CHAPTER FIVE

"Ow!" Cat snapped as someone stepped on the back of her shoe.

"I'm sorry," Tori said quickly.

"You. Why are you up my ass?"

"I'm not, I'm just—"

"I don't give a shit, I told you to stay the hell away from me," she said, opening her locker.

"Can you stop being so bitchy?"

Cat spun around to face her. "I don't know, Tori—can you stop making my life difficult and just leave me the fuck alone? I already told you, I don't want your apologies, they mean nothing to me."

"You choked me out."

"You cracked my fucking skull open!" Cat shouted, causing the students in the hall to pause and stare at them.

"What's going on over here?" Jade asked as she walked up. "Oh. Vega."

"Jade," Tori said.

"What's up, baby girl?"

"I can't get away from her," Cat said.

"Are you so desperate for forgiveness that you're stalking her now?" Jade asked, looking at Tori.

"I'm not stalking her—my class just happens to be this way," Tori said.

"Well then keep going."

"Hey, what's up?" Andre asked as he, Beck, and Robbie walked up.

"Tori's stalking Cat," Jade said.

"No I'm not!" Tori said.

"I thought it was agreed that you'd stay away from her," Andre said.

"You, too?"

"Look, I'm sorry—but Lil Red was my friend before you were and you hurt her."

"She hurt me too, remember? She choked me out—she slammed my head against a wall."

"I didn't make your fucking brain bleed!" Cat shouted, slamming her locker and pushing Tori back.

"Hey—let's not, Lil Red," Andre said, holding Cat's arm.

"Cat," Helen said. "My office. Now."

"What? But—" Cat started.

"Now, Miss Valentine."

Cat sighed and glared at Tori as she followed Helen, leaving the rest of the group by her locker.

"I don't understand why she's being such a bitch," Tori said.

"I do," Jade said. "You called her crazy, then you bashed her head against the floor and cracked her skull open, gave her a brain bleed—do you realize she could have died? If that had been the case, the scissors in my locker would be in your throat right now."

"It was an accident! Her choking me was not an accident!"

"Her choking you was her bipolar talking! And that only happened because you called her crazy!"

"I didn't know about her being bipolar!"

"That doesn't give you the right to call somebody crazy!"

"That's enough," Beck said. "Tori, just go on with your day. Stay away from Cat."

"Sit," Helen said.

Cat sighed, sitting in a chair in front of Helen's desk.

"Why did you push Miss Vega?" Helen asked.

"She pissed me off."

"That's no reason to push her."

"She's everywhere! It doesn't matter where I go, she's always right there. I'm tired of seeing her, I'm tired of running into her, and I've told her several times to stay away from me and not talk to me but she keeps doing it. She keeps trying to apologize and I don't want to hear it."

"Well then maybe we should get you an in-school restraining order."

Cat looked at Helen for a few seconds. "We can do that? Seriously?"

"Seriously. But you can't go near her either. And you keep your hands off of her."

"What if she comes at me first?"

"She hasn't so far."

"She cracked my skull open."

"Miss Valentine. We'll issue an in-school restraining order. In the meantime, steer clear of Miss Vega."

"Whatever," Cat said, standing up. "Can I leave?"

"The sooner the better."

Cat walked out of the office and made her way down the hall when she was stopped by Jade.

"Do you have a tampon on you?" Jade asked.

"Yeah, in my bag," Cat said, opening her bag up and fishing through it. "I take it you're not pregnant."

"I'm still gonna go to Planned Parenthood to get a test done just to be sure, but I just started and totally ruined my new underwear."

Cat giggled and pulled a tampon out, handing it to Jade.

"Thanks, baby girl. You're a lifesaver. I'll be back in school later; I'm going home to shower and change."

"I'll tell Sikowitz," she said as they parted ways. She walked into the class room and sat next to Robbie, laying her head on his shoulder.

"How'd it go with Helen?" Robbie asked.

"I'm not suspended. They're issuing an in-school restraining order."

"Cat… don't you think this is going a little too far?"

"You can always go sit with Tori, you know."

Robbie sighed and rested his cheek against Cat's head. "I'm just worried that people are going to start talking about you."

"They already fucking talk about me, Robbie!" Cat snapped, sitting up. "Everybody stares at me, everybody thinks I'm fucking insane, everybody looks and me and I know in their heads they're saying "that's the crazy bitch that tried to kill Tori Vega, why is she at school and not in a mental asylum?" I'm not the naïve girl everyone thinks I am, Robbie, I'm fed the fuck up with everybody thinking I'm the bad guy and Tori's the good girl! She's the one that started all of this drama when she called me crazy, and then split my head open! But no! Nobody thinks of Tori as the bad guy! It's always me, I'm always the fuck up, I'm always the one in the wrong! I can't help what happens when I get mad; it's not my fault I get so angry! I'm not crazy, I'm sick! I'm sick!"

By this point, Cat was sobbing uncontrollably and the whole class was staring at her, some with tears in their eyes, including Tori and even Sikowitz. Robbie took her into his arms and ran his hand over her back, kissing her head in attempt to calm her down.

"Alright, uh… I think we'll just skip class today," Sikowitz said. "Everyone file out."

As everyone but Robbie, Beck, and Andre left the room, Sikowitz closed the door and walked over to Cat.

"Cat. Would you like to go home?" Sikowitz asked.

The amount of sobs coming through Cat's throat didn't even give her time to answer, so Beck took his phone out of his pocket. "I'll call her mom," he said.

"Thank you guys so much for calling me," Mrs. Valentine said in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, no problem," Beck said. "Seriously. It was scary, she just… broke down. We did what we could to calm her down, but it took a while."

"You tried, that's the thing that matters. I think she just needs a really long nap. She hasn't been sleeping well lately. She still adjusting to those new meds she was put on. It'll take some time for her to be her normal self."

"I wish her normal self would come back," Robbie said. "This new behavior is scary. She's never been so… mean."

"I know. I know it's scary, honey, it'll just take some time."

"Mom?" Jade's voice rang.

"In the living room, honey."

Jade walked into the living room and sat on the arm of the couch. "What happened? School got out and no one else was there, is everything okay?"

"Cat had a breakdown in Sikowitz's class," Beck said.

"Jesus… How is she now?"

"She's alright. She's upstairs sleeping," Mrs. Valentine said.

Jade sighed and shook her head, running her hand through her hair. "I'm so sick and tired of this… She deserves better, you know, she—she deserves the world, and she just keeps getting fucked over because of this stupid fucking disease taking over," her voice cracked.

"I know, honey," Mrs. Valentine said, wrapping her arms around Jade and kissing her head. "We're gonna get things figured out for her. She'll be fine."

"God damn it Anthony!" Cat shouted from upstairs.

"Uh oh," she said. "Cat, what's wrong?" she asked, making her way towards the stairs.

"I swear to God if you don't stay the fuck out of my room and stop fucking touching me you won't have any hands left to touch me with, you little prick!"

Mrs. Valentine, Jade, Beck and Robbie made their way upstairs quickly, finally ending up in Cat's room to find Cat in a tank top and underwear, standing on her bed and Anthony against the wall crying.

"What happened?" Mrs. Valentine asked, running her hand over Anthony's hair.

"I was sleeping, and the little pervert came in and started feeling around on me! I told him to stop and he tried to put his hand down my panties so I kicked him in the nuts!" Cat said.

"Alright. Ant, you cannot touch Cat like that, okay? Ever. That's bad, that's not an okay thing to do. She's your sister, honey, brother's can't touch sisters like that," she said to Anthony.

"Dad did it," Anthony sobbed.

"And you know what happened to dad, Anthony?" Cat asked, getting off of her bed and walking over to him. "The guys he was with in prison? They tortured him."

"Cat," Mrs. Valentine said.

"They were his friends," Anthony said, sniffling.

"Oh yeah? Some friends they were. You know what they did to him after they found out he was touching me? They cut off his dick, Anthony. While he was alive. They just—chopped it off, they mutilated him and beat the shit out of him because he was molesting me—that's exactly what's gonna happen to you if you don't stop fucking touching me, people will hurt you! You can't touch anybody like that. Just because Dad did it doesn't make it okay for you to do. Do you know what it does to me when you do stuff like that to me?"

"No…"

"It hurts me, Ant. It hurts. It makes me throw up."

"But I don't want you hurt."

"Then stop touching me. It's nasty, Ant, brothers don't do that to sisters. Ever. It's gross."

"Grosser than dangling loogies over your face?"

"Way more gross than that, but you're gonna stop doing that shit to me too cause now I know a good nut shot will make you stop your shit—and you are gonna stop your shit because the next time you touch me, or try to touch me the way you just did, I won't get Mommy, I'll call the fucking cops on you and let them take your ass to prison and let you get beat to death just like Dad."

"Caterina," Mrs. Valentine snapped. "Ant, why don't you go take a nap? And apologize to Sissy."

"I'm sorry…" Anthony said, holding his arms out.

"I don't want a hug right now," Cat said. "Maybe later. I hurt."

"I don't want you to hurt."

"Well I do, because you hurt me."

"Go take a nap, Ant. We'll talk later," Mrs. Valentine said.

Anthony walked out of the room and Mrs. Valentine ran her hand over Cat's cheek. "Are you alright, honey?"

Cat shrugged. "I guess… I want a lock on my door, Mom. One he can't pick. Like a chain lock."

"We'll get one tomorrow. It'll be fine, sweetheart. I'll keep an eye on him."

"Okay…"

"I'm gonna go make sure he's actually taking a nap. You're okay?"

Cat nodded. "Yeah. Fine."

Mrs. Valentine left the room and Cat ran her hand through her hair, crossing her arms over her chest as Robbie and Beck stared at her—Jade knew better.

"What!" Cat snapped. "Don't look at me like that, you know my brother's messed up in the head."

"I didn't know he was this messed up, Cat," Beck said. "I'm a phone call away, no matter what time it is."

Cat nodded. "Thanks…"

"Are you okay?" Robbie asked.

"I guess. I'll know later."

"Want me to stay with you?"

Cat nodded. "Yeah…"

"I'm gonna head out," Beck said. "You need a ride?" he asked Robbie.

"Yeah," Robbie said before kissing Cat's lips. "I love you."

"Love you too."

Cat watched the boys leave and she sighed to herself, before letting herself lay on her bed.