Filicide

6 - Taiga

"You alright, kiddo?"

I blinked, my brain returning to the present. I took a moment to process the piece of paper covered in random number problems in my lap before looking up at Agnes, who was kneeling next to me. His eyes shone with concern.

"You seem a bit distracted," Agnes said with a frown. "Did something happen?"

"What? No, nothing happened," I said, turning back to my math homework. Multiplication tables. They weren't the worst thing in the world, but I hated them.

"Come on, it's alright, you can tell me," Agnes said with a soft smile, sitting down next to me. "I just wanna make sure you're okay."

I stared at the numbers on my paper for a moment before repeating, "I'm fine." I went back to writing products into multiplication problems.

Agnes wasn't convinced. "Taiga, if something's wrong, I just want to-"

"I'm fine!" I immediately gasped and covered my mouth after I'd snapped at him. I sighed. "Sorry."

Agnes was surprised and didn't speak for a moment before relaxing. "It's okay. We all get mad sometimes."

He tried to put his hand on my arm in a comforting motion, but a small burst of pain caused me to jerk away, wincing and letting out a small "ah" of pain. Immediately Agnes frowned.

"What is it? Are you hurt?"

Hesitantly I gave him a slow nod. I rolled up my sleeve and showed him the bruise I'd gotten, still freshly discolored from Mazhun grabbing my arm last night. Agnes furrowed his brow, concerned.

"...Taiga, how did this happen?" He asked.

I hesitated again, quickly thinking up a lie. "Uh... someone at school grabbed my arm and pushed me to the ground. I-it's fine, it doesn't hurt that much."

"Who was it?"

"I didn't know them. I was probably just in the way."

"That's not really a good thing, Taiga," Agnes looked at me with worry. "If people are pushing you around like this at school, you have to tell a teacher, or your dad, or someone. If you don't tell anyone, then nothing will be done about it."

He was getting a little too deep into the lie. I remained silent for a moment. "I-it's okay, really. It's never happened before, so they were probably just having a bad day, is all. It wasn't anything, I swear."

Agnes stared at me for a moment more before, to my relief, he sighed, letting go of the light hold he had on my forearm. "Alright. But if it keeps happening, you tell someone, okay?"

I nodded. "Okay."

He gave me one last worrisome look before returning to the counter through the door of the lounge. I exhaled, my hand brushing the bruise and pulling the sleeve back over it like a sheet over some antique furniture.

It was probably better that Agnes didn't know about what happened last night, right? Mazhun's his friend, I don't want him to be mad at Mazhun. Besides, it was only one time. Mazhun lost his temper and I was awake when I shouldn't have been. No big deal. I'll just need to be a better listener and listen to what Mazhun says without complaint or disagreement. It'd probably be better for both of us.

He has seemed a bit stressed recently, though. Maybe he's worried about that girl that went missing... What was her name? Peridot? Perdita, that was it. That would make sense. She might be hurt, but I'm sure she's okay. I think she probably just got lost or something on the way home. Any day now they're gonna find her and everything will be fine. Kidnappings only happen in movies and stuff, right? Mazhun doesn't even let me watch movies with stuff like that in them. They're too old for me, he says. He doesn't really watch them either, though. He doesn't really watch TV at all. Maybe they're too old for him, too.