Mean Girls of Maplewood Ch. 20

"Oh fuck me." Her mother was standing at the end of the corridor leaning against her bedroom door. She took a drink of some hooch from a glass letting her hand drop limply to her side.

"Where you going?"

April stared across the hall at her mother without answering her query. She took stock of the woman from her bare, calloused feet up tired, rubbery legs over her own huge bust to her haggard looking face. Excessive drink left the embattled woman looking like she'd had a stroke as her daughter scoffed taking a few steps in her direction.

"I asked you where you're going?" Her speech was slurred as April took a few extra steps eyeing her warily.

April stopped right in front of her mother redoubling her grip on her satchel bag, glaring as the almost perpetual smirk left her face. It was silent for a few seconds as the women took stock of one another in some unspoken challenge of wills.

"Fuck you."

April took an extra second letting her answer sink into her mother's defeated psyche before walking out of the house slamming the door. Her mother finished her drink before sliding down onto the floor in a heap.

*

Humbert stood in front of his window looking down at his driveway where the ghost of Leslie called out to him. The encouraged isolation, his mother's smothering behavior and April's insufferable nature had him twisted up in knots on the inside. He felt quarantined from the rest of the world, a prisoner of circumstance and calcified victim hood with no end in sight. He loved his mother dearly completely understanding things from her point of view. April was his girlfriend but felt more like an antagonist most of the time. He chalked it up to feelings of inadequacy on her part due to finding out about Leslie.

He admitted that he wanted things to be over between them long before she summoned him to Happy's bearing the marks of an implied scuffle with the second queen of Maplewood High. He felt conflicted with a head full of white static where the stunning cheerleader was concerned. Nothing would stop her from returning again and again even after he had nearly been killed the night their entangled karma reached a psychotic crescendo. Images of the animalistic, savage struggled of wills and the now inevitable result haunted him nonstop.

At times deep into the night, he sometimes imagined that he could feel her body there with him under the sheets. Every supple curve and contour there for his probing fingers, every bit of her delectable body up to her beautiful face which left him disturbed on another level. In the beginning he would get up in the middle of the night gaming until the sleep returned or day arrived not caring which. Humbert thought about the tote bag full of DVD's under his bed containing horrific images of her degradation at the hands of her own best friend. Red had taken him first in the library long ago using her derriere as a proxy for her sex.

It was all a ploy to blackmail him for their purpose. She was the undisputed queen of Maplewood High and by some accounts, the small town surrounding it as well. Red was his first sexual experience, but he never thought of her in the same manor. The perpetually angry redhead was truly one of the most evil people he'd ever met, and the contents of those disks bore proof of that irrefutable fact. But Leslie raped him on that occasion and one other before he found his courage.

Humbert managed to fight her off taking her virginity as recompense and reparation for the horror visited upon his person leading up to that fateful night. He continually traveled backward in time to that all too brief moment as they sat in a potter's field watching the sunrise and nothing more. There was the slightest moment of complete symbiosis in that fleeting window of time as the sunlight came to greet the nude teenagers. It brought with it a overwhelming sense of self loathing and guilt that gave agency to his desire to get as far away from her as possible.

Humbert knew there was no way he could ever look upon her and not see what he'd done in a fit of righteous anger, revenge, and crazed lust. This was the beautiful monster who turned his world upside down and seemed to think he was her property. Leslie would return again and again, becoming violent when she believed him to be moving beyond her in some respect.

Her resultant brutality upon finding April in his company bordered on the murderous until he managed to pry her hands away from his girlfriend. Humbert couldn't deny the hurt in her hazel eyes feeling as if he'd betrayed her. It felt like they were a couple; felt like they had something going on which was an abomination considering what came prior. Humbert hated himself as he yelled at Leslie to go away, finally letting her know that he was privy to her own personal shame.

Hours after yelling at his stalker, Humbert found himself regretting his words and hating himself even more. He watched her sex tape countless times trying to find some manner of contentment that she's been similarly defiled and deposed. Only recently had he stopped watching due to the fact that it felt wrong but couldn't muster the strength to toss the bag into the garbage. Now Leslie Kennedy appeared once more in the middle of the night tossing pebbles at his window wanting him to come down to her. Humbert Jenkins was tired of it all.

Leslie Kennedy was done intruding on his life and he was going to take a bit back every day until he found the nerd who existed before two cheerleaders decided to rape him. He was going to kick things off by sleeping with his girlfriend one last time like he should've when he took her virginity. He would get nude for April and make love to her before they went their separate ways.

"I guess its about time, Leslie."

Still he lingered at the window a few seconds longer watching the street below almost expecting her to pull up in front of his house. He finally lowered and shut his blinds muting the afternoon sunlight leaving his room hitting the stairs. Something felt off kilter, weird and strange about the situation as he navigated the stairwell down to the living room staring about his house. It felt like somebody was watching as he scanned the corners of the modestly furnished room which lately served as his father's surrogate bedroom.

His parents were constantly fighting and yelling at one another in a test of wills concerning their son's assault. Humbert walked over checking his mother's bedroom finding it empty, but still feeling a bit anxious. He noticed a closet door slightly open adjacent to the first floor bathroom cautiously opening it. There was a stained creak as the door slid open, the knob gingerly in his grasp.

"SHIT!!"

A stray cat hopped down onto the floor at his feet meowing as Humbert caught himself. He face palmed recognizing the fluffy Maine coon tabby rubbing itself at the bottom of his pants leg. Humbert would toss bits of meat down to the animal sometimes actually buying it a can of tuna. He gathered the cat up into his arms rubbing its furry head walking into the kitchen for a treat. He found some lunch meat for his accidental pet opening his front door to place it out on the stoop.

"What the fuck?"

Betty Joe was in the process of walking back down his front steps, almost stumbling onto the pavement at the sound of his voice. She half swung about facing him with a hunched posture wholly intimidated.

"Sorry."

"You want something; that why you were gonna knock on my door?"

"Well, sorry I got...uhm, well sorry about that." Betty Joe found herself unable to articulate as Humbert set the stray cat down on the steps. Both of them watched the animal disappear into the hedges of a neighbor's home.

"Hey what do you want?" She flinched at the stern sound of his voice noticing the budding irritation on Humbert's face. He didn't know what to make of the buck toothed girl who seemed familiar.

"I'm Betty Joe and uhm, well..."

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" He barked at her impatiently.

"I done brought you something."

"Look I don't want no Watchtower magazines or nothing and my folks ain't home, ma'am." Betty Joe chuckled in nerdy fashion feeling a bit of relief when she realized he thought she was soliciting.

"No, you're Humbert; Humbert Jenkins, right?" He raised an eyebrow.

"YEAH?"

"I done brought you something from ah; uhm, a friend." She was clutching her phone to her chest with both hands, breathing hard after clearing a verbal hurtle.

"A friend? What friend, Betty Joe?"

"Leslie Kennedy, we're friends, like both of us cheerleaders." His face twisted into a scowl frightening the humble teen standing at the bottom of his stoop.

"YOU KEEP THAT SHIT AND GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!!"

"WAIT!!" Betty Joe found herself running up the stairs as he withdrew back into his home intent on slamming the door in her buck toothed face.

She managed to push on the door with both hands inadvertently using her weight stopping it for a second as he started hyperventilating. Humbert shoved back roughly slamming it in her face locking it. Humbert fell over on his back scrambling for his life alert necklace before he noticed Betty Joe's phone on the floor just inside his door.

"I'm awful sorry Humbert; I didn't mean to scare you or nothing, sir. Can I have my phone back?"

"TELL HER TO LEAVE ME ALONE!!" He managed to get the pendant out of his collar fingering the button, but hesitated.

"Uhm yeah sorry; she just wanted you to see it." Betty Joe explained from the other side of his door.

"SEE WHAT?!!"

"The picture." Humbert's brow furrowed as his gaze settled on her phone which was still illuminated. There was a photo on its face. His hands trembled as he picked it up staring at the photo displayed on its face.

Everything came crashing down with one look at the message from the woman who'd been making his life a living hell. There they were; all three of them standing in somebody's living room posing for a selfie. Red stood off camera right, Leslie stood to the left with the BFF's flanking a stark revelation that left the traumatized nerd doubting his sanity.

April was standing center between the taller girls smiling malevolently, dark smoky eye shadow and bright red lipstick on her rounded, demonic looking face. A hidden antagonist, an unknown monster revealed as his grasp tightened around the android phone shaking with rage.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE, BITCH!!" Betty Joe tumbled down the stairs when he snatched his front door open almost throttling her. The homely cheerleader barely righted herself before he grabbed one of her thin arms.

"I DON'T KNOW NOTHING; SHE JUST WANTED ME TO SHOW YOU THAT PICTURE, IS ALL!!"

"WHERE SHE AT?!! SHE HIDING OUT HERE LAUGHING AT ME?!!" He was ready to toss hands with his stalker at this point stomping down off the curb standing in the street.

"SHE AIN'T HERE!!" Humbert walked a little further from his house taking glances at the photo on Betty Joe's phone almost spoiling for a fight. He barely acknowledged the protestations of the gawky girl running up behind him until she snatched at her phone.

"Where that bitch at, then?" He demanded as Betty Joe continued snatching at her phone. Humbert considered tossing it on the asphalt and stomping it to pieces.

"SHE TEXTED ME THAT FUCKING PICTURE AND YOUR ADDRESS!! SAID YOU BLOCKED HER NUMBER AND THAT YOU WAS IN TROUBLE WITH THAT FAT GIRL!!"

"What?"

"GIMME THAT PHONE DUMMY; YOU'RE A REAL JERK!!" Betty Joe snatched her phone out of his grasp backing away still shaky and fearful.

"What about April, that fat girl?" He realized that he was shooting the messenger.

"SHE'S CRAZY STUPID!! LESLIE DIDN'T WANT HER TO GET YOU!!" Betty Joe checked her phone finding that he'd cracked the case while Humbert stood there processing.

"April." There was a slight breeze in the air.

"Huh?"

Betty Joe glanced up from her phone puzzled finding Humbert stalking off in the opposite direction. There as no mistaking the urgency in his stride as he power walked towards the end of the block. Betty Joe felt guilty like she was going to be the cause of an impending fight. She ran after Humbert arms flailing about in the air like some runaway ostrich. The homely gossip was determined to find out what was going on experiencing more excitement in the last few days than all of her previous years at Maplewood High. Humbert was still in sight appearing headed for Happy's as Betty Joe picked up the pace.

April was sitting on the short brick wall waiting with her satchel bag slung over her shoulder. Her makeup applied expertly hiding the evidence of her skirmish with a hated enemy. The wet looking blonde hair framing her face was somewhat curly and close cropped as she licked her deep red hued lips waiting. Her pneumatic chest surged majestically straining the innocent looking frock giving anyone who looked a decadent visual treat. There were plenty of gawkers staring at the mountain of cleavage on display with some guys honking their car horns as they passed.

One particularly pissed looking housewife yelled a string of obscenities at the teen before pancaking her own son sitting beside her riding shotgun in their paneled station wagon. April relaxed enjoying the attention arching her back a little allowing even more of her charms to be displayed for an adoring public. She was stoked and blissful thinking of the horrific act she was about to commit while chuckling at the clueless nature of everyone around her. She glanced over finding Humbert walking in her direction out in the middle of the street. He looked ready to prove himself a man.

"Hey baby." April cooed as he walked onto the parking lot of Happy's focused on her face. She stood to greet him cupping her breasts with a little jiggle before meeting his gaze.

A wad of spit hit April dead in the center of her face.

It landed just under her right eye running down the side of her nose over her rosy cheek as April pressed a palm wiping it away slowly regarding her boyfriend. She started blinking profusely bringing both hands up to her face as Humbert stood in front of her bristling. Betty Joe arrived in time to see him hock spittle on the exposed witch. She stopped short chewing on her nails as April glared at Humbert incredulously.

"I KNOW WHO YOU ARE APRIL!!" He bellowed as her mouth began to open with a question on blood red lips.

It was all he could do not to plant his fist in her face. Humbert was shaking terribly, looking over his shoulder finding Betty Joe. He ran over snatching her phone returning to show his "girlfriend" the group photo revealing the end of her elaborate ruse. April glanced over at Betty Joe before regarding Humbert and the photo exposing her for the monster she truly was in that parking lot. Her ruby lips began to curl into a smile as she rubbed her hand on her dress.

"It was going to be beautiful." April admitted.

His palm collided with her cheek in a loud slap that resounded across Happy's parking lot. Several pedestrians and onlookers were already bolting in his direction intent on saving the apparent woman in danger, but Humbert could've cared less. April was grinning touching the spot on her cheek were she'd been struck as people separated the teens. He couldn't hear the white knights yelling in his face, barely registered the shoves to his person as concerned witnesses began to obscure his view of April.

Betty Joe watched everything noting with mounting horror that April was actually chuckling ignoring the people concerned for her well being. Humbert found her eyes burrowing into his surrounded by the pools of darkness that was her makeup until they became so small she appeared eyeless.

"Come on, let's go Humbert."

Betty Joe felt responsible taking his arm yanking the nigh delirious teen off the lot back the way they'd come. She noticed April standing behind the little brick wall watching with this horrid cupie doll smile on her face. That look put everything in context since the phone call from Leslie earlier in the day. Humbert didn't seem to be able to look away as she half yanked him back up the street.

"You gotta stop looking or you gonna run back over there and get yourself put up in the jail. Humbert leave that devil girl alone!!"

He still couldn't look away even as April got smaller in their peripheral vision. The lanky nerd's eyes went glassy distant. Betty Joe looked back finding April still there watching.

"THINK ABOUT LESLIE!!" Betty Joe blurted out getting his attention. She released his arm as he turned facing her crestfallen.

"That's all I ever think about."Humbert's shoulders dropped as he walked over having a seat on the curb half a block away from his house.

Betty Joe watched as he covered his face with both hands obviously starting to sob. Everything came crashing in on Humbert making him doubt his sanity. His mind drifted to the first time he'd met April in the bleachers of the football stadium. She glanced down noticing droplets of moisture hitting the pavement as he sat between two cars.

Betty Joe took a seat beside Humbert, carefully planting a hand on his back reassuringly.

*

The discarded glass rolled to the other side of the corridor until it hit the adjacent wall. April's mother reclined against the wall staring off into space unwilling to move further until she was disturbed by knocking at her door. It wasn't insistent but enough to garner her lazy attention.

"Coming." She found it hard getting to her drunken feet using the wall until she reached the front door opening it to find a group of well dressed people on her porch.

"Yes, may I help you?"

"Sorry to interrupt you on this fine afternoon; but do you accept Jesus Christ as your lord and personal savior?" Their leader, some bald guy with a handlebar mustache in a gray suit, asked.

"Why, yes I do." Before the group could utter another word, the door was slammed in their faces as the slovenly woman staggered to the bathroom barely making it to the toilet before losing her lunch.

After praying to the porcelain goddess, April's mother found herself staring at her daughter's door almost afraid to go further. Still, she pushed the door open finding it meticulously cleaned with April's makeup kit open on her vanity table. A small pair of women's panties was observed hanging from a cracked lamp. Her gaze traveled around the room before she discovered April's still opened laptop computer on the floor when her foot nudged it.

"HUUUM-BERT!!!" Leslie's voice filled the room startling the woman as wet, sloppy sounds filled her daughter's bedroom.

She peered at the screen finding the girl she'd saved a night ago, surrounded by faceless men, all of them nude. She recognized her April's laughter distinctly audible in the background as someone pushed into Leslie's mouth.

*

"We'd like to thank you for coming in today; I understand you're not feeling well. Is everything okay Leslie?"

"I'm fine Ms. Branding."

It was a simple question but everything around it was so much more complicated as she sat in front of the assistant principal. There were stares from her peers that were too many to count, but Leslie Kennedy hadn't been bothered by them in the least since being remade after the incident in the boy's locker room. Those leering eyes were interspersed with others partially jealous of her status while others shown with a hatred she was now able to recognize instantly.

"Well Ms. Kennedy we'd like to ask you a few questions that might be uncomfortable; so would you like to have us phone your guardian?"

"My mother is traveling abroad on business; she trusts me with my day to day here in Maplewood."

"So, who is your legal guardian here in Maplewood?"

"I think I made myself clear already, ma'am." The stern looking older woman did a double take at the eighteen year old's candor. Leslie noticed more than a few people milling about near the door and so did the assistant principal closing it moments later.