Chapter 30 Then
Then
I was glad Mr. Fraser made me take my things, because I did not want to go back to class.
I went and sat in my car, seething, until lunch.
I’d worked myself up pretty good by the time the bell rang and the hallways and parking lot filled with students.
I opened my car door and marched with all the indignation in the world to our lunch spot.
Everyone was already there: Ava and Caroline and Harper.
Even Luca joined today; he had never done that before.
And, of course, there was the object of all the anger coursing through me—Beau.
He didn’t see me until I was standing right in front of him. He looked up, a half-eaten sandwich in his hand. His eyes seemed cold, shut off completely from any feelings toward me.
“You tattled on me?” I spit out.
He just shrugged. Shrugged!
“Six questions, Beau! It was only six questions.” My nails dug into my palms from how hard I was clenching my fists.
“And breaking into the school?”
So the principal had shown him that video?
“We didn’t do anything!”
“So you admit it?”
“What is happening?” Caroline asked beside him.
“Indy cheated off Beau,” Harper said. “And broke into the school the other night after my party.”
“That’s what you ditched us for?” Ava asked.
I was too busy glaring at Beau to respond to Ava. “You told her?” The her I was referring to was Harper.
She knew that too, because she said, “Of course he told me. He tells me everything.”
My eyes whipped over to her. “Did you encourage him to do this? To turn me in?” Because why else would he? I thought I could trust him with secrets, with important information. Apparently not.
“Don’t talk to her,” Beau said to me.
“Gladly,” I said back. “Just so you know, they’re making me retake every test I took this entire year.”
His eyes went wide for half a second before they settled into smug again. “Good,” he said.
Something occurred to me in that moment that hurt even more. “You’re only pissed because I jumped ahead of you in rankings.”
“This has nothing to do with that,” he said. “It has to do with all the terrible choices you’re making lately. Ditching your friends, dating some criminal, cheating on tests. You need help.”
“You’re not in charge of me!”
“Someone needs to be.”
Where before the rage had been red like fire, now it felt white-hot. “I didn’t tattle on you for cheating!”
“I’ve never cheated,” he said.
And that’s when I said something I shouldn’t have. Something I knew wasn’t a completely accurate representation of events but something my anger spewed out of my mouth anyway. “So you don’t consider kissing Lucy at Harper’s birthday party cheating?”
Harper gasped from beside him.
Beau’s eyes went dark. “You know that’s not what happened.”
“I thought you told her everything. You obviously didn’t tell her this.” That much was apparent by the utter surprise on Harper’s face.
“Indy,” Caroline said in a voice laced with disappointment. “This isn’t cool.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve never been cool.”
I knew I’d screwed everything up, done this all wrong.
I was livid, yes, but this wasn’t how this should’ve gone down.
I should’ve talked to Beau calmly, alone, asked him why he did it.
Because sure, I shouldn’t have broken into the school and I shouldn’t have cheated.
I knew that. But we were friends. We were just getting Cody’s backpack.
And it was six questions. Shouldn’t he have talked to me, asked me what was going on with me, before turning me in?
My life had turned upside down and sideways.
I would’ve told him that. Then I would’ve told him that we went in through an open window.
And as for the test, he could’ve made me redo those questions for him at his kitchen table to prove I knew the concepts, because I did.
But instead he’d taken this to the principal?
Screwed up not just my now, but potentially my future, my college options, everything.
All because he couldn’t stand that I beat him in the class rankings?
Or maybe it was because everything had to be perfect in his brain.
Things were either black or white. There was no gray.
“Walk away, Indy,” Ava said. “You basically already have.”
Tears sprang to my eyes and I whirled on her. “I will,” I said. “Because you have all been terrible friends. You have no idea what’s going on in my life because you haven’t cared enough to find out.”
“Maybe you should’ve trusted us enough to tell us,” Ava said.
Maybe I should’ve, but I had sworn to my mom I wouldn’t. And it was far too late now. I gripped the straps on my backpack and met each of their eyes in turn. Caroline looked like she wanted to say something. Even opened her mouth to do it, but then she averted her gaze.
I walked away.
I was well out of sight when my phone buzzed in my pocket.
For one hopeful moment I thought that someone from the group I’d just left behind had texted me.
That the message would ask me to come back or meet them somewhere and explain things when we didn’t have an audience.
But when I pulled out my phone, it was a text from Cody:
Where are you?
Sitting in my car. I’m not feeling well.
I wasn’t sitting in my car yet, but that’s where I was heading. I could see it across the parking lot, my safe space.
I unlocked the doors and crawled into the back seat.
I could’ve driven away from here, but I wasn’t sure where to go.
Home didn’t seem any better than here, not with at least one disappointed parent waiting for me there.
Ready to tell me how wrong I’d been. I was sure my mom had told my dad.
Probably even rubbed it in his face in a “look what you created” kind of way.
And she was right. This all did stem from my dad’s situation.
There was a knock on my window and I looked over to see Cody’s face smashed against the glass. He pointed at the door and I nodded. He opened it and I sat up to make room for him.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “You sick?”
“Kind of.”
“Bummer,” he said, climbing in next to me and pulling me into a hug. He smelled a bit smoky, probably because his grandma smoked in the house. But the human connection, the feel of his hands pressed against my back and my cheek pressed against the skin on his neck, brought me some comfort.
“Yeah,” I agreed. Because it was.
He didn’t ask for any more information, and maybe I was glad about that. He just said, “You want me to drive you to get some McDonald’s?”
“You have a car?” I asked.
“No, I’d drive yours.”
“Do you have your license?”
“No, but I’m a pretty good driver,” he said.
“Do you want McDonald’s?”
“I totally do,” he said.
“I’ll drive you.”
“You will?” he asked, taking me by the arms and playfully pushing me forward and backward. “You’re so nice.”
“Sometimes,” I said, thinking about how I’d just told off my friends.
“Well, nobody can be nice all the time,” he said with a big laugh. Then he hopped out of the car, ran around it, and jumped into the passenger seat. “You ready?”
“The bell is about to ring for sixth period,” I said. I probably shouldn’t have offered to take him to get food. I should’ve gotten out of the car and gone to sixth. I was already in enough trouble with the principal, with my parents.
“I’ll call in for you,” he said. “Tell them you had a doctor’s appointment.”
I chuckled a little. I’d never done that in my life—faked a parent phone call or even forged a parent’s signature. I’d always obeyed the rules. But I really didn’t want to go to sixth period. Both Beau and Harper were in my sixth period.
I climbed out of the back seat and into the driver’s seat. “Let me hear your best Dad impersonation.” I started the car.
“Hello,” he said in a deep voice. “This is Indy’s dad—”
“His name is Marcus. Marcus Blair.”
“This is Marcus Blair. Indy has a doctor’s appointment.” His impression wasn’t half bad. It didn’t sound like my dad, but it sounded like an adult. That’s all the front office would care about.
“Yeah, okay, you can call,” I said, starting the car.
“Blair is your last name?”
“Did you really not know that?”
“I didn’t. Do you know mine?”
“Pratchett,” I said.
He reached over and squeezed my side, causing me to jump. “Have you been stalking me? How cute.”
“I was not stalking you. You’re Harper’s neighbor. She warned me against you.”
“Did she, now?” he asked. “Well, Harper is no fun; of course she’d warn you against me. But you make your own decisions.”
I looked into my rearview mirror as I pulled away from the school. I didn’t know why I expected to see Beau standing there, his arms crossed in a disapproving fashion, watching me leave. But nobody was there. Not Caroline or Ava. And definitely not Beau. I’d just blown up my friendships.
“Did you take some hydrochloric acid from the chemistry room when we were there the other night?”
He just laughed.