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Nathan spotted Tommy and Kimmy sitting on the hood of his car as soon as he stepped outside.
They, like the rest of the school, were probably eager for some drama. They, like the rest of the school, knew he was probably the best source in this circumstance.
They waved at him and he waved back. Looking around the parking lot, he saw Tully’s car still parked in its spot and he knew what that meant.
The second they’d walked back into the school after the alleyway, a teacher spotted her and grabbed her arm to haul her to the office. She gave him a reassuring smile, so he didn’t try to stop it like he wanted, but they both knew there was nothing he could do.
Detention. Her first time ever. After being blamed for cheating and now fighting, she wasn’t going to get out of it this time. She’d also said to expect that would mean another week or two added to her home confinement.
“Is it true?” Tommy asked. “Did Tully really beat up her sister?”
Nathan nodded.
“I would too if my sister stole my boyfriend. She deserved it,” Kimmy laughed. “I heard she was the one who hit Joliet first. Apparently, she said something aboutyou, Nathan, so Tully just snapped or something.”
Nathan looked up at Kimmy in surprise. He hadn’t heard that. Tully just said that Joliet wouldn’t shut up and she couldn’t take it anymore. Nothing about him though. Rumors around school got twisted easily, so it was a little hard to tell what was true or not.
If that were true, he wouldn’t mind it one bit. Tully fighting for him—he laughed a little at the image and kicked a stray pebble on the ground.
“Smart and a badass?” Tommy whistled low. “You might have gotten the best one, Rondeau.”
“I could have told you that,” Nathan chuckled.
“Is she okay though? Did she get hurt?” Kimmy asked.
Tully had let him pick her up and hold her hand to get her out of that situation, but when Nathan had reached out to brush the spot of blood growing on her cheek, she’d pulled away and wouldn’t let him worry about it. She said it wasn’t a big deal; that might be the case for her, but it was a big deal to him. Her sister made her bleed. But since she said no, he kept her wishes and stayed back. “She got a scratch on her face.”
“Must feel nice, Rondeau, to know your girl was ready to get hurt for you.”
Itwasn’ta good feeling. Hedidn’twant her to get hurt, even worse when it was for him—if that was even true.
But, therewasa part of him, guilty and small, that couldn’t help the twitching upturn of the corners of his lips when he considered that maybe a part of the rumors were true. If that was the case, then Tully was a much better girlfriend than Joliet would like him to believe. Any boyfriend would feel some pride in that.
forty-eight
tully
Two weeks feels like a lifetime when there’s nothing to do but go to school, come home, eat, sleep and repeat. The real kicker was that Joliet’s “grounding” held as much weight as a pound of butter.
Tully was vegged out two-thirds of the way to the end of her three-week sentence, droning on in her bedroom, banned from ‘useless’ extracurriculars. Goodbye, volunteer hours. Joliet got a free pass for cheer practice and sporting events. Suddenly, Joliet’s practices were three hours longer than usual and took place at the mall and her friends’ houses. Tonight, she would be rehearsing her high kicks and chants at the quarry for the yearly Halloween bonfire. How convenient for her that their parents neither questioned or more accurately, pretended they were blind.
The only upside of spending Halloween alone at home was that she had the entire house to herself until midnight at the earliest. This was a very average Wednesday night for her, aside from one thing. What sheshouldbe doing on a Wednesday night is going to Nathan’s house for tutoring, but all that lost study time was made up in the twenty extra minutes she showed up before school to go over stuff every day. Keeping his academic excellence up was the highlight of this boring period of her life.
Halloween night was meant for tricks and treats and too much alcohol and fog machines and scary stories. Halloween 1984 would forever go in her books as the night she worked on college applications alone in her room: a nightmarish occasion.
She sighed and dropped her pencil onto her half-filled paper. She was three pages in and the cursive was starting to blend together into an incohesive blob of ink. She’d already had to white out three different parts.
There was a 90% chance that she was going to go crazy locked up in the house with nothing to do. Stephanie suggested she sneak out since no one would be home, but after all the trouble she’d gotten into, she would rather take the safe route instead of risking another week of this torture.
Maybe a movie? There was a scary movie or two downstairs she could watch to get a break and get into the spooky spirit. It didn’t sound too terrible, though watching something scary alone in her house might put her on edge, and when she gets on edge every little thing can make her jump. Even something small like—
A hollow tap sent a shock through her, and she hitched in surprise. She’d heard a tap just like it once before, a fingernail hitting on a glass pane.
She spun around towards her window and yelped in surprise to see the smiling face illuminated by her bedroom lights. Nathan laughed at her reaction, and tapped a few times on the window as she scoffed and stood up. She was of half a mind to just leave him sitting there on the roof in the chilly autumn air for laughing at her whenhewas the one sneaking up and surprising her.
But then he waved, and as hard as she worked for two weeks to harden her crush towards him, it gave and she walked over and opened up. “What the hell are you—” She paused as a whiff of something bitter hit her nose, and cringed. “Have you been drinking?”
Nathan slid into the room, and she got a chance to take in his costume. He’d told her he was dressing up as James Dean fromRebel with a Cause, she just didn’t consider howgoodit would look on him. Red leather jacket, black boots, jeans that looked just-right on his legs.
