Chapter 28
She was disabused of that thought when Geo led her down to eat. Justin and Davon were there waiting for her, their school uniforms on, too.
Mig dropped all three of them off, Geo going with and gripping her face in his hands before letting her out of the car. “Be good for me today, Rue,” he told her darkly, then pulled her close and kissed her lips.
She got a lot of stares as Davon and Justin bracketed her and led her in. They followed her to every class, and the teachers acted like they weren’t there. They acted like she wasn’t there either, half terrified of acknowledging her.
A few people tried to talk to her, but Davon told them all to fuck off. He kept holding her hand everywhere like she was his, and people seemed to think it was normal. Janine waved at her, but Justin cut her off quickly, whispering something that made her turn and walk away. No one was allowed to speak to Sailor at all.
When they got in the car after school, Geo looked at Davon expectantly. “No issues, man. They all got the memo,” Davon promised him.
“And her?”
“Walked around like a zombie all day,” Justin grumbled. “ She didn’t try to talk to anyone. She didn't even look around much until her best friend got close. I warned her off.”
“Her? Her best friend is a bitch?”
“Yeah?”
“She can talk to her tomorrow. No dudes, though.”
“Aight.”
When they got home, Geo led her to the office and sat her down, then moved back to a chair and sat and watched her.
She knew he expected her to work, but she started her homework instead, working on it until Mig poked his head in and said dinner was ready.
Geo said nothing when he came and looked over her Lit paper, then her algebra pages. He just took her hand and led her to dinner. After, he led her back in but left her alone with the door open. She could hear him talking to people in the living room, but she kept doing homework as Justin came in to sit in the same room.
The next day was the same, but she had finals. It seemed pointless as she sat there doing the work, knowing they wouldn’t be graded. The teachers would score it perfectly because Geo had told them to. This was all to appease her for some reason.
Still, she continued to do make-up homework after school, but Geo said nothing. Davon and Justin babysat her all day and after school in the office as she worked. She didn’t speak to them or look at them.
Mig drove them all to the care facility that Friday after school and dropped them off. Davon entered the room with her, but Justin stayed in the foyer to watch the big TV. Her mom watched Davon more carefully than she’d watched Geo, looking stressed, but her gramma talked to him and asked him questions that Davon answered in his usual charming manner.
Mig didn’t come back to get them until 8 PM when visiting hours were over.
Sailor felt like it was so incredibly off and surreal, not understanding any of it .
Geo hadn’t laid a hand on her, not in anger or sexually. He’d just held her and stayed quiet and passive, even though she knew he wanted her to start work on what she promised.
The weekend moved slowly for her, and Mig and Geo were gone for most of it, ‘working’. Sailor used her time to try and find more hidden guns, feigning an upset stomach to look in the downstairs bathroom, then the upstairs bathroom. She also said her head hurt, she needed a nap, and she searched the extra bedroom.
She found two guns, one in the downstairs bathroom taped to the back of a drawer that you couldn’t reach unless you pulled the drawer as far as it would come out. The other was in Geo’s room, taped to the back of the headboard.
She knew there were more but couldn’t get caught looking for them. She was going to have to get up her nerve to get her hands on one and use it. It would have to be when she was alone with Geo somehow, though that only ever happened at night. Even then, other people were in the house.
Monday had her back to school, the last day of finals, and Tuesday was practicing for graduation on Wednesday.
When Wednesday arrived, she was confused and surprised when Geo dressed up to attend. His look when she looked him over was cold and appraising. It was his constant expression now, watching her with that calculating and hard expression like he wanted something he wasn’t getting and was running out of patience.
Her second shock came when she arrived at graduation, and her mother and grandmother were both there, with orderlies helping them and guiding their wheelchairs.
Davon moved up next to her, looking over the top of her to see what she was looking at. “He’s really pullin’ out the fuckin’ stops, ain’t he?” he asked darkly.
“What?”
“You know how much that place costs? A day? Shit, Say, your old life? You could live off it for a month. One fuckin’ day. It’s fuckin’ ridiculous. It’s the kinda fuckin’ life I signed up for, I wanted that shit. To live like him… be rollin’ in shit like him. Say the word, Say. Say the word and I’ll slip you out. Sneak you off… I got a cousin in Texas, Austin. He runs some shit there. Not like Geo here, but he does aight. I’d get you away from here… keep you safe.”
Sailor turned and craned her neck to look up at him, he was so close. She looked over his earnest face and considered it. “What about my mom?” she asked softly.
“Shit, the meds they have ‘r on? They say she’s respondin’ well and should make a full recovery. She could come down as soon as she’s better!”
“You think he’d let them stay there if I ran away? He’d just forget about them?”
“Then we could take ‘r with us! Both of them, Say! We’d figure it out! We could do it, I’d take care ‘a you! You know I would.”
Sailor nodded slightly, looking down. “I’ll think about it, Day… but I’m still pissed at you. What you did… I expected that from Geo and even Justin, he’s always been a creep, but you? I never thought you would force…”
“I wanted you, Say… God, I want you so bad! I wanted to show you I could be good for you. I shouldn’t’ve, but you also shouldn’t’ve played it off like it wasn’t good, either.”
Sailor went red, turning to sit in her seat since it was about to start. “It wasn’t, Davon, just so you know. You were in the wrong place.”
“Bullshit,” he snorted angrily, his face set like it did when he was pissed. “I know how ta get a girl off, I done it plenty.”
“I’m sure you have, or I’m sure they told you you did… you were too high up, it was doing nothing for me. It felt okay, but it wasn’t going to get me anywhere.”
He snorted again, turning to look down at her with a heated expression.
She refused to look at him, looking up at the stage as the speaker approached the microphone and started talking.
Davon leaned up suddenly, pulled up his robes, and then took his phone out. Snorting at it, he leaned closer to Sailor. “He wants you to look over your left shoulder and smile at him.”
“What?”
“Look over your left shoulder at him. Smile.”
Sailor looked over her shoulder and then spotted Geo next to her mom. Mig was with him and he was pointing his phone camera at her as Geo sat there giving her a cold look.
“Smile,” Davon reminded her.
Sailor turned back to the front, her face going red.
“Do it, Say, don't piss him off. He wants a pic of you smiling at him.”
Huffing, Sailor turned again and looked at her mom and gramma, smiling at them and even waving at her gramma when she waved.
“Blow him a kiss,” Davon went on after glancing down at his phone again.
“NO! I’m not doing that!”
“Blow the camera a kiss, Say. Jus’ do it.”
Growling, she turned and flipped the camera off.
Davon chuckled, shaking his head. “He’s gonna be pissed.”
Sailor didn’t respond, crossing her arms and hunkering in her seat.
The speech took forever, then there was another speech from the principal, then one from the Valedictorian and Salutatorian. Finally, it came time to announce the students so they could walk the stage and get their diplomas, and Sailor was ready for it all to be over.
Her turn came and she went cold to her toes when she stepped to the edge of the stage and they announced her next.
“Sailor Rue Ruiz!”
She froze there, shaking her head in confusion.
“Go!” Davon hissed, pushing her from behind.
Sailor walked to the Dean, taking the paper with a trembling hand and shaking his hand, feeling sick.
What had he done?
Sitting back down to wait for everyone else, she felt light- headed. How had he had her name changed on her diploma? And why? Why have it changed to his last name?
When everyone stood and tossed their caps at the end, she pulled hers off and made a beeline for her mother.
Geo intercepted her less than halfway there, catching her arm and turning her, lifting her face to his with his fingertips as he leaned in and kissed her lips. Pulling back less than an inch, he spoke. “I got you a graduation present, Rue,” he rumbled, his voice low and almost indiscernible in the cacophony of cheering and shouting.
“Why did you have my name changed?!?” she asked, shaking her head. “This isn’t me!” she told him, lifting the diploma.
“It’s you,” he chuckled. “C’mon, we ain’t stickin’ around,” he told her, pulling her towards the exit, Mig right behind him.
“Can’t I hug my mom and…”
“Nah. Hush it for now, Rue. I ain’t hearin’ it,” he told her, pulling her more forcefully as she tugged away from him.
He lifted her into the car quickly, getting in with her as Mig got up front and started the car, pulling away without hesitating.
Sailor felt unnerved as she looked around. Was someone after them? Was there danger somewhere?
“You good?” Geo called up front to Mig after they were a few blocks away.
“Yeah… I’ll be fine. That shit’s finally kickin’ in.”
Geo turned to Sailor, his head back on the headrest as he looked her over.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him, confused.
“He don't like crowds. Too many people there, even next to the exit. Took too fuckin’ long too. That shit was stupid… four people all sayin’ the same shit with different words. Pshh. Never sittin’ through that bullshit again.”
“Unless it’s my own fuckin’ kid,” Mig agreed.
“Yeah,” Geo answered, looking Sailor over again. “Take all that shit off, Rue,” he told her, flipping the corner of her robes .
Sailor pulled the robes off, adjusting the white dress under it.
“We’re early,” Mig called back to Geo as they got off the highway.
“Yeah. S’alright, we’ll wait. Get Rue a drink since she can now. Help her relax some.”
“Are you going to explain this?” she asked him, hefting her diploma at him.
He smirked out the window, saying nothing.