Surface

Chapter 12 - I Did Something Bad

The book's pages were crisp from the overuse. I could only imagine the countless times these pages were flipped and the countless people that had held this book in their hands. Victoria was one of them.

The librarian had given this to me as a way to understand where Victoria's head was at before she died. The book was one of her favorites and the last book she had checked out. And frankly, laying here on my bed, staring at the faded black ink I did not understand why she would read something so boring.

The book was titled The Power Within: a how-to about taking control of the situations you're put into and shifting the dominance in social relationships. It seemed like something an extremely passive or power hungry person would read, not Victoria.

However, it occurred to me that maybe she was reading this book to gain control over her tormentor. Only as her funeral proved, the book was no help.

Placing the book down on my nightstand, I locked eyes with a familiar figure out in my yard.

The backyard hardly counted as anything. It was small, the size of a bedroom, and overgrown with weeds and other gross things I had no business of messing with. We cleared it out a bit in the summer to create an area to hang out in but my grandmother hated the humidity and I was avoiding tanning any further. There was no use in working hard to maintain it.

If I had no business in being in the backyard, I had no idea why Helen did. I walked closer to the window and pulled the curtains to the edge to get a better look.

She was pacing, biting her nails and staring at the dirt like it was an emotional drama. She kept creeping closer to my back door and then backing away. I decided I wasn't going to wait for her to make a move. My trust for her was run thin since Hannah was no longer on my side and she was still friends with Helen.

Hopping down the steps, I paused at the back door and took a breath before throwing it open. I stood there in my PJ shorts, tank top, and a long cardigan with my hair up in the messy bun staring at the well dressed and collected girl in front of me. She had jumped back a few inches and had her pedicured fingers to her chest.

"Good afternoon, Helen. What brings you around here?" I glanced around the yard and then focused on her. "Is creeping around in peoples yards a new hobby of yours?"

"No, no. I just . . ." She gulped and rocked back on her feet. "You're really easy to talk to and I need to talk to someone about this or I'm going to explode!"

"Sounds like you have a lot to say. Why don't you come inside?"

After we were settled in the kitchen, sitting at the table with mugs of hot chocolate, Helen began to spill.

"The reason I came through the back was that I didn't want Hannah to see me." She shifted in her seat and looked around like Hannah might pop out of the kitchen drawers. "You know that suspicion we've always had about Hannah?"

I tilted my head. Lately, I've had many suspicions about Hannah. "Can you be more specific?"

"The one about her home life and her mother."

"Oh."

"Exactly. She had bruises on her arms and the night before when I walked her home her mother yelled at her first thing she got inside." She shook her head, staring at her beverage with glistening pity. "It would explain why she wrote all of those nasty words on our lockers."

"She did that to you guys too?" I thought action had been out if hatred for me but in reality, she was taking her anger out on all of us. The anger created by the abuse she endured from her mother.