Page 51 of Girl Violence

Since she’s still a minor, her dad was called. With Vince being nineteen, Diane wasn’t, but Josette knows her dad will have told her. No doubt, they are both on their way. Josette can only imagine how angry her father will be, having to come to the station because of her again. He will be a shade of beetroot with a swollen vein popping out of his forehead.

“Look—they can’t charge us with anything,” Vince says. If it’s his attempt at making her feel better, it sucks. “We tell the truth. The bag isn’t ours. We simply went there to hook up.”

Josette gapes at him.

“I’m not telling them that. They will tell my dad. He already thinks I’m a raging slut after the picture fiasco.”

Josette would rather chew off her foot than explain to her dad why she was messing around with Vince in an abandoned building. But then, he’s going to kill her regardless. She won’t be surprised if he hasn’t already phoned her mum to collect her. Pack her off to live with her. “He’s going to kill me, Vince. He will send me to live with my mum.”

“He won’t. I’ll take the blame, alright? It was my idea anyway.” Josette swallows hard as she watches him turn to look out the window, the breeze from the front blowing the hair out of his eyes. Those eyes that were not long ago hooded with lust for her.

Her chest squeezes that he would take the blame for her. “Why couldn’t you have been normal and chosen a house we’re allowed to be in?”

“I was annoyed with you,” he admits, which confuses Josette. What is he talking about?

“And that’s got to do with it because?”

He glances at her then. “You really don’t remember?”

“Remember what?”

“Makes sense, I guess,” he sighs. “You were traumatized after. It was what put you off watching anything scary.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It was the year you started high school. You wanted to prove you were cool enough to hang around my friends and me. You tagged along with us one day, and we decided to go to the same place we were just in. I was so pissed at you. It was like you were trying to show off and refused to listen to me, so when they started making fun of you...I didn’t stop them.”

“On second thought, I don’t want to remember,” she says dryly, remembering Vince used to do that to her whenever he was mad at her.

He continues anyway, maybe to punish her more. “They started trying to scare you by telling you stories. Like they used to tie babies down in their cribs and murder them if they weren’t quiet. They said you were a baby and would tie you down and murder you.”

An uncomfortable feeling settles in Josette’s stomach. “You can stop talking now.”

“You wet yourself from the fear,” he says. “You were wearing white. It showed through.”

“Seriously?” Josette can’t help but glare at him, face burning with anger and shame. Because deep down, she knows that happened. She just can’t remember. But there’s no wonder in her mind why she blocked it out. It sounds awful.

“Everyone started laughing, and you ran away—”

Josette gapes at him. That he’s continuing to tell her this ridiculous story when his hand was down her shorts not even twenty minutes ago. “You’re such an asshole.”

“Jason...Austin. The rest of them. They all laughed at you.” That means he brought her there today, thinking she would remember. Thinking it would hurt her, humiliate her. All because she forgot his stupid birthday that he doesn’t care for anyway.

“You’ve made your point. Let’s not forget how many of my birthdays you forgot in London. When you forgot about me.”

“I didn’t forget—”

“You two be quiet back there,” one of the officers interrupts, turning and giving them a stern look through the cage separating the front and back. Josette presses her body against the car door, anything to distance her and Vince. He’d accused her of playing games in the bowling alley, but isn’t everything he did today a game?

Josette can still sense his stare as she watches buildings and people zoom by. Until she feels warmth on her hand, making her eyes close. Fingers interlace with hers, and she glances at him, unable to help herself.

I didn’t forget.

Josette’s anger melts away when he squeezes her fingers gently. Her weakness is him, and what he intended today doesn’t matter. Not when she’s sitting in the back of a police car on her way to the station, knowing her dad will send her away.

Ten minutes later, they finally arrive. Josette sees her dad and Diane already there as they’re escorted inside. They’re both ashen, expressions strained with concern and anger.

Josette can’t even meet her dad’s stare when they separate her and Vince, forcing them to answer a few hundred questions in small, separate rooms. She keeps it the way Vince said.

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