Write Me A Letter

22 | taste

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO / T A S T E

BRIE'S HANDS WERE SHAKING when she hopped off Paula's pink vespa. The party at Wes's house was now in full swing. Loud music and laughter blaring from the inside and bright lights shining on the grass.

Teenagers milled around, phones and plastic cups filled with cheap and diluted beer in hand. She hugged herself as she took long strides, feeling the curious looks from those who were fully aware of the issue between her and Izzy. Her heart was beating so fast and her limbs felt weak but the anger burning in her chest kept her steady.

This was for Paula. She failed to defend herself, she failed to save Jean, but she wouldn't let anyone else from their old friend group tarnish Paula.

As she caught sight of Yuki and Mikayla sitting by the front porch, her mind drifted back to Paula and how much she cried in front of her.

Her bare lips thinned when both girls whispered to each other, giggles shaking their sharp shoulders. Brie had enough of this; of every single time their old friends took advantage of their silence and pretended not to be bothered by everything they've done wrong. They were disgusting, a group of dirty manipulators who enjoyed bullying the weak.

"Oh, you're back," Mikayla said when Brie reached the porch with a huff. Mikayla's button nose was poised up in the air as raised her brow at Brie, amber eyes lined with wing liners. "And here I was thinking you finally know your place."

Yuki slipped off the railing and stood next to Mikayla in a similar stance. Brie could see how she was pretending to be intimidating but the quiver on her lips and the rise and fall of her chest weren't hard to miss.

Her weakness made Brie feel stronger. She tried to remember how Paula looked like when she left her—eyes swollen and shoulders shaking as she sobbed into her hands. The faint echo of Paula's promises to herself played like a broken audio in Brie's ears.

Marriage first. Marriage first. Marriage. He said it was just a quick lay... a quick lay.

"I don't have time for your immature taunts, Mikayla. Nobody wants to hear what you have to say."

The girl scoffed, amber eyes rolling to the back of her head. "Oh, please, Aubrie. Who do you think wants to listen to you? What are you even doing here? What, you weren't able to soak enough attention from Xander and Ollie earlier so now you're back for more?"

"I'm not here for them and nor do I need their attention."

It was Yuki who laughed this time. "You're not fooling anybody with that heroic, play-victim stunts of yours. Do you think no one would know about your plan earlier—guarding Jean and Wes like the fucking bitch dog you are." Then her eyes narrowed with mischief and her thin lips curled in a snarl. "Don't tell me you're after Wes too?"

"What?" she asked, appalled by the idea of getting anywhere near Wes. In another day, she wouldn't have imagined going against two taller bullies, but everything that happened today had her reeling, making her snap. "You're both loose in the head if you think I'm remotely interested in any of your trash. I don't need stupid high school jocks who can't keep their dicks in their pants with girlfriends so insecure they're threatened by me."

Yuki's nostrils flared and before Brie could even take a step back, she was already jumped by Yuki. A tangle of hands and hair wrapped around her as both women tried to get a fistful of her strands. She tried to punch and kick her way out of the cage of bodies they trapped her in but they were far taller than her. A jab in her rib, a scratch on her arm, a shove in her chest.