I entered the classroom cautiously, as if waiting for her to bite even though I know she won't. Chen left my side the moment I entered the room. It was eerily quiet since they had turned off the air conditioners that boomed like turbo jets from age and the electric fans. The doors and windows were shut tight as a security precaution after we left the school except for the one that Willow left open.
"You'll get used to them," I broke the silence, "It's not very feminist to tolerate them but Dea told me that being the bigger person is something women are always better at. We just do our best to correct them and if they can't see reason-"
"Boys will be boys," She sighed and lifted her head from the book she was reading, "It's why I don't like them."
So Christian was right, damn. Props to him.
"Oh, you're lesbian?" I asked curiously before adding, "I don't wanna overstep my boundaries, though."
"No, I'm American," She stared at me with a blank face that began to quirk into a smile before it faded, "A little light humour I found online."
I smiled at first but then I began to chuckle at her. The few things that can make me laugh is either dark humour or humour that's so light, it almost becomes silly. She hit the right spot and it just made me giggle a little bit more.
She cocked her head to the side and kept her smile quirked a little longer before it faded uncomfortably, "I knew that'd make you laugh. You're really pretty when you laugh, you know? When you have that constant face on, the one you usually have, you look like a smug bitch I'd like to slap."
I was caught off guard by the comment because I did like bluntness but that kind of blunt took years of formation and this girl had the guts to tell me now. I couldn't help but smirk, smirk before my brain told me to do so as a response.
"You're circling me pretty well, Balagtas," I cocked my eyebrow and leaned closer to her," Congrats, you've gained my attention. Why'd you want to talk?"
"What do you mean?" She furrowed her brows ever so slightly. Up close, you could see her oak-colored complexion was perforated with pores and a few sunspots. Her eyes were hidden behind the bright sheen from the sun reflecting on her specs, almost blinding me.
"Come on, Willow. You called me here for a reason," I shrugged.
"No, I called you to go here if you were free," Her accent slightly hitching on the if, turning it into 'eev'.
We stared at each other in complete silence for five whole seconds before I gulped and looked away uncomfortably. Could she please just talk about what she needed me here for already? I didn't have all day.
"Pathological lying isn't your fault, you know," She set her gaze to the empty seat in front of her, "The way you cover up so many things to protect your friends, I know how that must feel. It's why I don't have any friends."
I bunched my eyebrows together and shook my head as I felt the tick of annoyance flick through my brain again, "I really don't follow Balagtas. Get straight to the point, please." I summoned the Queen Bee response again hoping it strikes a bit of fear in her but she was unfazed.
"Your Queen Bee response is pointless, I'm not scared of you. Quit trying your powers," She shook her head and deadpanned, "I told you how to deal with me, Valerie."
"How do you even-What powers? Willow you're talking nonsense," I couldn't comprehend what she was saying anymore and it was driving my brain into an intense headache which was beginning to set my mood response, switching from angry to sad, leaving my state confused.
"You're a robot, Valerie. Your brain tells you how to feel but your heart can't comprehend the concept because you've shut it out. You've been telling the stories of these kids around you all day and I've been listening but what's your story? Why are you like this, Valerie?" She continued to pile on.
My head began to feel lighter and my chest began to rise and fall abnormally; I'd only ever felt this once before but that didn't end in the best circumstances. My brain felt like it began to drip acid inside my body and my heart was its primary target.
"You're the one whose done this to yourself," She walked towards me and dropped her book on the desk, "You've been hiding behind it, you know it because without it, you're useless."
I felt a surge of numbness in me. My brain wasn't processing what I should feel as a response and all I felt was physical pain that automated a bodily response of tears which wasn't impaired by my inemotion thankfully.
"Please stop this, Willow," I begged as I fell to my knees.
"No, Valerie. I won't; you deserve this because you don't know how to feel but truth be told is you've allowed this onto yourself because the one thing you can feel as a labeled Sociopath is slight guilt in remorse for knowing what's right and wrong. You've been bottling up so much secrets since childhood because you formed a reality that hurting people is wrong, Valerie Rivera, that you've bottled the worst parts of yourself up because the world made you that way!" She yelled in my ear, "The world is shit, Sofia Valerie L. Rivera! IT'S UTTER CRAP!"
A wave of acidic flow ran through my whole body and I felt my brain give out for a bit, just for bit but it came back and the wave of acidic flow rushed through my heart and formed into words, "I KNOW, WILLOW!" The tears from the pain began to flow more continuously and I felt something I never felt before for just a split second; I recognized it from my brain analysis: scorn but before I could hold onto the feeling, the feeling that wasn't automated and processed, the feeling that came from impulse, from my heart, it faded with the tears.
Willow Balagtas stood upright and as brooding as ever while me, the Queen Bee, laid on the floor in front of her, tears streaming down and down on my knees in pain…pain that wasn��t there anymore with a heavy feeling in my heart, one I never felt before.
"Y-You made me," With tears streaming down my face, I realized my brain was not in pain, back and functioning, sending me an automated response, telling me to get mad at Willow but I didn't follow it for once, "You got me … mad? Genuinely mad?"
Willow held out her hand and I took it as she pulled me up and coyly tried for a smile again, "Sociopath, huh? Sorry about that. They just told me I had 'Aspergers'."