Chapter 25
I laugh, although I have no idea why.
“Is that funny?” Jackson says, sounding concerned.
“No.” I hug him.
“Then why are you laughing?”
“I don’t know. I’m exhausted and kind of a mess right now so it’s hard to say.” I pull back. “Or maybe it’s because you make me really happy and because . . .” I pause. “Because I love you too.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes! You’re not supposed to question it.”
“You questioned it by laughing,” he says, smiling.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
He looks me in the eye. “I realized after you ran off today how much you mean to me. Seeing you leave made me panic, thinking you might never come back. I realized I might’ve just lost the only person I love. That’s why I had to come find you.”
I reach up and kiss him. “I thought you were going to break up with me.”
“Break up with you?” he says like I’m crazy. “I love you.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t know that an hour ago.” I kiss him again. “I’m going to go.” I smile. “Sorry I laughed.”
“Make it up to me later?”
“If you ever get rid of your roommate,” I say, looking back toward where Kristen went.
“I will. I promise.” He kisses me. “I want this to end as much as you do. Just a little more time, okay?”
I nod.
“You want me to walk you back?”
“No, I’m okay.”
He hugs me, holding me a long time before finally letting me go. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Walking back, my mind replays that phone call from my dad. I feel better after seeing Jackson, especially knowing he loves me, but I still have that anxious, uneasy feeling knowing my whole life has been a lie. Knowing the man I’m living with — the man I hate — is my father.
* * *
The next morning, Jackson calls me before school, saying Kristen stayed in the guest room last night but was gone when he woke up.
When I get to school, she’s not in lit class. I start to worry that maybe she really was telling the truth when I hear that Principal Edwards isn’t there either. What if something happened when Kristen went home this morning?
I’m still not sure I believe her. I can’t see Principal Edwards getting angry enough to hurt her. He always seems so calm and collected.
At lunch, Kristen shows up at the table, smiling and not looking the least bit upset.
If she was really strangled last night, why would she be smiling like that?
And where are the marks on her neck? Jackson said he saw them, but I don’t see anything, and it doesn’t look like she’s covered them in makeup.
“Boys,” she says, sitting next to Kade.
“Where were you this morning?” he asks.
“Doctor’s appointment.” She hands him a bottled coffee drink. “Open it, please.”
“You’re drinking something with sugar?” he asks, handing her back the bottle.
“I’m drinking it for the caffeine. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Miles is across from her and smiles. “Who’s the guy?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she says, smiling back.
Braden shows up, sitting down and shoving the table so hard that it almost spills everyone’s drink.
“What the hell, man?” Wyatt says, wiping off his white button-up shirt, which got splattered with a red sports drink.
“I just got questioned by the cops,” Braden says. “And you’re worried about your damn shirt?”
“The cops were here?” Miles asks. “At school?”
“I was at the police station.” Braden shakes his head. “I’m so fucking sick of this. She’s dead. Move on.”
“What’d they ask you?” Wyatt says.
“Same shit as before.”
“I thought they had new evidence,” Kade says.
“I never said that.” Braden glances at me, then back at Kade. “Where’d you hear about new evidence?”
“From me,” Wyatt mutters.
Braden gets up and leans over the table toward Wyatt. “And where’d you hear it?”
“From my dad. He heard it from the chief of police. They’re friends.”
Braden huffs and sits back in his chair. “I’m gonna sue that fucking asshole. He can’t be giving out information about a case. That’s private.”
“He didn’t say what the evidence was or who was involved,” Wyatt says.
“Doesn’t fucking matter. Once that shit gets out, the whole damn town will be back to thinking I did it.”
“Or Novak,” Dante says before stuffing his face with a forkful of spaghetti. Lunch just started, and he’s already on his second plate.
“They haven’t even fucking talked to Novak,” Braden says.
“How do you know?” Kristen says as she casually inspects the ends of her hair.
He stares at her. “They’ve questioned him?”
She shrugs. “Maybe.”
He shoves her hand away from her hair. “Have they or haven’t they?”
She gets in his face. “Don’t you ever touch me like that again!”
If she gets that upset about Braden touching her, there’s no way she’d let her stepdad strangle her. Unless she’s afraid of him. But I’ve heard her talking back to him, even yelling at him, so it doesn’t seem like she’s afraid of him.
Braden sighs. “Did they talk to him or not?”
“He hired lawyers.” She gets up. “That’s all I know.”
“That doesn’t prove anything,” Braden mutters.
Kristen walks off, heading out of the cafeteria.
“I need to go,” I say, hurrying up from the table.
“You just got here,” Dante says.
“I know but I have to study before my next class. Ms. Pruitt keeps calling on me and I never have the answer.”
It’s an excuse to leave, but also true. Ms. Pruitt is determined to prove I don’t belong here by quizzing me in front of the class, knowing I don’t have the answer. I’m sure I’ll flunk that class.
Leaving the cafeteria, I search the hall for Kristen but don’t see her anywhere. I go into the girls’ bathroom and see her at the mirror, smiling at her reflection as she messes with her hair.
“Great performance last night,” I say, going up to her.
She turns to me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I step closer, getting a better look at her neck.
“If he did it, where’s the marks?”
Her hand goes to her neck. “He told you?”
“I was there last night. I was in the other room.” I lean down and check under the stalls to make sure we’re alone. I rise back up, looking her in the eye. “Tell me the truth. Did he really try to hurt you or are you making it up?”
“You think I’m going to confide in you?” She huffs and turns back to the mirror. “Go back to the boys. Oh, and if you go to the party Friday night, watch your drink.” Her lips turn up as she inspects her eyebrows in the mirror. “The boys have a bet going. The first to sleep with you wins.”
“They told you that?”
“I overheard them talking in class. They’re too lazy to put the work into trying to get you to sleep with them so they’ll drop something in your drink like they do with every other girl who dismisses them.
Even Braden’s in on it.” She laughs. “He’s so damn twisted.
I love the guy but sleeping with your cousin? That’s taking it a bit too far.”
It’s even more twisted than she thinks. Because I’m not his cousin. I’m his half-sister . . . and he kissed me. Now I feel sick.
“I’m not going to the party,” I say, watching as she puts her lipstick on. “And I’m not here to talk about the guys. I’m here to talk about you. And what I saw.”
She turns to face me, smirking with her pretty pink lips. “And what did you see?”
“You.” My eyes lock on hers. “Bent over a desk. In the English classroom.”
She laughs and flips her hair, turning back to the mirror. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I saw you with Principal Edwards. You can deny it all you want, but I know what I saw. And what I heard.”
She turns to me. “You don’t know anything. I’m disgusted you’d even say something like that.”
I lower my voice. “He didn’t force himself on you so why are you telling Jackson that? Why are you involving him in this? If you want to be with your stepdad, then be with him. But leave Jackson out of it.”
She leans down to my face, her eyes narrowed. “You’re never going to have him. Jackson is mine.” She rises back up, a smile creeping up her face. “Oh, and I do have marks.” She moves her hair aside and shows me her neck. I see a faint pink line barely visible through her makeup.
“He really did that?” I ask, feeling guilty for doubting her. Why isn’t she upset about this? Last night she was hysterical, and now she’s acting like it’s no big deal. “Kristen, you need to go to the police. You can’t let him hurt you like that.”
She lets out a laugh. “When you’re with a man, you’ll understand.”
“I don’t want to be with a man who strangles me, and neither should you.”
She leans down to my ear and whispers. “Pleasure and pain. Try it sometime.”
A girl comes into the bathroom, and Kristen goes around me and leaves.
What was she telling me? That the marks on her neck were intentional? Like some kind of sex thing?
Why is she doing this? Why is she telling Jackson one thing and me another? Is it just to get Jackson’s sympathy? Why does she want Jackson when she’s already doing it with Principal Edwards? What is she up to?
I arrive at English class right as the bell rings. As I take my seat in the back, Ms. Pruitt is already starting her lecture. I’m not even listening. My mind is still on Kristen, trying to figure out what she’s up to and why.
“Ms. Halliway,” Ms. Pruitt says, interrupting my thoughts. I look up and see her nose in the air, peering at me through her wire-rimmed glasses.
“Yes,” I mumble, sitting up straight.
“Please identify and correct the dangling participle in this example.” Ms. Pruitt points to the board.
Everyone turns and looks at me. They know I don’t have the answer. I never do, and Ms. Pruitt still calls on me.
“I don’t know what a dangling participle is,” I say, because I honestly don’t. I’ve seen it in the book, but couldn’t tell you what it means.
Ms. Pruitt sighs. “Anyone else?”
A girl in the front row who always has the answers shoots her hand up. “I do! I know what it is!”
She gives the answer like she’s memorized it from the book.
“Very good, Ms. Shaffer,” Ms. Pruitt says, then her eyes go back to me. “Ms. Halliway, I’ll need to see you after class.”
Is she serious? I’m in trouble because I didn’t answer a question?