Natalia’s P. O. V

“Ah, uh… Ari… I…” Greg stammered uselessly.

I hung up and placed the phone on the table. Wordlessly, I picked our used plates up and carried them to the kitchen, washing them and everything else in the sink quickly before walking back upstairs to my room. As I got ready for bed, I heard Hailey retreat to her room and do the same.

Dressed in my pyjama shorts and tank top, I put some sweats on over them and stepped into my slippers.

‘Why are you dressed like that?’ Candy asked.

I sat at my vanity and redid my ponytail, ‘Now you decide to talk. Oh well, I know you’ll tell me what’s really going on eventually. I’m dressed like this because I know the brothers are gonna come straight here to apologise.’

‘But, I thought you wouldn’t want to see them.’

‘I don’t, but I want to say my piece to their faces before I slam the door on them.’

As I stood, I heard the doorbell ring, ‘I’m tired of staying silent.’

I left my room to see Hailey stepping out of her room. We both knew who it was – we could smell all three of them.

I descended the stairs at my leisure, making sure every step could be heard by them. I smiled to myself as I heard their heart rate gradually increase. By the time I reached the door, it sounded like the collective galloping of horses.

I picked the wooden coat rack from beside the door and broke off all the hanging hooks. For each one I broke off, I heard their pulses spike.

“You’re toying with them.” Hailey noted with a laugh from her crouched position atop the stairs.

I broke the last one off and grinned up at her, “Just a little.”

I opened the door.

“Well?” I raised a brow at their deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression.

Keily was partially shielded by the guys, and rightly so. She avoided my gaze as the other two opened and closed their mouths like blubbering fish.

“Ari. I…we… um, uh…”

“Uh, uhuh. You what?”

I could hear the erratic bump-dump of their three hearts, each to their own beat like a deteriorated marching band. They scrambled to explain and apologise in a way that wouldn’t make me want to carry out every creative way of murdering a person on them. Unfortunately, there was no amount of sugar coating or careful wording that would make me any less mad.

They, regrettably, did not know this.

Trevor spoke up, “Ari, I’m sorry. I-I… Keily. She looked so worried. She sai- she said you’d taken Hailey, a-and she showed us a typed ransom note. Hailey’s phone was switched off. And yours was too. I got so worried and…”

“Tell me, Trev, did it occur to you that, perhaps, Keily was being her usual bitch ass self and lying? Did you think to visit me yourself? Or were you too disgusted by the sadist to go near her home?”

“We didn’t think she’d do that… She’s not bad enough to…” Greg murmured.

The crazed bitch had lied about me kidnapping her sister, and the ignoramus was defending her?!

My grip on the wooden stick tightened, “Well, clearly, she is bad enough to do that. In fact, she did. AND YOU’RE DEFENDING HER!”

Breathe. Reign in the emotions, they can’t know how this affects you.

“Trevor, if you can hear me through all that doubt filling your head, you can take your suspicions and questions and bother someone else with them. What was the damn point of acting like such good friends if you were doubting me the whole fucking time?!”

I paused, holding the bridge of my nose.

“You Geranomy brothers are really something. I should have listened to myself and cut ties with you after Trevor acted like a dick when Keily had her little fainting spell. And when you didn’t do anything about her even after she bitched at me in my kitchen. Speaking of the obsessed little girl,”

“Little girl?!” She shrieked then shut her trap when I looked sharply at her.

“I know you two need to cater to her oh-so-fragile ego and completely irrational desires so Greg, you should probably just give the child what she wants so she can stop throwing tantrums.”

“Child?!”

I ignored her, “I mean, she’s already got you wrapped around her tiny finger so it’s inevitable, why else would you believe her so readily when you know her history of squabbling with people she knows are more likely to beat her at a game she doesn’t realise nobody’s playing with her.”

Throughout, the boys’ expressions remained remorseful, hoping, pleading for forgiveness through their eyes. Their unspoken pleas fell on deaf ears.

“I’m done.”

I moved to close the door but the two of them pushed on it.

“Ari,” Greg cried, “please wait! We’re sorry!”

“I don’t know why I felt the need to be suspicious, you’re perfect.” Trevor added.

“Yeah, you’re everything. But please understand, we’ve known Hailey and Keily forever. We were just worried.”

That was one of the reasons I was mad – because they’d do almost anything to keep the twins safe. They were real friends that stuck by despite Keily’s antics and went full on defence mode when they thought Hailey was in danger. I’d never had that.

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They were loyal and I became the enemy. The target of their suspicion and doubt. The bad egg. The stranger.

For a moment, I was the Omega again.

I hated it.

“Good, so for the sake of that precious bond you have, I’ll cut myself out of the picture.”

Keily scoffed.

I snapped.

Multiple things happened simultaneously. Throwing the doors wide open, I lunged at her. The boys, who had been pushing on the doors, lost their balance and fell forward. I heard Hailey get up and run towards us as fast as she could without raising suspicion. Keily and I tumbled on the hard ground, fighting for dominance. She clawed at my hair and I did the same to her arm. Somehow, she ended up on top.

“YOU’VE TAKEN EVERYTHING SINCE YOU GOT HERE! EVERYTHING! THE ATTENTION, GREG, MY FUCKING SISTER! JUST LEAVE ALREADY!” She tried to claw at my face.

I caught her arms and shifted my weight. She lost her balance and I tipped the scales, putting me on top.

“I DIDN’T DO JACK SHIT! MAYBE IF YOU WEREN’T SUCH AN ENTITLED BITCH, YOU‘D SEE THAT!”

I alternated between clenched fists and clawing at her pampered flesh. Hailey and the boys couldn’t decide between trying to pull me off her and not knowing what to do.

“CUT THE CRAP! YOU’RE SUCH A PERFECT LITTLE PRINCESS! THEY EVEN SAID IT THEMSELVES – YOU’RE EVERYTHING! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I GO THROUGH! YOU HAVE IT MADE!” She screamed through trying, and mostly failing, to block my attacks.

Who was she to think she could talk? “YOU DON’T KNOW ANYHTING! DON’T ASSUME SHIT YOU CAN’T HANDLE!”

“TRY ME!”

We went back to rolling, trading blows as we did. Suddenly, she was pulled off by one of the guys. I flipped off the ground and moved to where she was struggling against the arms that held her but was pulled back by two sets of arms.

“Ari! Please stop!” Hailey groaned from behind me.

I struggled against her and Greg.

“I told you it was a bad idea to bring her! We should’ve dropped her at her place.” Trevor yelled from behind her.

“We were in a hurry!” Greg shouted back, huffing.

“Yeah, now we’ve got a cat fight on our hands and it’s midnight!”

“No shit, Sherlock!” Hailey added.

“STOP TOUCHING HIM!” Keily shrieked.

“HE’S TOUCHING ME, BITCH!”

Trevor rolled his eyes and threw her over his shoulder. As she kicked and screamed, pounding on his back, he walked carefully to us and plopped her into Greg’s arms, bridal style. She continued to struggle till she realised who was carrying her and quite literally melted against his chest.

Trevor turned to me, “We’re so sorry, Ari. We just wanted to apologise for all those horrible things we said.”

“Yeah. We’ll make it up to you. Dinner, bowling, movies… anything. It’ll be our treat.”

Keily tensed in his arms.

“Don’t bother. Just take your stalker and leave. I don’t want to see any of you again.”

“We can’t leave things like this.”

“Leave.”

“We’re so-”

“Leave! Go away already and if I ever see any of you three here again, I’ll make sure none of you will be able to walk, ever.”

They flinched, eyes wide and retreated to their car. Hailey and I remained outside for several minutes – me trying to calm myself down and her glancing cautiously between my face and their retreating taillights.

Finally somewhat calm, I spun on my heel and marched back inside and straight to my room. Hailey followed, locking the front door behind her. She stopped at my door before I could close it.

Her eyes expressed her internal argument to say something profound before she sighed, “Goodnight, Ari.”

“Goodnight.”

She walked away and I closed the door.

Back pressed against the wood, my eyes swept the room and landed on the picture the boys had given me. It sat there, perched on the bedside able, taunting me with memories of what I’d so desperately wished for, what I’d just lost. I glared at it and it stared back till my vision glazed over with a memory.

A newly six-year-old me ran, fat tears raining from my eyes.

A few hours prior, I’d woken to my mother’s absence and, desperately in search of her, had gone to the one creature my young mind had had the capacity to despise, Clark. In his office, he’d told me how my mother left because she couldn’t stand to be around a disgrace like me, that I was the root of everyone’s problems and he was going to make sure I never forgot it. I’d called him a liar and he’d snapped, slapping me over and over, calling me horrible things till he was satisfied.

Tattered and broken, in more ways than one, I’d made my way to where I knew Kylie would be at that time. What I’d arrived to broke my heart all over again.

There sat Kylie, happy as could be, playing clapping games with the people we’d referred to as the Meanies before the term Slut Squad had been coined. I’d recognised the one they were doing at that moment and realised that she’d taught them our special one. It wasn’t till she got to the part where they had to spin around that she saw me.

“K-Kylie…why’re you p-playing On the Mountain with them…?” I’d sobbed in a small voice.

“Because they’re my friends.”

“B-but, they’re… we…”

She’d stared at me, eyes wide. To anyone else, she’d look like she was sent from above, but to me, she looked like a destroyer of souls.

“We?” She’d asked, coy.

I’d trembled, “T-that’s our game…”

They’d burst into laughter, as though I’d told a joke. I’d sobbed again.

If Kylie had been the destroyer of souls, Brittany had been the Reaper, hungry for everything but food. When I’d found out she and her twin brother, Harry, were my half siblings, I’d tried to approach her, eager to have a big sister.

It hadn’t ended well.

Picking up a medium sized rock, she’d said, “My tutor taught me a new word today. Chuck. It can be a boy’s name but it also means throw. He said British people say it a lot.”

She’d smiled and then, I’d known, evil was real, “Let’s make a new game. It’s called Chuck it at the Chicken. All you have to do is throw anything you can at the Chicken and see how much you can get it to cluck till it goes to sleep.”

I’d backed away slowly, dreading her next words. Before I could have reached the door, one of their friends had closed it behind me. They’d circled me, like vultures, waiting for their command.

“Daddy says you have no name and we should call you Omega. So, Omega is the Chicken.”

That had been all it took for their collective assault to begin. Rocks, twigs, acorns and the like had pelted my small body as I’d fallen into a fetal position, covering my head. I’d cried and cried, heaving sobs that left me breathless.

“Omega,” Kylie had said between throwing stones, “you’re the Chicken. You need to cluck.”

“Yeah, cluck!” Brittany yelled.

“Cluck!” Another voice parroted.

Soon, they were chanting “Cluck” at the top of their lungs as they continued giving me bruises. One of them threw a particularly large rock, breaking a bone. I’d screamed then finally clucked through my sobs, wishing myself to be anywhere else, till I’d fallen into unconsciousness.

Screaming, I flung the picture across the room. It hit the wall, leaving a dent, and shattered.

‘Nat… I’m so sorry.’ Candy said, pity in her voice.

‘I don’t need your pity or apology. What I need is revenge.’

I took my sweats off and climbed into bed, ‘Tomorrow, we find our manpower.’