Tragedy ✔️

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven: Pain Is Power
River Jenkins

When I’ve descended down the staircase of Sophia’s house, I nearly bump into her grandmother, Jenna, who was carrying a tray with two glasses of orange juice and some snacks on the way up.

Jenna frowns at me, clasping at the silver tray with both of her hands tightly. “Leaving so soon?” She asks. “You two barely started your—”

I couldn’t help but huff, cutting off the words she wanted to say in the process; the breath escaped through my lips faster than I could stop it. “Sophia should learn to mind her own business.” I snap.

I step past her, not caring that her eyes were wide with shock at the tone I used on her.

I fling the door open, and yank it shut behind me again.

I knew from the second I saw Sophia that she wanted the attention to be away from her. I knew it since the start, and my aunt didn’t want to listen.

My aunt thought I was being paranoid, but I wasn’t.  I told her that a girl like Sophia only wanted to get close to me to fish about my past—to get a juicy story to tell everyone so that the attention would be away from her.

The way she spoke about my earlier was like she knew me—the real me—but in reality, she hasn’t known me for that long, and even if she did, she would never have come that close enough to know my darkest secret. No one will ever come close enough to me to know what truly happened to me.

“He doesn’t care about anyone other than himself.” Sophia had said earlier. “And he’s very troubled. Gets mad easily… Gets into fights…”

She acts like she knows me, but she doesn’t know a damn thing about me.

The side she has already seen of me was the only part I will allow her to see because there isn’t another part of me that I can show her. This is me—the real me—take it or leave it. I will not change. And she was right. I do get mad easily, but what does she expect? Does she expect me to sit back and watch how she makes assumptions about me when she doesn’t know me?

No. I will not allow it.

I hear a front door slamming shut behind me and when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw Sophia practically storming toward me. Her hair was flailing behind her with how fast she was actually storming toward me. By the looks of the anger literally radiating off of her in thick waves, she was absolutely pissed at me for talking to her grandmother with such disrespect.

Okay, I must admit that it wasn’t my intention to disrespect Sophia’s grandmother like that, and I must admit that I was being rude to her, but I didn’t like it at all when someone had their nose where it didn’t belong, and Sophia’s nose was in my business, even if she just ‘talked’ behind my back.