Nolan releases a pithy laugh. “The witch bitch did make sure everyone saw and said something. Too damn much.”
“That’s her proper name now, right?” Felix clarifies. “She’s ‘The Witch Bitch’. Capital letters and everything?”
“Or just Bitch, for short,” Nolan counters, darkness infusing his smooth voice, and goosebumps dance along my skin.
It beats the way he was earlier, I suppose.
Kaleb sighs, and I can’t help but giggle, which earns me a raised brow… and a half smirk. Surrounded by my friends, I feel the rest of the day drain from me, and if feels like warm balm over the many cold shattered pieces that live inside me.If only Connor was here too.
Ignoring the rest of the guys, Kaleb continues in earnest, “Everything I said this morning-- If I could take Gina on myself, I would, but I can’t. I needed you, and seeing you dismiss what she did again, I couldn’t…” His lips press tight together, as he searches for words. “I thought… what you wouldn’t do for yourself, you might be willing to do for another. I’m sorry.”
I place one hand on top of the one cupping my face, my golden skin a heavy contrast against his dark sienna, and I’m filled with his warmth. “Don’t be sorry,” I whisper. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry I didn’t stand up for you this morning. You had every right to be angry, and I just let…”
“It doesn’t matter.” He shakes his head, and wipes at my tears with his calloused thumb.
“It does matter,” I insist with a small stomp of my foot. “You matter, Kaleb.”
His almond shaped eyes go wide at my words, before a soft smile plays at his full lips. “You matter too.”
“That’s great. We all matter. Thanks for clearing that up,” Donovan groans, clearly pained by all of the expression of feelings going on. “But what the hell are we going to do about The Witch Bitch? No offence, K, but I don’t think complaining to the principal is going to exactly cut it.”
I release a watery laugh and turn in Kaleb’s arms, grateful that he pulls me back against his chest. His arms wrap loosely around my stomach, holding me close, but not as fiercely as before. Nolan reaches for my left hand and laces our fingers together.
“There’s more,” Felix adds, while rubbing at the back of his neck. “Do you guys still have the pamphlet from this morning?”
“It’s in my backpack, why?” Kaleb asks, while Donovan opens the passenger side door of their black truck to get it.
After only a few moments of digging through Kaleb’s bag, Donovan roars, “You have to be fucking kidding me!”
“Looks like he found it,” I murmur, cringing since my own anger has already been spent.
Nolan squeezes my hand, while Kaleb rubs soothing arches against my stomach with his thumbs. A not wholly unpleasant shiver runs down my spine.
Not now, hormones. Yes, they’re very attractive, but we have bigger issues at the moment!
“What is it?” Nolan asks, as Donovan glares at the pamphlet in his hand.
He jumps down from the truck, and shoves the paper into Nolan’s empty hand.
“Please kill me?” Nolan reads, his smooth voice sitting somewhere between shock and outrage. “The fuck is this?”
I squeeze Nolan’s hand, while I trade looks with Felix.How do we explain this?
Felix takes a deep breath, and begins to take the plunge. “Now, I know I’m new to all this, but it looks like she set some type of timed spell that would change the words after a certain amount of hours. Between this and the fact no one saw Gina put the pamphlets in Callie’s locker, only that they fell out of her locker-- a locker that only Callie knows the combination to-- it got a lot harder to try and explain that Callie was the victim.”
He looks at me with questions filling his eyes, asking for permission to share the part that truly sealed my fate.
“I don’t know if it’s coincidence, or if Gina managed to get a look at my file, but…” I release a shuddered breath and press myself deeper into Kaleb’s arms. The familiar sick feeling of sharing something from my past twists in my belly, but I do my best to push forward. “When my father first started… hurting me, he made it look like accidents.”
Now I don’t know who’s gripping who’s hand-- only that Nolan and I are squeezing so tight there are white dots along our palms. Donovan crosses his arms and leans back against his truck, all of his frustration shown in the way he taps his foot against the cracked asphalt. But no one says anything, waiting for me to explain.
“They um… they got so frequent that…” I clench my teeth, determined to get this all out without sobbing again. “The school grew… concerned, but instead of thinking there might be something wrong at home… they called in my father to discuss how I’d been putting myself in harm’s way to get attention.”
Felix looks sad, but relieved that I didn’t ask him to also keep this to himself.Soon, I promise. I’ll tell them the rest soon. Just hold on.
“How the fuck?” Donovan explodes, standing up again and looking like he’s desperate to hit something. “Of all the fucking bullshit things… that’s what they think first? The fuck is wrong with these people?”
I feel strangely validated in the wake of Donovan’s rage. As if I can finally show 14-year-old me that I wasn’t wrong, they were. It was hard to truly believe, when I was the only one holding the truth. Even though I knew I wasn’t doing it, part of me wondered if I deserved it somehow.
