Untouchable - Chapter 21
Monday
The chair squeaked in front of me. I didn’t look up. My eyes were scanning the same page of my entrepreneurial studies book over and over again, even though I wasn’t retaining an iota of it.
“Brooklyn.”
It was Matt’s voice. I ignored him, squinting at the page in front of me.
His forearms rested on my desk as he leaned forward. “We need to talk,” he whispered.
The time for talking had passed. He’d been promising me a talk for a week but he never talked.
He just assaulted my lips. I pressed said lips together, trying to ignore the memory of what it felt like to kiss him.
It was easy because the memory of me sitting in his closet was easier to focus on.
He’d promised he’d come back to talk . He hadn’t.
“What day this week works for you to meet up after school?” he asked.
So now he was being reasonable? He didn’t have a ballet to attend every other night but Thursday this week or some other dumb excuse? “No days work. Sorry.” I lifted up my book, trying to block him from view.
“I’ll make whatever day you want work. Just pick a day and time.”
“I can’t. You and Rob will have to start the website without me. I’ll write some workout descriptions or something while you two do the coding.”
“We agreed to do it together.”
“I never agreed to that.”
Matt placed his hand on my book, lowering it to my desk so I could no longer hide behind it. “Brooklyn, please.”
I finally looked at him. And he looked…not good.
It was the first time I’d ever describe him that way.
There were dark circles under his eyes. His hair was askew like he’d just woken up from a nap.
Maybe he had. The Untouchables could pretty much do anything they wanted at this school and not get in trouble.
I pulled my book away from his hand, but I didn’t hide behind it again.
Instead I slammed it closed. “Why are you even talking to me right now? Class is about to start.” The last thing I wanted to do was get in trouble in Mr. Hill’s class again.
“But it hasn’t started yet.” Matt smiled in that annoying charming way of his.
And something in me snapped. “You’re both assholes,” I said, first glaring at Matt and then at Rob. “I think I have a right not to speak to either of you after what happened Saturday.”
Rob laughed. “Sorry, Sanders. It was just a classic Hunter-Sanders mess around. I didn’t mean any harm.”
So it was fun for Rob to torture me now too? “A what? You pushed me into a dark room and held the door closed. You made up lies about Kennedy. And you ruined my dress.”
“A shame. That dress looked great on you.”
I glared at him.
“And I didn’t lie about Kennedy.”
“Yes you did. Felix and her are just friends.” Like Felix was just friends with me?
Because we weren’t technically dating. He’d said it himself.
Was it possible that Kennedy was the other girl Felix was seeing?
The thought swirled around in my head. No.
Definitely not. That couldn’t be true. I swallowed down the lump in my throat.
“If you say so,” Rob said. “Better get to the bottom of that, though. It seemed like you were getting pretty close to Felix in the cafeteria. Wouldn’t want to see you get hurt.”
The lump was already back in my throat. “Like you care.”
“I care,” Matt said.
You’ve got to be kidding me. “Yeah, right. Like you cared about me on Saturday when you stuffed me into your closet like a dirty shirt?” Thinking about his shirt made me think about him removing his shirt. His abs. His strong arms. Stop.
Rob laughed. “Who puts dirty shirts in their closet? You’re a weird one, Sanders.”
“We’ll talk about this later,” Matt said when Mr. Hill walked into the room. “Just pick a day.”
“I literally can’t. I’m grounded. For the whole semester.”
“Why?”
I ignored him.
“Why?” Matt asked again.
“Miss Sanders are you planning on talking during my whole class?” Mr. Hill asked.
Are you kidding me? Matt was the one turned around talking to me. And words had left his mouth more recently than mine. Why wasn’t he in trouble?
“No, Mr. Hill,” I said. “I’m sorry,” I added, hoping he’d let me off the hook this time.
“Good. Since you’re in such a chatty mood, why don’t you start us off today by reading from the top of page 47?”
Not again. I started reading. And kept reading. And reading. My throat started to grow hoarse again and still Mr. Hill made me read. I hated this class. I hated this school. I cleared my throat for what felt like the hundredth time. And I hated Matthew Caldwell.
***
My uncle and I were sitting in silence eating dinner. The silence was killing me. He was probably waiting for me to apologize. But I wasn’t in the mood. I pushed around some of my rice with my fork.
He cleared his throat.
I waited for him to say something, but he didn’t. Maybe he heard that I’d eaten lunch with Felix. He just as easily could have been waiting for a confession instead of an apology. He wasn’t going to receive either from me.
The minutes ticked by.
He pushed his plate aside. “Do you want to watch a movie tonight?”
It was a peace offering. I knew that. But maybe I wasn’t ready for peace. I didn’t respond.
He sighed. “Kiddo…”
“I’m not a kid.” I dropped my fork onto my plate. “May I be excused?”
“I know you’re not a kid. But…”
“I only have two friends at school. If you make me stop talking to Felix you’re cutting my friend count in half.”
“You know that’s not what I want. But that boy…”
“You don’t know him.”
My uncle sighed. “I know enough.”
I was about to protest when the phone rang. I looked back down at my half-full plate. No one ever called me. The only person that had my number was Kennedy, and she never called. She always just walked over.
My uncle stood up and grabbed the phone. “Sanders residence.”
There was a long pause.
“Yes, but that won’t be possible.”
Another pause.
“Because she’s grounded.”
I looked up from my plate.
My uncle was staring at me. “For school you say?”
Pause.
“Yes. I see.”
Another pause.
“She stayed out past her curfew.”
“Who are you talking to?” I mouthed silently at him.
He ignored me. “I couldn’t agree more,” he said into the phone.
Pause.
“Sure, sure. Tomorrow night is fine.”
Another pause.
He smiled. “You too. Goodnight.” He hung up the phone and turned to me. “Now he seems like a good boy.”
“Who?” But my stomach had already turned over halfway through the conversation. I knew exactly who. I just had no idea how he got my phone number. Or why the hell he was calling. I’d made myself more than clear today.
“Matthew something or other. He says you have a group project together?”
I nodded because that was all I could do. Matthew Caldwell was absolutely not a good boy. I was pretty sure he was sent straight from hell just to annoy me.
“He wanted to make sure it was okay to work on it tomorrow afternoon. I’ll drop you off to do your project with him after work. Make sure to get the address from him at school.”
He even assured that I’d talk to him tomorrow? Confident prick. “I’m grounded though,” I said. “I can just split up the work with my group. We don’t have to meet after school.”
“School work always comes first.” He grabbed his plate and placed it in the sink. “I’ll do the dishes if you want to pick the movie.”
I wanted to tell him that Matt was a liar. A cheat. A bully. But I didn’t know how to tell him that without admitting that I’d kissed him. That confession might just tip the scales to me being grounded for eternity. Especially if I was related to him. God, what is wrong with me?
I could ask. I could ask right now and put the issue to rest. But I kept my lips closed.
Not knowing the truth was better than knowing in this case.
Right? I took a deep breath. None of it mattered because I wasn’t going to kiss him again.
I needed to focus on what mattered. “Please don’t make me stop seeing Felix,” I said.
“Can’t I just do chores around the house?
Or like…write I’m sorry 100 times on a sheet of paper?
Or something else to satisfy this whole grounded thing? ”
My uncle placed one of the plates in the dry rack. “Your mom never grounded you, huh?”
I sighed. “No. But I also never did anything bad. I was a little preoccupied taking care of her.”
He rinsed off his soapy hands and turned to me. “I can’t stop you from talking to a classmate in school. But right now, I don’t feel comfortable with you hanging out with Felix outside of school.”
“What if he just comes here? While you’re here?”
“Are you actually sorry? Because I haven’t heard you say it yet.”
“Of course I’m sorry.”
He didn’t say anything.
“I didn’t mean to worry you.” I knew how terrible worrying felt. Like a vine encircling your heart and slowly crushing it. “I’m sorry.”
He nodded. “We’ll discuss Felix another week. What kind of guardian would I be if my semester-long grounding only lasted 2 days?”
“A really good one?”
He laughed and started doing dishes again. “Ask me again next week.”
“What about Kennedy?”
“Ask me again next week,” he repeated.
I wasn’t allowed to hang out with Felix or Kennedy but my uncle was forcing me to hang out with Matt? What kind of sick twisted nightmare was I living?