Everyone gasps. I understand what true fury is in that moment. I shove Brady aside when he tries to grab for me and I avoid Mr. Hunt when he does the same. I have my sights zeroed in on Nessa. I want her. Broken. Julian pushes her away and whirls around; he knows what I’m about to do.
“Kael, no!” he shouts.
I ignore him. “You never should have touched him,” I sneer.
Nessa’s eyes are wide when she spots me coming. I run at her and tackle her to the ground. I am a person I didn’t know I could be. We fall painfully to the ground. I pin her arms to her sides with my knees when she tries to scratch at my face. And then I punch her right in her perfect little nose. I let years’ worth of pain, blood, and tears out on her. Each time my fist smashes against her face I feel better. I lay into her good, feeling oddly at peace with myself when Julian wraps his arms around me and pulls me off her. I don’t fight him. I have just enough room to land a swift hard kick to her ribs.
She cries out in pain and rolls to her knees. Her mother rushes to her side and helps her up.
“And you!” I shout, shaking Julian off me. I point at Brady. “You’re not worth anything. You are nothing to me! No, I will not be your friend. Are you out of your mind? You’re lucky I don’t kick your ass next!”
Brady’s jaw drops. “Kaelyn,” he begins to say.
“Oh shut up, Brady!” Nessa growls. “You’re so pathetic.”
“Piss off, Nessa.” Brady looks at her in disgust. “This is all your fault.”
“My fault! If you’d kept it in your pants I wouldn’t have to do any of this!”
“You’re crazy!”
The two of them bicker. Nessa’s mouth is already swollen and her cheek is puffy.
Julian wraps his arms around my body from behind. “You’re at a courthouse,” he reminds me in my ear. “You get it out of your system?”
I nod against him.
“What’s going on out here?” We all look over to find a police officer waiting.
“Nothing,” I assure him. “Isn’t that right, Nessa?”
She burns me with her eyes. “That’s right.”
“Disperse,” he orders.
“Let’s go inside,” Mr. Ferguson suggests, grabbing his daughter's arm.
Before Nessa leaves completely she turns around. “We’re not done.”
“Yes, we are,” I tell her. “I’m done. This never should have gotten to this point, but it did. I made a mistake. But so did you. You can keep obsessing over me if you want. I’d be flattered. But this ends now. The next time you touch me, or Julian, it will be your last time.”
Her mother yanks her inside with an evil look over her shoulder.
Mr. Hunt pats Julian on the shoulder. “You can let her go now.”
He drops me like I’m on fire. “Right.”
I peek at Mr. Hunt. “Sorry.”
I can tell he’s still thinking about the way Julian was wrapped around me. “Some people only understand a taste of their own medicine. It’s all right, honey. Why don’t you and Brady go inside, Julian? I’ll hang out here with Kaelyn.”
“Sure, of course.” Julian gives me a worried look before disappearing into the courthouse with a petulant Brady.
“Your knuckles are bleeding.”
I look at my hands and sure enough, there’s a split over the knuckle on my right hand. “I’ll live.”
He eyes me shrewdly as we both wait outside. I hug myself as my adrenaline calms down. Did I just kick Nessa’s ass? I grin when Mr. Hunt’s not looking. I totally did. How dare she hit Julian? I drew the line when it came to that. The sight of her hitting the man I loved made something snap inside of me.
No one would ever hurt him on my watch.
When it’s time for her arraignment we all pile into the courtroom and I focus on Nessa. She’s not threatening me anymore. She looks terrified as she faces the stand. Her mom and dad are on the opposite side of the courtroom away from us, glaring as if we are the ones who put their daughter there. I understand in that moment why Nessa is the way she is. It’s the same reason I am the way I am. When the people who raise you don’t think you’ve done anything wrong, how can you think you’ve done anything wrong yourself? Just like me. If the people who were supposed to love me and want me didn’t do either, how was I supposed to want me too?
But we weren’t children anymore. And I was starting to learn wanting something wasn’t the same as making it happen.
And when the judge asks her how she pleas to her aggravated assault charge, she says, “Not guilty,” like he’ll believe her too.
It takes another month for her next meeting with the judge. At this point, I am no longer hopeful. Julian has grown restless over the past month, on the phone with Mr. Hunt and the DA all day and night as if he can stop what he knows is going to happen. I can’t stand watching how powerless he feels. There’s nothing I can do for him.
The other girls involved with my attack got off with nothing. One by one Julian, Brady, Mr. Hunt, and I, went to each of their trials. One by one each girl got a slap on their wrist. By the last girl, Julian had lost it. I was quiet during each non-guilty verdict. I had nothing to say.
Why should I? I was beaten on the ground, and because these girls were “only children,” and they “didn’t know any better,” they got off with nothing for doing something that left a scar over my left eye and a difference in my heart.
On the day of Nessa’s last trial, Julian and I park across the street. The sun is shadowed in gray clouds today, as if it knows the difference in my heart is about to grow. The air is cold and I bring my new black bomber jacket around me tighter. The clouds look as if they’re holding their breaths, waiting for a chance to pour.
Julian shuts the engine off on his Volkswagen and looks at me, smiling tiredly. I reach over and touch his face, trying to comfort him.
Even after our night together, our limbs entangled in our sheets, our mouths inseparable, our middles meeting like a dance we both created, he’s still upset. He tossed and turned for hours after making love to me last night. In turn, he kept me up. We’re both tired. We both have no positivity left in our bodies.
“No matter what happens we’ll deal with it,” he says, kissing my palm. “After today we’ll move on. Don’t let me dwell on it.”
“I won’t.” But deep down I think I fear his reaction the most.
Someone knocks on his window. Mr. Hunt stands there, eyes furious. I drop my hand from Julian’s face and shrink.
“Damn man,” Julian mutters. He rolls his window down and grins. “Morning, Hunt.”
Behind him, Brady smirks. Ever since I blew him off he hasn’t tried to be my friend. We talk genially before we enter the courtroom, and for another week he brought me my homework, but I think he finally gets the point. Brady is nothing to me. The same way I was nothing to him. Part of me respects his sticking around. He’s shown up for every trial, said exactly what happened, and never let the fact that I couldn’t stand him get in his way.
“Good morning,” Mr. Hunt responds icily. “You and I need to talk,” he growls at Julian.
I want to scream at him. We have sex every night! It doesn’t matter if I touch his face.
“Bad Mr. Ean,” I whisper.
Julian’s lips quirk. “Why don’t you and Brady go get a coffee? We’ll meet in front of the courtroom at nine.”
I have this urge to lean over and kiss him the same way I did last night. For hours, our tongues wrapped and secured around the other. I’m thankful for all Mr. Hunt has done for me, but he’s a hawk with a sharp beak when it comes to us and his suspicions.
As it is, I touch his shoulder and grin. “Yes, sir.”
“Kael.”
I hop out and wave Brady over. His eyes are amused. Ever since I said my piece, Julian’s been more understanding about Brady. On the mornings of our trials he often sends us to get coffee. But occasionally, when Brady gets too close or whispers something in my ear, Julian’s eyes become of
f. I don’t think he’ll ever truly let Brady go, and I don’t want to know the reasons.
“How’s it going, Scarlet?” he asks, holding the coffee shop door open for me.
I roll my eyes and he grins. There was a time when that grin made me fall. Now it’s simply a smile. “Fine. How’s school?”
“I’m failing calculus without you.”
“Good.”
“When are you coming back?”
I look away at the menu. “I’ve been researching getting my GED.”
“Does Julian know?”
“No.”
He whistles under his breath and pats my shoulder supportively. “Good luck with that.”
I pat his shoulder in return. “Thanks for your kind words.”
He smirks. “Smart ass.”
“I am smart you know? You’re failing without me, so think about that.”
“Seriously, Julian’s not going to let that happen.”
“Are you on his side now?” I step to the counter and order four black coffees with cream and sugar. I open my purse and take out the debit card Julian gave me after a long heated battle about money and support and blah. I lost. He won. He always does.
“We both know why you don’t want to come back.”
“Then shut up about it.” The clerk eyes me.
“She’s got a boyfriend,” Brady informs him, snatching the card from his hand. “And if he wasn’t with her I’d be next, so get in line.”
“He’d be last,” I tell the clerk. “You’d totally be second.”
The clerk blushes and looks down. “Second’s cool.”
“Last?” Brady gives me a look like yeah right and shoves me gently toward the pickup station. “We both know we’d be perfect together.”
“You’re dating Carmen. I thought you were already in love?”
He winks. “She’s only with me because she knows I see Mr. Ean a lot. Sometimes she pretends he’s me. Oh, Mr. Ean,” he moans. “Harder.”
I gawk at him. “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not.”
“Kael!” the barista calls, cutting off my laugh. “Four black coffees with sugar and cream.”
“You’re sick.”
“Duh,” he replies, holding the coffee for me as we exit the shop.
Julian does not look happy when Brady and I approach him and Mr. Hunt outside. His eyes aren’t off so I know it isn’t me. I smile shyly at him and some of his anger dissipates into a softness he only reserves for me.
“Thanks for the coffee,” Mr. Hunt says, grabbing a cup. He watches my smile suspiciously.
I clear my throat and move to stand next to Brady, who as always finds Mr. Ean and me hilarious. I poke his ribs and a small chuckle escapes his lips. “Jerk,” I whisper.
“Let’s go,” Julian says, holding the door open for us. As I pass by him, I slide my hand over his penis through his pants. He jerks forward and gawks at me. “Kael,” he hisses.
“Yes, Mr. Ean?”
“Wait until we get out of here,” he promises.
I can’t wait.
As always, the mood in our group shifts the moment we walk inside. I can feel Julian’s nervous energy. Like so many times before, I wish I could grab his hand and comfort him. But Mr. Hunt is a hawk and his eyes are trained on us at all times. I know he’s waiting for a reason to fire Julian. After today, we’ll have to be extra careful.
Nessa comes down the opposing hall. I can easily detect the exhaustion and fear on her face, but the moment she sees me she refuses to show how afraid she is. Her lawyer, a tall skinny man with thick black hair and shrewd eyes, stands by her. For a pretty penny, no doubt. Julian glares at him as all of us enter the courtroom.
The judge is the same judge from every time before. He’s nice yet unattached, just like he was when he read Riley and the other two blondes their non-guilty verdict. Beside me, Julian is a wreck. This means so much to him to see the girl who hurt me suffer. I think a part of him will need a lot of healing after today. Will I? I’m used to being let down, and maybe I’ll never see the world the way I should after today, but I won’t let Nessa win another second.
Her lawyer speaks to the judge in his monotone manner. Her parents are on the other side of the room, both nervous and snotty. A pit starts to form in my stomach. I know what’s going to happen. I know it in the way the judge won’t look at me. I see it in the way her parents are hopeful. I’ve lived this letdown before.
So, when the judge says, “You’ve been dismissed of all charges,” I am not surprised.
Julian loses it. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Julian!” Mr. Hunt chastises.
“No, Hunt!” He shakes him off. “Did you not hear a word we said?” he shouts at the judge. “See her face? Her pain?”
The judge, squat and gray-haired, glares at Julian. “You will not speak to me like that in my courtroom.”
Julian’s chest rises and falls. His eyes are wild. He’s helpless. Watching him realize there’s nothing he can do is by far more painful than realizing once again I was let down. I can deal with that. But I can’t deal with watching the pain in his eyes.
I can’t help it. I grab his hand. He looks down at me, eyes teeming with his pain. “I’m so sorry,” he whispers.
I swallow hard. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not okay. None of this is okay.” He starts to move around me, wanting out of the courtroom. “Let me by,” he growls.
Brady puts his arms around me so I can’t grab for him. “Let him cool off,” he whispers in my ear.
I watch in dismay as Julian bursts out of the courtroom. The judge goes on and on about how this is her first offense, and second chances are a part of life, and blah blah blah. I’ve never gotten a second chance. How should I know what they’re like or their importance?
“I sincerely apologize for my actions,” Nessa lies, crying for the judge.
Now I’m just as livid as Julian. “She’s lying!” I explode, wanting to kick her right in the face. “She’s not sorry. She’d do it again if you let her.”
“Quiet down!” the judge orders.
“This isn’t fair. How could you let her off after what she did to me?”
“My verdict is final. This case is dismissed.”
“You should be dismissed!” I growl. “You’re just as guilty as her. She’s going to do this again, and again, and again. Because people like you let her off.”
“Out!” he demands, looking at the bailiff.
They start approaching me.
I’m getting punished again.
I push Brady off and stalk for the exit. Julian’s pacing the hallway when I come out. I am seething. The moment our eyes connect a silent acknowledgment passes between us. He gets it now. How I’ve felt for my entire life. How hard it is to be sweet when everyone pours salt on me.
“Get me out of here,” I beg.
I don’t let it out until I’m in the car. Tears, fat and thick, stream down my face. The last month, all the worrying, waking up too nervous to eat before court, tossing and turning all night, was all for nothing.
Julian holds my hand as he drives, his face stone.
When we get home, we don’t move. He turns the Volkswagen off and we silently sit in the car. I eye my PT, recalling how Julian brought it home and had the damage repaired for me. My stomach feels hollow. I remember how much it hurt to walk after the attack, how bruised I’d been. The only thing on my body that marked my attack was the little scar over my left eye. My face was clear of bruising and back to my normal self. It was my insides that were still bruised.
“I don’t know about you, but I need a drink.” Julian clears his throat. “Let’s go inside.”
I don’t even have it in me to reply. I simply open my door and follow him inside. I take my jacket off and hang it in the hall closet and kick my shoes off near the door. Julian undoes the buttons on his shirt and untucks it from his waist and he rolls his sleeves up. I sniff, making him l
ook at me.
“I love you,” he says forcedly. “I’m sorry she didn’t get what she deserved, but I don’t want this anymore. I don’t want Nessa in our lives anymore. I don’t even want to look at her or share the same zip code. I have to go back to school on Monday and see her in the halls like she didn’t hurt you.” He looks disgusted. “And you,” he says, grabbing my face between his hands. “Have to see her and know she got away. I just wanted her to finally know what it was like to get punished.”
“I’m not going back to school.” The words tumble out of my mouth.
He lets me go. “You’re graduating.”
“I will. Just not from there. I don’t want to see her or deal with the kids at school anymore. And if you loved me you wouldn’t make me.”
“Oh, Kael, don’t pull that card on me. The reason I want you to go is because I love you. Because I want you to succeed.” He gives me a disparaging look. “And if you loved me? Seriously, baby?”
I look down. “I’m sorry,” I mumble, ashamed. “I know you love me.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” There’s a smile in his voice. “You’re cute when you’re in trouble.”
I look up at him from under my lashes. “Am I in trouble?”
“No.” He bends down to kiss me softly. “You want a drink?”
I feel his kiss all over. “No. I want something else.”
His silver eyes know exactly what I want. “Whatever would that be?”
“You, naked, on top of me, right now. That’s what I want.”
“How straightforward of you,” he laughs.
“I want to be with you.” I am unashamed.
His face softens and he leans down, kissing me again. This time I kiss him back, knowing when I do he’s mine. His lips take a few seconds, but then I feel that shift, like the storm above us wants to pour. He needs to be with me too. His hands settle on my hips and he pulls me close to his body. There’s a desperateness to my movements. I want to forget the past month. I want to move on. Julian holds me closely, kissing me long and hard. Just as his hands slide down to grab handfuls of my ass, the doorbell rings.
I groan against his mouth. He smiles and grabs my ass hard, lifting me up so I can wrap my legs around his waist. I hold his shoulders and cling to him as he answers the door. I have no intention of looking at who it is. It’s probably no one anyway. I kiss his neck, sucking on his favorite spot. I can feel his hard cock between my legs and I want it inside of me.
Under The Peaches (Teaching Love Series Book 1) Page 33