Apocalypsis: Book 3 (Exodus) Read Free

that nickname but feeling totally justified in using the one I’d chosen for her.
    “Yes, you are,” she grunted out, pushing my face into the dirt from behind.
    I arched my back and elbowed her off, ignoring my freely bleeding arm.  I grabbed a handful of her hair and plowed her over with my upper body, slamming her head down into the muck with every word I was yelling.  “I’ve…never…done…anything…slutty…in…my… life!”   I let go and backed off a little, sure I’d bashed the fight out of her.
    But I was wrong.
    She lifted herself up fast and slapped me across the face, hard.
    My head whipped to the side, but I caught myself with my arm behind me before falling back all the way.  I lifted up my leg while I was still on my knees and kicked her in the shoulder, sending her back down.
    “You flirt with everyone while you lead Bodo on!” she yelled from the ground.
    I had lifted my leg up to attack again, but froze in the middle of stomping her, my foot poised above her abdomen.  I slowly lowered it and let it drop beside me, falling ungracefully into a sitting position and moving my arm so it could rest in my lap.  My legs drew slowly inward, until I was cross-legged.
    I couldn’t believe what she had just said.  As if I weren’t feeling crappy enough, now I had to face the fact that people, or at least Coli, felt this way about me.
    Coli laid there, doing and saying nothing further.
    I stood up eventually, swaying on my feet, brushing the swamp garbage off me as best I could.  My efforts mostly just smeared the clumps of damp earth and other things into my clothes.
    Out of the corner of my eye, I could see bits of leaves and twigs in the sides of my hair.  I reached up and pulled them out, flinging them angrily to the ground.  Stupid leaves.  Stupid swamp.  Stupid Coli.
    I gave up on my mess of a hairdo after less than a minute and stumbled away, leaving her on her back on the swamp floor.
    “Where are you going?” she called out.
    “Go to hell, Coli,” was all I could think to say.  What does she care anyway?  I’m just a boyfriend-stealing ho-bag.  I weaved my way to the outhouse, forcing my feet to take one step and then another, hoping Coli wasn’t following me.  I used to find her annoying, but now I downright hated her.
    The whole time I was sitting on the wood bench that served as a toilet seat I fumed.  Who does she think she is?  I don’t want to steal her stupid boyfriend.  If he’s dumb enough to go out with her, he’s definitely not my type. Besides, I was with Bodo, and he’s way better than any of those other guys.  But the things she said about not admitting he was my boyfriend still stung, probably because they were mostly true.  I had refused to acknowledge it for some stupid reason I couldn’t even remember anymore, and now he wasn’t here for me to tell him I was sorry and that I hadn’t meant to deny it.
    He told me he loved me, and I didn’t tell him back.  What’s wrong with me?  Why didn’t I just tell him the truth?   The blood from my arm trickled down to my hand and dripped from my finger to the floor, but I disregarded it. I leaned my head up against the wall, crying silently as I thought about all the times we’d goofed around together, kissed, been intimate.  Bodo was gone, and there was nothing I could do about my selfishness now.
    ***
    The first sensation I had was the sound of voices tickling my eardrums … then the smell of the outhouse burning my nose.
    “Just be careful.  She’s ripped the stitches out of her arm,” said the voice of the girl I hated.  I wanted to lash out at her, but I couldn’t; I was paralyzed for some reason.
    “Watch it!  Her leg’s caught,” said another.  I knew the voice but couldn’t place it.  “Coli, pull her pants up for me.”
    I wanted to die of humiliation.  I was being rescued from the toilet by a guy.  I felt my shorts being roughly yanked up to my hips.
    “What the hell