Disinfectant soap pricked her head like needles. The olfactory detected the main aroma of soap and other cleaning products, but underneath it laid something else, a smell unique to cleaning products that offended her. Honey pulled out Sam's notebook with a pale face.
“Why do you have that?” She raised an eyebrow, peering at the schemes the girl had inside her head. She always overestimated her own intelligence.
“I stole it from him yesterday while we- that’s not the point, this is!” She flipped to a page with her name written in large bold text.
“Yeah, he’s obsessed with you, I told you.”
“Flip to the next page.” Honey said, chewing a fingernail.
“Ok…” Sonia flipped the page over, and she understood the gravity of the situation entirely. Her smug exterior melts away to an expression much more serious.
“That’s not all… keep going.”
She flipped to the next page, and then the next, and then the next. In total there were ten pages of contents, ending with her address written and circled and underlined and highlighted. Sonia slammed the book shut and propelled it against the wet tiles beneath her feet.
“And you dare fight back when I told you to break up with him.” She turned to Honey.
“Ok, clearly you were right, as always…”
“And you’re still salty over it? Wake up!” She clapped right in her face.
A tear rolled down Honey’s cheek. “Just help me settle this, okay? Please…”
“Apologise first.”
“For what! I didn’t do anything to you!”
“Not to me-” She craned her head towards the mirror. “-to yourself!"
She glared at the girl staring at herself, face already flushing red with contempt and disgust. Picking the notebook off the floor, she ripped out those ten disgusting pages carelessly, and stuffed it in her bag.
She spent none of her lunch break eating. Instead, she made a trip to the teacher’s office, knocking on the glass door disruptively. Eventually, someone would greet her, albeit in annoyance.
“Who are you looking for? It is incredibly rude to knock on the door like that.”
“I need to see the principal.”
“What for?”
“I need to tell him something.”
“You can say it to me.”
“No, it’s serious, he himself needs to hear it.”
The teacher stood less aggressively. “Why? Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“No, it’s not about me. It’s about my friend.”
“Ok, come on.” The teacher led her in, and a blast of silence hit her, which was soon disrupted by the sound pollution of printers and light panels. The humming and buzzing proved to be more annoying than she expected.
The teacher knocked on the principal’s door, requesting her to wait outside for a moment. She went in, uttered a few words to him, before opening her door to allow her in. Sonia sat down confidently before the man himself, slamming the ten pages down on his desk.
“What is this?” The principal asked.
She pointed to the name written on the first page. “Honey Candy, a student from Diploma of Film Studies, is being stalked by Sam Windsor, a student from Diploma in Business Management.”
**
The school day flashed by in a blink, her mind set on only one thing. Karma. She refused to hold anything back today, giving lesser than zero considerations for Sam, or for the club, or for anything else.
She marched in the lecture hall, dropping her bag by the entrance and charged head-first for Sam, pinning the boy against the whiteboard and holding up the disgusting ten pages in her hands. “Ms Eva saw this. Alongside the principal and the board of directors, you're dead.”
“What? Hey! Back off! Saw what? F- Leave me alone-” He froze, seeing the pages more clearly. “How do you have that? I thought Honey took it?”
“And you’d rather she showed it to you than me. Why? Because she’s not strong enough to pin you to a whiteboard. Huh!” She pressed harder, compressing his chest as his face crumpled.
“Ok, look, I can explain, just let me- I can’t breathe… Come on… please.”
“Ten pages! Ten! How long did it take for you to write all this...hm?" She pressed harder.
“I’m serious… stop… I have a chest thing…”
Sonia let him go for a moment, and he coughed violently. Then, Honey entered on cue, holding up the rest of his notebook.
“Give-” He coughs. “Give it back, I need it.”
“For what?”
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“I can explain, Honey, please, just listen…” He placed his hand up in an act of cowardice.
“I am! Talk!” Honey demanded.
“I just wanted to buy you the perfect gift… and I just wrote some notes and ideas down to like… collect my thoughts. It was how I came up with the perfume!”
“How did you know I used that perfume, and that exact brand, and that exact scent?”
“What perfume?” Sonia asked.
“I saw it in your cabinet.”
“You went through my cabinet!” Honey shouted.
“It was already open!”
“Wow, you’re more creepy that I thought.” Sonia resumed.
“No! I’m not! I’m a nice guy, you know that! Honey, you know I’m nice, I’ve been nothing but nice to you all this time! Come on! I love you.”
“Oh my god, I’m gonna throw up.” Sonia covered her mouth.
“I did too, until you- you-” Honey interfered.
“Oh zip it, you’re number two on my list! You’re not just a victim in this!” Sonia continued. “I have had it with the both of you! But-” She balled fists, taking a deep breath, “-one at a time.” She looked to Sam, who stood paralysed with a white flag over his face, “You, continue. Tell us why we shouldn’t get the police involved.”
“Oh, no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no! Please, please, Sonia, please, please, please. I swear, please. I can’t, please, my parents, they would disown me, and what about Joe, and what about the club? The club! What about the club, you can’t have this club without me, don’t you love editing? What about the club-”
“You kicked me out, remember? You said Erin could replace me. So I don’t give two craps about the club.”
“Ok, ok, you’re back in! Ta-daa!” His knees trembled, tears flowing faster than a waterfall. It was the first time she saw him so vulnerable. A voice echoed in her head to stop. “I’ll make you the leader, you call all the shots, everyone will listen to you! I won’t call you mean, I’ll follow every word you say, I’ll do anything you want. Please, please!”
“You’re pathetic. You know that? Just this slimy little worm in the dirt who wants to fly amongst the birds, who always dreams about being bigger, but deep down… he knows he’s just a stupid liitle worm.” Sonia inches in closer for the final blow. “You try all these little things to gain success, you try to make a film, you enter a business course, but nothing works. You wanna know why? Because you’re a failure! You’re a giant failure, you’re born into failure, and if you ever have children you’ll only keep the cycle going! I weep-” She shouted out. “-for your brother. He deserves better.”
“Ok!” He barked. “You’re right! I am worth nothing! I am just a little worm! Woo-hoo! You win! All the points, go to you! You’re the king! You’re sitting in your high-rise glass ceiling office, and I’m outside talking to your secretary asking if I could come in to see you before I go home. Oh, could I see Aunty Flower just once? I’m going back to Singapore tomorrow and I miss her so much! Oh i’m sorry, she’s in a very important meeting!” He wiped saliva off his mouth. “I live in a house that isn’t mine! My phone isn’t mine! My couch isn’t mine! My clothes aren’t mine! This stupid plain white T-shirt came from my cousins! Everything did! We own nothing! At least worms have- have- have- have- their own little- plot of dirt in the ground, we- we- we- we- have nothing! So congratulations! You! Win! Happy?” He roars, and tosses his bag to the back of the room.
Sonia froze, still processing the overwhelming amount of emotions put on display. Seeing the boy in pieces triggered emotions in her too, and she resisted showing them. She turned around to see Honey watching in pure horror, dreading her turn. The voice inside grew louder, pleading to let it slide, and finally, Sonia caved.
“And you-” She said to Honey. “I think you already know…what I have to say…”
Honey simply ran away.
A boulder lifted off her shoulders, and she floated for a moment. She looked around the empty room, and then to the crying boy now collapsed to the floor with his face buried in a chair. What did she just do?
“Please… don’t call the police… Please… please… I’m begging you.”
“It’s not up to me Sam.” She dropped the notebook on his head, zipped her bag open, and passed him a thumbdrive. “I finished editing everything. Submission is by midnight today. Don’t forget.”
**
In a frenzied panic, she sprinted across the school looking for Honey, as requested by the principal to begin the investigation into the matter. She searched the campus up and down, and failed to find the sobbing girl. Giving a weak excuse to the teachers, she hailed a cab to her place, hoping the girl had gone home to seek refuge.
She guessed right, seeing a grief-stricken girl answer the door, before slamming it in her face. Sonia quickly put her foot out, feeling the weight of the door crush her toes. “Ow- f-” She screamed, staggering in whilst nursing the injured area with her hands.
Honey immediately sprung into action, finding a plaster in her room and removing her shoe to place it on. “Which toe?”
“First one.”
“Here?” She angled it right on top of the nail.
“A bit to the left.”
“Ok.” She angled it left, then pasted it on. Then, her original emotions of grief returned. “What are you doing in my house? Go away! Why does everyone know where I live!”
“Because we helped you move! And I need you to go back to school.”
“Leave me alone!”
“I need you to give your statement to the principal.”
“What?”
“They’re investigating Sam, and they need to hear from you.”
“I’m not sending him to jail!”
“He creeped around your house, who knows what else he saw? He went through your closet! Did you store any clothes beside the perfume?”
“T-shirts.”
“Imagine if you stored the perfume in say… the bottom drawer?”
“I know! Okay! I know what he did, and I know it’s all my fault!”
“So give your statement, and don’t lie. Unless you want him to look in your bathroom next.”
“You don’t get it.”
“What now?”
“I said you don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“You don’t know how I feel.”
“Oh my-” She held her breath. She wanted to combust again. “You are just… a mess. Just… the biggest mess of a person I have ever seen. You’re so so stupid, always just destroying- what? Do you like being sad? I don’t- I can’t even- And you wonder why you’re lonely, and you wonder why none of your relationships last! Honey! Are you like… mentally sane? Or are you just genuinely that… dumb? I actually can’t tell!”
“Oh, and you’re perfect right? You have no flaws at all? We’re the idiots and you’re the smart one, right? And you say Sam is the one with the ego. Please.” She rebutted, wiping tears off her face. “I bet you’re having so much fun bullying us into the dirt right? Does your chest feel lighter? Can you feel yourself on the verge of a smile? Because this is the only thing that gets you to smile right? Pulling others down to your level?” She shook her head. “Like father like daughter."
Sonia pointed a finger at her, utterly speechless. She simply hailed a cab home, ignored her mother, and screamed into a pillow until her voice went hoarse.