Twenty-Four | Cole
Twenty-Four
Cole
I was out tending to the goats when I heard footsteps approaching. I looked over my shoulder to find Ben heading my way, his face taut with anger while his fists clenched at his side.
“Hey, what’s up?” I asked, putting the bucket down and wiping my hands on my jeans as I turned to face him.
“I got sent home from school early, and you’re going to get a call from the principal,” he said tensely. “Unless she already called Aunt Lyric.”
My eyes flitted from him to the house where Lyric was inside making a snack for Chloe.
“What happened?”
“Nothing. It was stupid.”
“Obviously, it wasn’t nothing, or you wouldn’t be out here warning me that the principal is going to call.”
I leaned against the fence post and watched him as he clenched his jaw, looking so much like his dad that it made my heart ache with how much I missed Clay.
“I got into a fight.”
My eyebrows lifted in surprise as I took him in, looking for any sign that he’d gotten hurt.
“I’m fine,” he replied, waving me off with his hand. “But I broke the other kid’s nose, according to the nurse.”
I wasn’t sure it was possible, but my eyebrows rose even higher as one of them arched.
“What was the fight about?”
He blew out an aggravated breath and shoved a hand through his hair.
“It was Tommy Tempson being an asshole, like always.”
I nodded because I knew Tommy Tempson, and he had been a problem around town for years. Hell, the kid had been a problem since he took his first step and learned how to speak.
“What happened this time?”
It wasn’t the first time they’d gotten into it with each other, but it was the first time it had gotten physical.
“He was talking shi—” he paused, his eyes widening when he realized he was about to curse in front of me.
I rolled my eyes and chuckled as I motioned for him to continue with my hands.
“He was saying stuff about Kara and called her easy. He made a bet with his friends that he could get her to sleep with him.”
My blood immediately started to boil as I pushed off the fence, the relaxed posture I had been trying to keep now long gone. Kara was barely fifteen, and this asshole was preying on her like she was some cheap prize to win.
“He got held back a year in middle school, didn’t he?
” I asked, frowning as I tried to remember every detail of this asshole’s life that I could remember.
Ben would turn eighteen after they graduated in a few months, but I was pretty sure Tommy was already eighteen, going on nineteen, which meant he was considered an adult.
Ben nodded as a sly smirk flittered across his lips.
“Let’s go have a chat with your principal,” I said, wrapping my arm around his shoulder and heading inside.
Lyric was on the phone when I closed the sliding glass door behind us. Her face was unreadable, and I could tell from how stiff Ben was beside me that he was just as worried about what was going to happen as I was. I had seen Lyric pissed off a time or two, but never when it came to the kids.
“Want to explain to me why I just got a call from your principal?” she asked Ben, planting a hand on her hip as she got straight to the point. “Seriously, Ben? You broke someone’s nose?”
“It’s not what it sounds like,” I said, interrupting.
Her head whipped in my direction as she pinned me with a fiery glare.
“Oh, and you would know about what happened because Ben snuck around the back to talk to you while avoiding me?”
I pushed my cheeks full of air and held it in my mouth while I considered how to respond.
“I wasn’t sneaking around,” Ben muttered. “I just thought Cole would understand the situation better since he liv—”
“Lives here?” she finished for him, cocking her head to the side. “Yeah, I get that he’s from here and knows the people in town, Ben. But the fact of the matter is that I am your legal guardian; therefore, I deserve the respect of you telling me when something has happened.”
“Hey, that’s not fair. Yes, you are the legal guardian, but that doesn’t erase the fact that I’ve been here, every step of the way since Clay died. You don’t get to throw a fit because he didn’t come to you first. He came to me because he trusts me and knows that I’ll take care of it.”
The words slipped so effortlessly out of my mouth that I hadn’t even realized the weight of what I had said until I said it.
“Shit,” I muttered, shoving a hand through my hair as I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry, Lyric. I didn’t mean—”
“No. Don’t apologize. It’s clear where I stand,” she bit out, looking from me to Ben. “I am heading to the school to talk to the principal. If there’s anything I need to know, tell me now. I can’t help you if I don’t know what happened.”
Ben looked from Lyric to me with a helpless look on his face.
“I’ll go with you,” I offered, hoping she wasn’t so pissed off that she would shut the idea down. “I know Principal Newman, and I know what happened. We can handle this together, as a team.”
I hoped that softening my tone would help make her feel less guarded and that reminding her that we were a team would get us back on the same page.
“Fine. Let’s go. Ben, you’re staying here and watching Chloe. If you so much as try to leave this house while we are gone, there will be hell to pay,” she warned, giving Ben a look that made even my blood run cold.
I swallowed hard and lowered my head to avoid her eyes as I grabbed my keys and headed out the front door before Lyric slammed it shut behind her.