“Then why didn’t you tell us?” Piper tried and failed to keep a note of reproach from her voice.
“Because I knew you’d go all, like, DEFCON five or something,” Caitlin said. “And you’d talk to the principal and get him expelled, and then everyone would hate me cause he’s like, you know,popular.”
Piper forced herself to stay calm. To pretend that her daughter was just like any other witness she’d ever interviewed in the course of an investigation. “Has he done this before?”
“No. I mean, he hasn’t texted me before but ...”
Goose bumps rose on her skin. “But what?”
“Well, he says things sometimes ... like ...” Her daughter looked down and lowered her voice. “Likesexthings.”
Bile rose in Piper’s throat, and she swallowed, hard. “What kinds ofsex things?”
Caitlin blushed to the roots of her blond hair. “I don’t want to repeat them ... they’re sick.”
“Okay.” She’d circle back to that when her daughter felt more comfortable. “How often does he say these things?”
“Like ... I don’t know ... once a week maybe ... in the hallway. Or standing in line in the cafeteria.”
“Does anyone else hear him say these things?” Piper asked. A witness always bolstered any claim.
“No.” Caitlin’s fingers twisted the pale-pink sheets as she spoke. “He just, like, whispers them really low and fast, then walks away.”
Piper reached out and smoothed her daughter’s hair before asking one final question. For now. “Are you afraid of him?”
Caitlin looked at her for a long moment. Then her eyes filled with tears as she nodded.
She pulled her daughter into a hug as her heart shattered into a million pieces. Piper could send a bullet into the center of the smallest circle on the paper target at the gun range. She’d taught self-defense classes. She traveled all over the world protecting diplomats from harm. Yet her own daughter went to school every day feelingunsafe.
“Okay.” She took a shaky breath and gave her daughter a reassuring squeeze. “That’s all I need to know. For now.”
They sat like that for a minute or more. Her daughter had gone limp, melting into Piper’s arms as she stroked her hair, as though she were a little girl again, instead of a young woman dealing with all the fears that came with being female.
“What are you going to do, Mom?”
“I’m going to request a meeting with the principal.”
“Mommm ...” Caitlin’s voice held a note of warning.
Piper held up her hand. “I’m just going to ask them to speak with ...”
“Alex,” her daughter supplied.
“Right. Alex. And they’ll tell him to stop sending texts and saying creepy things. They’ll tell him to stay away from you.”
“That’s all?” Caitlin’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not going to, like, throw him into juvie or something?”
I would if I could,Piper thought.
“That’s all.” Piper crossed her heart. “I promise.”
“Do youreallyhave to do this?”
“Do you want him to stop saying these things and sending you inappropriate texts?” Piper asked.
Caitlin gave her mom a duh look. “Of course I do.”
“Then I have to talk to the principal. Because Alex won’t stop on his own.”And if he thinks no one is watching, it will get worse.
