Kate Marsh sticks up to Victoria Chase
Max closed the curtain of the shower. Perhaps twenty seconds later, just as Kate was finishing up brushing her teeth, she could hear the water burst from the shower head.
Kate could not bring herself to look herself in the eye. Instead, she just leaned against the bathroom sink as she thought about what lie ahead today. Class had felt like a daily humiliation ritual, as people went out of their way to have the volume on their phone just high enough that Kate could hear Victoria’s snide giggling in the video.
The only moments of peace that Kate seemed to have anymore were alone, in her room, late in the evenings, but that peace was a lonely one. She could no longer bring herself to go onto social media, for where she did not see links and screenshots of her video, she saw the disapproval and rejection of her family and friends. The day after the Vortex Club, Alyssa had stopped speaking to her, before the video even surfaced. Once the video began to circulate, Stella was gone - she couldn’t risk the social downfall that being around Kate would bring. She would still text her, occasionally, telling her things would be all right, but those were lies. Stella was no friend. Kate had no friends.
The shower room door opened with a creak as it was pulled wide, and Taylor, Victoria, and Courtney entered. Kate’s body became tense, and her left hand gripped the edge of the sink, trying to avoid eye contact.
It did not help. Victoria leaned against the sink next to her, forcing her way right into Kate’s point of view. Taylor moved past her, and Kate knew she was being surrounded. Kate had never been in a fight, but she recognized what this was - it was a formation meant to keep someone from fleeing when they were in pain.
“What’s up, Kate?” The elation of finding Kate seemed evident in Victoria’s voice, but Kate forced her eyes to not look towards the tall blonde. She could sense the smirk nevertheless.
Kate tried to disengage, “School,” she responded, keeping her head down. Her voice was soft, and even to her it sounded wrong.
Taylor, on her left, snickered, “That’s it?” she asked, and passed focus over to Victoria.
Victoria’s smirk widened into a proper smile, “That video of you didn’t look like homework.”
For just a brief moment, Kate relented her concentration, and she looked over at that bully. “Victoria, that wasn’t me …” she couldn’t even meet Victoria’s eyes, and instead looked back at the sink. She knew it was her. She had seen the video. She had watched it over and over last night. It was her hair, her clothes, it had to have been her. And everyone knew that.
Taylor threw her head back, as if she were going to laugh, but her response was much finer than that, “Oh my god,” she began, filled with dramatic disbelief, “Right.” The staccato in her voice said what the words didn’t - liar.
Kate did not engage. She wold not engage. She could not win this fight. But Victoria seemed to sense that too, because she leaned in close to Kate as she began to speak, voice like a snake, “Don’t be shy. I think it’s awesome that you set a tongue record on video…”
Kate turned towards the door. She had to escape. She had to. Courtney even stood far enough back now that she could. That was a form of kindness in itself.
Then Kate’s eyes darted from the door over to Victoria. In this position, she could not ignore the gravity of Victoria’s eyes, and hers met the tall blonde bully’s. She cemented the words in her mind as she stared at Victoria.
Victoria was not affected, at least not at first, “What is it, Katie? Want to tell everyone what you did so we can find the school books, make it official?”
Cruel. Cruel. Childish and mean. This persecution made no sense. No one else was being held accountable. Not the boys, not Victoria, not Nathan.
Kate’s eyes became steely. “You’re going to be sorry someday. You’re going to be sorry to look back and realize you were nothing but a bully. You’ll realize that you wanted to hurt me so you could feel safe. But you’ll never be safe from yourself, Victoria. Your meanness will eat at you, and even when everyone is subdued and you can feel powerful, you’ll realize you were nothing but a cruel girl who hurt me because you liked it. You like it.” These last three words issued out of Kate’s mouth like steam. None of the girls were saying anything - Kate was speaking too fast and they didn’t know how to stop the rush.
Kate’s eyes became glassy, and her breath was strangely ragged as she tried to find more words, but all that came were questions, “Why? Why do you like hurting me?”
They were silent, and Kate knew she couldn’t keep the eye contact anymore. She didn’t understand her own feelings, and she definitely didn’t understand the confusion that emerged in Victoria’s eyes. She didn’t want to know. She just walked to the door and left, as Victoria tried to put the pieces of her mask back together for her friends and herself.