Psycho and the Bitch

While the coffee brewed, Natalie sat on the counter beside the stovetop, freshly clean and smelling strongly of Old Spice, as Trev towered above, scrambling an egg.

“I don’t want eggs,” she grumbled from the counter. “Never again.”

“They’re good for your growth,” he said absently as he cooked.

She chuckled dryly and he mimicked her dry chuckle.

“How much of that did you mean, Trevor? Are you really gonna try and keep me here?” 

“I don’t have to try. You really suck at escaping.”

She sneered. “Answer the question.”

He sneered back. “I did. What's a doctor gonna do? It’s not like they’d be able to grow you back. They’d just put you all over the news, then hand you over to the Tank and he’d prolly sell you off to some rich pervert or something. It’s better you just stay with me, so I can take care of you.”

“To be eaten alive?”

“Almost eaten alive. I spat you out, didn’t I?”

Natalie scoffed, crossing her arms. “Some caretaker you are.”

“Hey, I’m not the villain, here, okay, I’m not the one who shrank you. All I did was take advantage of the situation, don’t act like you wouldn’t have done the same.” The coffee finished brewing and he poured himself a cup. He took a dropper and dropped a couple of drops into her tiny plastic teacup. “Here.” He handed it down to her.

“Thanks,” she grumbled. “What about your girlfriend?” 

Trev scooped a tiny portion of the scrambled egg onto a Pixie Hollow tea plate with a single cheerio and a shred of cheese. “What about her?”

“What's she gonna say about you imprisoning your ex?”

“Believe it or not, she had a shit ton to say about it.” He handed her the tiny breakfast plate and pulled up a bar stool to sit in front of her, pulling his phone from his pocket. He scrolled through a long thread of back and forth text messages, reading a few aloud, “‘Trevy, please come back. I’m so sorry I upset you’… ‘Trevy, wasn’t that sooo hot, the way we humiliated that little skank’… ‘OMG, TREVY, WE HAVE TO GET RID OF HER BEFORE SOMEONE FINDS OUT, I AM NOT GOING TO JAIL FOR THIS’!”

“Look at you two,” said Natalie. “Like a coupla Bonnie and Clydes. Nice paper trail, by the way. Subtle.”

He smirked. “It’s comments like that make everyone wanna kill you. She keeps tryna convince me to do it sooner than later.”

“She’s just so swell. Sounds like you two crazy love birds made up?”

“She’s dumb as a box of bleach but she’s got nice tits. I went back over to angry-fuck her brains out yesterday while you were apparently MacGyvering your way out of my desk drawer.”

“Charming. So you two got a story for when the cops come looking for me?”

“Didn’t we go through this? Another hoodrat goes missing, no one's looking for your dumb ass.” 

“Only we both missed school yesterday and I was last seen by about a hundred witnesses as you dragged me off down the hallway.”

“Circumstantial. Don’t you ever watch TV? No body, no crime.” 

“My dad won’t give a shit about evidence. He’ll know it was you and he’ll fucking kill you.”

“He didn’t seem all that concerned on the phone this morning.”

“My brother did.”

“Did he though? He can’t stand you, either, he’s always liked me more.”

“He won’t once he finds out what you’ve–”

“We still talking about this? It’s depressing how little anyone cares. Your breakfast is getting cold.”

She huffed, glaring down at her plate. She tried to take a bite of the cheerio, the size of a bagel and hard as rock, but couldn’t quite get her mouth around it. She banged it against the counter to try and break it apart and Trev snickered. 

“Glad this is so amusing to you,” she grumbled. 

“Want some help?” She held the cheerio up to him and he grinned. “How do you ask?”

Her eyes narrowed and she dropped the cheerio onto the counter. 

Trev laughed. “Awe, my little mouse girl.” He tousled her hair beneath his palm. “I’m gonna have so much fun with you. You should probably try to be a bit more cordial. I’m tryna be nice, but you’re making me wanna start playing with you again.”

She gritted her teeth. “Thank you so much, master, for your kindness and generosity.”

His grin faded. “Don’t call me that.”

“What shall’st I call you, milord?”

“Trevor. You’re the only one I ever let call me that.”

“I always thought Trev was so douchie. I suppose it does suit you better.”

“Can’t you go back to being cute and cuddly? I was hoping to have a pleasant morning with you.”

Natalie laughed coldly. “Sure, Trev, whatever keeps you from fucking eating me.”

Trev scowled, watching her poke at her tiny breakfast. After a moment he huffed, snatching her plate from her. He grabbed the cheerio off the counter and smashed it between his fingers, dropping the crumbs onto the plate. He shoved it back in front of her. “Eat, would you, you fucking twig? You ever gonna tell me why you’re so skinny? This is exactly what I’m talking about, that asshole can’t even manage to fucking feed you, can he?”

She exhaled, picking at the cheerio crumbs. “Not really, no. He’s broke as shit right now and gets all pissed and defensive when we have to remind him. It’s fine, we eat at school.”

“No you don’t. You sell your lunch cards to buy fucking clothes.”

“Okay, stalker. Sorry I don’t gotta sugar momma who buys my clothes for me. All I got are two little brothers who keep growing out of everything, so don’t act like I’m so vain.”

“First of all, she don’t buy me shit, I’ve always had better fashion sense than you. Second of all, Tommy can wear Nick’s old clothes, and Nick’s a big boy, he can take care of himself. Why didn’t you come over if you didn’t have food at home?”

“Please. Would you have?”

“I have. I practically lived over there.”

“That was different, your dad was paying us to look after you.”

“That’s not what I mean. You were there when I needed you, no questions asked, no matter what dumb shit we were fighting about. And I was there for you.”

“It was different when we were kids. We could just be scared, or lonely, or hungry, we didn’t have to feel bad about it, too. Shame stings more than an empty stomach.”

“But one keeps you alive and the other kills you. Just like I’m gonna kill you if you don’t fucking eat.”

“You’re gonna kill me anyway, prick.”

“Keep asking for it, smartass, see what happens.”

She ate, even as angry tears ran down her cheeks. Trev watched her, no trace of a smirk on his face as she choked down a couple of bites, using the cheerio crumbs to scoop up a bit of egg and cheese. She stopped, her face crumpling, clutching her nauseated stomach, and groaned, “I can’t, Trevor, it’s making me sick.”

He glowered down at her and slid the teacup of water towards her and she sniffed and took a compliant sip. 

“Eat.” 

She stifled back a sob, then took another shaky bite. He sighed and cupped his hands around her, so that she was surrounded by him on all sides, his torso before her, his fingers to the sides and his palms behind, and his face in the sky above. “It’ll get easier, Natty,” he murmured. “I’ll get you better again. I’ll get you so fucking fat. I’ll never let you have an empty stomach, ever again. Not ever. I’ll stow you away and take care of you, just like all those times you ran away from home.”

“Like a pet?”

He gave her a long, almost sad look, then nodded. 

She sniffed, tiny tears falling to the tiny plate. “I don’t want to be your pet, Trevor! I have my own life!”

“I know,” he muttered, running his thumb down her hair. “I know you’ll think this is crazy, but… I know it was magic that made you shrink. I can feel it. Like there’s some mystical force in the universe that knew you were shrinking away to nothing, and you’d die without me. It brought you back to me. I know I fucked with you, and I hurt you, but I kept you safe. What would Mattie Thompson have done? He’d have taken you to the hospital like you wanted, and when they couldn’t fix you, they’d have sent you right back home and even if the Tank didn’t sell you off like a slave, he’d abuse you and stick you in a cage and forget about you and let you starve to death, all alone.”

“That’s crazy, Trevor!” she cried. “That’s something your dad would do, not mine!” 

“It’s not just him, it’s everything. All this shit you’ve been trying to deal with by yourself. I think the only way you’ll ever be able to grow back is by getting away from it all, and getting taken care of for once. If I’m wrong, and you never grow back, then I’ll keep taking care of you, forever. I told you I’d take you to a doctor, and I will, just, not till you’re eighteen, when I can be certain you won’t be taken away from me and sent back to fucking Frank.”

“Oh my God!” she wailed. “That’s over a year from now! Don’t you think they’re gonna have some questions about where I’d been that whole time!”

“You’ll tell them what I tell you to tell them,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’ll come with something.”

“Oh my God, Trevor, oh my God,” she panted, clutching her heaving chest. “Please tell me you’re fucking with me.”

“You’re kinda fucked either way, Nat, someone has to take care of you. It’s either gonna be me or the abusive fucking ass hole that let you starve and then chased you out a third story window.”

“Agggh, Trevor, come on! Look, I admit, he hasn’t been the best caregiver lately, but he’s not abusive! You know lawn work is stressful in the winter, but we’re dealing with it, together, like we always do! You know him, he loves me, he’ll take care of me! You have to let me go home!” 

“I’ll take care of you,” he said softly. “And Nick and Tommy, too, I won’t let them starve. It doesn’t have to be bad, I won’t keep you locked away. I’ll carry you around with me, in my pocket. You can come to school with me, so you don’t fall behind, and we can do all the assignments together, like we used to.”

“You’re fucking crazy,” she sobbed. “You’re gonna kill me.”

He huffed, rolling his eyes. “Didn’t I already say I wouldn’t kill you?”

“I don’t believe you!” she wailed, burying her face in her hands.

“Awe, well, that’s okay, you don’t have to believe me. I’ll prove it.” A chill ran through her spine and she lifted her gaze from her shaky hands. Trev leaned in closer, cupping his palm firmly around her back. “And once I do, my voice will be there, saying, ‘I told you so’.”

Her lip quivered. “Why are you doing this to me?”

His grip tightened. “Didn’t we just go through this? I meant what I said; you’re my pet now, and I’ll keep you safe and I’ll keep you fed. If you’re a good girl, I’ll be nice and take good care of you. And if you’re not, I’ll still take care of you, but I won’t be so nice. I know this is hard for you, I get it. But it’s also hard for me when you keep making me feel so fucking guilty about it.”

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered. 

“Why? Did you do something wrong?”

She nodded. 

“Tell me what you did wrong.”

She swallowed. “I, um… I didn’t believe you?”

“Right. You think I’m a liar. Have I ever lied to you?”

She shook her head. 

“So why would I lie to you now?”

She held his gaze. “To hurt me…”

“And why would I wanna hurt you?”

She paused, her heart pounding. “B-because I hurt you?”

“That’s right. You’re a little fucking bitch aren’t you?”

She nodded.

“But not anymore. Because you're my little toy, now, aren’t you.”

She swallowed, and nodded again.

“Say it.”

“I’m... I’m your toy.”

Trev’s scowl broke into a crooked grin. “Told you I’d get you to admit it.” His eyes lifted to check the time on the oven clock. “10:34, I thought you’d at least last till Noon.”

Natalie let out a sob. “Is this all part of your fucking game!”

“Of course it is. Now will you chill out? I’m not gonna ‘hurt you’, I did that already. Now I’m gonna be nice to you. I never told you to bow down to me, I never told you to call me master. I don’t want you to be afraid of me all the time, it’s annoying.”

“So whaddya fucking want from me!”

“To chill out, I just told you! Can you do that?”

She nodded.

“Okay, well, you answered too quick, now I feel like you’re just nodding because you think that’s what I want you to do.”

Natalie pinched her forehead. “I will try, Trevor.”

“Great, let's try. You want some more coffee?”

“That would be nice, thank you.”

“Feels forced.”

Her head snapped up. “It is forced! Whaddya want from me, Trevor, you can’t have it both ways! You can’t use fear to make someone be nice to you, then get annoyed with them when they’re afraid of you!”

He grinned. “Sure I can. It’s my game, I can play how I want. Try again. Do you want some more coffee?”

“Forget it. It got cold in like, two seconds last time.”

“Awe, really?” He took her tiny plastic teacup and poured it onto his tongue. “I guess it’s only a couple of drops, you gotta drink it quick. Do you want some more or don’t you?”

“I already fucking said yes!”

He snickered, shaking his head as he refilled it and handed it back to her. “Here.” 

“Thank you,” she sneered.

“You’re welcome,” he sneered. “I’m gonna wash up. Stay there.”

He scarfed down the rest of the scrambled egg from the frying pan, then washed the breakfast dishes and wiped down the counters. Natalie tried to savor her coffee while it was still warm, and did not move a millimeter.

“Awe, look at that,” said Trev when he’d finished, plopping down in the barstool, again. “You did what I told you to do and nothing bad happened to you.”

Natalie’s lips tightened. “Weren’t we gonna watch a movie or something?”

“In a minute. I want you to do something else for me, first.”

She stiffened, holding his gaze, preparing herself for another game. “What?”

“Tell me who hit you.”

She exhaled, closing her eyes. “Are you serious? After everything you’ve done to me in the last twenty-four hours, does it really fucking matter?”

“Mhm.”

She huffed, shaking her head. “Fine. It was Bradley Murphy.”

Trev’s expression revealed no emotion. “Oh.”

“Happy? I didn’t tell you because you’re fucking crazy and you’d have waltzed right up and beat the living shit outta him and I’m sure that family would love nothing more than an excuse to have your stupid ass thrown in jail.”

“What happened?”

“Come on, Trevor, it doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does.”

“Are you gonna pummel me if I tell you something you don’t wanna hear?”

“I’m gonna pummel you if you don’t spit it out.”

She sighed. “Fine. But don’t pummel the messenger. We were at that Northside party Tuesday night, and I overheard him talking shit… about you.”

Trev stared blankly. “What he say?”

“He was talking about you like you were this charity case. He called you names. ‘Rags-to-Ritchie’, Brit’s ‘Project from the projects’, shit like that.”

“And what’d you say?”

“A buncha dumb shit.”

“Tell me.”

“Um,” she groaned, rubbing her forehead. “It’s all kind of a blur, I was pretty fucked up. Alex and I started shit talking Brit, loud enough for him to hear. I made fun of her hair and clothes and said she had daddy issues… I made a buncha dumb jokes, like the thing about her using her pet hamster to get off. At some point Bradley and I got into it. He said he’d pay Mattie to let him take me home with him, so the Murphys could own the whole ghetto set. I said, ‘Which home is that? Doesn’t your daddy have like ten families?’

“He laughed and said something about my dad not being able to afford a single family. I said, ‘For all I know, your dad is my dad. How many little Murphys you think are running around this town?’

“He said something gross about fucking me at his place because he didn’t wanna get his shoes dirty in the cardboard box I lived in. I said, ‘You’d fuck your sister?’

“Then he got in my face about how I was a trash whore and a cunt and I’d wind up dead like my mom. And I laughed and said, ‘Woah, my brother, take it easy! I was making an adultery joke, but your reaction makes me think you really do wanna fuck your sister!’

“And next thing I knew I was on the table and he was on toppa me, tryna rip my clothes off and hollering how he was gonna fuck me right there in front of everyone so everyone would see what a trash whore I was. And everyone was yelling and tryna get him offa me and I laughed and yelled, “Damn, Brad, you a bad boy! You oughta throw Brittany around like this so she can stop traipsing around the ghetto, tryna fuck a real man!’

“That’s when he hit me. He had the softest little powdered fist, and I told him so, but I’m not sure he understood because I was laughing so hard. It took like ten guys to drag him offa me, he was yelling how he was gonna kill me, my friends were yelling at his friends, his friends were throwing around dollar bills and shit and hollering over who got next round, Mattie was tryna stop my nose bleeding, and I couldn’t stop laughing. You’d have laughed, too, if you’d been there, it was fucking hilarious. It’s like my life is just one, big, cosmic fucking joke.”

Trev stared down at her. After a moment he said, “You called me a real man?”

She sneered. “Get over yourself. You gonna go and do something crazy, now?”

He grinned. “Who you talkin’ to? After everything I’ve done to you, my favorite person on the fucking planet, whaddya think I’m gonna do to that entire fucking family?”

“Even your girlfriend?”

“You mean the spoiled cunt who treated my little mouse girl like one of her sexy hamsters? Or the spoiled cunt who went around telling everyone that the trash whore was the one throwing guys on tables?”

“And what happens to little mouse girls when their stupid ass captors get themselves thrown in jail?”

“The spoiled cunt with the daddy issues won’t ever let her bad-boy-toy get arrested. If she does, the cops might accidentally find this not-so-subtle paper trail, as well as a shit ton of recorded confessions about the shrunken minor she kidnapped and assaulted. Even Daddy can’t erase a statutory rape charge with such blatant evidence.”

“You’re a bad boyfriend.”

“Yeah? Well while we’re sharing all our deepest darkest secrets you might as well know I really was just fucking her to get back at you for fucking Mattie Thompson. It was so important to you that you got in with the cool hipster kids, so I thought I’d up you by getting in with the dreaded Northside kids.”

Natalie laughed. “Yeah. Obviously.”

“That funny to you?” 

“Not really. It really kinda fucking stung to be honest. I wasn’t even fucking Mattie, you know. I was just hanging out with him to make you feel bad about yourself.”

Trev frowned. “Why?”

“Whaddya mean, ‘Why’? To ‘hurt you’, you spent all morning screaming it in my face. I started making new friends and you kept making fun of me and calling me ‘knockoff hipster’ and being such a prick about it. You made me feel like shit about myself and I wanted to make you feel worse, so I dumped your ghetto ass for the cool hipster kid. I wasn’t planning on staying with him until you went and immediately started revenge-fucking Princess Bleach.”

He burst into laughter. 

“That funny to you?” she grumbled.

“I fucking knew it!” he bellowed, pointing in her face. “That’s even worse than I thought! I mean, I knew on some level you were really going above and beyond to fuck with my emotions, but that is just fucking maniacal! I cannot believe you had me feeling sorry for you for one fucking second, you cruel, heartless fucking bitch!”

Natalie sneered. “Oh please, at what point have you felt sorry for me? You’ve colossally ‘upped’ me. We even now?”

“Not even close. Now I feel like a dick for punching poor Mattie Thompson. I oughta make you apologize for dragging him into your dastardly deeds.”

“I did. A lot. I even admitted that I’d just been using him to make you jealous and, for whatever reason, he just, like, forgave me. He told me that people do crazy things sometimes and that I deserved to know what it felt like to be treated with warmth and compassion, and that he’d take a fist to the face any day of the week if it meant getting to spend time with me. I do actually like him, he’s really nice. Way nicer than you. He didn’t deserve it.”

“I don’t wanna hear about Mattie fucking Thompson,” Trev sneered. “What kinda dumbshit let’s some dude get away with punching his girlfriend?”

“Just cause he didn’t beat him up doesn’t mean he’s letting him get away with it, okay? He keeps trying to get me to press charges.”

“Oh yeah? How’s that going?”

She huffed, shaking her head. 

 “It doesn’t matter, he’s just not that kind of guy. He doesn’t know how to fight, and he doesn’t want to. The closest thing he’s been to a fight was when you punched his lights out. He was scared shitless of you, you know. He never said so, but I kept inviting him to hang out at my place and he always had an excuse or some other plan in mind.”

“Hey, don’t blame me for that. Nobody wants to hang out at your place. It’s shit.”

“Oh, sure, compared to your fine estate. So why didn’t you ever bring home Princess Fat-Fuck? I’m sure she’d have been impressed by your cooking.”

“I only cook for little mouse girls.”

“Can I submit a request?” 

“Go for it.”

“Gimme my fucking clothes back?”

“Denied.” 

“Come on.”

“Mouse girls aren’t cool enough to pull off knockoff hipster clothes.”

“I’m cold.”

“Yeah? You can thank your heart of ice for that. I’ll give you clothes when you start being nicer to me.”

But he took her mug from her and wrapped his hand around her, and she relaxed slightly within his warm grasp as he hopped down from the bar stool and carried her into the living room. He plopped down on the couch, setting her in his lap and draping his hand over her like a blanket.

“Warm enough?” 

“Yeah,” she grumbled. As much as she hated to admit it, it was far more comfortable being held his hand than sitting naked on the cold counter.

“I can’t hear you.”

“Yeah!”

He whacked the top of her head. “Did I tell you to yell? I only meant it’s nice not having to hear your annoying fucking voice all the time.”

“Fuck y–!”

His hand squeezed over her, smothering her against him. “What’d I just say?” He kept his hand over her as his other fiddled with his Playstation controller to pull up Netflix. “Whaddo you wanna watch?”

“Can I answer?” she grumbled beneath his palm.

“Speak up, I can’t hear you.”

She gritted her teeth, glaring up at him.

He grinned down at her. “I love you, you little fucking bitch.”

She sneered. “I love you, too, you psychotic fucking asshole.” 

God help her. She really fucking did.