“GIRL, he wanted to talk to you in private,” Rose whispered to Maggie and nudged her shoulder. “Maybe this is the right moment that you’ve been waiting for.”

Maggie wanted to roll her eyes at her friend’s insensitivity. Isn’t she aware that Dustin can hear her in this distance? “Ah, Dustin, what can I do for you?”

“Can we talk?” he asked in a serious tone that made Maggie’s heart skipped a beat. “In private,” he added, glancing at Rose. 

“Ah, Maggie, I’ll see you at the canteen,” Rose told her and smiled at Dustin. “I’ll go ahead, Dustin.”

Maggie wanted to run away from Dustin, but she controlled herself to do embarrassing actions again. She took deep breaths before she turned to the man again. She almost gasped when she found him staring at her.

She raised her hand to her eyes and covered her face as she faced Dustin. “W-where do you want to talk, Dustin?”

She saw Dustin’s feet moved and faced their room. “Inside your classroom,” he replied. “There’s no one in there.”

Maggie’s eyes widened. “W-why do you want to talk to me in private?” she asked, still not looking at him. “Why all of a sudden, you’re talking to me? I’m not your classmate nor a professor.”

“It’s about what happened on the bus, Maggie.”

Maggie lowered her hand and looked at her with furrowed brows. “You saw me yesterday?”

Dustin nodded and stepped inside the classroom. Maggie followed him shortly. “Are you okay now?” he asked as soon as she stepped inside the empty classroom.

The quietness of the room was giving Maggie a strange feeling. It was as if she can hear echoes reverberating from the walls. “I-I’m fine… Thanks for asking.”

“I tried to talk to you yesterday, but you refused to speak to me,” he said, looking straight at her.

“You talked to me?” Maggie asked in a knotted forehead. “I-I don’t remember seeing you approaching me on the bus.”

“I did,” Dustin replied. “After you…” He hesitated. “After the incident and the bus conductor tried to restrain you because the man was acting hysterical with…” He pressed his lips. “You don’t remember?”

Maggie shook her head. Her chest started to hammer again. Why she can’t remember some of the events that happened to her? It was as if time lapsed in between events. “Could you tell me what happened?”

Dustin knotted his forehead but continued telling her what happened. “When the man screamed and raised from his seat, passengers got shocked because of the blood all over his face. He was shouting that you did it to him. Then, you stood up, and that’s how I recognized you.” He paused and hesitated. “Y-you were holding the ball pen and staring at the man—”

“He deserved it,” Maggie said suddenly. “People that took advantage of someone’s weakness deserved to be treated like that. If you didn’t stop me, I might have stabbed him to death using my favorite ball pen.”

Dustin looked at her in furrowed. “You remember it now?”

“Of course, I did it,” Maggie said confidently. “I’ll go now, Dustin. And, please, don’t talk to me again.”

Maggie stormed out of the classroom and strolled in the hallway as if it was her first time doing it. She remembered that Rose is waiting for her in the canteen. But, as she walked down the stairs to the first floor, a group of girls bumped to her.

“Watch your step, Maggie,” the girl in pink lipstick snarled at her.

She glared at her. “You should tell it to yourself,” she said, arching her brow. “Are you that fat to occupy this wide space of the stairs?”

The girl gasped, and so her group. “Who gave you the right to talk to me in that way?!”

“I give myself the right to mock people like you,” she taunted. “Why? Did it surprise you?”

“You bitch!” The girl pissed off and pulled her hair, but Maggie just laughed. “Don’t ever talk to me in that way!”

Maggie held her wrist, twisted it, and pulled it off from her head. The girl shrieked in pain. “I don’t do hair-pulling fight. That’s only for the bitches like you,” she said and twisted her hand even more.

“Maggie, stop it, you might break her bones!” the other girl shouted at her in a pleading tone. She and the other girls looked at her in disbelief as she hurt their bully friend.

“Stop calling me ‘Maggie’,” she muttered. “She deserved it for picking on me.” She looked at the CCTV camera on the stairway. “Did you see that little camera up there? It recorded the whole scene. It was clearly your fault why I acted like this.”

“Let me go, you freak!” the girl shouted at her, which only made Maggie annoyed. 

“Who’s a freak?” She twisted her hand when she shrieked loudly, and tears fell to her cheeks. Maggie pushed her to the floor. “The next time that you’ll pick on me again, bitch. I will break your bones.”

Maggie stomped her feet on the concrete floor and was about to kick the girl when Dustin called. She looked up at him with furrowed brows. Here he goes again…

“Stop it! The camera is recording you,” he said in an authoritative tone.

“She pulled my hair first,” she said, then turned to the other girls. “Right, bitches?”

They didn’t speak, and all looked as if scared at her. But the other girl spoke up. “That’s not true! She bumped with us first!”

“Brave…” Maggie whispered and grinned wickedly. “But liar!” She raised her hand to hit the girl, but Dustin caught her hand. She tried to pull her hand free, but he held her tighter. “Let me go!”

Dustin dragged her down the stairs away from the group of girls. When they’re out of earshot, and nobody’s around, he pinned her to the wall. “Tell me, who are you?”

Maggie looked up at him. A wicked smile formed on her lips. “I’m Maxine.”

***