Chapter Three Taylor
Chapter Three
Taylor
I had known for weeks that something wasn’t right at Kami’s house.
Everyone had heard about their money problems by then.
I hated all the gossip about her. Lots of people called Kami Little Miss Perfect and were relishing her downfall, and Kami knew it too.
She wasn’t stupid. The fact that she’d become distanced from her friends wasn’t helping matters.
Only Ellie kept trying to stay close, concerned whether everything was OK.
I didn’t like Kami isolating herself, and it seemed she was doing it more and more. At least I was one of the lucky ones she still let in. But I knew she needed her friends too. Maybe not that idiot Kate, but her other friends would have been a good distraction.
I knew I had to get Kami out of there when I saw how sad she looked in English class.
Maybe the bee sting act was overkill, but it had come out of nowhere.
We could get busted, worst-case scenario, but I didn’t care.
I’d be the one to get in trouble, not Kami.
And Kami was the only thing that mattered to me.
I hugged her, her body seeming to melt into mine as she shook with sobs.
“Hey, it’s OK,” I said, stroking her hair and back.
I don’t know how long she cried, but when she finally pulled herself together, she seemed more exhausted than before.
“Sorry,” she said, wiping her face and looking at my shirt, which was damp with her tears.
“You can use me as a handkerchief whenever you want,” I said, and when I smiled at her, she actually smiled back.
“It’s just, everything’s been so hard, you know,” she said. And then she went into detail about her parents’ divorce, their financial situation, her worries about college, and how Danny Walker’s brother was bullying Cameron.
“I’d like to beat the shit out of that guy,” I said, furious.
Kam shook her head. “Stay out of it, Taylor, please,” she said, running her hand across the soft grass. “I need to take care of this on my own.”
“If you want my advice, a kick in the nuts should do the trick.”
She shook her head and giggled. “I’m going to talk to Danny. Not that I think it will get me anywhere. I need to keep an eye on my brother. Look for the signs. Kids, you know, they can be so good at hiding stuff. I mean, this has been going on for two months and we had no idea.”
“I’ll talk to Thiago,” I said. “Now that he’s working with the kids, he should—”
“I already talked to him,” she admitted, and I felt a stab in the chest when I thought of the two of them together. “He told me he’s going to keep an eye out.”
“When did you two talk?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t notice the tension in my voice.
“He was the one who realized what was going on. He took me to talk to Cam’s teacher. Maggie, I think, is her name.” I couldn’t help but notice her frown as she said that name.
Maggie… I knew all about her. She’d been at our house constantly since Thiago first invited her over a week before.
She was beautiful, and I guess she liked him—I could have done without having to listen to them screwing in the bedroom across the hall—but they seemed to have fun together.
That was all she was to Thiago, though…just a pleasant distraction.
“Thiago loves your brother, even if he’d never say it out loud. If he told you he’s going to watch out for him, you can believe him.”
Kami didn’t seem convinced, but at least she’d relaxed enough to tell me what had been going on. I’d been through the same thing, more or less, eight years before: my own parents’ divorce, the loss of my four-year-old sister, Dad cheating on Mom and then disappearing, Mom falling into depression.
I missed Dad sometimes. He’d never been a bad father; he was the typical dad who took us camping, drove us to basketball games, and bought fireworks on the Fourth of July.
“There you are!” Ellie interrupted us, sticking her head under the bleachers. “You’re not going to believe what happened!”
She made us follow her, and when we got back inside, the halls were filled with people shouting and arguing; others were murmuring in small groups. When Kami and I worked our way past them, we saw what all the commotion was about.
Someone had spray-painted the lockers. Slut, one of them read; douchebag read another; there were more: bitch, asshole, pedophile. The word cuck covered mine. I saw red, forgetting everything else.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” someone shouted at Kami from the end of the hall. I turned and saw Danny. Abuser was written on his locker. Kam and I watched him approach, and when he was within arm’s length, it was all I could do not to punch him in the face.
“What are you talking about?” she shouted.
“Your locker’s the only one that didn’t get defaced. Some coincidence, huh?”
We looked around, and it was true. Whoever had done it had passed her over on purpose.
“It wasn’t me!” she protested.
But Danny’s accusation had the desired effect, and soon everyone was shouting at her, including Julian, who scowled and said, “You were the only one who knew!”
Kami shook her head as she looked at Julian’s locker, where the word gay was written in giant letters.
Wait… Julian was gay? That was something I hadn’t expected.
“I swear to God, it wasn’t me!” Kami shouted, walking backward. She bumped into me, and I wrapped my arms around her, glaring at everyone else.
“Kami was outside with me. She didn’t do anything,” I said, unable to believe what was happening.
“You’re her boyfriend. Of course you’d say that!”
“You always stick up for her!”
Danny mumbled a few words under his breath that I couldn’t hear, but they clearly terrified Kami, so I did something I’d been wanting to do for weeks. I punched him straight in the mouth, sending him to the floor.
An announcement came over the PA: All students to the gymnasium immediately! I repeat, all students to the gym immediately!
Danny got up and brought his face close to mine just as the crowd started to disperse. “Touch me again, Di Bianco,” he said, “and it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”
Kami got between us before I could challenge him. “Taylor, please,” she said, “don’t let him get to you.” Her voice trembled, making me look back at her, the only person I really cared about just then. Screw Danny.
I grabbed her hand. “We should get to the gym.”
Everyone was scowling at us. More at Kami than at me. When we reached the gym, the bleachers were full and everyone was silent. Kami’s anxiety was palpable, and I was angry, knowing that she had another worry on her plate. Who was setting her up, and why?
The principal came in, along with the rest of the teachers. He stood in the middle of the gym, grabbed the microphone, and began to speak.
“I’m sure all of you have seen the hallways.
I don’t know who thought this was a funny prank, but we don’t tolerate this sort of thing around here.
This is without a doubt the worst act of vandalism we’ve ever seen at this school.
We’ve always been proud of having the kind of student body where we didn’t need surveillance cameras or security personnel, where we didn’t have to conduct investigations.
Well, I guess that’s over. But let me promise you all something: We will find the person who did this, and not only will they be expelled, they will pay for the cost of repainting the lockers.
We’re looking at thousands of dollars in damages, and they’d better be ready to pay every cent of it.
Now, I’m going to make an offer, but only this once: If whoever did this comes to my office and confesses, their punishment will be less severe.
I’ll consider suspension instead of expulsion.
I will not tolerate this type of behavior. Is that clear?”
No one dared to respond.
“Now get back to class.”
Everyone filed out, but once we were in the halls, the whispering and gossiping started up again.
I could see Kami getting more and more nervous every time she overheard her name.
I pushed her into the handicapped bathroom and locked the door.
“Kami, you were with me, and Ellie is our witness. People aren’t going to blame you once they find out, I promise. ”
“Who do you think did it, though? Why would someone want to make me look bad?”
“People are jealous of you, babe.” I stroked her cheek. “They want to see you fall, and they’re trying to make it happen.”
“I’ll fall if that’s what they want. I don’t care. I just want to be left alone.”
“Trust me. I’ll make sure they leave you alone.”
I kissed her, and we opened the door and walked to biology class.
Everyone glared at us when we walked in late, except for Kate, who didn’t even look up when we passed her.
The rest of the day was a nightmare. I spent it trying to convince people that Kami was innocent, that she had been with me the entire time.
Some of the guys believed me, but most sided with Danny Walker, and for him, this was the perfect excuse to get even more people to hate his ex-girlfriend. How pathetic could one guy be?
At practice, things got worse. Kami was home by then since our detention had finally ended and she had quit the cheerleading squad.
I’d seen her outside, waiting for her dad in the bitter cold.
I told her I’d drive her home and hurry back to practice, but I knew it would make me late, and she insisted that she was happy out there, that the cold cleared her head, and that she needed a little time on her own to think.
During warm-up, Thiago grabbed Danny by the arm and pulled him into a corner. No one seemed to notice, they were too busy practicing free throws, but I listened in.
“You keep spreading these rumors and I’ll bench you until Judgment Day, get it?”
Danny pulled away from Thiago and smiled moronically.
“Your days are numbered, Coach,” he responded, walking backward and glancing over at me. “You be careful too,” he said to me. “You don’t want him walking off with your girlfriend.”
After that, Danny rejoined the team. I froze, trying to take his words in before looking at my brother, who was still staring at Danny. “What was that supposed to mean?” I asked him.
“He’s a dumbass,” Thiago said calmly. “That’s what it’s supposed to mean. Now keep practicing those jump shots.”
I held his stare for a moment and then let it go. I wasn’t going to dwell on the thought, even if it had been nagging me for weeks.
Kami wouldn’t do that.
Kami wouldn’t cheat on me, and my brother sure as hell wouldn’t let her.