Chapter 58
Iget out of the hospital after four days.
I feel like I had a flu virus that wracked my body and still feel weak.
The doctors told me I'll need a few weeks to get my strength back.
Kidtal was arrested for trafficking dangerous animals.
He did the whole perp walk on TV while cops scoured his house, bringing out all the illegal critters in boxes.
In my mind I could hear him telling me I did not keep it real.
I'm allowed a week of rest at home until I have to go back to school. I'll be taking the bus by myself, with plenty of students who no doubt have already heard about my hospital visit.
The day before I return, I'm taking a nap when Clint barges into my room in a black-and-white pin-striped suit. His tie and collar are loose, his hand wrenched around a bottle of whiskey. He looks kind of like Beetlejuice.
“Your aunt and I were supposed to be at the courthouse three hours ago!”
“That's nice,” I say with a yawn, and turn on my other side.
Clint forces me out of bed and makes me text Dinah, which is pointless because if she's not responding to him, why would she respond to me?
Right as I gather the mental clarity to string a few sentences together, the back door creaks open.
Dinah tries to creep past my bedroom with a box in her arms, but stops in her tracks when she sees Clint and me.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I don't know, Dinah! Maybe it's because of our wedding that was supposed to happen today?”
“That was today?”
“YES.”
“Oh.”
“Where the hell have you been?” Clint asks.
She opens the box and pulls out the Sasquatch costume that Brandon took from me.
“Last night, I came up with an idea to take down Brandon Barton Buckley,” she says.
She explains that Ruslan used his Russian hacking skills to dismantle the security system at Brandon's mansion, and she was able to convince the housekeeper she was a contractor.
She snuck into his office and stole the costume, along with one of his drones.
Clint's left eye squints as he listens, barely holding back frustration.
“We can make footage of the Sasquatch trying to break into our studio to silence us. And we can set it up so that the drone fails to catch him, showing everybody that the drone is a waste of money. Also…” she says, pulling out a Brandon Barton Buckley business card, “it sure would be suspicious if the Sasquatch left one of these behind on accident!”
Clint continues to argue with her while I crawl back into bed and wrap myself up in the blanket. He finally storms out of the room after Dinah tells him they can get an appointment next week.
“Jesus, he's such a whiny baby. He's almost worse than you,” Dinah says.
I uncoil myself from the blanket. “So don't marry him. He couldn't even protect you from a spider.”
Dinah slumps down and exhales. “I mean… he's smart and he cares about me. You know, the only comfort I can find in what happened that one Christmas is that my sister died with the man she loved, who loved her right back. Most people will never be that lucky.”
I wouldn't call my parents lucky, but I see her point. In the end, Dinah and Clint are like a pair of star-crossed townie lovers, each holding the key to each other's broken brains.
She tosses her head back and forth like she's snapping out of a daydream. “Anyway, don't tell me what to do. I'll marry whoever the hell I want. Do you need me to drive you to the bus stop tomorrow morning or what?”
I shake my head.
“Great. I wasn't going to get up that early anyway. So get some rest,” she says.
“I'm sorry if I messed up your sales.”
She shifts her jaw, unbothered. “If anything, it showed our customers what happens when you stop taking Plutonium Cactus.”
“I'll think long and hard about my future and what to do when I graduate,” I say.
“Just rest, Wade. If you get sicker, then the longer you're here, the crazier I become. Night.” She shuts the door behind her.
And rest is exactly what I don't get, listening to two clowns trying to make their fake footage all night long, Dinah yelling at Clint for one thing or another. At one point, I hear Clint tumble off the garage roof and hit the ground, groaning as Dinah's laugh echoes into the night.
___________
On the bus the next morning, everybody takes one long look at me. A group of boys sing, “Spider-Dick! Spider-Dick! Ask Wade Gay-der about his secret trick!”
The whole bus fills up until the spot next to me is left, which Meg Dunnstock reluctantly takes without acknowledging me. I stare out the window, blinded by the morning sun.
The whole day is like this. The theater kids ignore me. Felix ignores me. Byron won't even look at me in astronomy class. Darren, on the other hand, stares at me the entire period, probably imagining himself stabbing me to death.
Just when the bell rings for dismissal at the end of the day, the real nightmare begins.
Sutter runs toward me with a fiery rage in his eyes.
Everybody in the hallway stops and watches him pass, all of this transpiring in what feels like slow motion.
Before I can even react, he's already got me by my shirt collar and slams me against the lockers.
My backpack slips off, and I become almost weightless between his arms.
“You fucking pervert. You told Roland to sneak into my window.”
Oh no. Of all the times I've thought I was toast, this feels like the realest thing. There's a primal anger in his face, a redness of the cheeks and forehead I have never seen before, not even during Dinah's worst temper tantrums.
“I don't know what you mean,” I say, trembling. I can barely think of any other excuse at this moment. He swipes me across the lockers and pulls me toward the bathroom. The boys surrounding us laugh and egg Sutter on.
I feel a burning in the back of my head and a fog fall over my brain.
This is a different terror from a tornado.
A tornado is like a cold, unfeeling machine that rips through anything.
A sentient being with cognitive processes and reactive emotions pulling you toward your doom is different. They chose you.
“Fuck him up, bruh!” one of them shouts, then slaps the back of my head as Sutter yanks me toward him, but I slip out of his hand and run to my bathroom hiding spot.
As usual, Travis the Freshman is in my stall.
“Open up! It's an emergency!” I scream.
“You don't get to tell me what to do anymore, Spider-Dick!” he yells at me.
I skip out of the bathroom and run to the only other spot in which I know I'll be safe from Sutter. He almost has me right as I dip into his mom's classroom and hide behind her.
“Hey! Stop, stop! What are you doing, Sutter?” she asks.
“Wade's the one who tricked Roland Greenway into climbing through my window,” he says, breathing deeply and hatefully.
“Sutter, go. NOW. I'll talk to him, okay? Go now, and I'll talk to you after.”
He huffs and puffs, both fists tightened, not taking his eyes off me as he backs out of the room.
“GO,” Sra. Breedlove says, then turns back to me. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
My heart is still beating so fast. “I don't know” is all I can muster.
“I'm taking you to the nurse,” she says.
“No. Just stay here with me, please.”
She stays and we sit there quietly for a minute, my heart rate still unable to go down.
She arches a brow at me. “Is it true? What Sutter said?”
I can't lie to her. I nod, and she groans and hangs her head.
“I am so sorry,” I say. “I regret it every day, every hour of my life.”
“Why did you do such a stupid thing?”
The words and her disapproval burn right through me. I look down at my shoes, not sure where to even begin.
“You have violated my whole family's personal space. You could have put my son in danger. My husband almost blew Roland's head off with a gun, and he still ended up in a wheelchair.”
“I would never do anything to hurt you. You're one of my favorite people ever. I don't have a lot of those. I hate the way Sutter talks to you. He's so lucky to have you and he doesn't know it.”
“My relationship with Sutter is none of your concern.
I'm not his little sister; I'm his mom, I love him no matter what, and I can deal with him. You have no business creeping into my family affairs,” she says.
“He has no right to assault you, and I'm going to deal with that right now. But I am painfully disappointed in you, Wade Mader. I have hope that Sutter will change. I hope you will, too.”
I burn with embarrassment. Sra. Breedlove almost never gets angry with a student. Byron must have told people. If Sutter knows, that means Felix either already knows or is about to.
I run out of the room and push past the students into the back parking lot, looking for Felix. I scan every face I can to find him while I'm running as fast as I can.
One car almost hits me and brakes at the last second. I freeze and wince. They blare their horn at me and stick their head out the window.
“Watch where you're going, Spider-Dick!”
Other students who see the commotion recognize me.
“Hey! It's Spider-Dick!”
They all start chanting the word. I'm too focused on finding Felix.
As soon as I spot him, I grab him by the shoulder.
“Felix, everyone knows we did it,” I say.
“No shit. I have to go talk to Roland now before he finds out,” Felix says, swatting my hand off his shoulder. “You've always been dramatic, Wade, but I never thought you'd go this low. I'm such an idiot for thinking you wouldn't.”
“You mean you think I'm the one telling people?” I ask.
“Who else? You've already shown me how manipulative you can be. You hate that I'm with Roland. You want us to break up so you can be with me. This is the perfect opportunity. You'll sabotage both of us so I can sink with you.”
“No. Not like that. I would never,” I say, tears forming in my eyes.