Chapter 11
Briggs
This morning, I got to school early to talk to Coach.
He says he wants to go over plays from last week’s game, but that’s just an excuse to get me to show up.
The real reason we’re meeting is so he can lecture me about how I need to step up during practice and lead the team.
I haven’t done it because I’ve been preoccupied with all the other shit going on in my life. The hit-and-run. My parents’ divorce.
And Ella.
Ella takes up most of my thoughts. When I’m not thinking about how much I want to be with her and hold her and have her in my bed, I’m thinking about how to take the valedictorian title from her without hurting her.
I don’t think it’s possible. I’d rather just let her have it.
It would mean not getting the car when I graduate, which takes away the money I would’ve gotten for it, but I could get by without the money.
I’d have to put off college and get a job, but maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.
I haven’t figured out what I want to do with my life, so maybe taking a year or two off would be good.
It’d give me time to explore my options.
But I can’t let Ella be valedictorian. If she is, my father will destroy her.
He’ll find a way to keep her out of college and keep her from getting a job.
He’ll go after her dad’s business and get it shut down.
My father won’t care that it’s not Ella’s fault I’m not valedictorian.
He doesn’t think that way. He only thinks about what he wants and how to tear down the people who stand in his way.
And if he doesn’t get the outcome he wants?
He uses revenge to make himself feel better.
He makes the person who took what he wanted the enemy, and he destroys them.
“Stop it right now!” I hear Ms. Higgins say as I turn to go down the hall. She’s standing between Jason, one of the guys on the rugby team, and Donovan, one of the tech geeks.
“I swear I didn’t see him,” Jason says to Ms. Higgins, a smirk on his face. “I came around the corner and my arm must’ve swung out just as he was passing me.” He looks at Donovan. “Tell her. Tell her that’s how it happened.”
Donovan doesn’t respond.
Ms. Higgins turns to Jason, her hands on her hips. “You expect me to believe you were walking around with your hand in a fist and just happened to swing it up and hit Donovan in the face?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Jason says, trying not to laugh.
“I have had enough of this!” Ms. Higgins says.
“Hitting a fellow student for your own amusement will not be tolerated. I don’t care if you’re on the rugby team and have friends who support this behavior.
I will be talking to Principal Perkins about this, and if I see this happening again, you will get detention and possible suspension. ”
“Yeah, whatever,” Jason says. “Can I go now?”
“Yes, but I better not see this behavior again.”
Jason goes down the hall, smiling when he sees me. “Hey, man. You meeting with Coach?”
“Yeah. In a minute.”
“I got called into his office too. I think he’s gonna yell at me for being late to practice.”
Ms. Higgins glances at us, then shakes her head and goes into her classroom. I don’t know where Donovan went. He must’ve gone down the other hall.
“What was going on with you and Donovan?” I ask Jason.
“The fucker gave me a dirty look so I punched him.”
“Did Ms. Higgins see it?”
“No, but she heard the idiot making noise when I hit him and came out of her classroom to see what was going on. I hate that bitch. She’s like an older version of Trailer Girl, all prim and proper, always following the rules.”
Ella isn’t prim and proper, at least not with me.
She let me do things to her I never thought she’d let me do, and I get the feeling she’d be up for more if we were still together.
Now I’m getting turned on. It happened yesterday, too, when I went to see her at work.
Her hair was up in a messy ponytail, and she was wearing cut-off shorts with a tight tank top that showed off her tits.
There was a trickle of sweat running into her cleavage that I couldn’t stop staring at.
I had to get the broom and start sweeping to get my cock to settle down.
“I gotta get going,” Jason says, walking off. “See you at practice.”
I go to Coach’s office, and as expected, he yells at me for not leading the team.
As team captain, he thinks I should be doing all this shit I’m not doing, and he’s probably right, but I don’t want to do it.
I’m sick of rugby, sick of my teammates, sick of having to go to team parties and pretend to like everyone there.
I don’t think I’d feel this way if it weren’t for the accident.
It changed me, and so did Ella. I no longer feel like the guy who went out with his friends to get weed that night.
From the moment I saw that man lying in the road, something changed in me. I’m not even sure who I am anymore.
After Coach is done yelling at me, I go to class, getting there early so I can study for the test we have today.
I get my phone out to text Ella about what I saw in the hallway this morning, but then decide not to put that in a text.
I’ll have to tell her later, but it needs to be in private, and I don’t think she’ll meet me behind the bleachers again.
I can’t tell if she’s still pissed at me or not.
She didn’t seem too happy to see me yesterday when I showed up at her job.
Why am I trying so hard with her? I’m supposed to be getting her to hate me. I should’ve just let her believe I was trying to hack into her grades, so why didn’t I?
The day goes by, and I don’t get a chance to talk to Ella about Ms. Higgins, but I really think she’s the one who was there that night.
She’s on a mission to take down bullies, and she knows I’m one of them, along with Finn and Parker.
She’s never caught us doing it, but she knows our reputation.
Everyone does, which is why they fear us and why we have power.
“Briggs!” my dad yells as soon as I walk in the door. I did a shorter workout at the gym so I could get home and finish a paper that’s due tomorrow. It’s just after seven, and I was hoping my dad was still at work.
“I need to study,” I tell him as he comes up to me, a drink in his hand.
“I want to kill that bitch!”
Fuck, did he find out about Ella? How? When?
“Did you know your mother is spreading rumors about me?”
So this is about my mom, not Ella.
“What rumors? What’s she saying?”
“She’s telling people I was too harsh to her during our marriage,” he huffs. “Too harsh? By giving her everything she could ever want?” He swigs his drink. “If she were here, I’d kill her! I’d strangle her with my own two hands!”
“Dad, don’t say that. You wouldn’t do that to Mom. You’re just angry and saying things you don’t mean.”
Actually, I think he really would kill her if he were angry enough and drunk.
“If this is how it’s going to be, I’ll tell stories about her too. People are already on my side in this divorce, saying what a fool she was to leave.” He takes another drink.
“How do you know she’s spreading rumors?”
“Are you calling me a liar?” he says, getting in my face.
“No.” I step back. “I was just asking.”
He glances at my laptop bag. “How was school?”
“It was okay.”
“How are your grades?”
“Good. I got the highest grade on the AP Chem exam I took last week.”
He turns and walks the other way. “Why would she do this? Why would your mother say such horrible lies about the man who cared for her all those years?” He whips back to face me. “Why, Briggs? Why would she do that?”
“I don’t know.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “Is this because of you? Did you put her up to this?”
“What? No. Why would I—”
“You did, didn’t you?” he says, stalking toward me. “You’ve been feeding her stories about me. Lies. Telling her I’m a horrible father!”
“Dad, I swear I’m not doing that. I never even talk to Mom.”
He throws his glass against the wall, shattering it. “Then why is she doing this?” He grabs my shirt and shakes me. “Tell me, Briggs! Why?”
The liquor on his breath is so strong I feel like I could get drunk just being next to him. His tie is off, his shirt is wrinkled, and he stinks of cologne and sweat. He’s a mess. He’s probably been drinking for hours.
“I don’t know,” I say, my heart pounding. I’ve never seen my father this angry. It can’t just be my mom making him like this. There has to be something else going on. “Can I go upstairs? I have a paper to finish.”
He leans into my face, his eyes on mine. “Why would your mother say these things? Tell me, Briggs!”
“I don’t know,” I say, hearing my voice shake. “I really don’t.”
His lips turn up just slightly. “She said I was too harsh with you too. Why would she tell people such a thing? How would she even know?”
“I didn’t tell her anything. I swear.”
“Do you think I’m harsh with you, son?”
“No. I think you’re just being a father.”
“Lies!” He slaps me across the face. “Your mother told me what you said! How I was mistreating you. How you hated living here.” He grabs my shirt with both hands and yanks me toward him. “You want to see me mistreat you, Briggs?”
“No.” I shake my head.
His expression turns dark, and his eyes fill with rage.
He shoves me, slamming me against the door.
My shoulder hits the latch on the lock, and my back hits the handle, causing searing pain because he shoved me so fucking hard.
As I push away from the door, he punches me in the stomach.
I slam back into the door, then fall to the ground, my breath caught in my throat, my gut throbbing.
“That is a father mistreating his son!” He storms down to his office and slams the door.
I take a moment to breathe, then slowly stand up. I pick up my laptop bag and make my way up the stairs. I go to my room, strip off my clothes, and take a long, hot shower, sinking down on the tile floor as the water falls over me.