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But I couldn’t be like that any more. I had to make sure I had any support on offer at the moment. So I told her everything I could think of that I had any desire to share, trying not to pay attention to how wide-eyed she w
as looking. I barely believed the things coming out of my mouth were a part of my own life. I had to stop a few times when people approached from either end of the corridor, but Callie just kept smiling at me during those silences, which encouraged me to continue once the coast was clear.
Then she moved straight into her practical, ever-onwards Callie mode as soon as I’d said all I needed to say. “I think Lucas is going to try to deal with Steven, although I don’t hold out much hope for that situation. But this stuff with your biological dad… are you sure you can trust him?”
“Callie, I went into this thinking at best, well, maybe I’ll be able to accept that he’s not the same guy any more. But all the evidence points to him never having been that guy, and… well, I just need to try this.”
I didn’t tell her I was going to sneak out of school the next day to go see him. It seemed likely she would insist on trying to come with me. She might even tell Mum… and Mum was a master at thwarting my plans.
The only person I felt I could really have trusted to get involved in meeting my dad was Steven. Even when he knew what I was doing, he’d given me the space I needed.
But Steven was the last person who would support me right now. The last person I should be regretting.
“As far as Steven goes…” Callie bit her lip. “Lucas isn’t going to be happy with this as an idea, but I think you should talk to someone about what he did. That was a seriously threatening situation we walked in on. Maybe he’s just going through something at the moment, but you can’t just let that go.”
If I went back to Ms. Miller, would she try to downplay what had happened to me? Or would she finally think it was time to bring Steven under control?
Chapter Twenty-One: Steven
“Steven!”
It was damn weird to have Luc yelling after me like that. Lucas didn’t shout at anyone. Didn’t fucking need to when you had as much money as he did. He could have ordered someone else’s murder in that soothing fucking voice he used and probably gotten away with it.
Not me. Never fucking me.
I thought about running. That fucking pretty boy would never be able to catch up with me then. But I ended up just letting him catch up.
He started out all chill and chatty. “Okay, man, so what’s up? You’ve never struck me as the type to go all in with a girl.”
Which showed how much he knew about me, really.
“Look, Steve, you need to make this right with Tamara,” said Lucas. “She’s sort of one of us now, she’s Callie’s friend. And you can’t be doing this sort of thing at school and dragging these other assholes in. You’re going to make trouble for yourself nobody can get you out of.”
“Should I do it on the quiet, then? Maybe take a couple guys out with me to rough her up after school, get her cornered somewhere?”
I knew that was fucking provocative obviously, but I wasn’t prepared for Lucas to grab my arm and start shouting something in my face.
I took a swing at him he barely dodged, and he backed off. Lucas always was a fucking pussy.
“You are out of control, Steve. You need to get yourself sorted out, and until you do I’d like you to stay away from my girlfriend and her friends.”
Stay away from him too, though he didn’t bother saying that.
I stared after him as he left, trying to ignore the stares of everyone who had witnessed everything.
Then I just started walking in the direction of my car. I was supposed to have a training session that afternoon, but I’d been skipping most of those lately. Nobody had even bothered to ask me why, which hadn’t exactly motivated me to go back. I guess I hadn’t been putting on such a good show in my games that were leading to absolutely nothing I could use in my future. And no fucking point in trying to stick around for classes, right? I didn’t even have anywhere in the school I could hide from the world, like Tamara with her little library trick I’d finally caught her on.
I’d ruined that safe place for her. She would never be able to go there again and not think of what had happened that afternoon.
I should feel bad about that. But Tamara was the one who had started this whole mess, poking her nose in where it wasn’t wanted. Forcing me to be rough to protect her.
But I was the one who had come after her assuming that she would be like Julia, that all the sneaking and shiftiness meant she would try something. And she’d found out my biggest secret without exposing me, without showing any signs that she wanted to expose me. When she was angry with me, she came and took it up with me directly. Honestly.
Maybe that would change after what had happened today. I wasn’t certain, though. I wasn’t convinced she had any intention of fucking me up. The same girl who had decided to go meet her father and get his side of the story?
I’d hurt her, and I couldn’t even explain why I’d had to be so brutal about it. But she was still better off that way—better without me, even ignoring the Julia situation.
I parked around the corner of my house and took a long run to avoid my parents hassling me about getting home early again, then pulled up in front and went straight inside, sweating like a pig, to play with Para. I didn’t even bother showering or changing my clothes, I sort of wanted to feel filthy at the moment.
