My gaze shifts to Kaleb, and I hate how far away he looks. Even though physically he’s only across the hall, everything speaks to how distant and untouchable he is. The veneer of politeness has fused any remaining cracks back together, and his face is now a blank mask.
I clear my throat. “Uh, yeah… um, my aunt talked to me a little more about it, and she gave me a translated diary of one of the last Volkov spirit witches. I haven’t really gotten a chance to read too far in, but it looks like it should have more answers for us.”
“And we’re just learning about this now?” Donovan grunts, his emotions still clearly on the surface.
Before I can say anything, Kaleb calmly intercepts, “It’s her choice what she shares with us and when. She’s asked for our patience, and if she wants us to know, she’ll tell us when she’s ready.”
His words are like a punch to the gut, because it wasn’t that I intentionally kept it from them, I just hadn’t gotten around to telling them. Though what he said sounds right, the undercurrents feel like acceptance that he’s going to be left in the dark and the delicate strings of trust are slipping against his walls. I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.
He didn’t ask to see it. He didn’t offer to go through it with me.
“So, not that it matters to me, being dead and all,” Felix interjects into this cold stalemate, “but I’m pretty sure the bell is going to ring any moment, and we haven’t figured out what we’re going to do about all of this.” With a swish of his finger, he gestures to Gina’s mess all over the floor.
“We report it,” Kaleb says evenly. “These pamphlets are hard proof of what Gina is doing, and if we all go in together, they’ll have to take us seriously.”
“Sure they will,” Donovan scoffs, his cynicism matching my own.
I don’t know if it’s my own defense against what’s happening between Kaleb and I, or the fact the way he’s stubbornly refusing to let this all go, but I can feel ‘Old Callie’ take over my face. She has a harsh understanding of the world and those that control it. As much as my heart aches for Kaleb, my words drip with the ugliness of long tested truths.
“I swear to god... All this,” I motion at the papers littering the floor, “means fuck all. It proves the possibility that someone may be bullying me, not that it’s Gina. Do you really think she’s dumb enough to have done any of this herself? They won’t believe me.”
I wait for the moment Nolan will let go, now they’re getting a taste of the darker parts of me. Not the sad battered girl they want to save, but her sharp edges meant to cut deep and without mercy that have protected her for years. To my surprise, he doesn’t. Instead, he holds me so tight it borders on painful.
Felix’s eyes are filled with a sad knowing, because unlike the others, he has a real idea of what I’ve been through. He stuffs his hands in his pockets, and his feelings of helplessness are written in the droop of his shoulders and the hard press of his lips.
“They will if we all go together,” Kaleb insists. “It won’t be just your word. It will be all of ours.”
“Well, maybe not all of us,” Felix pipes in. “I’m dead, and Connor should probably not get involved. Murdering the administration, I hear, is frowned upon.”
“He’ll be fine… well, he’ll have better control over himself after he’s cooled off,” Nolan replies. Though he isn’t talking to me, his smooth and sultry voice wraps around me, his mouth mere inches from my ear.
I want to curl up in that voice. I want to pretend today isn’t happening. I want to go back to teasing about who’s Best Boy, but every moment is about moving forward. It’s about dealing with the here and now. And right now, they need to hear some painful truths.
“They won’t believe us. Not in the way you think,” I argue, trying to get Kaleb to understand. “All of your words will be perceived as lies, because it’s alreadymagicallyrumored that you’ll say and do anything I tell you to. If you don’t, I’ll kill myself. And they certainly won’t believe the word of a fresh transfer student whose father is in jail and rumored to be a crazy, manipulative psycho over the town darling and daughter of the mayor.” Tears burn in my eyes, and my jaw aches with how hard I grit my teeth. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they believe I did this to myself to get attention. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Donovan’s gaze sharpens as he takes in my face, and I can tell he’s filing away what I’ve said as another clue to my past. Meanwhile, Felix’s expression opens, eyes wide and brows climbing up his forehead, because he has a better idea of where this puzzle piece goes.
Nolan rests his chin on the top of my head, and it dawns on me that he’s also intimately familiar with this issue. Nolan suffers in silence as well-- every facet of his life altered by the curse Gina casted on him, knowing full well that no one outside of us will believe him.
The bell rings, but none of us move. Strangely, no one passes through this way toward their morning classes. It’s as if the knowledge has spread that going this way could lead to certain death, and everyone has wisely chosen other routes.
“So we do nothing-- again,” Kaleb utters quietly. “And she gets away with it-- again. How do we expect anything to change if no one knows there’s a problem in the first place?”
I shake my head and gently extract myself from Nolan’s embrace. Taking a deep breath, I kneel back in front of my locker and start shoving all the shit Gina stuffed into my locker out, not caring how far it goes.
“Not nothing,” I answer as I swiftly grab my books and shove them into my backpack, swapping them with the ones I took home the day before. “We throw these bullshit pamphlets into the trash, we go to class, and we bide our time. This isn’t the first time I’ve been bullied. Gina will get more and more pissed off when she realizes none of her attacks are working.” After ensuring I have everything, I stand back up, throwing my backpack over my shoulders. “She’ll get sloppy. Then when the time is right, we--” my heart freezes, now unsure where I stand with all of them, “I take care of her.”
“Oh no you don’t,” Donovan grunts, staring me down. “You had it right the first time.Weare going to take care of her. Your shit is our shit, remember?”
I glance at Kaleb, and there’s sadness in his normally warm brown eyes. I’ve hurt him all over again by saying I’d take Gina on myself.God, I’m such a shit friend.
Oblivious as ever, a wide grin takes over Donovan’s expression, elated at the idea of revenge.
Nolan looks a mixture of pitying and scared. He doesn’t believe we can do it. I don’t hold it against him. I’ve only had to deal with the evil incarnate that is Gina for a little over a week, while it appears he’s had to deal with her his whole life-- even if for a while he saw an illusion of a sweeter side to her.
“Why not just leave the pamphlets here, and let someone else discover it and report it?” Felix suggests, rubbing the back of his neck when we all look at him.
“What do you mean?” Kaleb asks, his body language finally relaxing closer to his normal self, though he still clutches the paper, the ugly words visible over his fist.
