Chapter 28

I started off Monday feeling at least a little less stressed. I still hadn’t talked to Mom, or even been back to the trailer, since I left to stay with Mrs. Phillips, but at least the manager stuff was cleared up. Considering everything else going on, that was probably just as important, since I realized how much I was being distracted from paying attention to my burgeoning music career. Since most music careers die in their infancy, I’d been setting myself up to lose my entire dream. At least with Warren around, I had someone whose job was to make sure things weren’t getting missed.

Given my history, I should have expected my good mood to get derailed, but I was blindsided once again. As usual, Kat broke away and headed to drop her stuff off in the locker room as soon as we got out of the car at school. She was still having problems with me and Sydney, and had decided she didn’t want to be at the front of the school where Sydney had started meeting me before we each went to class.

Since I was still ignoring that situation, more than anything else, that arrangement worked for me too. Today, I was even more distracted. It was the first time I was going to see Sydney since our date, and I found I was really excited about it. Even with the rough start with her dad, it had been a really great date. Part of me wanted to run up to her and sweep her into a hug or something, but we weren’t at the PDA stage yet, so I played it cool when I saw her. On top of that, I still didn’t know what she and Hanna had talked about after our date while I was up on stage. No matter how much I’d pressed Hanna, she’d refused to say.

“Hey,” I said, stopping next to her, looking towards the entrance of the school where she was looking.

Because I was playing it cool, it took me a second to realize she was crying.

“Hey,” I said, in a much different tone, turning to face her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said reflexively.

“No. You don’t normally stand in front of the school crying, so it can’t be nothing. What happened?”

“I was standing here waiting for you, and a couple of guys from the football team kind of surrounded me. One of them was saying horrible things about how he got all your cast-offs and he ... did things with the other girls you dated and that I should just go with him behind the athletic building now, to get it over with. He started describing all the things he’d do to me. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be crying. I normally ignore jerks like him, but they were all around me, squeezing me in, and it scared me. If one of the teachers hadn’t been nearby and told them to get to class, I don’t know what would have happened.”

“You’ve got nothing to be sorry about,” I said, pulling her into my arms. “It’s my fault. Harry hates me and is too much of a coward to come at me directly. He’s seen us together and figured he could get to me through you. It’s my fault.”

“No,” she said, pushing me back. The tears had stopped and now she looked angry. “It’s not your fault, it’s his. Next time, I’m going to kick him in the dick.”

“I’ll take care of him. If you see him or any of his friends, just turn and walk the other way. I don’t want you getting into trouble over this. I mean, your dad already hates me. You getting expelled over something to do with me would be the icing on that cake.”

“Fine, but if he gets in my way ... a kick in the dick.”

“Works for me. Better?”

“Better,” she said, hugging me and resting her face on my chest.

Maybe we were at the PDA stage, I thought as I wrapped my arms around her. I’d have to thank Harry for pushing us to this point ... after I kicked his ass, of course.

“I had fun this weekend,” I said into the top of her head.

“Yeah, me too,” she said, stepping back and wiping away the residual tears.

“So, what did you and Hanna talk about?”

“What?” she said, giving me a sideways head tilt.

I really believed she didn’t know what I was talking about for a second, until she let the mask slip and a hint of a smile escaped.

“Fine, you two keep your secrets,” I said, crossing my arms.

“And she said you were clueless about women,” she said, smiling and pulling one of my hands free so she could put hers in it, pulling me into the school.

“I think I might be getting more than I bargained for,” I said, matching my strides with her shorter ones.

“You have no idea,” she said as she intertwined her fingers with mine.

I held myself in check, partly to keep from upsetting her more and partly because I just wanted to enjoy being with Sydney, until after I left her at her classroom. As soon as she disappeared from sight, the smile I’d had on my face dropped. My first class wasn’t far from hers, but I went the other way.

Harry was a senior and a football player, and liked to push the boundaries of what that kind of status afforded him. I knew he and his friends usually hung out near the locker room or weight rooms in the morning, just in case anyone forgot they were football players, and didn’t even start heading to their first classes until after the bell rang, practically willing their teachers to mark them tardy.

With Coach Bryant back and Mr. Packer as the new vice-principal, I knew I was pushing my luck, since both were looking for a reason to suspend me at the very least, but I couldn’t let what Harry did stand. He could come after me all he wanted, but once he started frightening my friends, he crossed the line.

Sure enough, he was walking through the hallway that led toward the athletic department towards the main part of the school as I turned at the cafeteria. I quickened my pace to get beyond the cafeteria before he got out of the hallway, since even though there weren’t any teachers in sight, that was a bit too exposed for this kind of confrontation. He was horse-playing with his friends, which probably explains why he didn’t notice me coming towards him until I was at the mouth of the hallway. I knew the moment he saw me because he paused and then took several steps back. It made sense. Besides being an innate coward, I can imagine from his point of view I looked like I was out for blood, either by how quickly I was closing the ground between us or by the fury I’m sure he could clearly see on my face.

His two friends froze in place, unsure of what to do.

“You two can either leave, or you can end your season right now. It’s your choice,” I said to Paul, who was, if anything, more pathetic than Harry.

Paul and Harry had both been Aaron’s lackeys. Somehow, he’d managed the pathetic placement of being the lackey’s lackey, since he now followed Harry around the same way the two of them had followed Aaron around. He was also more openly cowardly than Harry, who at least tried to pretend he was standing his ground when directly confronted.

Paul and the kid I didn’t know both gave the briefest of glances at Harry before they hurried past us toward their classes. I didn’t watch them go, because knowing Harry he’d either run or try to take a cheap shot, but I listened to be sure they didn’t double back on me. When I clearly heard them running away, I focused all of my attention on Harry.

“I heard you had a talk with Sydney,” I said, walking slowly towards him as I did.

“I can talk to whoever I want. What the fuck does it matter to you?” he said, trying to sound brave as he started taking steps backward, away from me, trying to keep some distance between us.

“It matters because if you even look in her direction again, I am going to kick the shit out of you. I will punch you in your idiotic mouth for every word you say to her from here on out. Even if it’s to ask her for a pencil. I don’t want you to look at her. I don’t want you to think about her. And I definitely don’t want you to talk to her, is that clear?”

“Fuck you, Nelson.”

“What?” I said, taking two quick steps toward him.

He panicked, trying to scramble backward faster, and tripped over his own feet, landing hard on his ass. He started to try to scoot backward on his butt until I stepped on the letterman jacket he always wore, regardless of the weather, pinning him in place. My position standing over him, straddling his legs, wasn’t a great one. If he was a braver, or even halfway competent, person, there were a multitude of ways he could go at me. I wouldn’t have done this to Aaron. Harry, though, was both an idiot and a coward, and the only way he’d take a shot at me was if I was already on the ground, or someone braver than him did it first.

“I ... uhh...”

“Harry, I don’t know what I have to do to beat this into your two brain cells, but you need to figure this out. I’m done with your shit this year. I’m not going to be anyone’s punching bag. I’ve been nice so far by not beating the shit out of you, but you’re running out of chances. Aaron got lucky since his dad knows people and kept him out of jail last year. Your family doesn’t have nearly that kind of connection and you are too shitty of a football player to ever play a game after you graduate. No one’s going to stick their neck out to protect you the way they did Aaron. I can either beat the shit out of you right now, or you can decide you’re going to stay out of my way. So which is it, ass-kicking or are you going to be smart for once?”

Harry didn’t look up but mumbled something.

“I didn’t hear that.”

“I’ll stay out of your way.”

“That means anyone I know too. I don’t want to see you near any of my friends either. Got it?”

He mumbled something else, his eyes darting around, probably looking for a way out. I wasn’t prepared to give him one. If he was smart, he’d just keep his mouth shut and wait for me to walk away. If we’d been somewhere else, I probably would have just kicked his ass, but we were in a public building, and I was pretty sure there were security cameras around here somewhere. I wasn’t going to actually hit him here. Thankfully, Harry was too dumb to figure that out.