Story of a struggling aspie girl

                   Aspie girl gets bullied by former classmates

"Angelina picks on you because she likes you," Gaby's father declared. "The more someone harasses you, the more he likes you."

Gaby rolled her eyes. Father. Written on paper, the word was airy, dry, and hot like a desert wind blowing in her face. The word 'mother' was moist and bitter.

"Now that I've graduated, I don’t ever want to see Angelina again," she said. "She imitates me."

"It's because you do that." Her mother got up from the couch and started pacing the living room frantically, flapping her fingers in exaggerated movements, creating shadows like twisting snakes on the floor in the light of the electric poles that stood near the building. Gaby dug her fingernails into her palm but didn’t say anything. If she did, her mother would just ignore her and go on and on.

"Stop that," her father demanded. "You're disrupting my concentration."

Gaby's mother settled back on the couch and snapped, "It's your fault you're being picked on. Four years in that high school, and you never bothered to make friends with the other girls. And then you wonder why they're picking on you. People are talking about you, Gabriella!" She was screaming the last words.

It was such an un-mammal behavior for parents to steer their cubs toward the predator instead of away from him. Skeletons of extinct animals sneered at Gaby from the glassed-in cabinets. Her father was into Darwinism. She said, "That doesn’t give them the right…"

"They have the right to do whatever they want." Her father raised his voice. "In the boarding school I went to, the group of boys who ruled beat the hell out of anyone who did something they didn’t like. Show Angelina that you're tough, you can take the bullying. Next time she imitates you, get back at her by telling her she sucks at imitation. That will show her."

Gaby imagined punching Angelina in the face and dragging her by the ankles on the sidewalk three stories below. Her father had taken an immediate liking to Angelina because she'd listened to him going on and on about his work as a professor and how important and needed he was, something the pizza delivery boy and painter had refused to do.

"You must be very careful with what you're saying, Gabriella," her father said. "If Angelina will ever hear you talking like that, you can lose a friend!" He said it as if she could've lost an arm or leg. "Making friends and being accepted are all there is in this world, otherwise life isn’t worth living. Life is ninety nine percent pain and agony and one percent happiness. The only thing that keeps you going is being part of a group and accepting the group's rules no matter what, belonging. Birds of a feather must always stick together."

The knock on the brown oak door reverberated in Gaby's head. The predator was here to prey on the lost cub that got separated from the herd. Gaby froze like a deer in headlight. Her father was at her side in a minute. He grabbed her by the back of the neck like a kitten, forced her to her feet, and steered her toward the door.

"Open it!" he commanded, letting go when she turned the key in the lock. 

"Hi, Gab." Angelina towered over Gaby, baring her horse-like teeth. "The neighbor got smart with me, and I was ready to kick his butt. Lucky for him, he realized who he was dealing with and walked away. Cause I got no problem beating the hell out of a guy."

Gaby frowned. Friend. Written, the word took on the shape of greasy links barely connected to each other, and sometimes it looked like a bunch of bones joined by a thread and about to disintegrate grotesquely. She watched her mother taking a broom and sweeping the dust off the ceiling. If she'd had her way, she'd brush the seven palms that stood in a line outside the seven-stories building.

"Hi, Angelina." Her father smiled. "Want some orange juice? Linda, get Angelina orange juice." He was accepting her into the pack. Wolves always share their food with cubs from their gang.

"No, thanks." Angelina smiled. "Gotta go now, but I'll take a raincheck on that, and then you can tell me more 'bout how you got those heads." She meant the skulls in the cabinet.

"With pleasure." Her father smiled. Then he retreated to his study, where he spent most of his time, getting out only to go to work and for meals.

"Have fun," her mother called after her as they descended the stairs. It was faster than waiting for the elevator, and Gaby hated the old thing anyway. It always creaked, groaned, and rattled. People have been stuck on occasions. Gaby shuddered at the thought of being stuck with Angelina in such a small place. It would make her more vulnerable than she already was.

They walked out of the building, through the yard, and down the busy street littered with bored two-legged ones heading home to their mates and cubs. Motorcycles roared and horns honked simultaneously in the main road that stretched just below Gaby's porch. The hot, moist air was so thick and sticky that it was like breathing Jacuzzi fumes, typical of the Californian August evening.

A girl Gaby had never seen before got up from a bench and joined them. She and Angelina hugged and slapped each other a high-five. Angelina told Gaby, "That's my sister, Ginny."

Gaby didn’t like the way these girls located themselves on both sides of her as they marched forward. They were almost a head taller than she was. She knew big cats like to hunt in pairs and groups. Her heart raced. A knot tightened in her stomach.

Angelina told Gaby, "Some of the boys hanging out here at night like to mess with the girls. I know how to handle them, but you don’t know how to take care of yourself, Gab. I'm worried about you, cause I'm like that. Someone jumps on my brother, I'll be there." She patted Gaby's back gently.

Gaby knew Angelina was trying to get her to let her guard down, the way a stoat dances in front of a rabbit, hypnotizing it with movements and color so it can leap on it and snap its neck. However, it was working. A touch has a way of communicating friendship more than a thousand words can. Angelina's nails scratched her skin slightly, and the lack of perfection made her gesture more real and effective.

It was inevitable to react kindly to a friendly gesture, an evolutionary trait handed down by mother nature to all developed creatures to ensure the survival of the species. The search for love and the need to belong were nothing but the ancient need for the herd's protection against predators.

Angelina and Ginny exchanged glances, and Gaby wished she could read their expression. She envied their ability to communicate without words, to exchange thoughts and feelings with just one quick glance. Angelina told Gaby, "I don’t feel good. Maybe I have a fever. How can I know? I don’t have a thermometer here."

"Put your hand on your forehead," Gaby suggested.

"I want you to do it." Angelina's voice was soft and anesthetic. Her skin was warm and smooth under Gaby's fingertips. She was putting Gaby in the role of a caretaker, something no animal could resist. It was in the genes, in the blood, after all. Baby giraffes and zebras would never survive if their mother didn’t have the maternal instinct. "You don’t have a fever," Gaby told her.

"My mother used to take my temperature like this when I was little." Angelina looked down at her feet, her green eyes expressionless. "That's the last memory I have of her."

A group of young men and women strolled by. The men shouting to each other and slapping each other on the back, one of the women laughing so loudly and hysterically that at first Gaby thought she was screaming in terror. Gaby asked, "What happened to your mother?"

Angelina sighed. "She had to let me live with my grandma to protect me from my sister's father. He used to put yogurt in my hair and force me to eat a bowl of hot pepper."

Gaby walked straight into an electric pole, got whacked in the face and didn’t feel it. Angelina has always been a bitch, but right now the only image that flashed through Gaby's head was that of a tiny child with terror in her eyes. She could feel the little girl's fear, rage, and helplessness, and these emotions surged through her like electric jolts. She envisioned slamming the man's head against the wall and wiping the sadistic sneer off his face.

She walked in a trance, barely hearing the driver ahead of her yelling curses at another driver who blocked his way. When she noticed her surroundings again, she was surprised to find herself in Inaccessible city hall, amongst a thick crowd.

Young bearded men greeted Angelina, "Hi, sister. How ya doing?" The girl smiled and waved her arms in the air enthusiastically. It was obviously her territory, and this was her pack. "Those are my brothers," she informed Gaby.

Gaby stood on her toes and peeked above people's shoulders, but all she could see was ponytailed men, sweat-soaked undershirts, and women's T-shirts. Music blasted from a microphone, sending messages of festivity to the human brain without words. Occasional static gave it a slightly hoarse quality that made it more interesting and emotion evoking.

Ginny sucked her thumb and wailed. Angelina roared with laughter, muffled by the music, deep male voices yelling, and high-pitched female screams and laughter.

"Ginny's a retard," she yelled to be heard over the noise. Backslapping rang like explosions in the square. "I gotta watch over her cause she's my sister." The crowd was closing in on them. Gaby looked down at her sandals and wiped her hands on her light blue jeans.

"My brother, he got an agency that finds jobs for retards," Angelina screeched. "He do it 'cause he feels sorry for those poor retards, says can't have no little retards living on the street and hungry and all that."

Cold sweat rolled down Gaby's back. Her knees turned to jelly.

"What's the matter, Gab?" Ginny wrapped her arm around Gaby's shoulders. "You don’t like retards?"

Gaby froze with disgust at the touch that communicated dominance, but she knew from experience things only got worse when she reacted, so she didn’t move. The sound of stamping feet deafened her, numbing her senses. It sounded like horses' hooves.

"Ginny!" Angelina widened her eyes. "Don’t go hurting Gab's feelings. Gab's a retard herself."

Angelina rocked back and forth, then sideways, imitating Gaby. Then she stared into space with a glazed expression. Ginny howled with laughter. Angelina walked on her toes. Ginny slapped her hip and wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. Gaby's fists clenched at her sides. She envisioned grabbing both girls by the hair and bashing their heads together.

Angelina put her mouth close to Gaby's ear, her hot breath moist and gross against Gaby's cheek, but Gaby didn’t turn her face away so as not to escalate the situation. Angelina said, "I'm gonna give you a job, Gabe, cause' you my sister. You gotta clean the whole square." She pointed at the plastic bags, beer bottles, and potato chips that littered the floor.

"No!" Gaby stated. Her throat closed, and she could barely get the word out. The microphone squeaked like fingernails on a blackboard.

"Gabe, sister," Angelina hissed. "I ain't fighting no retard. But if you a retard, then you shouldn’t have no problem accepting my generous offer and be grateful. And if you ain't no retard, then fight me right now. Show me how tough you are, what you're made of." Ginny stepped toward Gaby, eyes shining, teeth bared.

Gaby knew predators were genetically programed to leap on their prey the moment it bolts. Besides, both girls had longer legs than she did, and she could never find her way out of the crowd. So she stood paralyzed, like a bird hypnotized by a snake.

"Come on, Gabe." Angelina raised her fists and rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. "Fight me!"

Knowing making eye contact was considered provocation in the canine world, Gaby looked down at the picture of a black cat with lime-green slanted eyes printed on her T-shirt and examined the green, blue, and turquoise patches that surrounded the picture.

The punch in the face got her by surprise. It didn’t hurt, but the impact sent a wave of rage through her. Screaming with rage, she pulled her arm back as far as it would go and threw a punch at Angelina. The girl blocked her blow, laughing.

"She don’t know how to fight," Ginny yelled. And then she stepped toward Gaby and kneed her in the stomach.

That one did hurt a bit. Gaby pulled her foot back and kicked, but Ginny avoided the kick, grinning. Gaby wanted to wipe the smirk off Ginny's face. She saw her through a red fog. "I'll kill you," Gaby screamed. "I'll murder both of you. I swear I will." To her left, male drunken voices sang with the music, slurring the words.

Ginny wrapped her sandal around Gaby's ankles and pulled, sending Gaby to the floor. There was a thud as her head slammed on the floor and bounced off it. She barely felt the pain, but it was the humiliation of being thrown down like a ragdoll and her head bouncing off the floor like a puppet on a string that got to her. The red fog thickened, making her light-headed.

She leapt to her feet. "You're both dead," she shrieked. She threw punches and kicks, but each one was blocked. It hurt to watch Angelina doing with such ease what Gaby couldn’t. Angelina's body seemed to go in different directions all at once, and she knew exactly what she was doing. Her whole body went into the punches. Her fists appeared out of nowhere.

Gaby was punched in the face, the head, both shoulders, chest, chin, forehead. She was kicked in the knees, ankles, the back of the legs, the hips. Angelina delivered a kick to her face that sent her stumbling a few feet backwards. Gaby was slapped and backhanded, but she kept throwing punches and kicks in the desperate hope that one will land. 

"That's my sister Gabe," Angelina howled as she punched Gaby in the stomach. "You go, gal. Give me all you got. Cause' I'm a girl of the streets, and ain't no punk I can't handle."

Warm, thick liquid dripped down Gaby's nose into her mouth. It tasted metallic. The girls' faces were distorted through the horrible red fog that made her feel as if she had a fever. Her face burned. Her body was on fire. She had no control over her hands and feet. They were moving on their own, and she couldn’t stop them.

"Look how many times she been trying to hit," Ginny yelled to Angelina. "Give it up, Gabe. You been trying to hit us like, a hundred times or what? You ain't never gonna make it."

Ginny delivered a karate chop to Gaby's throat. Gaby coughed, unable to breath for a few seconds, but she threw a punch at Ginny anyway, even though she couldn’t breath. Ginny blocked the punch effortlessly. 

Gaby turned and ran to the cotton candy stand. She grabbed a cotton candy and tried to smash it into Angelina's face. The other girl grabbed her hand and twisted her wrist, bringing Gaby to her knees. Ginny screamed with laughter. Her teeth were blinding white and huge through the red fog, and Gaby wanted to tear her mouth apart. Although she was on her knees, held by Angelina, she scratched at the air, trying to get to Ginny. The girls laughed hysterically.

"What's going on here?" A young man in a torn T-shirt got between Gaby and her attackers, his hands on his hips and his feet placed far apart.

"Stay out of it, my brother," Angelina told him. "That's between me and my sister here."

The man placed his hand on Angelina shoulder and pushed her back roughly. "Leave this girl alone!" he yelled in a deep voice, grabbing Ginny's shirt and shaking her violently.

"All right." Angelina stepped back, sneering. "I got respect for you, and I respect my sister's courage, so I'm gonna quit."

The man shoved Ginny to the floor roughly and stepped toward Angelina, his fists raised. Angelina turned and fled, Ginny was hot on her heels.

"You all right?" The man turned to Gaby, but Gaby sprinted after the girls. The man wrapped his arm around her waist from behind, and Gaby struggled. "Let me kill them," she screamed. "I want to kill them." The man let her go when the two girls were out of sight, and she slammed her head against the cotton candy stand, rattling it. The man wrapped his arm around her waist from behind again, dragged her away from the stand, and picked her up. Gaby screamed and kicked at the air. "Bastards!" she roared. "I'll scratch your eyes out! I'll strangle you, bitches!" 

To read the next chapter, click here

Get this police-strength pepper spray to protect yourself and your family. To view click Pepper spray

If you liked this post, share it.