Ben - Don’t do drugs, kids
The day of the Homecoming football game, Maggie, Gigi, and I walked into the school to the sound of the marching band blasting music through the decked out blue and white halls. The cheerleaders, all in their uniforms, followed along chanting fight songs, while the football players gathered in the huge mall area at the center of the school.
Gigi was quite literally shaking from the noise, so I scooped her up in my arms as I trailed after Maggie.
The kids were more rambunctious than usual all morning, and I was kinda glad for the shortened schedule– they shaved off time from every class to make a longer lunch and time for the pep rally at the end of the day.
When the lunch bell finally rang, I was ready for a breather.
Maggie was not on the same page as me.
She seemed to have gained bubbly energy from the business of the day.
She quickly pulled her hair into a high ponytail and turned to face me. “How does it look?” She gave me a bright grin.
I gaped at her, a mixture of shock and pride swirling in my chest. I swore I’d keep my distance from her and stop blurring lines, but seeing her hair up again felt monumental. She felt safe, strong, and suddenly nothing else mattered to me except the desire to replace all her negative memories with good ones.
I stalked toward her, feeling like she was a magnet and I was caught in her orbit, and touched the slope of her beautiful neck reverently. Her pulse point at the base of her neck fluttered, tempting me, and I couldn’t fight it. I dipped to plant a light kiss right there, and I felt her breath hitch.
“Beautiful, Maggie,” my voice came out lower than intended and she stared up at me with wide green eyes. My heart was practically beating out of my chest as I gently touched her neck and ran my other hand through her ponytail.
“Guys!”
She jumped away from my touch and snapped her neck to the doorway where kids were watching us.
My eyes fluttered closed. I was such a damn idiot for making this mistake a second time.
“C’mon! Homecoming Games start in the lunchroom in five minutes!” Johnny hollered.
I looked to the side to see the little shit giving me a mischievous grin from the doorway.
Maggie let out a little laugh as she grabbed my hand and tugged me forward. “C’mon, Ben, Homecoming Games!”
__________
The cafeteria was decorated with blue and white streamers, balloons, and banners.
Each grade was packed into the cafeteria. The bigger kids were all at the lunch tables and most of the smaller children were sitting on the floor in front of a large stage at the front of the room.
On the stage, which the theater and music departments used for plays and performances, were a group of football players, waiting next to a huge tug-of-war rope.
“Alright, ladies and gents, I’m Taylor,” Cheerleader girl from first hour’s voice boomed into a microphone, “and I’ll be your MC today! We’ve got seniors vs teachers tug-of-war and then seniors and teachers musical chairs!”
The cafeteria erupted in applause.
Maggie, who was standing in front of me, seemed more jittery than usual.
“Are you sure we want to do this?” I whispered in her ear.
She turned to look up at me with an excited grin and sparkling eyes. “Of course, this will be so much fun!”
The little ones at the front spotted me and yelled, “Go Benny!”
“Look, you have fans!” Maggie giggled, pointing to the group of kindergarteners which include Archie and his fairy bestie.
I poked her side and she just giggled more.
Taylor called out a bunch of senior’s names, and then the list of teachers that would be participating.
It was quite literally the senior football guys plus one cheerleader versus all women teachers and me and Mark.
The tug-of-war was an easy win for the boys.
The seniors all lost their minds when they won, shouting in celebration and tackling each other.
“Easy!” Mark yelled at them, wandering into the fray to calm it down. “Don’t get hurt before the game, guys!”
Johnny separated from the pack of senior guys and strutted over to me with a cocky grin on his face. “Sorry about that, old man.”
“Old?” My eyebrows screwed together. “I’m not old.”
He just laughed in my face and held his hands up in innocence. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, my guy.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “That contest was a joke. You guys stacked it against us on purpose.”
“Not my fault your girl’s a weakling,” he teased.
“She’s not a weakling,” I deadpanned.
“Yeah! I’m not a weakling,” Maggie echoed from a couple feet away where she was talking to Kelly.
Johnny wagged his eyebrows and leaned closer to me. “So she is your girl then, eh?”
My spine stiffened. “Johnny,” I warned.
He threw his head back laughing. “You shoulda seen your face!” He clapped his hands together. “You’re the best to mess with. Seriously, my friend. I’ll see ya out there for musical chairs. And try not to be a sore loser this time.” He shot me a taunting wink as he walked off.
“What the f–”
Maggie slapped a hand over my mouth before I cursed. “Ben!” she tried to be stern, but I could tell she was trying not to laugh. “He’s just trying to rile you up for the next contest. You ready?”
“To take that little shit down? Yeah.” Sore loser? I shook my head. He was a sore winner.
Maggie laughed, then pouted her lip out at me in mock-sympathy as she rubbed a hand down my chest. “Ooh, he touched a nerve, old man.”
I arched an eyebrow at her and eyed her hand still on me. “Careful, Jinx.”
She just giggled as she wandered away to help the seniors place out all the chairs on the stage.
“Time for musical chairs!” Taylor announced.
“More like time for revenge,” I muttered under my breath.
As the game progressed, I survived every round alongside Maggie. One time I did have to throw my body on two chairs to guard off a senior boy so Maggie could have a seat.
And now it was down to just Maggie, me, and that little shit Johnny.
“Let’s make it a little more interesting,” Taylor announced ominously into the microphone. She scampered up to us and stole another chair away.
Now it was the three of us fighting for one seat.
“What is this? The Hunger Games?” Maggie complained, to which a bunch of kids laughed.
“Game on,” Johnny smirked at me, then Maggie. “You guys are goin’ down, especially you, old man.”
Maggie rolled her lips together, trying hard not to laugh at my expression.
The three of us went around the chair, each of us hogging the air in front of it for as long as we could. When the music stopped, I hesitated, letting Johnny move to drop his ass in the seat, then I pulled the chair away at the last second so that he fell to his butt.
“Nooo!” Johnny roared, clambering to his feet and rubbing his butt. The cafeteria burst into laughter.
I was actually laughing out loud as I warded him off and gallantly offered the seat to Maggie.
The senior boys at the front of the cafeteria booed loudly at me for showing mercy. The girls all cheered equally as loud for Ms. Quinn.
“For me?!” she squealed, her hand fluttering to her chest. “You shouldn't have, Benny.” She sat and crossed her legs and smoothed her ponytail off her shoulder.
“Ms. Quinn is the winner!” Taylor announced.
The cafeteria went wild cheering while Johnny argued. “No fair! They were in cahoots!” He pointed at us.
“Who’s the weakling now, buddy boy?!” Maggie snickered at Johnny, to which he just laughed wryly.
“Fine, fine.” He reached out a hand to shake hers.
We shook hands next.
“Sorry for interrupting earlier,” he whispered to me with a mischievous grin. Heat climbed my neck. “But I bet you just won some brownie points with that prince charming act.” He wagged his eyebrows. “Smooth move letting her win like that.”
I just shook my head at him, but again, couldn’t quite tamper down my grin.
On our way out of the cafeteria, Maggie grabbed my arm, practically hugging it, and that one move made me feel about ten feet tall. She continued to hold my arm as we walked back to her room for lunch. “I can’t believe you let me win!” She gave me a giddy smile.
“Had to,” I grunted, staving off a grin. “You seem to actually care about this stuff.”
She bit her lip to contain a smile and leaned her head against the arm she was still holding. “You do, too, Benny, ya big softly.”
I grinned down at her. The school, the kids, Maggie, even her tiny scrap of a dog… They had all grown on me. They wedged their way into my heart and I did care. A lot. About all of them.
“That was a very good move, giving up the chair for me. You taught the guys how to be a perfectly good gentleman. I’m proud of you, Ben Capretti.”
Coleson chirped in my ear then– “I’m not. You lost on purpose. You’re goin’ soft on me Cap.”
I bit back a chuckle. Soft didn’t seem like such a bad thing anymore, as long as it meant I could have more moments like this one with her.
_________
It was a really good day. So I wasn’t sure why Maggie started acting super spacey after lunch.
I first noticed a difference when she started staring blankly at a canvas she was working on. She twirled her hand in front of the painting, and her motions were super languid.
“Maggie?”
She spun around and toppled over top of a chair, which had to hurt.
“Jeez. Your wrist okay?” I asked, rushing to her to help her up.
Instead of answering me, she started laughing hysterically.
Feeling panic rise in my chest, I tapped my airpod. “Coleson…”
“What’s up?”
“Watch through the classroom video surveillance.” Their eyes were probably on us in the lunchroom, not on the classroom.
“From when?”
“Last couple hours.” I knelt in front of Maggie, who was slumped forward, still laughing. “Hey, Maggie, look at me.”
She either didn’t hear me or she was ignoring me.
I grabbed her chin and pulled her face to mine, and my stomach just about fell through the fucking floor. Her pupils were so dilated that her eyes were barely green anymore.
I bit a curse under my breath as panic bloomed in my chest. “Did you take something?”
She stared at me blankly. “Benny.” She giggled.
“Maggie, I’m serious. Did you take anything? Any pills? Did you accept any food or drinks from anyone?”
She stared off at the canvas again and muttered a string of unintelligible thoughts about “rainbows.”
I racked my brain, trying to think back. I didn’t see her take anything, and I made our lunches. She slumped forward again and I had to grab her upper arms to keep her upright.
“Maggie, look at me,” I demanded, trying to fight off the raging anger and panic rising in my chest.
“Relaxxxx. Relax. Relax,” she told me, her eyes fluttering closed. “That’s a funny word. Relax. Ax. Re. Relax.”
“You’re high, Maggie.”
She just laughed. Then her black eyes stared at me. “It’s not funny.” Then she started cackling. “I feel… I feel… I feeeeeel…”
A knock at the door made me jump. She reacted sluggishly.
There’s no way she’d be able to teach right now.
The knocking on the door continued, but I ignored it as I carried her to her desk to keep her out of sight. Striding across the room, I cracked the door slightly open to see Kelly with a gaggle of tiny kids lined up in the hallway behind her.
“Maggie isn’t feeling well,” I whispered down to her. “Can we cancel class or something?”
Worry lined Kelly’s features as she tried to peek past me into the classroom, but I angled my body to block everything from her view.
Kelly turned her concerned gaze to me. “Yeah, that’s fine. Is everything alright?”
“She just ate something that disagreed with her at lunch,” I lied. “Can you tell the office she isn’t feeling okay? I’m taking her home.”
Before Kelly could answer, I shut the door and rushed back to Maggie, who was now sleeping against her desk.
“Wake up, Maggie.” I smacked her cheek lightly. “You gotta stay up, baby.” I grabbed her forearms to keep her limp body up.
Her eyes fluttered open for a brief second, then they rolled to the back of her head.
“No, no, no, baby.”
Someone rushed in the room, and I was about to roar at them to get the fuck out, but my chest loosened when I saw it was Coleson.
“Who?” I barked.
“One kid was in here.” His face was hard as stone. “Hoodie, painted vans. Take a guess.”
My body shook with rage.
“I’ll take her. Hospital?” he asked, moving quickly to Maggie’s side.
Last time we went there, it ended in a fucking car chase that got her hurt. We still weren’t sure how our moves were leaked. “No. Get someone you trust to come to base.” I cut my eyes to his. “Don’t tell anyone.”
The seriousness in his eyes told me he understood. He gave me a firm nod as he tucked his arms under her and lifted her limp body.
I stalked out of the room at the same time as them, but I wasn’t going back until I had answers.
_________
“You.” I pointed at Hunter. “Come here. Now,” my voice thundered across the History classroom. I didn’t give a fuck that we had an audience, I wasn’t waiting a single second to interrogate him.
“Wow.”
“He looks kind of angry.”
“Hot.”
“That’s like hot dad vibes.”
Girls giggled.
My eyes never left Hunter.
He went ramrod straight as his blue eyes met mine.
“Now.” My hands went to my hips. I ran my tongue over my teeth, waiting for him to get up.
He slung on his backpack and made a break for the large window at the back of the room.
The classroom erupted in chaos.
Ignoring everyone except the kid trying to throw the large window open, I strode across the room and grabbed his backpack handle before he could make it outside.
“I’ll bring him back in a couple minutes,” I told the old History teacher who was gapping at me in shock as I dragged Hunter away with me.
“Good, someone’s finally taking out the trash,” a smartass kid at the front of the room muttered.
My face flinched. As pissed as I was with Hunter, I knew there was more to this story. And I knew for certain that he didn’t deserve to be called trash. I was about to reprimand the kid, but I never got the chance.
“What’d you just say?” Johnny thundered from the back of the room, his face turning a dangerous shade of red.
The cocky kid turned. “I said , good thing someone’s finally taking the trash–”
Johnny snapped. He dove across the desks, tackling the smartass kid to the ground. Other guys rushed to the fray, trying to either stop it or encourage it while the girls screamed.
The frail teacher yelled threats at the boys while phoning the office for help.
Hunter struggled against me to help his friend, but I kept us marching out until we were outside the school.
I shoved him against the brick building, and he squinted against the harsh sun behind me.
“Why’d you do it?”
“Do what?” He tried to pull away from me, but I shoved him harder against the brick building.
“ I had to watch the aftermath of your little stunt, so I’m asking the questions here, kid.”
He just snorted a laugh and looked over my shoulder. I wanted to shake the kid. Did he not realize what he did? My body hummed with barely restrained anger as I fought to keep the image of Maggie slumped over from my mind.
“ I had to watch her eyes roll to the back of her head. I had to hold up her limp, passed out body. So fucking tell me why .”
The taunting grin fell off his face, replaced by fear. “Wait… What?”
“Tell me,” I growled.
“Is… is she okay? That wasn’t supposed to happen. They said… Fuck.” His face paled. “Is she okay?”
“You tell me.”
His tough resolve crumbled in a second. “I didn’t want to,” His voice broke. “I didn’t want to,” he repeated, shaking his head.
“Then why?” I barked.
He looked desperate. “Because I had to, okay?”
“Why did you have to?”
“I just… I did, okay? Am I gonna get arrested?” He looked behind me for the nonexistent cop cars. “Is she okay?”
“Depends on if you tell me why you did it.”
“She’s fine, right?”
He was worried. No, he was terrified . His entire body trembled with panic and his shaky hands went to his head again. Part of me wanted to ease his fear, but I knew that wouldn’t be helping anyone.
“She’s okay, right?” His blue eyes widened. He shoved at my chest. “They said she’d be okay!”
“She better be,” I growled in a hard voice, fighting to keep my composure. “Now, tell me why you did it.”
“I can’t.” He ripped the front of his hoodie from my grip. He eyed me hesitantly. “Not unless I wanna be shipped off to foster care. And I'll never go back there. I’ll run away.”
My jaw clenched as his words sank in. I knew I saw something of myself in this kid. There was just one big difference between us. “But you can’t run, can you?”
“Shut up.” He shoved at my chest. “You have no clue what you’re talking about.”
A humorless laugh punched out of me. “Don’t judge a book by its cover, kid. I ran away. But you…” I sighed, feeling for the kid. “You can’t. Because you have Archie.”
“I said, shut up,” he snarled.
“I probably know better than anyone what kind of predicament you’re in.”
“You know nothing.” He shoved at my chest, but I didn’t budge an inch.
“Fine. You know what I do know? If you don’t fess up, you’ll be in a shitload of trouble.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll take your trouble over the trouble I'll be in if I turn into a rat,” he said quietly.
Rat … He had to be a part of this. Part of the organization. And I didn’t want to push him too hard, I didn't want him to get in deeper shit.
“Do you need help? Getting out? I can help you,” I offered.
“Yeah, right,” he said sarcastically. He pulled his hood up. “I’ll never be out.”
“There’s always a way out.”
“No. Not for me. Not with my last name, dude.”
I tried to read his face. Maggie never said kids’ last names and she never left her rosters hanging around. I had no clue what his last name was. I never thought it was important.
“I’m stuck in this shit for life, so save your breath,” he said with a wary sigh.
Right before he shouldered up his backpack, I caught a glimpse of the back of his hoodie as he walked back into the school.
Green #44
Seeing it was like taking a lightning strike to the head. I felt the shock all the way down to my toes.
This whole operation just became more personal.
I leaned my forehead against the cold brick of the building, trying to rein in my frustration. I hated how attached I was becoming– how attached I already was.
Maggie’s future wasn’t the only one hinging on us closing this case anymore.
The only way to get this kid out, the only way to save this kid, would be in keeping Maggie safe, having her testify, and taking the entire organization down.
If I failed… They were both good as dead.
_______
“Why would they drug me? To get me fired?” Maggie slurred in a wary voice when she stirred awake later that night.
I bit the inside of my cheek, hard, trying to figure out how much we should tell her. “No.”
“Then why?” She squinted at me.
To establish that you’re using. So that when they kill you by overdose, it looks like an accident, Maggie.
“You’re right,” I sighed. It felt like I was being torn in half. Half of me just wanted to go to her, to brush her hair back and comfort her. But my body remained rigid against her dresser. Because I knew going to her would just result in losing my head for the rest of the night when what I really needed was to figure this out. There had to be some kind of angle we could use to take the organization to its knees before the trial… Before I failed her. Before I lost her. “They probably wanted to get you fired. What do you want for dinner?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
Her forehead pinched. “So, like, for revenge?” she asked, not wanting to give up her line of questioning.
I dropped my head and rubbed my jaw. “Yeah.” I didn't want to scare her with the truth, especially because things were not moving in the right direction. “You need to stay away from the Green boys– Archie and Hunter. Especially Hunter.”
Her eyebrows screwed together as she studied me, like she was trying to figure out if I was being for real. “You’re joking?”
My jaw tightened.
She scoffed. “I’m not doing that.”
“You have to,” I forced out.
“Too bad. They’re kids, who need help.”
“They’re related to all of this, Maggie. You should’ve told me their last name was Green.” I shook my head.
She snorted. “Green is a common last name. Just look at Friends,” she motioned to the TV playing behind me, “Rachel Green, duh.”
She was trying to joke it off, but I couldn’t let her. This was too serious. There was too much to lose. I held her gaze as I said, “It’s the same Green, Maggie. Timothy is their cousin and he was one of the heads of this whole thing. Hunter pretty much told me that he’s involved.”
She stared at me as it sunk in. “Then,” her chest heaved with a deep breath, “I’ll help him get un involved.”
Fuck. I rubbed at my face. That was the last thing I needed.
“No. Just… Keep your distance for a little. Please.” I’d get down on my knees and beg her if necessary. “Let me handle this. Let me figure this out.”
We stared at each other in silence, both waiting for the other to concede.
She finally brushed her long hair back and gave me a wary nod.
“I’ll be back with dinner,” I mumbled as I hurried out of her room. Because I didn’t trust myself to be near her tonight.
I needed to stay the fuck away from her so I could get my head back into this case.