Untouchable - Chapter 25
Thursday
I took another bite of the delicious salad. Matt had left me another one in my locker, just like he’d promised. A girl could get used to this. Although, it was hard to get used to being ignored by him all day.
“Earth to Brooklyn,” Kennedy said and tossed a French fry into my salad. If that wasn’t enough to get my attention, her camera also flashed, momentarily blinding me. “Did you hear what I said?”
I blinked, trying to remove the dots from my vision. “Sorry. What?”
She threw her arm behind Cupcake’s back, snuggling into his side. “Joe asked me to homecoming! It’s going to be so much fun. Tell me you two are going together.” She motioned to Felix and me.
I forced myself not to look over at the Untouchables’ table.
Matt wouldn’t be asking me. Unless he somehow got out from Isabella’s thumb before then.
Which meant I wouldn’t be going to homecoming.
It was for the best. I hadn’t exactly put my best foot forward at any of the parties I’d been to.
I’d probably just accidentally drink spiked punch and make a fool of myself anyway.
It would be better if I stayed in my room all night and studied.
“We actually hadn’t talked about it yet,” Felix said. “But now that you mentioned it…how about it, newb? Be my homecoming date?”
Had Felix totally forgotten our conversation from twenty minutes ago?
The one where we’d agreed to be friends?
I slowly chewed my bite of lettuce. I was stalling.
Trying to find anything to say that wasn’t completely awkward.
I hadn’t had a chance to tell Kennedy that Felix and I had put the brakes on things.
It would be weird to just blurt it out now.
He leaned over and whispered in my ear. “As friends. Come on, it’ll be fun.”
I could not under any circumstances go to homecoming with Felix.
First of all, my uncle wouldn’t let me. Second of all, I was pretty sure Matt would freak out.
And third, it would send the completely wrong message to Felix.
Think. Say anything. I took a deep breath.
“Sure.” Sure? What the heck did I say that for?
Sure was not the appropriate response to that question!
“Awesome. Maybe we can all meet at my place for pictures?” Felix said. “We can get a limo and the whole deal. It’ll be fun.”
“Sure.” Stop saying sure!
“Speaking of homecoming, we should catch the football game beforehand too,” Felix said.
“Sure.” Damnit! I was pretty sure I just had a seizure and the only thing I could say now was “sure.” Screw me.
“Great.” He smiled down at me.
“That sounds wonderful,” Kennedy said. “And speaking of the opposite of wonderful…what the heck happened to Matt’s face?”
I wanted to thank her for stopping my sure seizure, but why on earth did she have to bring up Matt of all people? I swallowed a crouton wrong and started choking.
“You okay?” Kennedy asked and handed me my bottle of water.
“Fine,” I mumbled between huge sips.
“So what do you think happened to Matt’s face?” she asked again.
“How should I know?” I did my best not to turn around and stare at Matt’s black eye. And I waited for Felix to say something. Did he know what Matt had done? He must have.
“I heard he got beat up by a pimp for refusing to pay an ugly prostitute,” Cupcake said.
“Yeah, right,” Kennedy said with a laugh. “Where did you hear that?”
“Everyone’s saying it.” He shrugged. “The guy’s a total whore. I heard he slept with the whole cheerleading squad. Together. In one night.”
“Really?” I asked.
Cupcake nodded.
My throat still felt dry from the crouton choking.
It was like reading aloud in Mr. Hill’s class sore.
And I felt that same sense of defeat that I did in Mr. Hill’s class too.
Probably because all the excitement I felt about Matt seemed like it was being flushed down the toilet.
A whole cheerleading squad? At once? I’d never even had sex before.
He’d told me he’d wait for me now. I knew that meant he’d already had sex.
I knew that from the condoms in his drawer, or lack of condoms left in his drawer.
How many were missing? I could get over a few.
Hell, I already knew he wasn’t a virgin.
But screwing the whole cheerleading squad? I felt like I was going to be sick.
Kennedy’s smile dropped, probably when she saw my reaction. “I don’t think that’s true,” she said. “His older brother is a total man whore. But I think Matt’s kind of sweet.”
“The Caldwells are all the same,” Cupcake said. “One and done. Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am. Ask anyone.”
“No they’re not, Joe,” Kennedy said. “And it’s unbecoming to spread rumors.”
“Babe.” He pulled her back into his side. “What do either of you care about Matthew Caldwell anyway?”
“We don’t,” I said and pushed my salad aside. But I did. I really did. But I couldn’t say that out loud. And I couldn’t defend Matt, because for all I knew, what Cupcake was saying was true.
Kennedy cleared her throat. “Exactly, we don’t.”
“Cupcake?” Cupcake asked and pulled out a box of cupcakes from…I have no idea where. Seriously, where had those been a minute ago?
“Absolutely,” Kennedy said and grabbed one with chocolate frosting.
He held it out to me.
“No thank you,” I said.
“Felix?” Cupcake waved the box in front of Felix’s face.
“Actually, can we talk for a minute?” Felix asked. “I have an idea I want to run by you.”
Cupcake closed the lid. “Sure, what’s up?”
“Let’s talk just the two of us,” Felix said.
“Okay. Later, babe,” Cupcake said and kissed the side of Kennedy’s forehead.
After an awkward hug with Felix, I watched them walk away. “What was that about?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” Kennedy shook her head. “But I don’t like it.”
I watched the two of them leaning against the cafeteria doors talking. Me either.
“Is something going on with you and Felix?” she asked. “It looked like you panicked when he asked you to homecoming.”
“I didn’t panic. I said sure.” I said sure a lot, actually. I pushed some lettuce around with my fork. At least I could be honest with her about one thing. “But we did decide to just be friends.”
“Really?” She sounded a little excited, but I didn’t blame her.
She’d made it clear that she hated him. “Does that have something do with Matt? Because Joe’s information about him seemed to really bother you, despite the fact that you always insist that he’s a jerk. I kinda thought you’d agree with him.”
“It has nothing to do with Matt.” I desperately wanted to tell her that Matt came over last night.
That he’d given me his varsity jacket. But I’d promised not to.
I wished I could just go back to last night when Matt was holding me in his arms. Everything made sense then. Before the cheerleader sexcapades.
“You sure about that? Because he still looks at you like something’s going on.”
I glanced back at the Untouchables table. Matt was staring directly at me. A scowl slicing across his perfect face. His swollen and bruised perfect face. I quickly turned away.
“Nothing’s going on,” I said.
“Good.”
“Good?” I looked up at her. “Why is that good? I thought you wanted me to date Matt?”
“I did . And you’d make a much cuter couple than you and Felix. But…I think it’s probably a bad idea. At least right now.”
Did she think he was a slut too? I was worried I’d learned more about Matt in the last five minutes than I’d learned during all my time here.
All I could think about was that box of opened condoms in his nightstand.
I wish I’d counted how many were left. Had he used five?
Twelve? Seventy-two? I felt like I was going to throw up my salad.
Kennedy pushed her tray aside. “I’ve been dying to tell you this all day.
I just didn’t know exactly what to say. And I thought it might be best if I got to the bottom of it before even telling you anything.
But I don’t want to keep it from you. I overheard a conversation between my mom and Uncle Jim.
He stopped by this morning early before work. ”
“Okay…” I waited, but Kennedy didn’t offer any more information. “What were they talking about?”
“You. And someone at this school.”
I held my breath. Did my uncle know that Matt had spent the night? He was going to ground me until I was old and gray unless he decided to kill me instead. “Who?” I asked.
“I didn’t catch the name. But I heard one thing clear as day.” She leaned forward.
I leaned forward too. Waiting. My heart pounding.
“Brooklyn, you are related to someone at this school. I don’t know any more than that. But I promise I’ll keep digging.”
My throat felt even drier than before. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“Am I related to another student?”
“I don’t know. It might be a faculty member. Or it might be…Matt.”
I didn’t know how to react to that news, so I just stared back at her.
“It was great that you were dating Felix because Uncle Jim flat out said you weren’t related to him. But now that you guys aren’t dating…you need to be careful. You don’t want to accidentally make out with your brother,” she said with a laugh.
My stomach churned. Yeah, I was definitely going to throw up my salad.
“I know I said I’d help figure out this whole missing father mystery and I’ve been a little MIA. But we can figure this out together. We already have our first real clue other than the fact that your father at one point lived in the city.”
“But you think Matt's father is my dad?” God, I am a brother kisser! I was pretty sure there was a special place in hell for people like me. I’d probably be forced to kiss my brother for eternity as punishment.
Although…if Matt really was my brother, the punishment sounded pretty good to me.
No! Stop thinking about kissing your brother, you monster!
“I think that your uncle would have no other reason to be concerned enough to talk to my mom about it if it wasn’t someone you were hanging out with. And you just had that after school project the other day. So I was thinking it was probably Matt. Or…Rob.”
Rob joked around with me like an annoying brother.
I tried to remember what he’d said about his father the other night.
Something about picking up call girls on Wall Street.
I swallowed hard. I didn’t want Rob’s father to be my dad.
I wanted someone caring and kind. But I knew that wasn’t the case.
A kind caring man wouldn’t have abandoned me and my mom.
As soon as I thought it, I realized I already had the best father figure I could.
My uncle was kind and caring and patient with me.
I wished I could forget about the whole father thing completely.
I didn’t even really want to meet my father.
But I also didn’t want to accidentally date my brother.
I had to talk to my uncle. “He said you could come over and do homework with me after school today,” I said. “Will you help me ask him?”
Her face lit up. “Are you ungrounded?”
“Only for you and schoolwork.”
“I knew he’d cave,” she said with a smile. “It hasn’t even been a week, the big softie. Okay, so now we just have to figure out how to ask him about it.”
“Yeah. Please tell me you have a plan?” Because I had nothing but flat out asking. Which maybe would have been suitable, but I’d already done that. And he’d denied my very reasonable request.
“Well, first I think it would be easy to just start talking about how hot both of them are.”
I laughed.
“And then we can gauge his reaction to see if he’s disturbed or not.”
“That’s not a bad idea.”
“We got this. We’ll just study his reaction and I think we’ll be able to figure it out before you go to sleep tonight.”
She was so confident that I found myself nodding my head. We’d figure out who my dad was before I went to bed. Also before Matt came over tonight. If he came over again tonight. I hoped he would. I wanted to kiss him again. Oh, God, what is wrong with me? Please don’t let me be related to Matt.