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Behind me, Josh’s grip on me tightens.
Luke swallows. When he speaks, his voice is very calm. “This has nothing to do with me or Layla. It’s about the wellbeing of the students.”
“But—”
Luke frowns. “That’s what our main focus as teachers is, right? Because if I’m telling you there’s an issue with child safety, and your first instinct is to sweep it under the rug, we’re going to have an issue.”
“There’s no issue with child safety!” She protests. “She’s making all of this up!”
Luke finally breaks. “FOR GOD’S SAKE, AMY!” He shouts, jabbing a finger at the lockers. “Someone has painted a slur onto a young girl’s locker! Someone is harassing a child. A minor. The proof is there in black and white, and I’m not going to let you ignore it just because you don’t want to handle the goddamn paperwork!”
Everyone else in the room goes silent. In the background, cheerful 90s pop plays through the CD player’s tinny speakers. Zack noisily scoops up a handful of crackers and starts crunching through them like they’re a tub of popcorn.
Amy takes a deep breath. “Perhaps we need to have a word in private, Luke,” she says coldly.
“I agree,” Luke counters, dipping to press a hard kiss to my cheek, and then stalking away to examine the lockers, leaving Amy to scurry after him in her little kitten heels. I watch them go, my eyes huge. What the Hell have I started?
“Nice,” Zack says, holding up a cracker to my lips and feeding it to me. “I love when he gets all righteous.”
“You probably shouldn’t crash the party and then eat all the food,” Josh mutters under his breath.
“Sorry, mate, you want one too?” Zack obligingly shoves a custard cream into Josh’s mouth.
Donny, who’s been watching everything go down with growing dismay, finally steps forward. “I need to speak with you,” he tells me lowly, not meeting my eye.
“Aight,” Zack straightens, dusting cracker crumbs off his hands. “Lead the way.”
Donny scowls. “Not with you,” he spits. “With Layla.”
“I assumed,” Zack counters. “If you think you’re going anywhere alone with my girl, mate, you’re even dumber than you look. She just told us you tried to grab her in a parking lot, for Chrissakes.”
“Yeah,” I say, amused. “And I almost broke his fingers. I don’t need a bodyguard, guys.”
Zack sighs dramatically. “Fine. Yell if you need me, love.” He smacks a kiss on my forehead, then turns back to the food. “These taste like shit,” he mutters to Josh, grabbing another handful of crackers. “Reckon I can eat them all before we have to go?”
Josh ignores him, his fingers clutching at mine like he doesn’t want to let me go. I carefully extricate myself from his grip, stroking his lapel. “I’ll be fine,” I say quietly. He catches my knuckles and dips down to kiss them, then silently lets me leave.
***
EIGHTY-TWO
***
LAYLA
Hands jammed into his pockets, Donny leads me to the corner of the gym, out of earshot of everybody else. I glance around, wrinkling my nose at the bins of deflated basketballs and broken hula hoops.
“Listen,” he says quietly. “You can’t put that stuff online.”
I check my nails. “Can’t I?”
“No!” His eyes are wide. “For God’s sake, I was a kid!”
“So was I. That didn’t stop you from making my life a living Hell.”
“I didn’t know what I was doing!” He insists. “It was ten years ago, Layla, can’t you just get over this stuff? I’ve worked hard to get where I am, why the Hell would you want to go and ruin it for me now?”
“I don’t,” I say honestly. “I don’t want to ruin anything for you. All I want to do is leave this behind me. So here’s what’s going to happen.” I take a step towards him, my high heels squeaking slightly on the ugly beige linoleum. “You’re going to drop the charges against Zack,” I order. “You’ll make a statement that you antagonised him. And then you’ll stay away from all of us. You won’t mention our names. You won’t subtweet us. You won’t tell anybody anything. Or all of the shit that I’ve got on you gets blasted onto our social media. I know the boys’ followers are dying to know why Zack hit you at the convention.” I smile at him. “I will tell everyone. I will do interviews. I’ll make entire episodes on the podcast. I’ll scream it from the rooftops. I’m sick of being quiet, and now there are people listening to me. I’m not a shy little sixteen-year-old anymore. I have a voice. Drop the charges, or I will use it.”
