by Emily Camp
“Tyler?” She mumbled as we maneuvered her into the back seat.
“He’s going to stay here,” I said.
“My phone.” Her voice came out a whine.
“Do you have it?” I asked.
She shook her head, then sprawled across the backseat, flinging her arm over her eyes.
I looked up at Jack. “I’ll go find it.”
He nodded.
I hoped it was near where she’d been lying, but who knew. I hurried around the house. If we didn’t leave soon, I would miss my curfew. The phone wasn’t by the puddle of puke she’d left behind. I braced myself before heading into the house, which was only getting louder.
Tyler. If I found Tyler, he might have it. Sometimes he’d carry it for her if she didn’t have pockets.
“You’re back!” Evan’s voice boomed over the crowd. I didn’t have time for Evan right now. I waved, stood on my tiptoes, and looked over the sea of heads.
“Whatcha looking for?” Evan was beside me tilting his head.
“Have you seen Tyler?”
He squinted. “Is that him over there?”
I looked in the corner where Evan was pointing, past a trio of girls squealing and dancing. And sure enough, there was Tyler. Only he wasn’t alone. He leaned against the wall, one hand by a girl’s head the other holding his beer. He bent his head toward the girl, smiling and gabbing. The girl was grinning back up at him. What the heck? We were gone for like two seconds.
I stomped to him and tugged on his arm, nearly ripping it out of socket. Okay, maybe I wasn’t that strong, but I was that pissed.
“What the hell, Kacey?” he growled then his eyes grew wide and he looked at the girl. “I wasn’t doing anything.” He held his hands up in surrender.
“Is that your girlfriend?” the girl asked.
“Gross. I’m his girlfriend’s best friend.” Then I looked at him.
The girl cussed at him and then stormed away.
“Where’s Addi’s phone?”
“How the hell should I know,” he ran his hand over his face.
“She’s been with you all night.”
“I can’t help it if she can’t keep track of her things.”
I wanted to punch him so bad. “Whatever.” I stormed out of the house. This time making a beeline for Jack’s car. I needed to get out of here before I killed Tyler and I wanted to be home in time for curfew.
“Did you find it?” Jack asked.
“No.” I flopped into the passenger seat. “But we need to go.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Were you sleeping when I called?” I needed something to keep my mind off what just happened. I wasn’t sure how to break the news to Addi and I was kind of alone with Jack. In a car. Addi was passed out in the backseat now. Snoring. She’d be mortified if she knew that, everything about this night would embarrass her.
“Kind of.” He adjusted the heat.
“I’m sorry.” Not just for waking him, but for his car smelling faintly like vomit.
“It’s okay,” he said.
“I didn’t think you’d be asleep this early on a Friday.” I put my hands in my lap. My knee bounced.
“Normally, I’m not. I have to meet the wrestling bus at five.”
“A.M.?” As if I could feel any worse.
“Yeah.”
“You can’t eat and you have to wake up before the sun rises on a weekend. What kind of torture is that sport?”
“It’s worth it when I win.”
“I can’t imagine not being able to eat or sleep in on the weekends.” I looked out the window when I was convinced Addi was going to be fine. I don’t know what I was fretting about. It had been me in her shoes a few times this year.
“I can eat after I weigh in,” he said.
“I still don’t see the appeal in that sport.” I said, looking at him. The slight flicker as we passed under the streetlights illuminated his features just enough for me to see his serious expression.
“I like the physical contact.”
Though that sounded way worse than I knew he intended it, my cheeks flamed. I cleared my throat. Why did my mind have to go there? Especially with Jack. I twisted my hands together, stared out the window.
“Are you alright?” Jack asked.
I looked back at Addi, making sure she was definitely asleep then I turned the radio up a little before I said, “Tyler was flirting with another girl.” I spilled this for two reasons. First, because I had to change the subject so I wasn’t thinking of Jack and physical contact; second, because I needed to tell someone.
“What? When?”
“When I went in to look for Addi’s phone.”
“Maybe you miss read the situation.” His hands twisted around the steering wheel.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“Should I?” I really needed someone to tell me what to do.
“I don’t know,” he said.
A lot of help he was.
“Yeah.” There was a long pause between us.
Maybe I was making too big a deal of it. It wasn’t like they were some happy couple either. I needed to get my mind off that when there was nothing I could do about it anyway, I’d always wondered about something, “What did you think of me before you tutored me?”
“I didn’t even know who you were,” he said, “No offense.”
“I didn’t know who you were either.” After his admission, I didn’t feel so bad about admitting that aloud.
I looked back at Addi, then turned to Jack again. I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it. I thought about the rumors that had been going around. How Maria glared at me tonight. How Cody kept looking at me. Then walking into the party with Mason, Evan kissing me, then Jack picking me up.
“Do you think I’m a slut?” I can’t believe the words left my mouth. It was too late now, I couldn’t take them back.
“No.” He said quickly, straightening his shoulders.
“What about what Nolan said? You believed that.” I had no clue why I was bringing this up now. It had bothered me, but it wasn’t like I could ask while we were talking about acute triangles or whatever we were working on.
“I mean, I’ve heard stuff.”
“You heard stuff?” that didn’t make me feel any better. “And you believed that I was a dumb slut? The person who’s always telling me to be careful about my sources?”
“I didn’t say I believed it.”
“But you didn’t not believe it either.” Part of me hurt that he thought I was a slut. I wasn’t sure why I cared what Jack thought of me, but I did.
“Yes, you’re right. I heard something,” he took his eyes off the road just long enough to glance at me, “I didn’t know if it was true or not, but I never thought you were a slut.” He let out a breath.
“Thanks.” I said. “I’m not a dumb slut, just dumb.”
“You’re not dumb, quit saying that.”
“Says my tutor who knows exactly how dumb I am.”
“I know exactly how dumb you are not.” He looked at me when we were at a stoplight.
“Wait, was that sentence even grammarly correct?”
“It’s not a double negative.” He shrugged, then smiled before turning back toward the road. “It’s grammatically by the way.”
“Huh?”
“Grammarly is a computer program.” His smile should not have done to my stomach and chest what it did. He’s your tutor, Kacey, that’s all. I needed to remind myself. I refused to project feelings on him, even if he was being really nice to me right now. “Anyway, you owe me now.”
There it was. The condition. Boys rarely did anything nice for me without expecting something in return.
“And what would that be?” I waited for something sexist to come out of his mouth.
“Work hard and bring up your grades, obviously.”
“But then I wouldn’t get to see you.” I had to admit I was rel
ieved he didn’t want a sexual favor or anything like that. But then the thought of not being tutored by him anymore bothered me.
His smile grew when he glanced at me. “Call me anytime you need help.”
“You might regret saying that.” I motioned around the car. “I don’t have my own running wheels, you know.”
“I wouldn’t mind that.” There was something about the smile he gave me at the end of that sentence. Maybe because he didn’t give them often, but it made me feel like I was important. Like someone special.
Chapter Seventeen
By the end of the weekend Mason texted me to thank me for Friday night. I guess he and Dia had worked things out. Funny what jealousy could do to a person. The date hadn’t been a total bust for me either, besides a few texts from Cody that I refused to answer, I’d been texting with Evan.
Cody was waiting for me when I hopped off the bus Monday morning. His hands shoved deep in his blue letterman jacket. His hair damp and messy. It was so cold, I could see my breath as soon as my feet hit the pavement.
“Cody.” I nodded as I walked toward the school.
“Why would you bring him?”
“Why do you care?” I grabbed the straps of my backpack and headed into the school, staring at the doors, making a conscious effort not to look at him. I ignored the sneer Maria gave me from beside her car. Not only did hers run, but it looked new.
Relief washed over me when I spotted Jack. It was weird that I felt like he was my only ally, that I was surrounded by enemies. I headed straight toward him. He gave a small smile when he looked up from his phone and saw me. “Hey.”
“Hey.” My heart did a little flip. Maybe because I was walking too quickly. It wasn’t like I was in the best shape. I didn’t do sports, or exercise for that matter. Unless one counted the times I passed a football with Gavin in my backyard. I settled into a stride beside Jack as he headed toward the school. He had on his varsity letter jacket. He wore it better than Cody.
“Did you get your paper done?” He asked.
“Thanks for reminding me.” I groaned as he opened the door and waited on me to go in.
He laughed a laugh that I’d realized I enjoyed hearing. “I’ll make you work on it in Educational Support.”
“Do I have to?” My brain hurt just thinking about it.
He nudged me with his shoulder playfully. “A little writing isn’t going to kill you.”
“It might,” I said.
We spotted Tyler, who trudged down the hall, sleep still in his eyes, his hair messy.
“Did you tell Addi?” Jack asked.
“She was sick Saturday.” My mom had no clue she had been drinking and assumed it was the stomach flu. She spent the entire day Lysoling everything.
Jack grasped his backpack straps and we fell in to stride down the hallway. I knew we’d have to break apart soon, but right now I felt like I had a barrier around me. Like he was protecting me against the stares and gossip. I needed this when Nolan spread the rumors about me. Which was dumb for me to think that. We all knew that me just walking beside Jack gave them another reason to talk. Jack Landry, the nerdy-boy-tutor who’d never had a girlfriend and the dumb slut who dated someone different every week. The most we were to one another was friends and even that was iffy, but the rest of the school didn’t know that.
At least my mind was off Cody and everyone else at the school for the time being. It wasn’t fair how people thought they had a right to put a label on me when they didn’t know anything about me. Sure, they saw me every day and all, and I did post a lot on social media, but who was honest there? No one got to know the real Kacey. Who was the real Kacey? I wasn’t sure myself. Even if I knew, I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone else to know. It wasn’t like I wasn’t trying. I really did think that Cody and I were going to be long term. Turned out he wasn’t who I thought he was. The picture in my mind of us at prom in the spring, then spending days at the pool and bonfires together, was gone.
My heart sank like an anvil when I turned toward my locker after waving bye to Jack. Addi and Tyler were standing near hers. He leaned in close to her, his hand on the wall almost like he was with the girl at the party. She giggled into her locker as she gathered her books while he talked. He wasn’t as sleepy looking as he was a minute ago.
“Kacey.” She shouted and waved when she caught sight of me. I glared at Tyler, he just smirked and nodded.
“See you at lunch, babe.” He leaned down and kissed her. I rolled my eyes.
His Nike’s squealed against the floor as he rushed away.
“Tyler told me he was going to take care of me Friday, but my dad was calling your phone constantly. Thanks for covering for me.”
That was the first I heard this version. What was Tyler trying to pull anyway? “Did you find your phone?”
“No, Mason helped Dia clean and it wasn’t anywhere.”
“What’d you tell your dad?”
“He doesn’t know. That was my track phone.”
It wasn’t a bad idea to bring that one. She always kept two phones, one her dad paid for, but also had access to. And the other a prepaid that she kept secret so she could use it how she wanted. “That’s good.”
“Not really because now I have to save up to get another spare, in the meantime, I can’t talk to Tyler.”
I didn’t think that was so bad.
“I can’t believe I got that drunk.”
I honestly couldn’t either. “You’re usually the voice of reason.”
She sighed and leaned against the locker beside mine. “I guess I was just trying to lighten up like Tyler said.”
I should have known it had something to do with Tyler.
“I’m just glad we worked things out,” she said.
I wanted to remind her why they broke up, how he was so mean to her. To tell her how he flirts with other girls when she’s not around. But if I told her now, she’d wonder why I didn’t tell her sooner.
“I heard that Mason and Dia are back together and Cody was super jelly. Sounds like your mission was accomplished. Though, I was kind of hoping you two would fall instantly in love and forget about your exes so we could double all the time.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her I wouldn’t want to be around Tyler. Mason was okay, but I didn’t like him like that. Besides, I’d been a guy’s rebound before and didn’t want to do it again.
***
“Who’s the boy of the week?” Jack nodded toward my phone as he hooked his bookbag on the back of the chair.
“Cody lasted longer than a week.” I looked down at the text from Evan. “Besides, I already told you I’ve been texting the guy from the party.” Not that I had to give him an explanation.
“Oh?” Jack slid into his seat, the chair scraping loud across the tile. “Your stepbrother?”
“Our parents didn’t get married.” I regretted telling Jack about Evan the minute it came out of my mouth, but I’d had these weird things going on in my mind and needed to talk.
“And why didn’t Evan give you a ride home from the party?”
“He was intoxicated.”
“You weren’t.” He lifted an eyebrow.
“Did I seem drunk when you picked me up? Can we just get to work?” I lifted my book.
He tilted his head, no smile though, just his normal tutor-face. The one where he looked like he was unimpressed. “You must really not want to talk about this.”
“My love life? No thank you, Lanyard.”
“You talked about it Friday.”
Friday night I had been thankful that my rosy cheeks were hidden by the darkness. There was no hiding them under the fluorescent lights today when I thought about our conversation. “Temporary insanity.”
“Use it in your paper.”
“About something I’ve overcome?” I laughed a little too loudly because it felt like it echoed. Everyone was looking. “Sorry.” I whispered and ducked my head.
“Why don’t your relationshi
ps last?” Jack leaned back in his chair, contemplating as if I was a mystery to solve.
“I haven’t met the right one,” I crossed my arms across my middle because somehow, I felt exposed. “I guess.” I finished less confident.
“You don’t think there might be another reason?”
I glared at him. “What are you, a shrink?”
He put his hands in the air, palms out. “I am taking a college psychology class.”
“Mr. Smarty-pants.”
He jabbed his pointer finger on my notebook. “This could get you out of here, you know.”
“Is that what you want? Me out of here?” I felt desperate every time I asked him this. I wanted him to say he still wanted to be friends when this was all over with.
“I have to admit, you make things interesting.”
“Like having to pick me up on a Friday night?”
He nodded, a slight grin appeared on his face. Why did I like seeing it so much? Even now when he was assessing me like a therapist. “Like picking you up on Friday night.”
There was a shuffle then Miss Deeter said. “Jack, Kacey.”
We turned toward her. I felt my face flush. Were we being too loud?
“Mr. Radcliffe wants to see you two.”
“Oh no.” Dread immediately hit me. Not Mr. Radcliffe. Were we in trouble for not making progress quickly enough?
I looked at Jack, he didn’t seem worried at all. Then we headed to Mr. Radcliffe’s office. It was different with Jack here. It felt like I had someone on my side. Even though, technically he was on Mr. Radcliffe’s side.
Mr. Radcliffe was leaning back in his chair, bobbing almost. His hands in a temple at his chest. A smile on his face. That meant this wasn’t going to be bad, right?
“Jack, Kacey,” he pointed to the two chairs on the other side of his desk.
I glanced up at Jack, hesitating.
Jack casually sat. Then he leaned forward and swiped a mint from the bowl on Mr. Radcliffe’s desk. “How’s it been?”
“All right.” Mr. Radcliffe leaned forward placing his elbows on the mess of papers on his desk. “I’d like to know about your progress.”