Page 60 of Crowned

I pick my victims at school. All the girls who sneered at me, made fun of me, looked down on me. I follow them home and find out where they live, then I watch them in the dark.

Months pass before I notice Katya again. She’s too small and insignificant to look down on anyone, so I’ve been ignoring her, until one day I notice her crying behind a tree. She looks so wretched that I stare at her for a long time, wondering what could be wrong in her world. She’s rich and lives in that big house, so what has she got to cry about?

Then I realize what the problem must be. She seemed to like Artem, but Artem doesn’t like anyone but himself. He doesn’t even like me.

Katya notices me watching her and quickly wipes her face.

I turn to go, but find myself turning back to her to say, “Just get over it. He’s not worth crying over.”

Katya replies in a shaky, tear-filled voice, “How am I supposed to get over it when he won’t even admit that it’s his?”

I stare at her in confusion. “What?”

Katya slowly turns red, before stammering, “The—the baby. He must have told…”

Though we live in the same house, I haven’t talked to my older brother in weeks. “Thewhat?”

Katya moans in horror before hurrying away from me.

That afternoon, instead of following any girls, I head straight to my own house and wait for Artem to come home from work. He comes in from the car mechanic where he’s an assistant at a quarter past six with greasy hands and clothes, and I follow him into the laundry.

“Katya’s pregnant?”

“Who?” Artem replies with a jerk of surprise, but I can tell from his shifty expression that he knows exactly who I’m talking about.

I punch him in the shoulder. “Don’t pretend. I saw you with her. Why are you acting like it’s got nothing to do with you?”

“You saw me?”

“I followed you.”

Artem scowls and shrugs. “It was just a couple of times. That slut has probably been screwing everyone.”

I burst out laughing. “Katya?” I almost add,You think boys are lining up to screw Katya?but she looked so sad today that I let the cruel words die on my lips. “Katya isn’t like that.”

“Yeah, she is. You know why? Because if she let me fuck her, she’s letting this whole town fuck her. Now piss off.” Artem shoves me aside and heads for his bedroom.

Katya’s not at school the next day. Or the next. I tell myself it doesn’t matter what happens to her and whether Artem got her pregnant or not. I’ve got my life and she’s got hers, and it’s not like anything bad can happen to her in that big, perfect house.

She doesn’t come to school all week and it gets under my skin. On Friday night, I find myself heading across town to her house and climbing the trellis to her window. She’s awake when I peer inside. I have zero interest in secretly watching Katya, so I tap on the glass.

She stares at me in surprise and opens the window a crack. “Kirill? What are you doing here?”

“Let me in.”

She frowns at me. “I don’t let boys into my room.”

“Don’t be stupid,” I tell her. Not because I know for a fact that she does let boys into her room, but because I have zero interest in her that way. She’s a nice girl. I only creep on the bitches in this town.

I wave her back from the window and clamber into her room. Looking around, I see it’s a huge, lavish bedroom. No expense spared, like she’s a fucking princess. “You’ve got your own bathroom, too,” I mutter.

“What?”

I turn to her, my hands jammed into the back pockets of my jeans. I’ll say what I came to say, and then I’ll leave. “Artem’s not going to help you. You should tell your parents.”

“I told them already,” she mutters, and hangs her head.

Something about her attitude makes me narrow my eyes. “What’s wrong?”

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