Finch.

I feel my hand slam against Matthew Fletcher’s face before I even know what else is happening.
I am looking at him, and his hand is on his mouth. He takes his hand away from his face and it’s covered in blood. I smile a little at this.
“You aren’t worth anything,” I hear myself saying.
“Nick, calm down,” Matthew tries to say, but I am already hitting him again.
He falls out of his chair, and I don’t realize my own strength.
“Why would you do that!? My voice is a roar, and so I grab Matthew Fletcher by the shirt and drag him outside. Again, I am repeating the question. “Why would you do that?!”
Why would you hurt her? Why would you mock her? Why would you wound her? How could you?
“Let me answer!” Matthew cries out before I can strike him again.
I feel my whole chest aching, my breathing is gasping, my heart drumming fast.
“Well then start talking,” I say.
“You don’t understand how much I hated Eleanor back then.”
“How could you hate her? She didn’t even talk to you!”
“That’s just it! I was in love with her and she never even gave me a chance.”
Matthew whispers now, and it was horrifying. The look in his eyes gives me a warning, and he spits on the ground, blood out, air in.
“You loved her?” I ask quietly.
“Very much. The blond hair, and the cigarettes she smoked with you after school in your lawn. Her pink lips, and clear blue eyes. How light her voice is. I still do love her.”
I slapped him again.
“What about Norah?” I ask through clenched teeth.
Matthew just shrugs.
“I don’t know. I’m not right in the head,” Matthew says, pointing to his skull.
“You don’t pain someone out of love!” I yell in his face, my hand around his chin and looking straight into those crazed green eyes.
“I did it out of spite! Out of jealousy! Out of a feeling of insipid! I hate my life. And guess what? I’d do it again.”
That was all I needed to hear.
Matthew Fletcher was correct.
He was not right in the head.