Page 204 of As the Rain Falls
“What?”
“I said, get out!”
She pauses, considering my words before shrugging, “No, I don’t think I will. I’m way stronger than you are.”
“I’m not fucking kidding—”
“You saw what I did to Alice, right?” She flashes a fake smile. “Or I can throw you out there and let Helena beat your ass for making her pee behind a tree.”
Begrudgingly, I step to the side and sit over the toilet. Angelina closes the door behind us, locking it back.
A beat later, she throws a punch at the mirror.
“Angelina? What are you… You’re going to hurt yourself!” I yell, trying to be heard over the loud music that’s coming from outside. And I try to stop her too, but my head spins, making me stumble.
“Jeez, Rivera. It’s almost like that’s the fucking point!”
“Stop!”
“No! It’s too goddamn hard, okay? Alice is here, and she wasn’t supposed to be here, and… Why am I tellingyouanything? You don’t give a fuck about me!”
She keeps hitting the mirror, oblivious to her bleeding knuckles. I watch her, the scene playing out like a movie. I’ve never seen anger, not like hers. It’s pure power that makes me shiver. I can even feel it in my stomach, like acid.
The second blood starts dripping onto the sink, and I manage to snap out of it.
“Dude, stop!”
I reach for her, miscalculate my move, and slice the back of my hand in the process. It fucking stings.
“Aïe!”
Angelina’s eyes go round right before she crumbles. The girl starts to cry, sounding so broken, so destroyed, and it honestly makes my heart clench.
“Have you lost your mind?” I snap angrily. “This is someone else’s home, Angelina!”
“Don’t touch me!” She shoves me back, making my gold bracelets clink around my wrist as my back hits the wall. “I fucking hate you!”
“What is your problem?” I reach out again, my mind too slow to understand that I need to back down.
“Let me go!”
“I just want to help!”
She slaps me in the face, and I slap her back.
My mouth falls wide open, disbelief sobering me up.
“Damn, Rivera!” Angelina cries, pressing her fingers against her skin. “Your fucking rings!”
“What about them?”
“It hurts!”
“Oh, really?”
This girl… has a really bad attitude, and I’m not having it!
I naively thought staying at the hospital would beat that kind of tenacity out of a girl, butno.It’s learned behavior.
