Chapter Ten
Charlotte
I scan the lunchroom, only wincing slightly when I realize my close friends are no longer here. They’ve all moved on. Penny has a different lunch than me, so I can’t even sit with her. Lovely. Oh well. I’ll just text with Roux and Loden. I grab a chicken sandwich and a water before heading toward a table of girls I know. Several are cheerleaders who were a grade below me.
“Hey,” I chirp, forcing a bright smile. “Can I sit here?”
A girl named Shellie smiles at me. “Of course—”
“No,” Heidi says, rising to her feet so that we’re eye level. “The trash sits there.” She points to a garbage can.
I skim my gaze down her front, taking in her gym clothes she was forced to change into after Cal sent her to the office. “Why am I trash?” I arch a brow, subtly indicating she’s the one looking like a hot mess right now.
Several girls giggle and she silences them with a glare. Then, she turns her hazel eyes back on me.
“Everyone knows what a whore you were last year. You slept with three guys at once. There were pictures that went around.” She scoffs. “Is that where you disappeared to? To get rid of all those diseases? Did it take them a long time to pick out all the crabs?”
Reminders of the crap Ryan pulled creep up on me like a cloying fog. So often he’d make me pliable with the pills he’d all but force down my throat. I could have said no. I could have fought it. But I didn’t. I became what they said. A whore.
“You know nothing about me,” I say finally, my voice steady despite the way I barely contain a tremble. “Nothing.”
A guy named Rowdy starts cackling. “Fight! Fight! Fight! But can you do it naked? I totally want to see Heidi and Charlotte wrestle around naked.”
“You don’t belong here,” Heidi states, not backing down and ignoring the idiot who’s chanting. “Maybe you should sit at the whores’ table instead with the Rockford reject.”
She points to a girl sitting alone.
“Does Coach Jenner know what a scathing bitch you are?” I ask, cocking my head to the side. “She’s been known to kick people off the squad for bullying.”
Heidi’s eyes flare with anger. “I’ll deny it. But you can’t exactly deny this.” She pulls her phone out of her gym shorts pocket, flips right to a picture, and holds it up for me to look at.
I’m stunned speechless seeing the picture. I knew they existed—vaguely remember them being taken—but didn’t realize they’d been spread to bitches like Heidi to use against me as ammunition.
She’s too busy glaring at me in triumph to notice the imposing presence behind me. My skin prickles at his nearness. A strong, toned arm with a dress shirt rolled up to the elbow reaches past me, snatching the phone right out of her hand.
“What’s this?” Cal demands.
Heidi audibly gulps, her eyes wide with terror. “N-Nothing. I was telling her she should delete these before they get in the wrong hands.”
“I should make you go visit Ms. Frazier again,” he growls, “because having pictures of underage teens performing sexual acts is a crime that carries time, Miss Fulton. Do you feel like going to jail today?”
Heidi whimpers, no longer the badass she was moments ago. I wonder why Cal is coming to my aid, but I don’t argue it. Not over this. I want these pictures gone and this dealt with. I already have too much on my plate as it is.
“I’m deleting this now.” He messes with her phone and then glowers at the table filled with wide-eyed teens. “If I hear so much as a whisper that any of you have these pictures on your phones, I will bring the police here in a heartbeat so they can investigate every damn one of you.”
Kids start scrambling to open their phones, no doubt worried at what Cal threatens. I could kiss him right now in thanks. He grabs my elbow and then motions at the table—now named the whores’ table—with Heidi’s phone where the girl sits alone.
“Sit over there,” he rumbles, his hard voice holding no room for argument.
The girl with a Rockford hoodie on grins our way. I decide she’s clearly an outcast like me and could use some company. Before I get far away, I hear Cal tell Heidi he’s keeping her phone until the end of the day and she can pick it up after school from the office.
I set my bottle of water and chicken sandwich down before sitting across from the girl. Extending my hand across the table, I shake hers.
“I’m Charlotte English. Nice to meet you.”
Her eyes widen for a moment, and then they dart over to Cal. “Wait? You’re—”
“The girl who put your cousin in a coma?” Cal offers, taking the seat right next to me. “That’s her.”
My heart skips a beat. This is Trey’s cousin? Guilt swallows me up and I fear I might drown in it. Two people at this table who are directly affected by my actions. I want to apologize for the millionth time, but what good would that do? He’s still in a coma.
The girl narrows her eyes, her nostrils flaring. Now that I’m looking at her, I do see the similarities in her and Trey. You can tell they’re family. Same eye shape and way they smile, though she’s not smiling now.
Great. Another enemy to add to the list.
“I’m sorry,” I say to the girl. “I really am.” Emotion clogs my throat as I tear my gaze from hers to pick at the edge of the chicken sandwich wrapper. “I can’t change what happened. I wish I could. I really wish I could.”
Cal makes a derisive, hateful snort.
“I’m Sonya,” the girl states.
I meet her eyes and they’re no longer blazing with anger. She’s softened, seemingly at Cal’s response to me.
Cal lets out a heavy, resigned sigh. “Right. So moving on. Sonya here is new. A Rockford transfer. She knows all about bitches trying to ruin her life. I thought you two might have something in common.” He slaps the table and stands. “Look after my cousin, English.”
With those confusing words, he leaves.
“Cousin?” I ask, studying her.
“More like brother from another mother,” she says as she takes a bite of her sandwich.
We both eat in amicable silence before she crumples her wrapper up and openly stares at me. I try not to squirm under her intense glare. I’m unable to finish my sandwich, leaving half of it on the wrapper uneaten.
“Cal is hurting right now.” Her words are soft, but they cut through me like a hot knife in butter.
My eyes water and I bite on my bottom lip to keep the emotion at bay.
“He’ll go back to the annoying asshole we all love and adore, though,” she assures me. “I still can’t believe he took this job to look after me. Taking the whole big brother vibe to the next level.”
“He came here for you?”
She purses her lips, eyes darting to the cheerleader table before meeting mine. “I left on bad terms at my old school. To get away from what I did.”
“Something happened?”
“That picture that bimbo bitch was threatening you with,” she says, her voice low so no one hears. “I had a lot. Someone sent them to the whole school. Since I’m underage, the police got involved. It’s a huge mess.”
Cal was right.
I do have something in common with this girl.
“Are you okay?” I ask, reaching forward to take her hand, needing to connect with her.
Vulnerability shines in her brown eyes. “I will be.” She swallows, not letting go of my hand. “I sent them to an older man. I loved him. I thought…well, I thought wrong.” Bitterness hangs in the air.
“Guys are such assholes,” I agree, giving her a soft smile. “My ex fucked me up bad.”
Paxton walks up to our table, a perverted grin on his face. “Oh, fuck, yes. Lesbians. Let me watch.” He makes a great show of pretending his fingers are a pussy that he’s licking.
I yank my hand from hers, whipping my head toward the jerk. Sonya and I gape at him in disgust until someone nails him in the head with a chicken sandwich, mayonnaise splattering over his cheek.
“What the fuck?” he roars.
Penny walks over, a bored expression on her face. “Oops. My bad. I thought you were the trash can.” She plops down beside me. “I got my schedule changed. Figured you’d miss me, sis.”
I’ve never been so happy to see my sister.
Paxton is glaring at her with murderous rage in his eyes. Penny ignores him as she picks up the other half of my sandwich.
“Can I have this?” she asks. “I fed mine to a dog.”
He storms off, slipping on the sandwich mess, making the cafeteria erupt in laughter when he falls on one knee.
As soon as he’s gone, Penny crumples up the empty wrapper and talks over the food she’s chewing. “He’s an even bigger douchebag this year.”
“You think,” I mutter.
“Who’s the traitor?” Penny asks, pointing a finger at Sonya.
“Trey’s cousin. Sonya.”
Penny whips her head toward Sonya. “No shit?”
Sonya tenses under Penny’s scrutiny. “I’m not a traitor. I just moved here. I don’t exactly have Horn River clothes yet.”
“You look familiar. You ball?” Penny asks, nodding at her hoodie.
“T is my cousin and Cal practically is too. You think I grew up with those knuckleheads and didn’t learn to ball?” She stands up and turns around so we can see her number ten on her back.
Penny grins. “Our team will be super shitty this year since all the good people graduated. You gonna try out in December?”
Sonya sits back down, hope shining in her eyes. “I thought about it, but like you said, I’m a traitor coming from Rockford.”
“So?” Penny says, stealing my water bottle. She gulps some down before replacing the cap. “Coach Peterson will do anything to make her job easier. She’s pregnant and by the time our season starts, she’ll pop out that baby. If we want scholarships, we have to get noticed.”
I don’t interrupt to remind her Dad will pay for us to go wherever we want. Penny likes earning things on her own, so I don’t intervene.
“Yeah, I’ll try out,” Sonya says. “Don’t be pissed when I run circles around you, though.”
Penny barks out a loud laugh. “Funny. Nice try, Rockford.”
“Oh, honey,” Sonya replies, her dark eyebrow arching up playfully, “I don’t have to try. I was born to play.”
“We’ll see.” Penny rises and ruffles my hair. “See you later, sis. I’m going to the park after school to practice. You coming with us, baller?”
Sonya nods. “Yeah, I’ll come play.”
“Find something yellow,” Penny tells her. “Rockford red makes my eyes hurt.”
As soon as she leaves, the bell rings. I stand up and wait for Sonya to gather her stuff. We walk side by side out of the lunchroom toward the English wing of the building.
“Your sister seems nice,” Sonya says. “I was worried about coming to school here.”
Penny? Nice? Not exactly two words I’d use in the same sentence to describe my sister, but I’m glad Sonya feels comfortable around her.
“Not everyone is bad like Heidi and Paxton,” I assure her. I cringe, realizing I fall into that category, though, since I hit Trey. “And me.”
Sonya stops and tugs at a short blond strand of my hair. “I’m not Cal.”
“He’s justified in hating me,” I mutter. “It’s okay if you hate me too.”
Her lips curl into a smirk. “Hate? Not exactly how I’d describe how Cal feels about you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Please, honey,” she says with a laugh. “He practically inhaled you at lunch. And coming to your rescue like a knight in shining armor? That boy has it bad.”
I shake my head. “No. He hates me. Promised to make my life a living hell.”
“He’d never actually hurt you,” she tells me, conviction in her tone. “He’s a Hornet, not a monster.”
“No, that’s my ex,” I grumble.
“Your ex put his hands on you?”
I don’t like spilling my secrets, but she already told me hers. “Yeah. I’m repeating twelfth grade because…” I sigh. “I don’t remember much of last year. Just being with Ryan. Taking whatever pills Ryan shoved down my throat. Always walking on eggshells so Ryan wouldn’t get angry.” Absently, I rub at my neck where he used to like to grab me.
“Ryan sounds like a total dick,” Sonya hisses. “Where’s he at now?”
“He went to OSU. Over the summer, he tried to get back with me.”
“You told his manipulating ass no, right?”
“I blocked him.” I point at my hair. “After I whacked my hair and sent a snotty picture of myself to him.” A crazed giggle escapes me. “Then I went to rehab.”
“You went and got your shit together, huh?”
“Still trying,” I admit.
“I got your back, sis,” she tells me, smiling.
“I really am sorr—”
“I know.” She cuts me off with a wave of her hand. “T would die if he knew how badly this eats you up. I know my cousin. He’s a lover, not a fighter. When T wakes up, you can apologize to him. You can’t keep beating yourself up over it.”
“I should have never gotten behind the wheel with Ryan.” I choke on a sob.
She steps closer, taking my hand. “And you think Ryan would have allowed you to tell him no?”
Her words have my shoulders slumping and my eyes slamming shut. I remember the way he dragged me away from the party we were at. The grip on my wrist was so tight. His vicious words. Cruel and hateful, stabbing me everywhere all at once. The way he threw me in the car—
The bell rings, jarring me from my nightmares.
Sonya gives me a sympathetic look, squeezes my hand, and then leaves.
“You okay?”
I turn toward the voice. Mr. Ewing. His smile is soft and concerned.
“Yes, great,” I lie.
He winks at me. “Better get to your next class. I’ll let you pass this time and not give you detention.”
“Thanks,” I say with a light laugh.
“No problem. See you in class later. There’ll be a desk right up front with your name written all over it.” He grins. “Don’t fall asleep this time. If you fail again, I’ll think you’re just trying to find ways to spend more time with me.”
I roll my eyes and head toward my next class. “Bye, Mr. Ewing.”