Hating someone is quite fun. I thought it would be taxing on my body, but this is great. I feel rejuvenated. Charlotte chuckles, knowing why I’m smiling brightly. “It’s been a month and you still are going strong.” Aaron muses, leaning on the couch. “He made my blankets soaking so I’m going to use his fear.”

Charlotte glances at Aaron, nervous. “What is his fear?” I chuckle, holding up honeycomb. “He has Trypophobia, or the fear of small clusters of small holes.” Aaron shakes his head. “So, I’m putting this in his bed surrounded by other pictures.” Charlotte smirks at me.

I finish getting everything ready before setting it up. “When is he coming back?” I shrug, not really caring. “He has to be back by curfew.” My gaze slides to the door as there are noises outside. “What are your fears?” Rose asks, sitting in a chair across from us.

“Mmmm, I have a fear of being touched. Oh, and small places. Claustrophobia and Aphenphosmphobia.” I answer truthfully. My parents did shit that makes me spiral if something triggering happens. “Nole’s friends are here.” Roberts warns us. That means Jack.

Rose glances at me with wide eyes, nervous. “Will Jack hurt you?” I shake my head. “No.” Rose nods as Charlotte grabs my feet. There are always socks on them for reasons like this. She pulls me off the couch and through the entire ward. I’m being used as a human broom. Lovely.

“OI.” We all stop, seeing Roberts. “Oops.” Charlotte mumbles, smiling sheepishly. “Don’t you have shit to do? Places to go?” He questions. I grunt, yanking my feet back and getting up. “DAMIEN.” Nole screams, storming out not two minutes later.

I look up from the book I’m reading, cackling at the sight of his face. Nole played with fire, so he got burnt. “What the hell is wrong with you?” He hisses. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. What’s wrong with you? Something scare you?” Nole shouts in frustration, storming back off.

“Maybe making enemies isn’t something you should be proud of.” Roberts comments at dinner. “Meh, I think it’s fun.” “You are a sadist, of course you do.” Nole grumbles. “I mean I’m not a sadist. I’m not hurting you, am I?” “You like seeing me in pain.” I shrug, eating a carrot. “No, I like seeing you mad at me. It’s quite funny. Also, kinda hot, not gonna lie.”

Nole flushes bright red. Charlotte giggles while Aaron ignores us. Rose is busy trying to eat and not spill anything on the table to realize what we are talking about. “He’s not wrong.” Aaron comments a second later. I was wrong, he was listening. “You puff out, making your muscles more toned. It’s quite captivating.” I add.

“That’s great.” Nole grumbles. “It really is isn’t it? You are getting all the ladies!!” Charlotte exclaims, grinning widely. “Not really. I don’t care for it.” This is the first semi-civil conversation with him. “Now that’s interesting.” Rose joins the conversation. “Because during class my friend talked about how you have your head in the clouds.”

Nole flushes again. “I’m distracted okay. How is it that you hate me but also have a civil conversation?” Nole questions. “It’s called faking it sweetie. I do it with my parents all the time.” I bite into the bread on my plate, ignoring his astonished expression. “You hate your parents?” “I have reasons too. Anyway, Roberts are my blankets dry now?”

“Yep, they should be dry. Please, in the future don’t attack any property.” Roberts mutters, taking all the plates. “Fine.” Nole grumbles. I hum softly, going back to reading my book on the couch. “Roberts said you gotta go to bed.” Rose calls a few hours later. I shuffle to the bathroom, tired for once.

Showering is nice like always. I climb into bed, ignoring Nole’s snores. God he could not snore louder. I yawn, feeling my eyes close and body drift off to sleep.

“WHO?” I scream the next morning, pointing at my hair. Aaron stares at me with wide eyes. It’s all cut up, looking like shit. I grew my hair out for a long time for a reason. Nole smirks at me, winking. “You make me scared, I cut your hair.” I grit my teeth. “Fuck you. I didn’t actually do anything to you. You could throw the papers away.”

“You can just shave the hair off.” He shrugs going back to eating cereal. I want to strangle this child. I can’t though, that’s murder, and I don’t want to go to jail. The issue is that my hair gets curlier as I go shorter, so my hair is weird and disgusting at this moment. It’s weird that my hair gets straighter as it gets longer. Not something I really care for.

I pull on a hoodie, covering my hair up. I’m not getting a buzz cut. I’ll look like an egg! I don’t even like eggs. “Can we go to the hairdressers after school?” Roberts nods, getting a cup down for me. “What happened?” I yank the hood down. His jaw drops. “Oh. Maybe we should go before school.” “It’s that bad isn’t it.” Roberts just nods.

I groan, letting my head fall on the table. “Holy shit.” Charlotte says, seeing my hair. “I know.” I mutter, not wanting to hear her taunts. “Can I come?” Nole begs. He is an actual sadist. Wanting to see my suffer. God damn. “No. You all get to class. He’ll be there soon.” I finish eating before changing and walking with Robert to the hairdressers.

“What do you need today?” Michelle asks, smiling brightly at me. “Someone cut my hair.” I grumble. “Oh.” She frowns. “I need to see it?” “It’s really bad.” I warn before pulling the hood down. “Hmm, do you just want it curly?” I shrug.

“Not much else I can do is there?” Michelle chuckles, bringing me over to cut my hair. “Okay, do you want an undercut?” “Do what you want. I know you’ve been wanting to cut my hair this short for years.” Michelle grins, quickly getting to work.

By the end of it a section on the top of my head is curly while the rest is shaved. “Thank you.” I hug her. “No problem. Who did it?” “Someone at school.” I pay her, scheduling another appointment. Aaron spots me during lunch, running over. “It looks good!” I grin up at him. “It’s on me. Course it does!” Aaron chuckles, sitting across from me while Charlotte sits next to me.

“Think he will be mad?” Rose asks, eating her lunch. “Probably. It kinda backfired.” I smirk, seeing Nole. He glowers at me. I just flash a smile and the middle finger. “Maybe we should stop.” I murmur. “It’s funny but kind of hard to keep doing for so long.” I continue, taking a bite out of my apple. “Yeah, you don’t gotta be friends with him, but we don’t gotta hate him either.” Aaron suggests.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’ll still hate Nole with a burning passion. He pissed me off one too many times.” “Do you hate Jack?” Charlotte asks, playing with my hair. “I don’t hate him no. He’s just… him and I’m me. He may hit and abuse me but for a little while at least he loved me.” Rose nods, eating something that looks weird.

“What is that?” “Piss.” I scrunch my nose. “Okay. Don’t get sick.” Aaron chuckles. The rest of the day is boring. I mean school is always boring. Unless I get to skip. Then it’s fun.

I look up when Nole walks in. I jump up, tripping over Rose to get to him. “Gonna rub the fact that you got a haircut in my face?” He growls. “Nope. I want a truce. How do you feel?”