Your Local Ankle Snapper

On top of you unknowingly choosing to partner with Zip, not even realizing that you could have chosen another classmate to do the project with, she is not, by any means, a pleasant partner to work with in a complicated project such as the Industrial Revolution.

In fact, she seemed more interested in poking around things in your room rather than paying attention to whatever you're trying to tell her. Deemed too boring in her eyes, she decided to dig around in your drawers, you cabinets or your computer. (She didn't get too far without your password, which you refused to tell her. Whatever attempt she made before that seemed to have annoyed her.)

"I know you don't care about our project," You start, pinching the bridge of your nose. "But could you at least not dig around my personal belongings while you're here?"

She cackles. "Why? Got something embarrassing here?" She asks, crumpling up paper and throwing it at you.

"You wish." You reply sarcastically. "I'm just not comfortable with you trying to find every little detail about my life just for blackmail." You sigh. "Besides, it's not like you could, you don't have a camera in my head."

Zip's smile never leaves her. "Oooh, good idea! I'll try that next."

You scoff. "Don't you have a little brother to take care of or something? He usually attached to you whenever you're not around the other assholes."

She blinks slowly. "For your information, we're only classified as 'assholes' because you can't find the humor in our pranks."

What humor?

"Second off, Chip's being taken care of by our parents for the day." She puts up two fingers. "God, I should call you wimp or something, you're such a wet towel."

...What does that even mean???

You decide to not entertain that with a response. She either doesn't notice or doesn't care as she continues to snoop around your room. If your parents were home, they'd kick her out immediately.

"Why are you here?" You mutter. It's just barely loud enough for Zip to hear.

"Did you forget already?" She snarks. "We're doing our projects, nerd." She teases, raising a brow at you.

You roll your eyes. "Which you don't seem to be doing."

She snickers. "Whaddya mean, wimp? I'm being extremely helpful.

You don't respond to her.

"Wimp~?" She repeated. "C'mon, don't ignore me."

You continue not to respond to her, keeping your eyes on the paper in front of you.

"Ugh, fine," She says your name. You finally perk up.

"About time you used my real name." You say, scratching your arm. Come to think of it, did you ever tell her your name?

Maybe you did and you just didn't remember it. Or maybe she figured it out off of someone else, who knows.

You tap your finger against your desk. "...Seriously though, are you going to contribute at all, or just snoop around my stuff."

She blinks at you, slowly before sighing dramatically, rolling her eyes. "Fine, what do you need."

You can feel your eye twitch, but you won't refuse any actual help. "Could you grab me my notebook from on top of the kitchen counter, I forgot I left it down there."

She simply gives you a thumbs up before walking out of the room.

You sigh. Honestly, you should have known better than to allow her to do that by herself. Well, it's not like she can really do anything bad to you, per' se. You don't need to tell her anything.

A crash rings out from outside your room. Even in your own thoughts, you aren't safe from jinxes.

You rush out of the room and look around. You rush into the kitchen when you didn't see her anywhere else and see her holding her arm, muttering curses as you notice the wound on her arm.

It's bleeding. Not bad, but you can tell that it hurts.

"Shit," You curse silently. "Hold tight, I'll be right back." You promise, running off into the living room. Zip hadn't noticed you until you had said anything, so she flinches when you did speak.

Zip surprisingly does as she's told as she just holds her arm in pain. She isn't crying, she'd never be THAT weak to cry like that.

You bring in a med kit, opening it and pulling out gauze. You should probably have disinfectant with it, but you don't see it in the med kit so you'll just work with what you have. Which is the sink.

"Put your arm over the sink real quick." You say, making your way over the sink.

She gives you a look. "Are you kidding? Do you know how much that hurts?"

"Well," You roll your eyes. "You COULD always just have me put the bandages on and risk your cut getting infected and, you know, lose an arm."

Zip blinks at you, looking between you and her arm. "Ugh, fine."

You turn on the sink as she walks over. She flinches back as the water almost grazes her arm before just quickly putting her arm over the water. She sucks a sharp breath through her teeth, trying to hold back a whimper as you wash it with soap.

"Fffffuck-- that stings-" She bites her tongue, trying to appear strong.

You turn off the water and grab a towel to clean out the water from the wound to try and make it as clean as possible before finally putting the gauze on.

As you double layer it, she just stares at her arm with a look you can't quite describe.

Once you finish, you motion her to sit at the dining table. "Just take a breather."

She does, sitting at the end opposite of your as you sit down with her. She's rubbing her bandages lightly, still giving a look at her arm.

"What happened?" You finally decide to ask after a minute of silence.

She scoffs. "I was trying to find snacks to steal from you, and you end up having your whole knife collection up there. I lost balance and landed on the knife weirdly." She glares at you, as if it was your fault she decided to rummage through the cabinets. "Who are you, Riley?"

You'll pretend to know who that is. "For the record, it was my dad's decision to put those up there." You raise a finger before putting up a second one. "Two, if you wanted snacks you could just ask. I don't mind sharing."

You blink. "Actually, I don't mind stealing from my parents, as most of the stuff in there are theirs."

She blinks, looking caught off guard about something before rolling her eyes. "Sure, okay."

You look at her arm. It seems fine right now, seeing that she doesn't seem too in pain. "How's the arm."

She places both hands on the table. "Oh, you know, cut open." She remarks. "...It doesn't hurt as much anymore."

"That's good, right?" You say, smiling reassuringly. "Unless you're a masochist, that is."

Zip chuckles lightly. "You heard me already, I-" She shuts her mouth, pupils shrinking for a moment before smiling widely. "I should honestly tell everyone that you did this to me."

You blink, being caught off guard by that. "...If you think that's what you want, then go for it." You mutter, defeated. You had already told yourself to not get close to her, that she'd do something exactly like this, and now you had done what you had told yourself not to do.

Zip slowly lowers a brow. "You're not going to try and talk me out of it?"

You scoff. "Why bother?" You say, rolling your eyes, putting your head on the table. "It's not like I can do anything to stop you. I can't punch my way out of a paper bag, let alone be charismatic enough to be convincing. What's the point?"

...Why did her heart sink when she heard that?

No, it's just not fun if she does you in like that. Anyone can do that! Just make assault accusations and get away with it, where's the fun in that?!

"...Geez, you really are acting like a moody teenager." She laughs, putting a hand up to her mouth. "Relax~ I won't tell anybody that."

Confused, you look at her with a suspicious look. "...You're lying."

She snickers at the look you're giving her. "Now what would make you say that?"

Well, she's openly spoken about secrets from other students, towards you (in the little recent time you've spent talking to her over the week) and to her friends, she's openly hit people in school and rarely gets suspended for it, she keeps throwing paper airplanes at people who repeatedly told her to stop, you could go on if you were actually talking.

"Nothing." You lie, rolling your eyes.

Zip's phone rings. She pulls it out and looks through her message app, only for her eyes (or, eye in this case. Her hair is blocking out the other one' to go wide.

"Shit," She mutters. "Yeah, as great as this was, I really gotta get goin' now. Good luck on the project nerd!" She yells as she rushes out of your house.

And now you're alone again.

Okay.

Yeah, sure this is fine. No more random girl rummaging through your cabinets getting themselves cut or snooping around your stuff. This is better, you think.

Sure, she's been coming over your house over the past week (after you gave her your address for project purposes) and dulling out the crushing silence that always embraced you whenever you went home.

Typically, about now you would have went out with friends, but... well, you couldn't.

...You should socialize more. Right?

Why bother, though? They'll just end up killed like the rest. You... don't really know what the correct move is anymore.

So you just put the med-kit back where you found it, cleaned up what blood was left on the tiled floor and just went back to your room.

Look at it like this! Now you don't have to have someone snooping around your stuff anymore! Now all you have is the suffocating silence in it's place.

You continue your project.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Alright, you can admit that Zip... wasn't the worst company to be around. You've (surprisingly) seen her softer sides. Small bits of actual help here and there (giving you a pencil without you asking), giving you some actual compliments ('huh, you... actually did really good on that project, huh? Good job, I guess.') and just bits and pieces more.

She's (luckily) hasn't involved you with her other friends, which you very much prefer. You know how they are by this point, you really don't need more smug assholes in your life right now. A point you've made very vocal with Zip, which you don't think she cares much for.

...Actually, now that you think about it, she's been much more attached to you since you've helped her out with her arm. You don't know if the other bullies have noticed. If they did, they didn't make it known, nor did Zip really know when you brought it up to her.

It's been about a month by this point. The Industrial Revolution project came and went. You didn't get the highest score, sure. No help from Zip, like you expected but you definitely did better than how you thought you would.

You had honestly thought that with the Industrial Revolution project gone, Zip would have just dipped back to her friends, but now she's dragging you to her house because she 'needs extra hands with my little brother' she says. Sure, you can do that for her.

You don't know if you consider her a friend yet, but you're on good enough terms with her that you could help her out. Just this once, you think.

"I don't think I've met your brother yet." You say as you walk beside her on the sidewalk. You had decided to walk because you didn't trust your parents enough to not go 'sure child, we can make time to bring you to a friends house' and Zip didn't have a car nor wanted to drive.

You doubt she had a drivers license, actually.

"That doesn't surprise me." She says casually, shrugging. "Me and Chip rarely spend time together in school due to me being in twelfth grade and him being in Kindergarten."

You chuckle. "Yeah, that makes sense, huh." You say, putting your hands in your pockets. "Do you at least walk him home? 'Cause he isn't here with us right now."

"He was sick today." Zip comments. "And yeah, I usually do. Our parents can't help us today because of a promotion or something stupid like that," She sticks out her tongue in mock disgust. "so I'm- or I suppose we-" She smugly smiles at you, jabbing at you with her elbow. "are going to take care of him today."

You smile, waving her off. "Yeah, yeah. I know." You come to a stop as a car comes by at a intersection in a neighborhood. "It's only fitting that I see your house after you've seen mine, no?"

Zip only shrugs. "I mean, it's not like my house is some top secret government building, there's nothing big to it."

As you turn the corner, you see a completely normal house at the end of the street that Zip points to. "That's it."

It's two stories, presumably for a family of four. The front yard looks... somewhat tidy, all things considered. Stray pirate items like hooks and flags litter the front fence, sure, but otherwise looks fairly clean.

"You- uh... really like pirate stuff, huh?" You say as your shirt gets stuck on the fence.

Zip smirks. "How do you think I got so good at stealing? Can't be a pirate if you don't know how to steal."

"Sure." You say, finally getting your shirt unstuck. You and Zip walk to the front door as she digs under the floor-mat to grab the key. Honestly the sole purpose of floor-mats seem to just be a convenient hiding place for keys.

You huff in amusement as Zip unlocks the door. "What?" She asks, turning her head towards you.

"Nothin'." You answer, raising a hand up. "Just thought of something funny."

"Uh huh." She squints at you suspiciously before turning and entering her house, leaving the door open for you.

When you enter, it's not exactly what you expected. Well, more accurately, for her character, this house is surprisingly clean. There are a few toys scattered all across the place, sure, but disregarding that it isn't as trashy as you almost expected it to be.

"Well, here we are." She says, seemingly unimpressed by her own abode, which makes sense, you would say. "Welcome to my 'humble' abode." She says, putting quotations around the 'humble' in her sentence.

You smile. "Humble indeed, huh."

She rolls her eyes playfully. "Yeah yeah, I get it, the house looks cool compared to yours." She says insensitively, which doesn't make you flinch. You're kind of used to this behavior at this point.

...That's probably not a good thing, right?

She looks around before putting her hands up to her head, cupping her mouth. "CHIP, WHERE ARE YOU?!" She screams. You're shocked by her sudden outburst before glaring at her.

"Did you have to yell?"

"Yeah." She says, smiling smugly at you. "How else am I going to get everyone in the neighborhood's attention?"

Zip feels something run into her leg. She looks down and see a toddler hugging her leg. The same toddler with a fish attached to it's back. You honestly aren't sure if it's stuck to his back or not.

"Hey, Chip!" She says, leaning down to pat his head. "How was your little nap?"

Chip doesn't respond, but somehow Zip knows exactly how he's feeling. "That's great, bud."

"He's a quiet one, huh?" You comment, looking down at the child hugging her leg. "Does he know how to talk?"

"He sure does!" She exclaims proudly, hand on her hip. "It's just that he doesn't like to talk much. One of those silent types, y'know."

"I see." You say, putting your hands in your pockets. "Well, it's nice to meet him. Cute guy."

"Isn't he?" She says.

"I never thought I would see you gushing over someone, honestly." You say, finally snapping her out of her funk.

She stutters for a moment, trying to think of something. "H-hey Chip, how about that show you've been watching, huh?" She says, smiling nervously at her brother. "What was it called again...?"

"Dog." Chip simply responds.

Zip snaps her fingers. "Courage the cowardly dog! That's it." She turns to you, smiling at you with brows raised. "Now who does that remind me of?"

Chip tugs at her dress. "Hungry."

"Yeah?" She says, smiling down at her brother. "What do you want to eat?"

Chip only blinks at her. Zip blinks back.

You just stand there awkwardly. "What does he usually like to eat?"

Zip pauses, blinking slowly. "I'm... honestly not sure, as of recent." She says, gesturing a bit as she picks up Chip, holding him with one arm. "Honestly, he's been kinda weird lately with what he wants to eat."

She pokes her brother's nose, which makes him swat her away playfully. "I mean, last week he was addicted to bologna, now he's going through a burger queens fries phase."

"O-oh?" You say, cringing slightly. "Seriously? Burger Queens? They barely put salt on those fries."

"I know!" She relates. "But this little guy," she boops Chip's nose again. "has been adicted to them for the last week, so I'm going to try and get him hooked on something better."

You're almost afraid to ask. "Which is?"

"Candy."

Oh boy.

She immediately rushes into the kitchen to begin her absolutely foolproof plan.

-------------------

You had managed to talk Zip out of giving a child more candy than their body could possibly handle. Just a moderate amount seemed to leave Chip content for now. It was actually kind of cute seeing him fall asleep in Zip's arms.

She laid Chip down on the couch, putting a little blanket over him, with courage the cowardly dog playing on the TV in front of you both as you both sit down.

"He's so low maintenance that it almost feels criminal." She says, laying back and sighing. "Honestly, the only hard part about him is when I can't find him."

"When you can't wha-?" You sputter, raising a brow at that sentence.

She lazily raises a brow at you. "Relax, he never gets out of the house. It's usually just him being in his toy box or in cabinets or whatever." She waves off. "...It sometimes gets exhausting, just because of how many times he does it."

You tilt your head. "Do your friends not help you?"

She scoffs. "Nope, they always have 'Something better to do'." She says bitterly. "Doesn't matter how badly I need them at that moment, they're always busy. Cause' Oliver always busy making out with his girlfriend."

"Oliver has a girlfriend?" You ask in disbelief. He seriously has a girlfriend?

"Ho'h yeah." She says, exasperated. "Alice. I'm sure you've already heard of her so I'm not going to explain to you who she is."

She was right. You were painfully aware of who she was. Mostly through rumors of terrified classmates, but it was enough to know that you didn't want to get within twenty feet of that doorknob.

You tap your foot nervously. "Well, you at least have fun with them, so that means something right?" You say. "Unless you're secretly a laid back individual."

"Nah," Zip waved off, laughing lightly. "I'm more of a fun motivated kind of gal, you know?"

"With that fun being tormenting other students?" You ask, raising a brow.

Zip nods furiously. "Yep! It's pretty lucrative, if you ask me and the others."

You swallow. "Yeah, right." You say solemnly. "It's good you have friends like those, I suppose."

Zip blinks, clearly confused. "What do you mean?"

You laugh somberly. "You have no idea how much of a weight lifter it is to just have someone to actually confide in." You say, looking to your side. "I mean, you can't imagine how lonely it feels just... not feeling safe enough to feel like you can't tell your friends your darkest secrets."

Zip blinks. "I- uh...?" She doesn't know how to respond to that, so you just continue.

"Like, I used to have friends that I could actually confide in like that before... well, you know." You gesture your hand up to your neck. "After that, I kind of just..."

You sigh. "Gave up, I guess?"

Zip stares at you, not quite sure what to say.

"W-Well, point is--" You stammer, trying to correct yourself in front of the person you've explicitly told yourself not to tell anything you don't have to to. "It's good to have friends you can confide in."

Zip stays silent for a moment, dragging her claw across the wooden crevices in the floorboards. "Right."

You grow silent. Did you offend her?

"I-I mean," You start, raising a hand up in mock surrender. "I hope you have someone like that."

She shakes her head, smile returning like nothing happened. "Of course I do, it just isn't you." She points and snickers. "Like I would tell you any secrets of mine."

You chuckle genuinely. "Honestly, I'm not sure that I even want to begin knowing your secrets." You joke, waving off the comment in general. Maybe you hit too close to home, but she actually... didn't seem upset at you.

More conflicted is the emotion you can read on her face. "...You know, I-" She swallows. "Most people don't really... see the way I treat my brother. They just assume I do the same to him as I do everyone else."

You blink. "And you've never told them otherwise?"

"Why bother?" She flops a hand on the couch after raising it for a moment. "'s Not like anyone would believe me."

"Well, they just don't know you then, huh?" You say, settling into the couch finally. "Though, that's probably what you want, huh?"

"Yep!" She says, chest puffed out. "Why do I want a bunch of idiots knowing anything about me? Just causes them to be mushy with me and all that gross stuff."

You chuckle lightly. "Like the way you were treating Chip earlier?"

She blinks before stuttering. "Wh- w- He's just a kid!" She defends herself. "And my brother. I..."

...She looks guilty about something.

"...I actually tried not caring 'bout him." You blink. "...And?"

She sighs, sinking into the couch as if she wishes it could take her. "I ended up almost throwing him off the roof."

Your heart immediately sank upon hearing those words. You decide not to say anything, to just hear her out.

"And then I looked into his stupid, big eyes..." She grips her hands, closing her eyes tight, as if reliving a bad memory. "And I couldn't. That's all." She tries to brush off, her eyes meeting anywhere but you.

...You wonder if your parents ever felt like that when they looked at you. They weren't abusive, sure. But they were never there, in a sense. You wondered if throughout all the asking them to spend time with you that maybe once, that's how Zip felt when she almost did that to Chip.

...Who knows, who cares. This isn't about you.

"That has a strange effect when you have the same blood, huh?" You comment, offering light sympathy.

She blinks at you. "What do you mean, you speaking from experience."

You scoff. "I wish."

Silence reigns between the both of you for only a moment.

You sigh. "For what it's worth, your secret is safe with me." You say, reassuring her. Well, you think you reassured her, but she just gives you a stare, as if you learned something you weren't supposed to know.

Her stare softens. "...Right, after everything I've done to you, like I'll trust that."

"Trust it or don't, I'm not going to tell anyone." You say. "Something tells me you don't do that with your other friends, so I'll just be the first to say, I won't use your personal life against you."

She looks at you, brows lowering. "Even after everything I did?"

"I don't hold grudges." You say, waving her off. "Way too much energy for something that just makes you dead inside."

Her look softens. She doesn't say anything else, just turning her attention back to the TV.

...

Something switched inside her. She can't describe it, it's a feeling that nobody else has ever given her.

She doesn't know whether to hate it or to embrace it, and that's the frustrating part about all of it. She's trying to justify it to herself, saying that things are going to plan, but...

Does she really believe that herself? She's not sure.

She scoots closer to you. She feels... content. That's the word she's looking for, right?

She likes this feeling. Whatever it is, she likes it. She needs more of it. Something that her other friends have never given her, and she wants so, so much more of it.

And she can't just describe what it was about you that made her feel like that. You weren't understanding since the start, but you've been getting more open with her these past weeks.

...She doesn't get it. She thinks she hates the way you make her feel, like something entirely foreign that she's not supposed to be feeling right now.

Whatever, she'll figure it out later. Right now, just focus on the stupid TV.

Her parents will get home later, and you'll leave.

...She didn't want you to leave yet.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone is weird recently.

Not in the school murder kind of weird, more like avoidance kind of weird. When you went to your locker, everyone seemed weirdly avoidant of you, quickly closing their lockers and moving on. That immediately set off red flags.

When you went nearby a conversation happening, it switches to whispers. You don't get it.

You don't know what you did. You know you were standoffish to everyone else, but you didn't think it was to a point where nobody wanted to be near you.

Or look at you.

...Or even just say hi like they did before. Even when you greeted first.

It's weird how lonely that feeling is. How... crushing it is. You weren't a social butterfly, not anymore at least, but even you want to at least have some kind of social interaction.

Was it you? What did you do wrong.

Zip still hanged out with you though, seemingly disregarding all of the dirty looks sent towards you and her.

You would initially try to brush her off. You would have, you really would.

...But she's the only one who's been talking to you lately. Well, her and the rest of her group that is. Though, you'd rather not talk to them rather than her, considering how disregarding they are towards you.

Another day you can hear the whispers again, but they're getting louder. The dirty looks continue and the dirty looks are no longer constricted to just you and Zip. Just you.

...

Is this what being abandoned really feels like?

Ha...

It's not a welcome feeling.

"Am I doing something wrong?" You mutter absentmindedly. Zip, who had decided to hang out with you at the cafeteria today glanced at you rather than her food or phone.

"Whadoya' mean?" She asks, raising an eyebrow as she chews on her food.

You let out a sigh. "I just don't get what's going on. Everyone is being so..." You wave your hand around, trying to figure out the right words. "Distant. Like, more than they usually are."

Zip shrugs. "I never noticed." She takes another bite of her food. "But then again, they're usually like that to me that I don't think I would have anyway, heh." She chuckles to herself.

You don't chuckle with her. "I mean, they would at least say 'hi' if I say hi to them first, you know?" You pinch your forehead. "But they just turn their nose at me."

She gives you a look you can't exactly describe. Maybe annoyance, but not directed at you. Or maybe it was, you weren't really great with reading faces anymore you think.

"I just don't get it." You mutter. "It feels so... wrong? That's the right word I think." You lie your hands flat on the table.

Zip only shrugs. "You get used to it."

You're not sure if you want to get used to it. Your heart sinks further upon hearing those words.

You stay silent, you're not sure what to say anymore. You're not even sure she cares.

...She doesn't, does she?

"I'm going to sit somewhere else." You announce to nobody in particular. The only other person sitting at the table shoots her gaze up at you, seemingly caught off guard.

"Wh- why???" She whines, grabbing your hand. "C'mon, don't leave me here alone!"

"You have your other friends." You point out, nodding towards the Oliver and Edward, who are talking to each other about god knows what.

She scoffs. "What, after all this time we've spent talking to each other, you really still don't consider us friends?"

You...

...Aren't sure anymore.

"I don't know," You say finally. You're finally speaking what's on your mind, truly. "I can never get a read on you."

She blinks at you as you sit back down. She doesn't say anything, just letting you continue.

"You- you're a total asshole to everyone else, but for some reason you just won't leave me be." You say, putting a hand on your head.

She lets go of your hand.

"You've been friendly towards me, and I don't get it." Says you, voicing your frustrations. "What did I do to get you to just not leave me alone?"

Zip smirks. "You're cute."

You go wide eyed, slowly turning towards her. "What?"

"What? You being cute isn't enough reason to just be hanging around you?" She admits, putting her head on her hand. "Jeez, how oblivious have you been?"

You're not sure what to say. You can't tell if this is a confession to love or a confession to why she's just been sticking around you. You're not sure which one you'd prefer.

"Besides," She waves her hand, going back to eat her food. "It's not like those other people were hanging out with you anyway."

You just blink at her, never tearing your gaze away.

"I mean, can you imagine how much energy is being wasted trying to get other people to like you when they're clearly not interested?" She laughs, wiping a tear from her eye. "Even the one's you really want to have a relationship with."

...

"I-"

"Save it," She puts a hand up. "Honestly, I don't mind wasting all the energy. You were cute, so I wanted to hang out with you." She finishes. "Does that answer your question?"

...

Not all of them, but some of them. You feel so guilty, and you don't know why.

You didn't hate your time with Zip so far. Sure she's rude and way too over-energetic for you sometimes, but...

...She's been fun. You can see why the other two actually want to hang out with her, even if all three of them are... Uh, brutes, you could say.

Then again, in this school, it's brute vs brute, and the quiet ones are just trying to go unnoticed.

You sigh, putting your head on the table, burying yourself in your arms. "I just don't know anymore."

"Didn't I just tell you?" She raises a brow at you.

"Not that, just..."

You let out a breath you didn't really know you were holding. "Nevermind."

She shrugs and goes back to her meal. She looks around the cafeteria out of bored curiosity, noticing a few students who are looking at you and her.

She smiles manically, waving at them wildly. Oh, she is SO going to mess with them later. She cackles to herself internally.

She looks over back at you. How... pathetic you look. Honestly, it would be the perfect time to just throw you down to the ground, beat you down until you just decide to kill yourself. You had nobody now, you had just ADMITTED to it!

Oh, she could just see it now. You trying to hold your feelings in while she laughed at you. Seeing your entire world crash around you and you finally just grabbing that rope and...

And...

And for some reason, that makes her sick to her stomach.

She couldn't really grab satisfaction thinking about you doing that compared to literally anyone else. She hasn't been able to do it since the start.

It's weird how well her initial plan had worked, just for you to have GUESSED it only moments later! Honestly, Oliver was shocked you had found out that fast that they were only leading you on. It was made so secret that they didn't even tell Edward.

...Honestly, that part was probably unnecessary. She and Oliver just liked messing with Edward to bring down that smart guy persona.

This was the plan from the start. She had managed to salvage it, she had managed to get close to you, to get on your good side, you had just confided to her in confidence. Stupid of you, honestly.

And she just can't bring herself to do anything to you.

It honestly pisses her off more than she would ever admit. She sticks her fork at the tray in front of her, glaring at it as if it were the one making her feel like... this.

Was... was it the way you had treated Chip? No, EVERYONE treats Chip like how you did, he was just a child, of course.

...Honestly, maybe in part that's why it made her feel bad about it, but not sick. She can't explain that part.

What was it about you that makes her repulse the though of actually hurting you. It was so... easy before. Just jabbing at you, albeit lightly just to get on your good side, sure but, like-

She hates feeling like this. She hates it so much, she's not supposed to be feeling like this.

She used to fantasize about beating you to the ground. Now it's like your a flower she's desperate to get blooming again.

...How does she fix this?

She doesn't know. She doesn't know if she can.

she looks back over to you. You still have your head in your arms.

I̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶r̶m̶s̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶w̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶.̶

...What?

That is not a thought she's having right now. Nope, nadda, nuh uh, no.

You still looked cute though. That much she could admit.

Before she could really say anything, the bell decides to interrupt her thought bubble.

'Annoying.' She thought.

You sigh. "And that's probably my Que." You say. "...Sorry for dumping that all on you."

She shrugs. "Meh, I'll--"

'Probably forget about all of it later.', she almost said. For some reason, the words felt more bitter than what she deemed necessary for you. Or, really warranted against you.

...Wait, why does she care what's warranted against you? She doesn't...

"...I unno'." She sticks her tongues out playfully. "Don't know why you decided to tell me of all people that, but you know." She winks. "Your secret is safe with me."

You blink. "Something tells me it isn't." You sigh, getting up from your seat. "Well, I'll enjoy the next ten minutes where my insecurities aren't leaked to the public."

You look at her. You just can't bring yourself to dislike her anymore. "See you around, Zip." You stop before you could get to far, just for a moment. "...And for what it's worth, your secret is still safe with me. Even if you leak mine."

You walk off.

...

Do you really think the others deserve to know about your deepest insecurities? Nope, that's her secrets to hold. She is your closest living friend after all.

All those photo's she stole earlier felt like good blackmail material, but now it's just something to keep so nobody else has it.

She could physically feel her eye twitch. "Right, as if anyone could really get to know your secrets."

She swallows. "God, what's happening to me?" She runs a hand through her hair. "This is so stupid, I wasn't-"

She bites her tongue. She wasn't actually supposed to get close to you.

...Why did you actually have to care about her? The other two was just out of pure circumstance, but you...

Fuck. Why are you making this so complicated for her? She hates all of the stupid emotions that are running through her.

Visibly annoyed as she is, she still decides to keep her mask up in front of the others. They don't need to know her... rapidly shifting priorities.