Chapter 4 #2
After Collins, though, my other morning teachers were fine. They mostly left me alone, which was my preference. I tried to text Barrett while I waited for math to start after English, but my phone wouldn’t let me send a text. I frowned and the guy next to me smiled and pointed at the phone.
“You need a VPN on it to get around the block. Download it at home.” He nodded. “You’re friends with the Lents, right? I saw you this summer.”
I cleared my throat. “Alatheia.”
“Davis.” He smiled. “I know Phoenix pretty well.”
The class started, which saved me having to say anything else, and I was grateful for it.
Art was my last class before lunch, and true to his word, Phoenix walked me to every one.
I was grateful to not get lost. The school retained its old mansion look, so it seemed filled with long, confusing hallways.
I couldn’t imagine trying to find my way around by myself—not to mention there was apparently a senior hallway that ate the twins, because I still had yet to see them.
I sat down with Phoenix at lunch after visiting the cafeteria. He paid for my food, because my aunt still hadn’t put any money in my account. What else is new?
We no sooner took our seats than the door swung open to Julian and Jeremy, followed by a number of guys I didn’t recognize. Except for Marco, whom I’d hated in the Hamptons. After today, he improved greatly, especially since he told Bethany to suck it.
“Hey,” Jer said as he scooted in next to me. “There you are. You look really pretty in the uniform, which is nearly impossible.”
“Missed you,” Julian said, but he kept his voice soft. “How are you? How is it going?”
Marco scooted onto our table. “Why are we all here, anyway? This is the Junior lunch area.”
“You didn’t have to come.” Jeremy said then shrugged. “We didn’t tell the whole team to come. You followed us.”
He smirked. “Oh Captain, where thou goest, we goest.” He then laughed like he’d just said the best thing in the world.
“Thanks for helping.” I said to Marco. “With Bethany.”
“Oh.” He glanced my way then shrugged. “Yeah. She was out of line, not that it is unusual for her.”
“What happened?” Julian glanced between us before taking a bite of his apple. I stared at my sandwich, my stomach churning just thinking about it.
“Bethany was being a bitch about the uncle thing. She was nothing compared to what Collins did to you.” He whistled. “Dude, it was bad. I thought it was monumental with Phoenix, but then he ate her alive. You? That was bad.”
Julian took my hand. “Baby.” I should tug my hand away because he needed to stop doing that in public, but I wasn’t going to tell him not to when I needed his touch. I would miss him too much. “What did she do?” he asked.
I shrugged one shoulder as if it didn’t matter. “She just showed everyone how stupid I am.”
Phoenix shook his head, his lips dropping into an instant frown. “No one thought you were stupid.”
“Well, I kind of did.” Bethany admitted as she scooted into place at the table. Where had she come from? “Then I changed my mind because of Phoenix.”
Is she sitting with us, too? Really? I met Julian’s gaze after he stared at her, his mouth open in surprise.
The entire water polo team seemed to be listening to every word we said.
While I stared at them all, I noticed Tiffany with whom I could only presume was Hal approaching with lunch trays in hand.
He was taller than her with glasses, and then Phoenix groaned again. What is his deal with Hal?
Tiffany sent Bethany a scathing look. “Really?”
“Sure. You’re not the only one who wants to be friends with Alatheia. I mean that was quite the display today. I wrote you off and then had to write you back in, which almost never happens.”
Lucky me.
“I still don’t know what happened.” Jeremy set down his food. “Is someone going to explain?”
Phoenix rubbed his eyes, and I noticed he’d been doing it a lot lately. Is he not okay? Is he getting enough rest? “We’ll get into it later. Not now,” he said.
Jeremy sighed. “Fine. Has anyone heard from Barrett?”
Which reminded me of my useless brick of a phone. I held it in front of me. “I can’t get through to anyone. I was supposed to text him, but my phone won’t send messages. Someone named Davis said I need a VPN on this too.”
Phoenix held out his hand, so I passed him my phone. “I’ll get that fixed for you, but don’t talk to Davis.”
Julian grinned, nudging his brother with his elbow. “I thought he was your friend.”
“He can be my friend, not hers. He’s not good enough to be her friend.” He jerked his chin toward Tiffany. “They’re going to be friends.”
This is the strangest lunch I’ve ever had, but I’m loving every second of it.
Before the bell rang, Tiffany and I managed to show each other some sketches.
She loved to do scenes at the park, and I had some nice ones of animals in my travel sketchbook.
I wasn’t going to show her any I drew of the guys, deciding in that moment it was something between just us.
By the time lunch ended, Phoenix fixed my phone and it dinged with incoming messages. I tucked it into my back pocket, walking with Tiffany to our next class.
“So, Phoenix is your boyfriend?” Tiffany asked when we were finally alone.
I headed toward science next while she had social studies.
The guys scattered, with the water polo players following the twins back to their senior hallway while Phoenix disappeared.
Hal followed him, but I still didn’t know their deal.
I shook my head, focusing on her question about Phoenix. “Just my friend.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. The vibes.
. .you two definitely have something in the works, but then again, two of his brothers fawn all over you, too.
You’ll have to let me know when you decide which Lent to date,” she joked, and I bit my lip.
She would never know how loaded her statement really was.
Bethany stared at our drawings, comparing them as not intended, from over our shoulders. “That one is the best,” she decided, pointing at my squirrel. “They’re all cute. Barrett was the hottest, but he is gone now, out of range at university. Brown, I think.”
I almost corrected her—Columbia—then I decided I might prefer if she didn’t know how close Barrett remained.
Tiffany held out her hand, ignoring Bethany. “Give me your phone, and I’ll give you my number. Then you text me from yours.”
I followed her directions, then a second later, I actually had a contact in my phone who wasn’t a Lent. I never honestly thought I might make a friend.
“Me too.” Bethany put out her hand, demanding my phone.
I scowled at her. “You said you thought I was stupid.”
“Yep.” She smiled, and I picked up on the genuine warmth in her expression. “Then I told you I changed my mind. You should think I am stupid, too, since we’re all in that class together. Let’s be friends. I’m not so bad, once you get to know me.”
Absolutely gobsmacked, I passed her my phone. Okay, now I have two phone numbers. One I wanted, and the other. . .I didn’t know what to do with exactly. After she gave me her number, she left to go get some coffee.
“If I’m being entirely honest,” Tiffany sighed as she admitted, “She’s not so bad. There are worse people here, much, much worse. They all leave me alone, though. I’m too rich for them to fuck with, luckily.”
I’m not. She knew it and I did, too. Bethany might make a great pseudo-friend, if I looked at it as strength in numbers. I could probably also add Marco because he made the Eurotrash joke. Maybe Bethany was slightly misunderstood.
“You do know Phoenix does a lot of drugs, right? I ask because Hal does, too. It isn’t easy to be around all the time, but he’s really a sweetheart, even if I’m the only one who gets to see it.
” She shrugged. “They used to be best friends, Hal and Phoenix? I don’t know what happened.
Hal doesn’t talk about it, but I know he misses Phoenix. ”
I cleared my throat. “I appreciate you sharing, but like I said, we aren’t dating. Phoenix and I are just friends.” Who sleep in the same bed and kiss a lot.
Tiffany nodded, her expression saying she saw more than I admitted. “Yeah, I get it. I protect Hal, too, so let’s be friends and keep our secrets.”
She left and I didn’t know if she really was okay with what I said. I hoped she understood I wasn’t prepared to talk about Phoenix’s private business, nor would I ever be.
Finally, I glanced down at my phone, and I realized one of the notifications meant Barrett had texted.
All good?
I smiled instantly, heat warming my cheeks before texting him back. Other than missing you? Phone didn’t work for a while, but Phoenix fixed it.
“Red,” Phoenix appeared from around a corner as if I summoned him with my thoughts. “Time to get to the next round of hell.”
That afternoon, I had social studies, science, and theater before I got to watch the twins play water polo. Theater would be my last period of the day.
Which then dragged on as if it would never end.
Most of the teachers handed out rules and syllabuses for their class anyway, so it didn’t even feel like real classes.
People kept saying hello to me, and I tried not to appear shocked by the attention.
Everyone knew Phoenix, though, and the general consensus seemed to be we were or would be together soon.
No one asked about our dating status, they just let me know they knew Phoenix when they introduced themselves.
Probably why he’s walking me to classes, I realized. He wants everyone to know we’re friends to keep me safe from the bullies. My heart warmed at the knowledge.
When the bell rang at the end of the day, I took a deep breath. A weight seemed to lift off my shoulders, because I made it through my first day—at least that was behind me.
“Alatheia,” the theatre teacher, Mr. Kaus, called me forward before I could duck out the door. In his thirties, the only defining thing I could say about him after one class was he smiled a lot. “Come here for a second?”
I went to his desk. “Yes?”
“It’s a small school, so I heard what happened this morning in Collins’ classroom.
She has been here forever.” He took his glasses off and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt.
“But that doesn’t make what she did okay.
We will be preparing monologues to deliver this year, but I wanted to let you know I will never call on you to do one without giving you time to prepare.
I will tell you the day before, if that sounds fair?
I don’t want you to worry. What she did.
. .well, I am personally sorry. Not every teacher at Pullman is quite so. . .yeah.”
I nodded at him, understanding the unspoken bits. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”
“Let’s have a great year,” he said with another of his smiles.
As far as first days, overall, mine went okay. Collins might be crazy but she wasn’t my first insane teacher. Barrett leaned against a locker when I turned the corner, and my smile blossomed.
“I finally get out of this place, but I have to come back because you’re here, Sweetheart.”
I grinned, so happy to see him. “They just let you in?”
“I’m Barrett Lent.”
I nodded, not caring if it meant he could be there. “How were your classes? How was everything? Did you have a great day?”
“I hated my first class and loved the second a surprising amount. We’ll see how that goes.”
When I was close enough, I could smell his clean scent, so I let myself take a deep breath of him, filling my lungs and wishing I could fall into his arms. “Did you eat anything? Do you need anything?”
He shook his head. “A hug from you, but I think we’re both resisting that one.
How about we go watch the scrimmage then go home?
You can tell me what the fuck happened in your first period that made Jeremy text me because he doesn’t know about it.
Something about the details he heard has him worried. ”
I sighed. “I may have made it worse on myself and Phoenix. We’ll talk about it, but I don’t know that there’s much we can do for damage control. I just. . .yeah.”
A piece of brown hair fell in Barrett’s eyes, despite his recent haircut. I almost brushed it away, so I literally had to catch myself and tuck my hand in my pocket. “Let’s go see them play,” I agreed.
He stopped, his gaze serious as he considered my expression. “Just tell me you’re okay? That whatever happened this morning, you’re okay.”
It was so sweet, it took me a second to be able to answer past the emotion in my throat. I let myself touch the pearls before I spoke. “I’m okay. I survive things. Somehow. Today wasn’t as bad as other days. I wasn’t alone.”
“You’re never going to be alone again,” he whispered in my ear. “Sorry that it took us so long to find you.”
The building next door housed the gym and the pools.
People wandered around while the guys from Dallas did stretches on the other side of the pool.
As we took our seats, the Pullman guys came out of the locker room, already warmed up.
Julian told me how they had to be there an hour before the competition to swim.
I spotted the twins in tiny Speedo bathing suits—Pullman colors in green, red and blue. I saw them shirtless all the time, but never in public, and heat flooded my cheeks as my heartbeat picked up a notch. Wow. They are gorgeous.
All the guys were built, and they exercised to stay in shape, but I’d never seen one of their games. I forced myself to think about something other than Julian’s and Jeremy’s abdominal muscles, fanning my cheeks. Barrett put away his phone, glancing over at me.
“Mom is still in treatment, ” he said then frowned. “I try to check on her, but that’s the only answer they give me.”
I hated that for them. “You shouldn’t have to deal with so much. I’m sorry.”
“It helps to have you. Oh, yes, I always forget about the Speedos.” He drew his attention from his brothers back to me and he grinned conspiratorially. “They hate the Speedos. In crew, we actually got to wear clothes.”
“Do you miss it?”
He shook his head and then nodded. “Sometimes?”
“You could still do it, right?”
Phoenix scooted past us, his eyes vacant. Okay, so that’s where he’s been. “Did I miss anything?”
I shook my head. “No, they’re just starting.”
“Good.” He pointed at Barrett. “You’re here.”
His oldest brother patted him on the back. “I am.”
A whistle blew.