by A. J. Macey
“Ha ha, oh so funny,” he teased back, giving me a flat laugh. “I just want to help the best I can even though I know there’s not much I can do while it heals.”
“Thank you, Jess, I appreciate it. I’m sure there will be plenty of things you can help me with, because up until today, I didn’t realize how many things require both hands. It took me twenty minutes to get my shoes on.”
“Well, then you just tell me what you need, and I’ll do it, okay? Though,” he whispered leaning over to talk in my ear. “I’d much rather help take things off than put them back on.”
“Hmm, I might have to take you up on that offer,” I murmured softly, thankful the bell rang at that same moment to help cover my words from prying ears. Jesse gave me a sexy grin, pecking me on the cheek and helping situate my bag on my shoulder. “All right, let’s get this walk and inevitable run-in with Dylan over with.”
Jesse grumbled under his breath, but in the crowded hall I couldn’t hear what it was. Preparing myself for the confrontation as we walked through the halls, I took a few deep breaths. Except he never stepped in our path. I was surprised, glancing around and taking note that none of the students who laughed at our expense were there.
“Well… that was unexpected,” I murmured. “Maybe our luck is turning around?”
“Ha, good joke,” Jesse countered. “It would be nice, but with our luck Dylan was probably the douche from last night.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I scoffed. “Think our lives will settle when we graduate? ‘Cause this whole one thing right after another stuff is starting to wear on me.”
“I fucking hope so, but I think I found what helped keep them at bay today,” Jesse revealed, discreetly waving toward the end of the hall. When I looked over, I found Ms. Ester standing there with her arms crossed, her head dipping slightly in acknowledgment. Giving her a grateful smile, I felt myself breathe easier as we neared my class.
Now to just hope the rest of the day goes smoothly.
So far so good, I noted pleasantly, but I knew I was about to have some questions to answer as Kingston walked with me to nutrition. Hopefully recounting everything won’t suck too bad.
“Oh my gosh, Emma, what happened to your hand?” Ashley whispered in shock when I sat down at my desk.
“Oh, uh,” I hesitated, realizing I hadn’t actually had to talk about it, having been left alone for most of the day. “Got attacked on my way back to my car after work yesterday. Was able to hit him with my keys but the force also cut up and bruised my hand pretty bad.”
“Holy shit, do they know who did it?” she exclaimed, her voice not growing above a whisper, but based on her horror-stricken face and surprised tone, she was barely keeping it that way.
“Unfortunately, no. My lawyer’s looking into it with the police,” I explained.
“So, it wasn’t Brad? What about Dylan? He seems to have a lot of issues with you and the others,” Left Twin added, trying to be helpful. I gave her a grateful smile before shrugging.
“Who knows at this point. Brad’s still in jail, last we all heard, and surprisingly, Dylan has been leaving me alone today. Apparently his bullying caught the attention of the teachers, so right now it’s just a waiting game.”
“Miss Clark?” my Nutrition teacher called out, holding a hall pass slip. I got up, figuring it was a call slip to see Ms. Rogers as it had been before, but when I got up there and stepped into the hall, I felt my stomach drop.
ASAP. Principal’s Office, Principal Rudley, Reasoning: Student Conduct.
No matter how many deep breaths I took or how many times I tried telling myself it was probably nothing, panic seeped into me. A knot formed in my throat, my chest constricting as I walked through the halls. The sooner I get there, the sooner it’ll be done, I tried to convince myself.
“Miss Clark?” the receptionist asked when I walked in, glancing at the slip in my hand. Nodding, I couldn’t seem to detach my tongue from the roof of my mouth. “Principal Rudley is waiting for you in his office.”
“Thank you,” I forced out, my voice sounding small and scared despite doing my best to calm down. Her smile was bright, clearly unaware of my internal worries as I walked around the large counter and to the door labeled ‘Principal.’ Gulping in a poor attempt to swallow the lump in my throat, I raised my hand and knocked twice, not wanting to bust in despite what the front desk said.
“Come in,” I heard through the wood. As if it couldn’t have gotten worse than being called to the principal’s office for ‘student conduct,’ behind the thin man sitting in the office chair was Assistant Principal DeRosa.
Because why the heck not? Seems like I walked under a ladder or broke a mirror when I know I didn’t.
“Have a seat, Miss Clark,” Principal Rudley instructed, his thin, bony hand gesturing to the metal chair in front of his desk.
Following his instructions, I took in the principal as discreetly as I could. It was the first time I’d really seen him since coming to Elk Ridge. He was blond but balding, his hairline severely receded. Huge glasses sat on the bridge of his nose, amplifying his ice blue eyes among the almost frail and sunken features of his aging face. Stick thin, wearing a sweater vest and tie, he sat straight in his seat, long fingers threaded together on top of his desk as he waited for me to take my seat. The more I looked at him, the more off-put I became. With his frown and sharp gaze focused on me, making my stress worsen, I tried to take in my surroundings. My feeble attempt to ground myself amongst the worry didn’t work, my heart was beating too loud to calm. Almost too fast, making focusing on anything other than my growing anxiety impossible.
“Do you know why you’ve been called in today?”
“Student conduct?” I hedged, my voice cracking. I didn’t dare look at Mr. DeRosa, knowing his imposing stance and harsh stare would make it worse.
Not that the principal is much better, I noted.
“It has come to my attention that you are in a relationship with three male students. Is this correct?” There was accusation and judgement in his question, the combination making me grind my teeth. Based on what he was asking, I had a good idea where this was headed, which only served to irritate me.
“Uh, yes?” I answered, knowing there was no way I could lie about it, we’d been open about our relationship since the beginning. “I’m not sure how that affects schooling or my conduct.” There was a thread of challenge in my tone despite my best to keep it at bay. Every time I had a meeting like this with Mr. DeRosa, my fuse grew shorter.
First, my mother thinks I’m a bad daughter who requires constant supervision.
Then the jerk assistant principal thinks I’m a troublemaking student.
Now I’m sitting in front of the principal facing the same accusations as before, and the only thing keeping what I want to say at bay is me biting my tongue.
Awesome.
“What you and the boys are doing is immoral and will not be tolerated in my school,” Principal Rudley ground out, clearly angry at my challenge. “If you wish to graduate, then the four of you will cease this nonsense at once.”
I sat frozen, speechless, as I tried to process what he’d just said. Unable to graduate because of who I was dating? Because it was immoral? What kind of backwards place am I living in?
Oh yes, Nebraska.
The Good Life, my ass.
“Is that everything?” I asked quietly, incapable of coming up with anything else to say. My question seemed to surprise the principal, his eyes widening and jaw dropping for a brief moment before his expression smoothed out.
“Yes, we expect the four of you to break off whatever arrangement you have as soon as possible. You may go.”
As soon as I had the dismissal, I shot up from the chair and threw the door open. Anger pulsed through me, smothering the anxiety slightly. I was seriously growing tired of being the target of disapproval because of what the boys and I had. Nothing we were doing was wrong, we weren’t hurting anyone, and I kne
w there was no way in hell they could keep us from graduating. So, I did the best thing I could think of—went straight to Ms. Rogers office.
“Oh, Emma! This is a surprise,” she exclaimed when the front desk worker in the counselors’ office paged her office. “I don’t have a student, so let’s go have a chat. I’m going to assume you have something you want to discuss with me,” she continued after we stepped into her office and she closed the door. “And I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say it’s not good based on the frown.”
“No, it isn’t good,” I huffed, unable to calm long enough to sit down. I paced the small open space while Ms. Rogers watched on with surprise, everything that had happened spilling out.
“So, yeah. Now, on top of everything else in my life, I get to deal with not only Mr. DeRosa,” I couldn’t help but practically sneer his name, “but I get the unfortunate pleasure of having the principal telling me we won’t graduate because of something that doesn’t even concern them!” By the time I was done talking, I was panting and my voice had grown loud. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell.” I grimaced, feeling bad I had just unloaded all my issues onto her.
“You don’t need to apologize! Sometimes we need to just get it all out. You ready to sit down now? You can keep pacing or standing if you want,” she offered, taking her usual seat at the table.
“Yeah, I’m good, it just… got really built up,” I murmured, flopping into the other chair. Now that the anger had subsided, a stomach-turning sick sensation filled me. The nausea twisted with the anxiety that flared in the anger’s absence. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“Well, as you said, it’s not against the rules to be dating multiple people. There is a clause in the handbook rules that could be twisted to maybe work, but it’s a very thin ground for them to stand on.”
“Would it be okay if I called Mr. Bell? He’s mine and Jesse’s lawyer and told me that if there were more issues with Mr. DeRosa to tell him. I think this qualifies,” I muttered defeatedly.
“Of course, I think someone needs to be informed because I can’t stand by deliberately abusing the school’s rules and policies,” she encouraged, pulling out a notepad and pen. “I’ll take notes, so there’s documentation, all right?”
“Thank you,” I told her, breathing easier than I had since I’d left Nutrition. Digging out my phone, I quickly dialed Kaleb’s cell number.
“Emma? Are you okay?” he asked immediately as soon as he answered, worry filling the line.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Well, for the most part,” I corrected, putting the phone on speaker. “There was another issue with the school administration, I’m in with my counselor Ms. Rogers and have you on speaker so she can take notes.”
“What did that damned assistant principal do now?” It was a shock to hear Kaleb cuss and be so angry, but I couldn’t blame him.
“It wasn’t just Mr. DeRosa. Principal Rudley is the main problem here,” I started, launching into another recap of what happened, albeit more calmly than when I had told Ms. Rogers.
“Ugh,” Kaleb groaned, the sound muffled, no doubt from his hand running over his face like Kingston did when he was stressed out. “Well, if it’s any consolation, Ms. Rogers is correct in the fact that they can’t do that.”
“So… what’s the plan?” I asked after a moment of silence.
“You continue exactly what the four of you are doing: dating, going to class, and getting good grades. There is no reason to change something that doesn’t affect your schooling. I’ll comb through the handbook and rules and prepare for whatever they want to try and throw at you four. They expected to bully their way through a bunch of teenagers, but they’re going to get me instead.”
“I can help, Mr. Bell, with going through the rules and policies. Whatever you need! I don’t appreciate my students being targeted by such nonsense,” Ms. Rogers added, grabbing my hand from where it sat on the top of the table and giving it a reassuring squeeze.
“I would appreciate that because this has gone completely too far, and I won’t tolerate it any longer. The more people backing Emma, my son, and the others, the better. There’s no way they’ll get away with this.” I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that I wasn’t alone—or that it was just the boys and me—facing this, or the look of determination on my counselor’s face mixed with the steely tone of Kaleb on the phone, but I knew one thing for sure.
We can and we will get through this.
One step and struggle at a time.
Epilogue
Brad
The sound of the handcuffs unlocking mixed with the cold steel falling from my wrists. A triumphant grin curled my lips that I did nothing to hide. It felt good to be in my own clothes instead of the worn and itchy scrubs given to inmates, and the fact that I was staring down the door to the outside made it that much sweeter.
“Warland, sign here, saying you understand that you’ll stay within the state of Nebraska and return for your trial date when it’s announced,” the correctional officer instructed, shoving a piece of paper and a weird ugly flower pen one would see in an office lobby at me. Ignoring the scratchy material wrapped around the pen, I picked it up and signed it as quickly as possible.
God, I want out of this fucking joint.
“Date here,” the CO continued barking orders at me.
“What’s the date?” I asked with an eyebrow raise. “Can’t very well expect me to remember in here.”
“Friday, April 3rd. Need me to tell you the year too, or can you figure that out all on your own?” he snapped. Flashing him a smart-ass smile, I dated the form, putting an extra-large 2020 next to the month and day.
“Nope, I think I got it all figured out.”
“You’re free to go; your parents are waiting outside.” The CO waved me away, relaying in their radio for central control to open the door. A buzz sounded, followed by a click, the noises signifying my freedom.
Thank fucking god.
Yanking the door open, I strode from the jail and out to my parents. Both of whom looked irritable, eyeing the other people waiting on the various benches with disdain.
“Can we get out of here?” I asked when I reached them, giving my mother a kiss on her cheek before giving my father a respectful nod.
“Of course. Have you been given your list of requirements for release?” my mother prompted as we walked to the car.
“Yes, stay away from the bitch, no contact, don’t leave the state, don’t get into more trouble. Yadda, yadda, yadda,” I rattled off, climbing into the back seat of the sleek SUV.
“You will follow those, do you understand?” my father commanded, looking at me in the rearview mirror. “Your uncle is handling things currently. Should know more once the weekend is over and prom is complete.”
“Yes, sir.” A sigh left me, my eyes rolling. Fucking bitch gets to go to prom, and I’m supposed to sit in my house and be bored out of my mind. Well, at least it’s not being stuck in jail. As we continued our drive, one thought filled my mind. Emma and everything I wanted to do to make her pay.
They think the cops and justice system can stop me?
They haven’t seen anything yet.
Acknowledgments
My husband Jake, my best friend Jare, and my amazing mom who support me and cheer me on even when I doubted myself!
My PA Manda for keeping me motivated and on task!
My alphabets: J. Grace, Sassy Cassie, MishMash, Aly, Tay, Bean, & Pee—you guys are amazing!
Ash for dealing with my crazy and reading all of my stuff!
Finally, for all of my readers, this wouldn’t be possible without you.
Also by A.J. Macey
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Book 1: Smoke and Wishes
Book 2: Smoke and Survival
Book 3: Smoke and Mistletoe
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Extended Edition: Rival (Sinful Secrets anthology)
Book 2: Adversary
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Book 1 - Rumors sneak peek story: Troublemakers (Criminal Mayhem Anthology)
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Lore & Love Standalone Book Collection:
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Besties & Booze Shared Universe:
Book 1: Faked by A.J. Macey
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