Chapter 32 Then
Then
I knocked on the office door, even though it was open. Lana looked up from her desk.
“Oh hey, Indy, come in. Have a seat.” She pointed to the chair across from her.
I sat.
“What can I do for you?” Lana had always been a nice boss. She was young and funny. Liked to interact with us. But this still wasn’t going to be easy for me. Actually, liking her probably made this harder.
“Has Beau talked to you…about me?” If he was so worried about me going off the rails that he talked to the principal, he’d probably talked to our boss too. Told her that a cheater and a thief couldn’t possibly tutor kids.
“No,” she said. “About what?”
Didn’t that prove everything? That he wasn’t worried about me at all, just his place in the class rankings. “I was hoping you could arrange the schedule so that I never have to work with Beau.”
Her eyebrows rose clear to her hairline. “Oh. Wow. That’s a big ask.”
“Yeah,” I said.
“You know that’s not really how it works around here. You all have your desks and the clients that request you. It all depends on what works best with their schedules.”
“I figured,” I said. I knew walking in here that this was a long shot. “I need to quit, then.”
“Wait, what?” she asked, turning completely away from her computer now.
“Yeah.”
“You’re giving your two weeks?”
I cringed. “No, I’m giving my five minutes.”
“Indy,” she said in disappointment. I was kind of used to the disappointed voice at this point, it didn’t affect me. “That’s really going to leave me scrambling. Don’t you have clients today?”
“I do.”
“Can you please work today and I’ll get the rest of your schedule covered?”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “Fine. I’ll do today, but that’s it.”
“What’s going on?” she asked. “Is it something we can work through?”
“It’s really not,” I said.
She must’ve seen the emotion in my eyes, because I could feel it stinging there. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“You and me both,” I said, standing and walking toward the door.
“Indy, you’re one of my best employees,” she said.
I turned. “But not the best, right?”
“What do you mean?”
I meant that if she had to choose, just like everyone else she would choose Beau. Because he was everyone’s best. “Nothing,” I said. “Thanks for this job. It’s been really rewarding.”
“I can write you a referral for any other job you might be applying for.”
“Thank you, I might take you up on that.”
I have to work today after all, I typed into my phone as I settled at my desk. Can we meet up tomorrow? I pressed send and waited to see if Cody would respond right away. He never did.
It wasn’t until after my first client that my phone buzzed.
Where do you work again? Cody asked.
The tutoring center on Main.
Do all the kids have a crush on you, hot tutor?
I sure hope not, they’re in elementary school.
You can be my hot tutor?
I held in a laugh. No thank you.
See you tomorrow.
I tucked my phone away just as the front door opened and Beau walked in.
The way my mood went from happy to immediately angry let me know I’d made the right decision in quitting.
Beau’s expression proved he was feeling the same way.
Instead of coming to my desk and chatting with me for a few minutes, like he always had in the past, he marched straight to Lana’s office.
He pulled the door shut behind him after going inside.
Maybe he’d quit and I wouldn’t have to. But no, that wouldn’t happen. She’d tell him I quit and then he wouldn’t have to give up something he loved. He would, once again, not have to give up anything. All because I was scheduled to work first today.
My next student, Sadie, arrived when he was inside, so I didn’t notice him coming out of the office. That meant I had no idea how long he’d talked to Lana or how he felt when she told him I’d quit. He was probably happy.
I was working with Sadie, who was in the second grade, when I caught Beau’s eye across the room midway through my session.
I couldn’t make out his expression. It wasn’t joy, but it wasn’t anger either.
Something in the middle. I immediately averted my gaze and pointed to a word on the page, grape.
There was a picture of grapes as well. I encouraged Sadie to sound out the word, pointing to each letter.
“Berries,” she said. Kids did that sometimes, looked at the picture instead of the letters. Tried to guess.
“Good try, but what sound does the letter g make?”
When our hour was through and she got up to leave she said, “Oh! Miss Indy, I made you a picture.” She dug a wrinkled piece of paper out of her backpack.
On it were two poorly drawn people holding hands.
The sun was shining; there were flowers in the grass almost as tall as the people.
“This is you and this is me,” she said, pointing.
“Because you’re my best friend.” Then she threw her skinny arms around my neck before she ran for the door.
I had to excuse myself to the bathroom so nobody could see me lose it.
“What are you doing here?” I asked Cody when I stepped outside.
I was surprised to see him. We’d just texted that we’d see each other the next day.
But here he was outside the tutoring center.
“How long have you been here?” I hadn’t told him what time I got off.
He was holding his skateboard, and his hairline was wet with sweat.
He must’ve skated here. It wasn’t that close to his house.
At least not his grandma’s house. Maybe he’d been at his dad’s, which was only slightly closer.
“Not too long,” he said. “How was work?”
“It was fine.” I rarely shared anything super-personal with Cody.
My time with him was like an escape from everyday life, something different.
I wasn’t trying to work through things with him.
I wasn’t sure he was the best candidate to help me with that.
And besides, I still wasn’t allowed to tell anyone what was going on.
“I’m supposed to meet my parents for dinner,” I said.
I was dreading it. Dinner with my parents these days was rare but torturous.
Ever since they’d found out about my cheating and after-hours school visit, they treated me like a delinquent.
Took every opportunity to give me a lecture or talk about how that wasn’t the person I was.
I always pointed out that obviously it was, because I was beginning to feel like if that’s who I became in my desperation—a person who cheated, who climbed through open windows of a locked building, who threw her friends under the bus—then maybe that’s who I’d always been.
And maybe that gave me some insight into how my dad could’ve sunk to the point he did as well.
“Can you get out of it and go to the skate park with me? I’ll teach you how to do an ollie.” Cody demonstrated the move, jumping his skateboard a little.
“You think I can do that without cracking my head open?”
“I guess we’ll see,” he said, stepping off his skateboard, marching up to me, and kissing me on the lips in front of the glass door.
I kissed him back, wrapping my arms up around his neck—even though, like I had already observed, he was a little sweaty. After a quick kiss, he stepped back.
“I’ll let you drive today.” He walked to my car without waiting for my answer.
My parents wouldn’t miss me. They were so wrapped up in their own drama lately that they would probably be relieved when I didn’t show up.
Cody had not, in fact, been able to teach me an ollie. But I had fun, and I was still smiling as he walked me up to my front door.
“I could’ve taken you home first,” I said. “I’m the one with the car.”
He held up his skateboard. “I have wheels too.”
I smirked. “You really do go everywhere with that thing.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Thanks for hanging out with me. I needed that.” I wondered if he’d ask me why.
He didn’t, just said “Cool” before he pulled me forward by the side of my T-shirt and kissed me.
The kiss didn’t last long, because the front door swung open.
My mom’s angry face appeared. “Where have you been?”
I gasped, taking a step back. I pointed to Cody. “We were at the skate park.”
“Who are you?” my mom asked unkindly. That wasn’t how she normally greeted new people. But a lot of things weren’t like they normally were. Or maybe she recognized him from the break-in video the principal had shown her.
“Mom,” I said. “This is Cody.”
“Hi, Mrs. um…”
“Blair,” I said under my breath.
“Right, Blair. Nice to meet you.”
“You were supposed to be home for dinner,” Mom said. “You didn’t even text me.”
“I’m sorry. My location is on.”
She tilted her head as if to say that was not a good alternative. “Come in.”
I stepped toward the door and she turned to Cody and said, “No visitors tonight. Next time.” Then she shut the door.
“Mom,” I said in protest. “That was rude. He wasn’t even going to come inside. He was just saying goodbye.”
“Rude? You want to talk about rude? How about your behavior lately. Missing dinner entirely without an explanation?”
“Jessica,” Dad said from where he sat on the couch. The television was on, paused, the news anchor’s face distorted mid-word. It was the only light in the room, the sun not quite set. They must not have noticed how dark it had gotten in here.
“Right,” Mom said. “The story came out.”
“Jess,” Dad said again. “That’s not how we planned to tell her.”
“We planned to tell her over dinner. She missed that.”
“What story?” I asked, but then my brain caught up to me. “The investigation?”
“Yes,” he said.
My eyes shot to the television. “Wait…it made the local news?”
“It did.”
“Does this mean…?” Had the investigators found something? Were they going to arrest him? Charge him? Panic climbed up my chest and throat and cut off any more words.
“Nothing has changed,” he said. “We’re still waiting.”
“So much for keeping it a secret,” I said. “That was all for nothing.”
“It was worth a try,” Dad said.
“For one of us,” I responded.
“What’s that mean?” he asked.
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter. Is that all?” I asked, looking at the television and then my parents. “Or was there something else?”
“That’s it,” he said. “For now.”
“Great. I have homework.”
“Who was that boy on the porch?” Mom asked when I reached the stairs.
“My boyfriend. His name is Cody.” He wasn’t actually my boyfriend, at least he hadn’t asked me, but we’d kissed enough for me to assign him that title.
“A boyfriend you break into buildings with?” she asked. So she did recognize him from the video.
“Yep, the very one.” I finished the walk up the stairs and threw myself onto my bed. I really did have homework, but I couldn’t concentrate. My brain was all over the place.
I could’ve told my friends. I wished I’d told my friends.