"So what's going on here?" Kendall asked, but I didn't tell her anything. Taking out my phone, I texted Trish.

 

To Trish:

3:53 PM: We're almost there. Bringing Kendall. Go hide behind the walls on the far end of the pet store and don't come out until I text you.

 

I led the two down the same path Kendall brought me all those times.

 

From Trish:

3:55 PM: This is sounding like an ambush. Are you sure we're not going to get into a fight?

 

To Trish:

3:55 PM: I won't start anything, but she might try something.

 

I kept walking in silence until we made it to the alleyway, where I turned around and pointed down it. "Go down there."

"And let you attack me when my back is turned? No. Especially when you got Sophie with you."

Sophie cut between us and walked down the alleyway. That seemed to be good enough for Kendall, since she followed her.

"Stop," I said when we got to the middle. I took out my phone.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Sophie asked.

"You'll see." I sent another text.

 

To Trish:

4:01 PM: You guys can come out now.

 

Right after, Trish and Zach walked down the other side and boxed Kendall in as they came closer.

"Who are these people?" Sophie asked as she stepped over to me.

"I made some friends in the hospital. They said they'd help make her stop."

"What do you mean by make her stop?" Sophie asked as she eyed me, "I know you think she's still trying to bully you, but she's not anymore, and this is scaring me now."

"Tell me your name," Kendall said as she stared at the two and backed up into me, but I pushed her forward.

 

She's actually backing away from someone?

 

Trish tried to come closer, but Zach stopped her. "Stop bullying Robbie," Zach said. He pulled off the 'intimidating threat voice' really well.

"I already did, and I'm not going to ask you again to tell me your name."

"...My name's Zach."

 

Without any warning, Kendall backed up and crashed into Sophie and myself. I put all my strength into pushing her forward, but I couldn't. For whatever reason, she was almost desperately trying to get out of there.

 

What the fuck's going on? I've never seen Kendall like this.

 

Kendall and Zach know each other, but we still have no idea what happened between them.

  

She pushed past us like we weren't even there. Until a moment later when her eyes snapped to mine. She grabbed Sophie's and my wrists and dragged us towards her.

 

Don't let her do whatever the fuck she's trying to do!

 

Using my other hand, I dug all my nails into her to try and get her off me. Soon enough she let go, but immediately grabbed my collar and yanked me forward.

"Listen to me! He's a lot more dangerous than I ever was to-"

As she was rambling about some shit, a hand appeared on Kendall's shoulder. "Let him go!"

 

More dangerous? What-

 

Before I finished that thought, Kendall turned around and knocked Trish down with a single punch.

"Trish!" I rushed up to her and knelt down. She clenched her mouth with both hands as I asked, "Are you okay?"

 

We knew she was still a psycho!

 

Trish didn't get a chance to answer before I looked up to see Kendall tackle Zach to the ground.

 

She hasn't changed at all! Just like we said!

 

I ran up to them, but Sophie got to her first and grabbed a handful of Kendall's hair to drag her off Zach.

"What the fuck's wrong with you!?" Sophie shouted.

 

Now Sophie sees how messed up Kendall still is!

 

"Don't let him near you or Robbie! He's going to hurt you two way worse than I ever could!"

 

Why is she talking like that about Zach? I seriously never seen anyone freak Kendall out as much as now.

 

Pern's vines wrapped around my body and started to merge into myself.

 

We don't care! If we don't stop her then she's going to do that to Sophie and us!

 

Without thinking, we ran up in front of Kendall and threw as hard a punch as I could. It landed, but we couldn't enjoy it. She fucking hurt our friends and we couldn't even get a second hit in before she grabbed our hand. "Robbie I'm serious! You have no idea how dangerous he is."

 

Enough of her bullshit!

 

Pern and I reached into our pocket and pulled out the pepper spray. We held it up and as soon as it went off, she screamed out in pain and rushed back away from us.

"What the fuck!?" Sophie shouted as she let go of Kendall. "You almost sprayed me! And where did you even get pepper spray?!"

 

Oh crap…

 

She's fine so it doesn't matter! Keep going after Kendall!

 

Any guilt that was there was replaced with exploding hate and anger. "From Holly," we said, eyeing Kendall as she stumbled away from us.

 

Don't let her get away!

 

We sprinted past Sophie and jumped into Kendall's back, ramming our shoulder into her and knocking her down. Face first.

Sophie ran up and tried to hold us back. "Okay, you made your point," she said, looking back at Zach and Trish. "Now let's leave her alone."

 

No! We've tried everything and nothing's worked, so now we're going to do it how we always wanted to!  

 

Glaring down at Kendall squirming on the ground, we pushed Sophie's arm away and aimed for Kendall's ribs with a kick. Hitting so hard that our foot bounced off of her. It even knocked Kendall onto her side. "I knew you were faking being nice!"'

"That's enough!" Sophie grabbed our shoulder and tried to drag us away from Kendall, but we slapped her hand away.

"No it's not," we said as we wound up and kicked Kendall in the stomach.

 

Perfect! She's even gasping for air!

 

"How does it fucking feel!?" She covered her body, but I didn't need Pern to tell me what to do next. We kicked her right in the fucking mouth. "You thought you could keep taking everything from me!?" She covered her head and tried to roll away from us. "I won't fucking let you!"

Sophie grabbed our shoulders and turned us around. "What the fuck are you doing? You told me all you wanted to do was scare her. That's it. We're going home right now."

 

Big talk for someone that beat Kendall so badly she sent her to the hospital. Now it's our turn! 

 

We turned around and didn't waste any time kicking Kendall's back to put her down on her stomach. The pain and tingling going on in our foot was worth every single kick.

"I said stop it!" Sophie shouted as she got between Kendall and ourselves. She grabbed us by the wrist, "You're starting to piss me off."

She tried to drag us away, but we pushed her off us. "Get off me!" we yelled, before using all our energy to keep kicking Kendall as hard as we could! We started to break down after the fourth kick, and we stopped only to scream down at her. "I didn't do anything to you!" We didn't bother holding back from crying. Tears ran down our cheek as we grabbed the back of her head and pushed it to the ground. "I even tried to be your friend!"

"If you keep this up then you and I are through!"

We stopped on the spot and almost snapped out of it.

 

She'll seriously break up with me over this?

 

We're not going to give up this chance! Make her tell us why she did all that shit to us in the first place! Make her tell us!

 

But-

 

We don't give a shit what words could come out of our mouth right now! If Sophie can't handle us finally getting what we want, then don't think twice.

 

Pern hung over me and wrapped his vines around myself.

 

All these years. We deserve a fucking answer to any question we have for her! Just like we deserved to be able to beat the shit out of her.

 

…I don't hate Kendall that much to break up with Sophie.

 

Yes we do, and we're going to show us we do. Say 'I want to know why you did everything.'

 

No. I'm doing this so Kendall would stop breaking everything, but I'd lose Sophie. That's exactly the kind of thing I want to stop.

 

I wanted to loosen my grip on her head, but something kept me holding on.

 

Don't pull this crap. Let go.

 

We're still holding on because we agree with ourselves. We showed her we can beat her in a fight, and now we want to know why she did everything. And if Sophie has a problem with us just finding out why, then that's on her.

 

We didn't move an inch as we talked and tried to think.

 

I'd still much rather have Sophie than an answer.

 

If we did, then we would have let go by now.

 

Then I can get her to tell me later.

 

The only reason Kendall would ever tell us is if we're in a position of power over her. This is the only real power we've ever had over her. Don't throw away this chance just because Sophie can't understand.

 

I knew he was trying to give me a push. We really. Really wanted to keep Sophie from getting mad at us, but…Pern was right. We needed to know why she did everything. The thought grew until it was the only thing we could think about.

 

'I want to know why you did everything.'

 

"I want to know why you did everything." 

 

'Tell me.'

 

"Tell me."

 

Her voice was raspy and broke as she talked. "You grabbed my shoulder," she said between coughs, "The milk spilt on you. It took my mind off of…stuff. So I kept doing it…"

"What stuff?"

"...I can't…"

 

She can't? If she hates people grabbing her shoulders so much.

 

Pern's vines wrapped around my arms and hands.

 

'Then I'm going to make you tell me.'

 

"Then I'm going to make you tell me." We let go of her head as Pern guided our hands to her shoulders. Where we pinned her down with all our weight. 

“Let go!” she screamed. She even tried to crawl away from us, but we were not going to let her go anywhere.

"I'll stop if you tell me." We said as we squeezed her shoulders.

"Get off her!" Zach yelled from behind us. He ran up and grabbed our arm to try to pull us off. 

"Let go of me!" Even with his pulling, we kept a tight grip on her shoulders.

"You're seriously not going to stop?" Sophie asked. "But I said if you didn't…"

 

…I'm so sorry, Sophie, but if she's not going to tell me even after I beat her up like this, then I might not get another chance. I need to make her tell me.

 

“Tell me why already!”

“Please…" She muttered through tears, "Please get off me…”

“What’s that? I couldn’t hear the big mean Kendall through her crying.”

Then all of a sudden, she stopped putting up any kind of fight. She didn't struggle, or talk, or even move.

 

Something's wrong here…

 

She's faking it.

 

"Kendall?" we asked, but no response.

 

—

Seeing Zach in bed, acting the same.

—

 

Both Sophie and Zach pulled us off her, but we didn't fight them this time.

"What the fuck do you think you were doing!?" Zach yelled, but we kept staring at Kendall.

 

Seriously. What the fuck is going on with her?

 

We told us she's faking. She's going to snap out of it in just a minute.

 

I don't know about that…

 

She lies about everything! Of course she's lying about this.

 

"I told you enough about Kendall that you should have known not to do that kind of shit!" Zach yelled in my face and pushed me, but Sophie quickly got between us and put up her fists.

"I don't know who you are, or why Kendall's scared of you, but I think you should leave."

 

—

""Robbie I'm serious! You have no idea how dangerous he is."

—

 

Trish walked up behind Zach and slid in front of him. "Hey buddy, it's alright," She said in a soft voice, "I'm sure Robbie just wasn't thinking and was worried about us." There was some blood on Trish's lip, but she seemed fine from what I could tell Zach was a lot worse off though. Bruises and blood. Our eyes were still almost entirely glued to Kendall though.

 

If he scares Kendall, then he's good in our book.

 

Yeah but. If Kendall's afraid of him, then shouldn't we be too?

 

Guess we should ask him why then.

 

"I'm not leaving until I know Kendall's okay," Zach said as he tried to walk to Sophie, but Trish kept him back.

 

We don't like how he's looking at Sophie. Step in right now.

 

"Why was Kendall so afraid of you?" We asked.

Trish's eyes widened for a second right before Zach screamed out. "I didn't do anything!"

Sophie stepped back, while Trish turned to Zach. "I think she'll be fine so we should probably go."

"Not until he apologizes for accusing me of shit!" Zach yelled as he tried to push through Trish to get to us, but she managed to hold him back.

"No one's saying you did anything," Trish said as Pern appeared next to me and held up his vines. "Being here's only going to upset you more."

 

He's way different than before and we don't like it one bit.

 

I didn't say anything like that! What is even going on anymore!?

 

Zach tried to look around Trish, but she kept moving her head in the way. "Remember that Robbie doesn't know what's going on."

"If you're going to be that aggressive to Robbie then I'm telling you to leave," Sophie said with her fists still up, "Kendall already beat you up, and I sent Kendall to the hospital when I was done with her last time. If you try anything to hurt Robbie then I'll do the same to you." 

 

Holy fuck.

 

That got both of their attention. His eyes flicked between us and Kendall.

"Come on," Trish said, "You know you don't mean to act like this when you get upset. Let's go home and calm down and we can talk about this when everyone's relaxed.

Between Sophie and Trish, we couldn't see him anymore, but he kept talking. "I don't want him hurting her anymore."

"I won't let him," Sophie said, "I'm going to call my dad. He works with a bunch of hospitals, so he'll know what to do."

"Hear that?," Trish said, "She'll be fine."

He didn't say anything, but we peeked out to see him staring right at us for a moment before turning around and walking off.

 

Everything about that was fucking creepy. Even more than Kendall.

 

Trish turned around as she walked off and mouthed a 'I'm sorry.' and held up her hand in a 'call me' sign.

Then it was just Sophie and ourselves. Once they were gone, Sophie took out her phone and went to kneel over Kendall.

"Dad, I need you to come here. Kendall is freaking out and I don't know what's wrong with her."

…

"Yeah, the same one. Robbie wanted to talk to us about something, but someone attacked her and now she's just laying here."

"Stop…" Kendall muttered loud enough for us to hear.

"Stop what?" Sophie asked, but Kendall kept going.

"Please…stop stop stop…"

Sophie got up and rubbed her forehead. "She's saying stop over and over again."

 

That…Why would she be saying that stuff?

 

"I promise I didn't do anything. Can you please just come over here and check on her?"

 

We don't know.

 

"Because I don't know if I should. Just please get here quick…"

 

Still think she's faking it?

 

…No, we don't.

 

"Know that alleyway across from Pet n' Friends? Robbie and I are here."

…

"Alright. Thank you."

We walked up to Sophie as the call ended, but the moment she saw us, she turned around and held out her hand to stop us.

"I think you've done enough." Sophie stared right into our eyes. "I knew you were pissed at her, but I didn't know you cared more about hurting her than being with me."

Pern hovered above her as her words stung us.

"Don't say that. I want to be with you, but I deserved to know why she did everything."

She held out her hand towards Kendall. "If that's your way of asking a question, then I was so wrong about you."

"Don't act like I knew this would happen. All I knew was that she didn't like people touching her shoulder." We went to put our arm around Sophie, but she pushed it away. 

"Don't touch me. I told you what would happen if you didn't stop."

We stared at her as our energy quickly drained. "Can we at least talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about. I told you what'd happen and you didn't care. You made your choice. Sorry, but we're through."

Hearing those words stabbed us in the chest and made everything heavy.

"I didn't hurt her that badly…"

"You pepper sprayed her, and you almost got me. Did you even care I was standing right behind her?"

"Of course I cared!"

"Then why'd you do it? The only reason I can think of for you to do something as shitty as that is because you didn't care. Every time she's brought up it's always about how she's trying to play everyone, or that she's faking being nice. I don't know what that freak out from her was about, but those two gave me the creeps. If everything she did up to now is her faking being nice, then she was doing a really great job of it."

"And what about when you sent her to the fucking hospital? Is it okay for you to do it but not me?"

Sophie stared me down and jabbed my shoulder, "I didn't try to hurt you when I did that."

Anger and more tears started to seep out the longer this went on. "I wasn't trying to hurt you! I know you don't realize it because you don't have these kinds of problems, but I'm not going to just believe her like that. She spent years lying to people and doing a really good job of it. I had to do this to make sure she'd stop!"

"Don't give me that bullshit. If you wanted her to stop, then you never would have done all that shit at lunch. You weren't trying to protect yourself. You just wanted to get back at her. You didn't care if she was being nice or not." She turned around and sat down next to Kendall. Leaving us standing there. "Just stay away from her, or go home."

 

—

"Then ask your friends if you're being a bully"

—

 

We stood there with a blank stare as Pern's vines slowly unmerged and dropped down to the floor. Everything was all crossed and every emotion of the rainbow hit me one after another on loop.

 

This isn't what we wanted to happen…

 

What kind of bullshit is her logic?

 

I turned away, still trying to desperately hold myself together as Pern appeared next to my side.

 

Robbie-

 

No! I had to show Kendall I was in charge.

 

Pern put his vines around me in a hug.

 

…We're sorry.

 

You have nothing to be sorry about because we didn't do anything wrong!

 

His bulb rested at my side as tears slid down my cheek.

 

We'd be lying if we said she didn't make sense. Things have gotten out of hand. We just wanted…We don't know anymore.

 

His hug got tighter as sap dripped from his bulb. His version of crying.

 

But there's still so much hate and anger in here! How else are we going to let it all out!?

 

He rose his bulb into the sky, opened the petals and let out a scream.

 

All we wanted was one time when we won! We beat the bully and our girlfriend and friends are proud of us! Why did we have to fuck that up for ourselves!? What the fuck is wrong with us!?

 

I sat down against the opposite side of the wall and Pern collapsed down next to me.

 

Instead our girlfriend demanded we stop and we ignored her. We're sorry, Robbie. We fucked everything up. We know it's a shitty excuse, but it's hard thinking clearly when Kendall gets brought up…

 

I took a deep breath in through my nose and held it in.

 

How are we going to fix things then?

 

More vines wrapped around me in a hug and I breathed out.

 

We don't know.

 

Of course we don't…

 

…Are we mad at ourselves?

 

I sat there and watched Sophie with Kendall. Pern wasn't the only one that wanted to get back at her.

 

No. I'm not. I screwed up just as much...

 

Pern rested his bulb on my lap as we waited for Sophie's dad to get here.

 

Thank you…