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I drop my knife, folding it and slipping it back in my pocket. I release Vera, stepping back from her and righting my clothes. "Sister Mary, Sister Maxine." I go to walk out, when Sister Mary raises her hand.
"Where do you think you're going?"
I level her a look. "I'm going back to class, unless you want to explain to my dad that you kept me from my education? You know how important he believes it is."
She drops her hand, knowing the power my dad has over this town. Over this school. No one messes with him.
No one dares to mess with me.
"Is that… is that smoke I smell in here?" Sister Maxine asks, taking a step farther into the bathroom. She steps in front of the stall, seeing the squished, burnt-out cigarette laying on the floor. "My goodness, who on earth is smoking in here?"
I walk out, leaving Vera to pick up her own pile of shit. I bring a hand up, running it over the burn on the side of my neck. It feels puckered, raw. Like there will be a liquid-filled blister there, at the very least.
I crack my neck, heading back to the classroom, ready for this day to be over with.
Fuck her.
11
VERA
"Is this your cigarette?" Sister Maxine asks me.
I glare at the door behind me, literally boiling on the inside that Malik left me to deal with this on my own. If he never would've came in here, I could've finished my cigarette and left before anyone would even notice me gone.
But no.
He decided to dip out and make me fend for myself.
What a psychopath.
Would he have literally plunged the knife beneath my skin? Would he have let me bleed out on the tiled floor of the girls’ bathroom? I bet he would have. I bet he would've smeared my blood across the floor, smooshed the blood between his fingers, maybe even gotten a contact high off the metallic smell in the air.
"Vera, I asked you a question," Sister Maxine says, placing her hands on her hips. The black fabric bunches at her waist.
"It is." I realize I can't lie. I mean, I could blame it on Malik. Say that he was the one who was smoking. They may even believe it, but I don't think anything would ever come of it. The way he walked out of here without even a slap on the wrist. For being in the girls’ bathroom, for pressing a knife against a girl's throat. There are no boundaries when it comes to Malik, I realize. None at all.
Sister Mary steps up to me, a thick line pitched between her eyes. "I didn't think it would come to this on the first day, Vera, but I do have to say, I'm not surprised."
I fold my arms across my chest, now irritated as hell that she's not surprised. I'm not like the other kids around here, I fucking get that, but to outright point out that she thinks I'm a rotten seed?Screw her.
"Screw you," I sneer at her. "How you guys do shit here is crazy. You realize that, right? I could file charges on you for child abuse. I could shut this shithole down. This isn't how the world runs. This isn't how school is. This shit, it's not right!" I scream.
Sister Mary and Sister Maxine look at each other, a silent conversation running between them. Sister Mary nods and takes a step toward me. "Come with me, Vera."
I take a step backward, my back hitting the cement wall. "No." I shake my head. I glance over my shoulder, at the tiny window I’d never be able to squeeze through. They shift, blocking the door.
Shit.
There’s no other way out.
She lifts her hand, her pale white palm outstretched. Her skin is wrinkled, weathered. All their skin has a gray tinge to it, like the toxins running through the air of this town is embedded beneath their flesh.
Like everyone here is… is dead.
I shiver just thinking about it.
"You can come willingly, or you can come unwillingly," Sister Maxine says.
