I move off the bed.
Blaze tries to stop me, but I slap his hand away.
“Anyway, since you’re done with me, I’m going.” I reach for my boring white panties. “Have fun discussing how much of a psycho bitch I am.”
I can go back to that club. It’s a Saturday night. They’ll be packed for sure. There has to be somebody there who wants to actually wreck me.
Asch gets up, circling around me and snatching my panties out of my hand. “You aren’t going anywhere like this,” he says.
He has the fucking audacity to lookconcerned, like I’m someone he has to worry about.
River gets up too, and he goes to hold the rest of my clothes hostage.
I keep smiling at him. “River, you’ve already lost a finger. Are you sure you want to risk another one?”
River scowls at me, clutching my shirt more tightly in his grasp. “Let’s call for room service or something. Food would be good for everyone.”
“Yeah. Food’s a good idea.” Blaze picks up his phone. “And then we can talk?—”
“We’re not talking!” I shout. “What the fuck? There’s nothing to talk about! You all pretend to like me, then you pull that fucking bullshit, and I’m supposed to act like it’s nothing, like we’ve all forgiven each other because I threatened you a little bit? None of you have suffered even a fraction of what I have, none of you have eventriedto… to…”
Shit.
What the hell.
My eyes are getting watery.
That’s not right.
Why does this keep happening to me?
Asch steps in close to me. “Pandora…” He tries to wrap an arm around me, but I shove him away. “Tell us what you need, and we’ll make it happen. All right?”
“I need you all to be fucking gone!” I yell. I grab the closest thing I can. It’s just one of the fucking pillows we kicked to the bottom of the bed, but I throw it at River anyway. He catches it, which is even more infuriating. “I don’t need any of you, I don’twantany of you, I fucking hate all of you!”
“We know,” River says, tossing the pillow back onto the bed. “And we deserve that. But you can’t keep going like this, Pandora. You can’t. You have to talk to someone. Us, your parents, your bitch auntie… Someone. I don’t know. But youcan’tdo this.”
“I’m fine!” I yell. I lunge at River, but Blaze intercepts me with his arm and pulls me against his chest. “Let go of me!” I shout. I stomp down on Blaze’s foot.
He winces, but he doesn’t let go.
Needles pierce holes into my lungs.
“Pandora, you deserve to hate us,” Blaze says. “I fucking get it, okay? I wasn’t lying when I said I regret everything that happened. I shouldn’t have?—”
“But you did!” I snap my head back and slam it against Blaze’s chin. He yelps and finally releases me.
I dash away, still naked.
There’s a kitchenette in this room, and I go for the drawers. There has to be a knife here somewhere.
Cut them up.
Pull out their insides.
Make them pay, really pay, for everything that happened to me.
