Chapter 31 Cal #2
Who knew when she’d grabbed the pen out of her notebook, but she screamed like a banshee giving a battle shout and lunged forward, fist raised, aiming at Jack.
With reflexes I’d perfected on the football field, I grabbed Jack with one arm, tugging him solidly behind me, and took the brunt of her rage.
The pen stabbed into my chest with a piercing pain, followed by an immediate ache. Either blinded by whatever insanity had taken hold of her, or maybe she’d really wanted to hurt me to begin with, she reared back and struck again.
“I hate you! I hate you!” she screamed with each jab.
“Stop it! What the hell is wrong with you?” I yelled as I lifted my arms to block another hit.
At the same time, Jack darted around me, wrapping an arm around Sasha’s waist. “Get off him, you fucking psycho!” he shouted, tugging her backward.
Sasha cried out, nearly crumbling at the knees, and would’ve hit the floor if Jack wasn’t holding her.
Students shouted and gasped. Stunned, I stood still for too long, trying to wrap my head around what had happened.
She’d flipped out in front of everyone. They all saw it.
They saw her hitting me. The abuse was in the open like a festering wound for the world to gape at, to laugh at.
“The fuck?” Blaine, one of the guys who’d played soccer with Jack on the fall league, rushed between us, startling me, and I flinched away. If he was coming to help her or me, I’d never know.
Ty jumped in, stopping Blaine, and then it was first of the year all over again.
Guys came from every corner and around the shoulders of onlookers.
Within a second, the hallway had become a madhouse of noise and jostling.
Each added body forced Jack farther from me in the shuffle, and Sasha still had that fucking pen in her hand.
“Move. Back off,” I roared, shoving bodies this way and that as I muscled my way to him. “Jack!”
I busted free of the mob just as Sasha turned in Jack’s arms, scrambling and screeching at him. He stood with his back against the lockers. Everyone else had given them room, most likely to avoid Sasha’s kicking and flailing.
“I hate you! He’s mine!” she yelled.
One anger bled into another, and I refused to be her victim anymore or let her make one of anyone else. Before she could stab him with the pen, I trapped her in my arms.
“Calm down, Sasha. It’s over,” I said with each step away from Jack I took. The hallway was a mass of jumbled bodies, but Jack now stood alone, safe. With my focus on him, I relaxed my arms, and Sasha pulled free, stumbled, and fell on her ass.
And that was the first thing the faculty saw.
“What is going on here?” Principal Woodson bellowed from beside Trent Wright.
Students ran in all directions as if someone yelled “cops” at a party. Blaine helped a sobbing Sasha to her feet, and I hung my head.
Fucking perfect.
Thirty minutes later, I stood in the hall outside Woodson’s office.
A dozen other guys, including Ty, had had their turn with the principal and then shuffled back to class while I waited.
Fuck. It couldn’t be a worse punishment this time, could it?
If it was, I had no idea what I’d do, but giving up and giving in were looking like pretty good options.
How was I to win when fate stacked everything against me?
“Mr. Winters, come in.” Woodson finally called me into his office, where Trent waited. “I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp on the events earlier in corridor D,” he said, gesturing toward my chest while I took a seat. “Did you check in with the nurse?”
“No, sir, I came straight here.” I rubbed the spot Sasha had hit and winced. There wasn’t any blood on my shirt, but it hurt like a son of a bitch.
“Stop by her office,” Woodson said. “Trent and I spoke with the student witnesses, and we’re in agreement you didn’t start the confrontation.”
I sighed in relief.
“But we saw several videos from the students who recorded it on their phones, and you did resort to violence durin’ the tussle.”
“What?” I snapped. Trent probably saw the whole fucking thing. No one cared that I was being bullied or that I was protecting another student. No, the bigger guy couldn’t be the victim. Fuck that. Fuck this!
“Careful, Calvin,” Woodson warned.
“Is Sasha in trouble too?”
“Not your concern at this point. You and a dozen others will have detention with Trent after school today, and if I find you back in this office again for violence, it will be suspension.”
“Fuck,” I whispered, but unfortunately, loud enough to be heard.
“What was that?” Woodson asked.
“Nothing, sir,” I grumbled.
“I’ve called your parents and made them aware of what happened and your detention.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
Woodson waved at his door. “Check in with the nurse, Calvin, then get to class.”
I didn’t bother with that, only raced from the room as if I could outrun life.
A text from Daddy waited to be read, but I went straight to my chain with Jack, needing him, needing anything from him.
Princess
I was two seconds from kissing you. Damn, what you do to me.
I swayed on my feet as blood rushed from my head. Damn indeed. Jesus, I wanted him right now, that kiss. But his next message was proof of how much had changed within the span of minutes.
Princess
Fucking bullshit! I leave you alone for one minute and that bitch gets you in trouble.
Ty’s got detention. You better NOT be in trouble for this or I’m burning this place down!
I am so pissed!
I scowled as I typed a response.
Detention with the others for the violence. Can you believe that shit?
And they called Momma and Daddy.
Princess
Fuck this place. They didn’t ask me shit or I’d have told them it was all that bitch’s doing.
Ugh. Fuck. I’m sorry.
Don’t be sorry. Not your fault. Please come over tonight. I need you to make me forget.
Princess
You know I will, but do you need to talk to your dad first?
Ha! You’re funny.
Daddy wouldn’t have time for this. He never had time for anything. At most, I’d get the disappointment speech the next time he saw me, and who knew when that’d be.
Princess
Let me know when you get home.
At the last bell for the day, I grudgingly made my way to an empty classroom where Trent was presiding over our punishment.
For twenty minutes, he bored us with talks about learning how to restrain ourselves.
With power comes responsibility. I swore he stole that straight from a movie.
Being near the end of the semester with limited time before exams, he did stop talking long enough for us to study for the last part of detention.
The ache in my chest had steadily grown. I hadn’t even checked it yet. It’d bruise, probably, and nothing could be done for a bruise anyway. Should I tell someone? Speak up? Should I admit I’d been bested by a pint-sized tyrant in a skirt or suck it up and shove it deep like a man would do?
No one was home when I got there. I thumbed through my messages and had one from Cara. She’d gone home with Kitty to study. I dropped my bag on the bottom stair, then slumped beside it and raked my fingers through my hair.
Phone in hand, I jumped when it vibrated, my heart rate spiking, then nearly stopping when Momma flashed on the screen.
Fuck.
I seriously thought about sending the call to voicemail but answered like the good son they wanted. The son that never got in trouble and made them proud enough to pay attention to.
“Hey, Momma.”
“Again, Cal?”
I hung my head. “The school call you?”
She didn’t answer but asked, “What has gotten into you this year? I know I’m not around as I used to be, but you’re an adult now. I need you to start acting like one.”
I didn’t have an answer, or if I did, it couldn’t squeeze past the pressure of the last year to be heard.
It wasn’t as if I wanted to be a troublemaker.
It found me no matter what I did, but Momma didn’t want to hear it.
Daddy didn’t want to hear it. They wanted me responsible.
They wanted me to be the man of the house or something.
I just wanted to be me.
“Answer me, young man.”
“I dunno.”
“Don’t give me that. You know what it is. Is it hormones? I thought you’d be done with that.”
I rolled my eyes, not sure what to say. No matter how I answered, she’d find fault with it. “They gave me a one-day detention. It’s not like last time.”
“You better hope it’s not. Your daddy is furious enough as it is. If you get suspended, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“You? You won’t hear the end of it? Is that all that matters? Not that you have to, I dunno, talk to your son, but that Daddy will have to talk to you?”
“Calvin—”
“I’m sorry,” I interrupted her with hasty words I didn’t feel. I wasn’t sorry. Maybe if I was convincing enough, she’d leave it alone and end the call. “I’m stressed with exams.” And you, and Daddy, and Sasha, and everything.
“What do you know about stress?” she grumbled. “Try workin’ sixteen-hour days week after week, then havin’ to listen to your daddy complain about how I ran out, left him holdin’ the pieces, and the only time he ain’t rantin’ about that, it’s about you and the trouble you’re causin’.”
I dropped my chin to my chest as she went on.
Tears wetted my cheeks, but I didn’t make a sound.
There was no point. If Momma knew I cried, she’d blame me for burdening her with something about me.
I just couldn’t win, and the only relief in sight would be the day I moved away from home.
The day I could just stop answering hers or Daddy’s calls.
The day when I needed nothing from anyone.