My fingernails were almost breaking, and I frowned in pain, but she didn’t seem to notice. She continued to pry my hand open, little by little, warning me, “Don’t go too far, Julian Hayes!”Too far? I looked at Hailey, and I laughed, a bitter, furious sound: “Hailey, the difference between humans and animals is that humans think, discern right from wrong, and have moral restraints, instead of just blindly protecting someone based on mere impulse!””Since you’ve decided to protect Alex!”
“Fine!”I ignored my breaking nails. Seeing the blood ooze from my fingertips, and as Hailey froze, I endured the excruciating pain of broken nails and fiercely clawed at Alex’s face.Along with my fingernails completely breaking, Alex’s face, the one that appeared in dozens of his SnapChat stories every day, was ruined.Alex completely broke down.I burst out laughing.”What is this!””This is karma!””Let me tell you, Hailey,” I looked at Hailey’s disbelieving expression, then at Alex, who was screaming and clutching his face. I reminded her, “I’ve never been a good person! You should have known that long ago!”
“Hailey!””You’ve truly messed with the wrong person now!””I swear I’ll make you pay for this, or my name isn’t Julian Hayes!”5When Liam arrived, his first reaction was “Holy crap!” Then, seeing my bleeding fingers, his eyes turned cold and he swore, “You absolute monster!”He approached Hailey and slapped her hard on the head, which seemed to snap her back to reality. She looked at Liam, then at me, and at the moving crew who had come in with Liam. She demanded, “What exactly do you want to do!”I just coldly replied, “Make space for your little Alex.”
“But now,” I looked at Alex, still sitting on the floor, whimpering and covering his face, and at Hailey, ready to start another fight, “it seems unnecessary.”I took a wrench from one of the moving guys. I had intended to dismantle things, but now, I swung it fiercely at our wedding photo on the bedroom wall.The glass shattered into a thousand pieces, scattering across the floor. Just like Hailey’s and my relationship, nothing but a mess remained.”Guys,” I picked up the wrench and placed it in front of the crew. “I’ve transferred the money to you. Thank you for your trouble today.”
“The stuff here is too dirty; it doesn’t need to be moved anymore.”The crew leader was startled but still asked, “Do you need me to call the police for you?”Alex, sitting on the floor, completely lost it: “Call the police for what?! He hit me and hurt me! You call the police?! If anyone’s calling the police, it’s me!”Liam finally noticed Alex’s face, which I had scratched badly, and let out an undignified “Yo-ho!” before mockingly taunting, “Well, well, isn’t this our Crying Buddy? What’s wrong? Not playing the victim anymore, exposing your true colors?”
Alex glared, full of resentment. Enduring the pain in his face, he said, “Julian, I never wanted to compete with you for anything! Why do you always target me like this!””Don’t you know how important a person’s reputation is?””How could you not know how important a reputation is!” Alex unleashed a barrage of accusations at me: “Hailey told me everything!””You were molested before! You’re dirty yourself, so you see everyone else as dirty!””Alex!” Hailey roared, cutting him off. “You’re crossing the line!”
I was, for once, fortunate enough to see Hailey scold Alex. In my perception, whenever Alex was involved, he was always right, and I was always wrong, even if I was just breathing.I had considered that perhaps Hailey was just acting on impulse, that maybe she would calm down and realize this deviation was wrong, and she would come back to me, apologizing.Perhaps I should have waited for Hailey to come back and apologize.
Perhaps I should have forgiven Hailey one more time, giving us both more chances.But I never imagined my past trauma would be spoken from Alex’s mouth, and I certainly never imagined my unspeakable past would be told to Alex by Hailey, allowing him to use it as a weapon to hurt me.”Yes,” I suddenly smiled. “I was assaulted.”After all, that year, I offended someone trying to rescue Hailey from being kidnapped. I was locked in a basement all night.Who could ever know how I survived that entire night?
No one knew. But there would always be people who would imagine I was “dirty,” who would think my successful escape was due to selling myself, to pleasing those people.I wasn’t truly made of steel. I thought Hailey was on my side, that she was unwaveringly loyal to me.My heart still ached. It hurt so much I could barely breathe. I looked at a now-panicked Hailey and said, “So, don’t make me look down on you any more.”
