Page 29 of About the Green

Once we round the corner to where the back of the bar is, there is no sign of blue hat but at least the rain is slowing down and there is a somewhat covered area here.

She’s checking her makeup and hair on her phone when I catch sight of something that piques my interest. “What is this?” I ask, taking her arm to better see.

I look at the small spot on her wrist that had always had some sort of large bracelet or cuff or watch band or always something. Her outfits are elaborate and I have noticed how much effort she puts into her appearance. The copious amounts of jewelry on her arms and/or extra long sleeves even when it's warm served a clear purpose.

Her wrist had never been bare before, and the bandaid’s placement is too suspicious, even as it hangs there with the stickiness gone from one side tab.

What was being covered by the bandage is clear for me to see.

I probably wouldn't even think anything about it if I hadn't realized how often it was covered. I've never seen her expose this part of herself, and the twitchy way that she's trying to pull her arm from my grasp tells me everything I need to know.

This is something she wants to hide, and I don't know if I can let her hide it.

“Nina, what is this?” I ask again.

She fidgets for only a moment, expressions changing from irritation to desperation, and then back to the falsely pleasant mask she has on more times than not.

She's tucking whatever this is away from me and from everyone else, it seems.

Am I the only person who's ever seen this little spot on her arm?

While she's preparing to say something likely annoying or something to rage bait me, I take the rest of the bandaid off, so I can see what's underneath.

They're small, tiny little lines, some that are still pink and healing, some that are obviously fresh, and others that are just scars. There has to be at least ten of them, perfect little lines that would easily be missed by someone who wasn't looking for them.

Her name leaves my mouth on an exhale as the air rushes from my lungs at what I am absolutely seeing.

I've seen Nina do some pretty horrible things, caught her in the act of taking a man's life without even a second thought, and but this might be one of the worst things I've ever seen.

“Don't do that, Vert,” she says, and I finally let her take her arm from my hand, “and it's nothing. Just give me my bandaid back.”

“I'm not givin’ you this bandaid back. What the hell is this?” I can hear my own words. They come out much too harsh for the situation we’re involved in, but I cannot begin to imagine why she would be cutting.

A woman who's more vibrant than the sun. A woman who I've spent the better part of two months witnessing doing impossible things that I could never imagine she was even capable of.

Terrible things but impressive nonetheless.

Why would she be doing this?

And then it makes even more sense.

Hurt people hurt people, and though Nina doesn't ever show anyone that she is hurt, she is absolutely hurting.

I wonder, from what? Why?

I'm stuck here, still trying to figure out what the fuck I'm going to do about this, who can I tell? Who can I talk to? Who can she talk to?

She's already gotten a small pouch from her bag, and it seems to have all the things she needs. She cleans the spot and applies a new bandaid and adds her watch over top, so that she can pretend like what just happened didn't happen. But I've already seen, and now I need to figure out how I can get her to stop. Whatever it is that was motivating her to murder all these men, it goes much deeper than just a general hatred of the gender.

Whereas I don't condone it, if I don't find a solution to this, Dupont’s only going to be in worse and worse danger.

Nina's already headed back down the breezeway, the rain having stopped enough for her to hide under the side of the buildings to keep dry. I'm sure she won't make the mistake of getting wet enough to lose the second bandaid.

“Nina, wait.” I'm always on her heel. I'm always a few steps behind her.

Where could she possibly be going now?

And I can only imagine she's off to do something more horrible after I found out something that she very clearly didn't want me to know.