Chapter seven #3
On the way to the school, I try calling Astrid myself, but the call goes straight to her voicemail. I try calling Melissa, but she doesn’t pick up either. And what about Grady? Was he after me on the emergency contact list?
Something about that makes me both proud and concerned at the same time.
I race into the parking lot of the school, shoving my truck in park and leaping from the vehicle, headed toward the front office. It’s at that moment I realize that I’m covered in dust and there’s a hole in the black shirt that I’m wearing, but this is as good as it’s going to get with no notice.
“I’m here for Bentley Cooper,” I tell Janet at the front desk when I walk into the office.
“Penn Sheppard?” Janet peers up at me over the rim of her glasses, her gray hair tied up in a bun.
“Hey, Janet.”
Her eyes drop down my body. “You look like you were in the middle of something.”
“What gave me away?”
She chuckles. “Well, whoever it’s for made a sound decision. That deck you built for us is still standing strong.”
Janet Connely is married to Harold, one of the three old men that play darts at Catch & Release every Friday night.
They’ve lived in Carrington Cove since before any of my siblings and I were born, and last summer, I replaced and extended the deck off the back of their house for them.
It was some of my best work, if I do say so myself.
“Glad to hear it. Now, about Bentley…”
Janet pushes a button under her desk, unlocking the half door beside her, letting me past the barricade. “He’s in Ms. Bell’s office. I have to say I was surprised to hear he was involved in an altercation.”
Sighing, I step past her desk. “Yeah, me too.”
I head down the hall that is lined with offices on either side, and finally arrive at Alaina’s office on the left, knocking to signal my arrival.
“Come in.”
I step into the room where Alaina sits behind her desk with Bentley occupying one of the chairs across from it.
“Hey, kiddo.”
Bentley doesn’t look up from his lap, but the redness on his cheek tells me he’s either been crying or he took a punch in this fight. Secretly, I hope it’s the first option.
Nothing’s a shot to your pride quite like getting caught off guard and taking a sucker punch.
“Thanks for coming, Penn. I’ve tried calling Astrid and Melissa again, and still no luck.”
Alaina looks up at me from her chair, her blonde hair pulled back away from her face and her blue eyes full of remorse. She’s always been a pretty girl, and we even went out a few times right after high school, but agreed we were better off as friends. The romantic chemistry just wasn’t there.
“Yeah, I tried on the way over here too. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for why they’re not answering.”
Alaina directs her attention to Bentley. “Bentley, I hope you take some time during your suspension to think about how you could have handled the situation differently, okay?”
Grabbing his backpack from the ground, he heaves it over his shoulder and mutters as he walks past me. “Whatever.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose before meeting Alaina’s eyes. “Do we know what started the fight?”
Alaina shakes her head. “Neither one of them wanted to talk about it. When they return from suspension, we’ll do a conflict resolution between the two of them, but it was nasty, Penn.
Bentley had Marcus pinned to the ground and was wailing on him before the teacher on duty saw and finally broke them up. ”
Well, at least Bentley didn’t lose.
“I’ll see if I can get it out of him before his mother finds out. I’m sure it will probably go over better if she understands why he acted this way.”
She smiles. “Good luck.”
Bentley is leaning against the wall just outside Alaina’s door, waiting for me as I step out. “Come on. Let’s go.”
I don’t look behind me to make sure that he’s following me, but I sense it. At least we know he’s not stupid enough to wait around for his mother to pick him up once she realizes she has a dozen missed phone calls from the school.
After we situate ourselves in my truck and take off for Astrid’s house, I wait a few minutes before finally breaking the silence.
“You know, this will be a lot easier to understand if we know what happened, Bentley.” He stays silent, twisting his head to stare out the passenger side window.
“I get being so angry with someone that you want to hit them. Trust me, I do.” My mind wanders back to Dick Cockwell and the audacity he possessed asking Astrid out in front of me, and then gloating about it at the restaurant, and now taking her on a date tonight.
Fucker. “But putting your hands on someone else is never okay.”
“He freaking deserved it,” Bentley finally says, his jaw clenched and his eyes rimmed with tears.
“What did he do?”
All I get is a shake of his head.
“Did he piss you off?”
Bentley nods, still avoiding my eyes.
Sighing, I stare out the windshield as we come to a stoplight. I know that taking him home to Astrid would be the right thing to do, but something tells me this kid needs a different kind of therapy at the moment.
As soon as the light turns green, I gun it, speeding past a few cars so I can change lanes and make the turn that I need to.
Bentley grips the handle on the door, bracing himself with his other hand on the seat. “What the heck, Uncle Penn?”
“We’re taking a detour.”
“Where are we going? The fire station?”
I look at him, bewildered. “Why on earth would I be going to the fire station?”
“Travis said you can abandon kids at the fire station.”
Kids are the fucking worst. I swear, I don’t remember ever being that clueless when I was his age.
Instead of calling Travis a fucking dumbass, I roll my eyes and take the next turn to lead me back to my project house. “You can only do that with babies, Bentley.”
“Oh. Then where are we going?”
“Somewhere to help you let out your anger in a healthier way.”
***
Bentley stares at me like I’m crazy as I place a hard hat on his head. “You want me to hit the wall with this sledgehammer?” He asks, struggling to lift the tool in question. I grab it myself and demonstrate how to hold it.
“Yup. As hard as you can.”
He still looks skeptical, so I show him what I mean. Nudging him to the side, I get in my stance and swing hard, punching a hole through the drywall and sending dust flying everywhere.
“Whoa.” He stares open-mouthed at the hole, motionless.
Placing the tool back on the ground, I smile and pat him on the back. “It helps, I promise.”
I gave him the smallest sledgehammer I have, so I know he can lift it. But I really think a few swings and some destruction will be enough to get this kid talking.
Anger always needs an outlet before reason can come through.
“Okay…” Bentley grabs the tool, hoists it over his shoulder, and swings, making a dent right next to the hole I punched.
“Nice! Do it again.”
“You really don’t care how much damage I do?”
“Nope. I’m tearing down this wall to make the entire living area open.”
The wall wasn’t on my agenda for the day, but neither was picking up my godson from school because he got suspended for fighting. Today, I’m literally rolling with the punches.
The corner of his mouth picks up just a bit as he swings the sledgehammer again. And this time, he makes an even bigger dent. “Yeah! That was a good one. Keep going.”
Bentley gets serious now, preparing his body with each swing, making a mess of the wall in front of me. And I’m not going to lie, watching him focus and partake in this unorthodox form of therapy makes me proud.
But then my phone vibrates in my pocket and brings me back to reality.
“Hey, Bentley? It’s your mom.”
He freezes. “Is she coming to get me?”
I stare at the screen as the call ends, debating what I should do.
But then her name flashes across the screen again.
Deciding to do what’s best for Bentley right now, I step toward the front door and tell him, “No. I’ll take you home when we’re done here.
But just know that she’s not going to be happy. ”
He hangs his head. “Yeah, I know.”
I pat him on the shoulder reassuringly. “Just keep at it.” I step outside, close the door behind me, and answer the call before it goes to voicemail again.
“I have him, Astrid.” I say into the phone reassuringly, watching through the window as Bentley gears up to take another swing at the wall.
“Oh, thank God!” I can hear her exhale in relief. “I started freaking out when I saw how many voicemails I had from the school and you.”
“I bet. Why weren’t you answering your phone? They couldn’t reach your mom either.”
“My phone died and I meant to plug it into the charger, but then I got distracted and forgot. And my mom was in a movie with one of her friends, so her phone was on silent.”
“Well, they went down the list and called me. I was at a job site, but I rushed over and picked him up.”
“What the hell happened? Ms. Bell said he was in a fight?” I hear something metal hit the ground in the background. “Ugh! Stupid bowl!”
“Calm down, Astrid. He’s okay.” If I were there right now, I’d shove a Ferrero Rocher in her mouth.
“I cannot calm down, Penn! My son was in a fight, neither my mom nor I were there for him, and I have a date tonight for the first time in over four years. I am anything but calm!”
Fuck. So she really is going out with Dick tonight.
My concern quickly morphs into frustration. “I don’t know what the fight was about yet, okay?” I say, trying to keep the focus on what’s important here, not how worried I am that I’m too late to stop this thing between her and Dick.
Now’s not the time to discuss us, but shit. The timing fucking sucks, as always.
“Whatever it was about, fighting is inexcusable, Penn.”
“Sometimes that’s how boys solve their problems,” I argue, even though I know it’s weak.
“Not my son. He needs to talk, and he’s going to talk right now! Put him on the phone.”