AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She left a dead jellyfish in my locker.
It absolutelyreeks, and people surround my locker making gagging noises when they spot the offending source of the smell. They take photos, call out predictably catty jeers, make all the Fish Girl insults I’m sure Maddie was hoping for. And the worst part is that I start to cry. I can’t help it. All I can think about is this poor, beautiful creature deprived of its life source and dying a slow, horrible death, all for a cruel, stupid prank.
Of course, the sight of tears only makes Madison’s victory even more empowering. And God, I hate myself for giving her that victory. I hateher.I hate all of them. I don’t understand how being so mean can bring them so much joy. And the worst part is that not only can I not do anything to retaliate, I can’t show any reaction at all. I have to force myself to swallow the tears; to do whatever it takes to return to looking completely blank.
I cannot come undone.I need to not come undone.
I take a shallow breath. Square my shoulders. And then roll my eyes. Like this is just a minor disturbance in my day. Like I will not carry around the image of that poor lifeless, beautiful creature decaying in my locker all day long.
“What’s going on y’all?” Sebastian Murdoch’s voice calls out, in a really poor impression of a Texan accent.
Freaking wonderful. Just what I need right now.
He saunters down the hallway, casual and curious and neck craning to get a view over people’s heads at whatever has caused the current hallway commotion. Probably confused, because he is usually the one at the center of virtually any SH Prep commotion.
“Fish Girl decided to start bringing her ocean friends to school. And now we all have to breathe in the stench even worse than usual,” Summer Dutton tells him, with a jubilance in her voice that makes it obvious she’s thrilled to be the first person to bring Jock Boy into the loop. God, they are so pathetic.
A few people step aside to let him pass, and I start to push the locker door shut before he can insert himself into the situation and heighten my humiliation even more. Because I don’t think I can take any more. I am barely holding it together as it is, and I do not want them to see me shed any more tears. And screw them. Screw all of them. I willnotlet them know they have that kind of power over me.
But a large hand intercepts the movement and wrenches the locker door open again. There’s a moment of silence and then, “What the fuck?”
I try again to close the door, so I can go get a garbage bag to dispose of the poor creature, but Sebastian’s still gripping the door and it won’t budge. I don’t even think he realizes I’m tugging against him.
“Who did this?” he asks.
There is no hint of laughter in his voice. Which wouldn’t be so weird except there is a hint of laughter in pretty much everything that comes out of the guy’s mouth. Life is one never-ending joy ride for Sebastian Murdoch.
“Seriously.” He stares at me for a second, like I’m the person most likely to answer him.
Poor deluded baller.
He turns his six-foot-two frame and repeats the question we all assumed was redundant. “Seriously, who would do something like this?”
I yank on the door again and finally meet his gaze. “Can you move your hand?” I snap.
He doesn’t. “Someone put a dead fish in your locker?”
“It’s not a fish,” I can’t help correcting him. Because even when I am on the brink of losing it, apparently I still feel the need to correct false marine biology facts. “It’s a coelenterate.”
He gives me a weird look, forehead wrinkled. “Huh?”
“A jellyfish isn’t a fish. It’s a coelenterate. Or a Cnidarian; same thing.”
He leans in a little closer, his expression even more baffled. Not hiding the fact that my bizarreness is utterly confounding him.
And God, Iamweird. I know that. Do I ever know that. But also, most things confound Sebastian Murdoch. So there’s that, at least.
“Okaaay…” he says, his eyes going back to the sad jellyfish carcass rotting on the top shelf of my locker.
I try one last time to wrench the locker door closed and, this time, he relents, so it slams shut with a loudbang!I quickly lock it, although I have no idea why, since clearly anyone who wants to break into the stupid thing can do so pretty easily. I brush past Sebastian, past Madison Jarvik, who’s standing there practically gloating, and through the crowd of jeering, smirking assholes circling the area like suckerfish, desperate for scraps.
“God, it’s not just her locker that stinks. Did you douse yourself in an extra spray of fish oil this morning?” Madison leers.
I step up my pace down the hallway because my heart is hammering double-time in my chest, and at least I can spare myself the humiliation of her hearing that, too, in addition to having already seen the gleam of my tears.
There are garbage bags in the supply closet off the main office, so that’s where I head. Only I change my mind at the last minute and veer down a side hall and out a door that leads to a couple of the sports fields. I’m relieved to find there’s no one else here, and I slump against the gray stone wall of the building, letting my head fall into my hands. This time, I let the tears fall. Not for long, but just enough to expel some of the fury and humiliation and half a dozen other emotions I’m brimming with. Mostly exhaustion, though. I am just so,sotired of this. The worst of it was supposed to be over. I thought I was finally becoming invisible again.
I was.
