There was something so terrifying about Nate Jacobs.

Alma never liked Nate. Not after the shit he'd done to her, what he continued to do. But for the most part, she never let him scare her. Yet, sometimes, when he was having a break up with Maddy for the tenth time that month, he'd snap and scare the living shit out of her.

Alma rarely went to parties, they weren't her crowd. She was a light weight, who didn't have friends, and rarely liked being around a bunch of people. But McKays end of summer party was destine to have drama, secrets spilling from every corner, every loose lipped teenager. So Alma went, phone clutched in her pocket.

That's how she ended up seeing the entire scene play out. Nate Jacobs cornering a new girls in the tiny kitchen.

"Yo." Rue's voice rung slightly in Almas ear, nudging her back.

"You're out of rehab?" Alma gave a eyebrow raise, "Feel any better?"

Rue laughed slightly, "No."

Alma cracked a half smile, "Well, i'm glad you aren't bald. And you know, like, i'm glad you aren't dead or anything."

"What happened there?" Rue nodded to the water stain on Almas shirt, looking fresh.

"BB threw a drink at me when I walked in on her fucking some guy from St.Mary's." Alma shrugged, her palm tightening around her phone. Rue gave a look of disgust, "Yeah, tell me about it."

"I met Alma freshman year. She was kinda weird and knew a lot of stuff. That's why I liked her so much, because no matter what, she always could distract me with some pointless drama that went around school. We aren't best friends or anything, we were barley even friends, but we would sometimes sit together at lunch and she gave her a ride home from Fez's one night. She was okay, not great, but not bad either. I don't really know why people are so shitty to her either, like, I really don't fucking know."

"Who are you?" Nate questioned the new girl, inching closer as the crowd formed in the kitchen, watching the scene go down.

"I'm Jules, I'm a friend of-" she began before he cut her off again.

"You're a friend of who's? Because you're not a friend of mine, who the fuck are you friends with?" Nate demanded to know, walking closer to her with his best look of intimidation. He turned to the group at the entrance, "Do you guys know who the fuck this is? Does anybody know who this is? Yo, does anybody know who the fuck Jules is? Anyone at all? You, do you know who the fuck Jules is?"

Nate sucked in air between his teeth, turning to look at Jules once more, "So, who are you?"

"I'm just minding my own business. I'm not trying to start anything." Jules explained, a look of fear across her face as her voice seemed like she was seconds from crying. Alma snuck her phone from her pocket, trying to not make it obvious as she clutched it in her palm.

"Well, no, you're not. Nobody that looks like you is minding their own fuckin' business." Nate pushed up against her, faces so close as he glared down at her, "I know what you are. Yeah, yeah, I see you. So what do you want, huh? You want some, some fucking attention? 'Cause I'll give you some fucking attention. Yo, is anybody here friends with Jules?"

Nate backed off, turning around to the group again, "Anyone? Does anybody know who the fuck this bitch is? Somebody better speak up, or this bitch is gonna get fucked up!"

Jules grabbed the knife on the counter, holding it as Nate came at her again. Nate chuckled nervously as he backed up quickly, Jules following his feet.

"You wanna fucking hurt me?" Jules demanded to know, yelling.

"No, I was fucking kidding!" Nate tried to defend himself, reddening in the face.

"Back the fuck up! What the fuck is your problem?" Jules yelled at him, Nate cornered to the counter again like she was moments before.

"Holy shit." Alma laughed slightly to herself.

"It was a joke." Nate tried again

"You wanna fucking hurt me?" Jules repeated herself, slicing her arm open, "You have no fucking idea!"

Alma held her phone up, snapping a lowkey phone of the scene as she backed up in the crowd. She heard shouts continue on through the house, making her way toward the back where her car was.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" a all too familiar voice rung, making Alma stop. As she looked back, she found Maddy and a older looking guy in the pool, eyes set on her, "I know for a fact no one invited you."

Alma turned, walking off again as a sigh left her lips.

"Yeah, go home!" Maddy shouted from inside of the pool, "Go back for your pathetic life, you fucking cunt!"

Alma got into her car, starting it up. It wasn't an expensive, definitely not nice, car. But it was hers, and it got her to school and home. The only two places she ever actually went to.

"Maddy started being shitty to Alma in the middle of freshman year, right around the time her and Nate had gotten together for the first time. Maddy was called out in class and got the answer wrong, leading to Alma to be called on next and get it right. Out of embarrassment, Maddy found it easier to publicly humiliate Alma to avoid anyone remembering that she'd gotten a simple question in history wrong. After that, Maddy continued to make Alma's life shitty.

She didn't really have anything against her, her public image was just that important that she'd do anything, regardless who she was hurting. Maddy spread lies and rumors about Alma, which lead to even more lies and rumors, until eventually she was the entire schools weirdo chick that everyone was supposed to hate. Sometimes Maddy felt bad for it, because if she ever saw Alma when no one was around, she wouldn't mess with her. But things were easier this way. The wrong answer just triggered the fear of humiliation inside of her so she caused a scene and put all the pain and torture onto Alma. It wasn't fair, especially when Alma never actually hurt her.

Not back then anyways. But Maddy was the second person on Almas secret instagram. She exposed her for her shitty home life between her mother and father, called her out on cheating on Nate, exposed her for going and getting tested for STD's. Alma felt good after that, no matter how shitty she knew it sounded if she ever said it out loud. But between the rumors Maddy made about Alma being tag teams by the entire football team, which Nate helped convinced everyone was true, the rumor she'd ate her twin when she was in her moms stomach and that's why she was so freaking weird, and how obsessed Alma was with her and would follow her around everywhere, begging to be her friend, Alma didn't really care how badly she hurt Maddy after all that."

"You're late, I called you." Almas mother, Nicole, spoke as she sat at the kitchen table. Alma didn't live in a massive house but it was okay, one story with three bedrooms and two baths. It hadn't been remodeled though, with tiles floors that froze her feet walking bare foot across and wooden stairs and cabinets that sometimes would give her a splinter.

"Two minutes." Alma looked down at her phone, "And I don't have any data."

"This is why I don't trust you." Nicole began to argue as she rolled her eyes, standing up and putting her cup away.

"It isn't my fault I didn't have data on my phone." Alma defended herself from were she stood next to the table.

"Now you wanna argue?" Nichole had to laugh as she looked at her, "Again?"

"I'm just saying." Alma said back, her jaw clinching as she stood still.

"Well i'm just saying if you can't answer your phone, you don't need to go anywhere." Nicole said, dropping her cup in the sink and walking off down the hallway.

"Momma?" the voice of a younger child, only the age of seven, poked her head out one of the doors.

"You woke up your sister too." Nicole scoffed as she brought Ainsley back into her room.

Alma stormed down the hallway, her feet loud against the tile. When she entered her bedroom, she took notice of her messed up bed, the one that was made perfectly when she left, "Stop going in my room when i'm not home!"

"She just laid in your bed!" Nicole shouted back, voice bouncing off the wooden walls.

"After I specifically told both of you not to go in my room and touch anything!" Alma yelled back, overly pissed off at the fact that she had to say it every time she left the house and neither of them listened.

"She didn't touch your shit, she laid in your bed for a little bit!" Nicole hit the wall when she yelled. Alma slammed her door shut, the lock clicking a weird noise, indicating she broke it at how hard she slammed the door.

"Fuck you." Alma said under her breath, falling on her bed and screaming into her pillow.

"Alma and her mom use to have a pretty good relationship. She had her young and Almas dad was no longer apart of her life, so they naturally got pretty close. Alma use to tell her everything, she use to really love her, more then anything. But that was a problem back then too, Alma just never noticed it. With her parents being separated, Nicole use to always talk shit about Almas dad to her since she was old enough to remember. And yeah, Almas dad was a asshole who didn't deserve her or her mom, but she should have been able to figure that out on her own instead of having it put in her head from the age of five.

Even after Alma got away from her dad at thirteen, she still thought her mom hung the moon. When her sister got a little older, Alma really started to resent her mom. For started, Ainsleys dad was another asshole who fucked up their lives big time. They use to be financially stable, have their own house, and then Nicole relied on a man who got their house taken away, cheated on her, fucked with her kids feelings, and now paid for them to live in a shitty rent house. Not to mention Ainsley was a little bitch, and I know you aren't suppose to say that about seven year olds, but she really made Almas life miserable just like her mom did.

Being ten years apart with a siblings is a disaster as is, Alma really hated that because she was trying to be a teenager and live her life but she ended up taking care of a little shit and grow up too fast to become her loser moms therapist. Ainsley was raised and treated completely different then she was, making her hate her mom even more because she knew that if Nicole would actually act like a parent, Ainsley wouldn't have grown up to be the pain in the ass she was.

Now all they ever did was argue, because Alma wasn't a nieve child anymore and she knew how shitty her mom actually was. Nicole knew that Alma hated her too, which she always tried to play the victim in when they'd argue. And yeah, parents are suppose to be protective. But Nicholes obsession with Alma was sick. If she wanted to go anywhere, Nicole would start a fight and guilt trip her for leaving and ruin her entire mood to the point where she didn't want to go anymore. If Alma was clearly having a good day, her mom would do anything to fuck that up. Anything she did, her mom did. It was really fucking sick and Alma constantly felt like she wanted to fucking die. The only thing that kept her going was knowing in a year she would leave this town and not have to live with these shitty people.

Alma loved them, she did, but they made her life so much worse then what it already was. She could never forgive her mom for putting her through the issues with her dad, Ainsleys dad, becoming a second parents at a young age, never knowing if their house was gonna be taken, having to listen to her moms problems all the time, and cooping herself up in her room because she couldn't stand to be around her mom or sister."

Alma heard a faint noise, lifting her head up slightly. Crawling to the edge of her head, she peered out the window. It was dark out, the street lights giving the street a faint orange glow. Across the street, a lanky boy walked down his driveway with the trash can. Alma watched, never seeing him before, considering they'd just moved in a few weeks ago and Alma never bothered to go introduce herself. She couldn't see his face, but he's seen her through the window.

Raising his hand, he gave a wave. Alma hesitated, almost scared that somehow if she waved back it would start an entire riot at school and this was all some huge prank. But she gave a small wave back, pulling her curtains shut immediately after.

•

kylie speaks

god this was longer
then intended but when
i start writing back stories
i can't stop lmao.
alma and ethan (almaethan,
elma, althan, ethanalma,
darlewis, ethling???)
interacting next chapter!!

before the maddy stans come
at me with "maddy would never" yes she fucking would
lmao, she was shitty to her OWN friends, she'd be horrible
to a girl that humiliated her
even more.