"So." Dean said in Rhiannon's direction.
"Yea got it. Text me Pace, I'm going to have the girls do some digging. See you two at lunch?" Rhi said.
We both agreed and watched Rhi walk out the door into the busy hallway. Dean grabbed my hand and pulled me gently to my feet. He yanked me into a tight hug and I breathed in his wonderful intoxicating scent. He smelled like clean soap, and warm honey. I melted into his solid body and rested my head against his chest.
The fullness was surrounding me, filling up my heart until I was afraid it would explode with the sensation. Even if my car was a mess, being in his arms made everything better. Heat curled around in my belly then shot out to the rest of my body. The hum sang in my blood for the second time.
Someone cleared their throat and Dean turned in their direction.
"Class." I heard his mother's voice enunciate the word sarcastically.
"Yea, yea, I'll see you at lunch ok." Dean said.
I nodded up at him and groaned silently when he let go of me. He grabbed his bag and saluted his mom as he walked through the office door. Mrs. Charleston came forward and guided me wordlessly inside her office.
She called my parents once we were inside. I could hear my dad screaming through the receiver as she spoke to him. Her eyes went wide when she hung up the phone.
"Your dad has healthy lungs."
I laughed in agreement. "That's nothing wait till he gets here, I wouldn't be against investing in ear plugs."
We waited in uncomfortable silence. I tapped my foot impatiently this was slow torture. I knew she wanted to say something, about me and Dean. I just hoped it wasn't her disapproval.
"So Pacey I was just wondering about you and Dean."
I waited for what I hoped wasn’t bad news. This was not the way I’d imagined meeting his mother, not that I’d really had a chance to imagine it at all really. But the truth was being in a room with her with my feelings so new and close to surface was daunting.
"Are you two...serious?" She asked.
I shrugged but didn't answer. We’d known each other less than twenty-four hours, serious didn’t seem like the right word, even if it was.
"I just noticed you two seemed close, you know, I honestly think it would be great for him to make some new friends. He’s had it pretty hard lately…” She paused for a moment than added. “With the move."
My eyes went wide in surprise. "Really? That's too bad, he seems really sweet." I laughed and said. "He has great manners. He's always opening doors and watching his mouth. It's cute."
She smiled. "His father was really big on that. It's nice to hear he still tries to remember."
I noticed immediately that she said remember, meaning that maybe he wasn't around anymore. That was sad, I'd have to ask gently the next time I saw Dean.
Chapter Three
Sticks and Stones
The rest of the morning passed by in a blur. My parents showed up and made their formal introductions to Miss Charleston. The cops showed up right behind them and took us back out to my car.
My parent’s faces were twitching in agitation when they saw the destruction. After what seemed like more hours than humanly possible, I finally got to go to class. It was the middle of fifth period, which was the only nice part about the whole endeavor. I was surprised to see Rhiannon so happy when she saw me.
"Hey Pace, guess what?"
I threw my arms out in question frustrated with the entire day. There was no telling what she was going to say, not only had the last 24 hours been crazy, but what was next was anyone's guess.
"Ok so I had Liv go check with the Janitor, she did some scandalous little foot work to get the information by the way...anyways, she told me that there is a surveillance camera in the parking lot and the police were able to get the copy." Rhi sneered with delight and continued. "Chances are our little Miss Trashy Pants finally effed up good this time." Rhiannon rubbed her hands together like it was Christmas.
"Ok." I said.
"Oh come on Pacey seriously this is AWESOME. If we can prove it was her she's going to do actual jail time. I think I just heard angels sing."
I was not surprised she sent Liv to do the snooping. Liv’s father was one of the top Homicide Detectives in Paso Robles, and she was our own personal Sherlock Holmes. I'd have to remember to ask Rhiannon later what Liv had to do to get the information.
The janitor wasn't some creepy old dude either. He was a College dropout whose mom worked with The Superintendents; she was the one who scored him the job. He was semi hot, tall, dark, and bad boy cute. He always had this little bit of five o'clock shadow that made the younger girls go crazy.
Olivia "Liv" Lopez joined the Bad Girls Club earlier this year. She'd been a "bobble head" for years, and when Lexie finally crossed her, Rhiannon was foaming at the mouth to recruit her. Liv hadn't been nearly as stupid as Lexie had thought, and when Liv started liking a boy Lexie hadn't yet been able to conquer, Lexie declared war.
See with Lexie the ultimate betrayal was to steal a boy she wanted. Lexie, despite her fake brain-dead exterior, was always collecting information, always plotting a future adversary’s demise. With Liv, she had years and years of information. She struck gold when Liv had a minor in-office surgery our freshman year.
She'd been born with a rare, although kind of annoying defect and of course Lexie knew. She exaggerated what had really happened and low and behold, Liv was known as the he-she, hermaphrodite of our school.
It was sad really, Liv was a nice girl, and what she'd had fixed had very little to do with what Lexie said it was. It was something as simple as having to have a doctor cut through her hymen. She wasn't born with a penis, let alone both sets of genitalia, she just had to go to a Dr. before she tried to have sex. I guess if she'd tried before seeing the Dr. it would have been extremely painful. Ouch.
It made me wonder though, what kind of demons Lexie could possibly have to make her lash out so harshly at everyone else. The only girls she was friends with were the ones she feared the most. The ones that were sweeter, and more beautiful than she was, but easy to intimidate and control.
The moment they didn't do or act the way she wanted them to she cut them lose. And then she went after them, trying to embarrass them, reveal their worst secrets, and hurt them as much mentally, and emotionally as possible. I really felt more sorry for her than anything, how lonely was her world? To have no 'real' friends, or people that truly cared about her. What horrible life did she suffer from at home, to make her who she was now, to make her so evil?
The bell rang breaking into my thoughts. I really shouldn't feel sorry for Lexie; especially after all of the things she had done to my best friend. I followed Rhiannon out of the classroom. I jumped when someone grabbed my hand after I made it through the doorway. Dean smiled at me softly.
"Sorry, you're probably pretty jumpy after the whole car thing." He said.
"Yea, the police said they were going to look into it. But they didn't really have any leads. I told them about Lexie, but her father being on the Culliver City's Police Committee makes anything really happening to her impossible."
Rhiannon stopped walking and before I could put on the breaks, I slammed into the back of her. Dean reached out to steady me.
"Walk much Rhi? Sheesh what the---"
She turned on her heel and looked me in the eye. "Her dad is on the what?"
I sighed. Rhiannon's whole plan of sending Lexie to prison was a pipe dream. I hadn't wanted to burst her bubble earlier.
"He's a Police Committee board member, and yes that pretty much means even if it was Lexie she's got so many connections we’re screwed."
I watched Rhiannon's face turn bright red in anger. She stalked off without a word punching one of the lockers on her rampage down the hall. That went well. I'd never been able to ask Rhiannon what we were going to do if her "Master Plan" and ultimate revenge of Lexie failed. If this was how she acted when we hit a tiny roadblock, how much worse could it
get?
I didn't want to delve in too deeply into that issue. She had a scary need to get back at Lexie, and it was becoming pretty unhealthy. Before it had just been insults. Now it was morphing into something else, something dark, like what Lexie was into. I wanted my best friend back.
"You ok?" Dean rubbed my shoulder softly.
"I don't know, I'm worried about her. She's obsessed with Lexie. I don't know what to do." He squeezed my hand and moved his head in the cafeteria's direction.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
Before we could walk through the doorway Lexie came into view. Her arms were crossed over her chest in a sort of smug satisfaction. She was definitely the one who vandalized my car.
"Excuse me, can we get past please." Dean's courteous voice asked her.
"Not just yet, I hear your piece of crap car got a makeover. I wonder, does the truth hurt?” Lexie asked.
I ground my teeth and tried to hold my tongue. I could feel the heat creeping up my neck. Irish tempers were usually short and mine was no different.
"Nope not really but you‘d be the one to know. I wonder do you ever hear what people really think about you." I shook my head and continued.
"What's sad is you probably don't, and what's worse is you don't care either. Is it lonely Lexie, being a one-woman psycho train. I feel sorry for you. I know I shouldn't I mean you’re pathetic really. Do you think anyone years down the road will think of you with anything other than pity. You may be able to fool them, but I know exactly what you are. You're a disease, a terminal cancer, and so completely full of ugliness that you drain the world around you of beauty, instead of filling it with some."
Her jaw dropped in surprise and I elbowed past her pulling Dean behind me. My heart was beating so quickly I was afraid I was going to have a heart attack. I sat down at the nearest table and tried to gain my composure. People around me were staring in shock. I'd said horrible things to her, to thee Lexie Vega.
I closed my eyes and remembered my words with horror, psycho train, pathetic, a disease, and ugly. I said all of those things not in the comfort of my close friends, or in the presence of discreet witnesses, but in front of the entire cafeteria full of students. I was as good as dead.
I must have some small form of Tourette ’s syndrome, because this was so not like me. I didn't badmouth the biggest bully in school to her face. I didn't shove her out of my way and then have a major panic attack. I was the girl that kept her mouth shut and let her loud mouth group of bad girl friends do the talking for her.
Dean was rubbing my back trying to help me calm down. I could still feel the heat in my neck and face.
"Wow, are you okay Pacey?" Dean asked in a concerned voice.
I couldn't speak. He continued to stroke my back in slow circles. It felt good, really good actually, so I didn't notice when a group of people started to form a circle around me. I looked up into the waiting faces of the Bad Girls members. Rhiannon stared at me smiling, her hands were twitching with excitement.
"Oh My God, what did you just do?" Her voice was high and full of humor.
"Someone just told me you told off Lexie Vega. No one even knows where she went either. Some of the girls were saying they even thought she was crying."
I groaned and covered my face with my hands...this was bad, I was dead, deader than dead, and I was going to be rotting in Hell starting tomorrow. Whatever Lexie was, going to do to me w3ould be ruthless. I'd snubbed her in the worse way. Not only did I have Dean, but I'd told her off too. Nausea rolled around in my stomach dangerously.
"Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick." I stood up quickly and ran to the nearest trashcan. I threw up what little was in my stomach.
When I stood up everyone around me was still watching. The cafeteria was eerily silent. Great, now Lexie had more ammo against me, I could only pray she didn't hear about this particular incident. I wiped my mouth and grabbed the soda Rhiannon held out to me.
"Sorry, I didn't want to make you sick." Her voice was soft and gentle.
Dean stood back away from us. I mouthed 'I'm sorry' to him. He shook his head.
"Want to get out of here?" His deep voice surprised me. Maybe he wasn't the nice boy I thought he was.
"Really? The new VP's son is going to ditch class." I said in disbelief.
He chuckled and said. "I'm not nearly as nice as you think I am Pacey O’Brien."
He reached forward and put my hand in his. He nodded politely to Rhiannon.
"I'm going to steal your friend here for a little while. That okay with you?"
Rhiannon raised her hands in submission.
"It's about damn time someone did. I hope you feel better Pacey, I'm going to try to do some damage control. Figure out what devil girl is planning."
I smiled and waved in the Bad Girls direction. What I didn't expect was for everyone in the Cafeteria to start clapping. As Dean and I walked across the Lunchroom hand in hand, the entire student body gave me a standing ovation.
When I think back on the words I said in anger, I think of one quote. "Speak when you are angry---and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret" Laurence J. Peter.
I wasn't sure what to think of what had happened. No matter how true the things I said might have been, I still shouldn't have said them. To speak only to harm wasn't wise. Because sometimes what we 'think' we know is true isn't.
I spent the rest of the day getting to know Dean. He told me about his dad, and how the year before he'd died of Melanoma. It's a type of skin cancer that can spread voraciously. Dean and his mom had tried to stay in San Diego but eventually it was too hard. Everywhere they went were memories of his father, and his mom couldn't take it anymore.
So two months ago they started looking for somewhere else to live. They got lucky when Mrs. Charleston looked into Culliver City. I got the feeling that Dean was leaving out something though. When I asked him if he left behind a girlfriend, he couldn't meet my eyes.
Despite that, I still felt like I could trust him, even if he was leaving out whatever happened to his girlfriend. He said that he was single, and that was that. I didn't press him for more information. I let it go, even if it was bothering the heck out of me.
I looked out my window and glanced back down at my cell. Rhiannon hadn't called or texted me yet. That was pretty damn surprising knowing her. I opened up a new message and typed three words.
Where are you?
I stared down at my phone in anticipation. I didn't want to walk into school blindly. I could only hope that Rhiannon would have some idea of what happened to Lexie. The only really good thing about tomorrow was the fact that it was a Friday. So that meant that my first week of torture would at least be short.
Then again, that gave Lexie the weekend to plain more horrible methods of causing me pain. It was a toss-up, I'd just have to wait and find out. I was startled when the phone in my hand vibrated.
Getting the FO, chill, I'll call you later.
I threw myself down on my bed and groaned in horror. Great even Rhiannon didn't have any answers yet. My stomach started gurgling in pain. I was just going to have to play the waiting game.
Chapter Four
Just Friends
I untangled from the strange twisted position I had fallen asleep in. I was still wearing my clothes from the night before. My bracelets were digging uncomfortably into my wrist. Rhiannon never called me. I waited up all night in dread. I reached for my cell and checked my call log.
Nothing...not a missed call from anyone including Dean. He'd texted though, said goodnight. I jumped in the shower and stood under the hot water for longer than I should have. When I got back to my room, my cell was ringing. Rhiannon had finally called.
"Yea?"
"Hey bitch what's taking so damn long?" Rhiannon's voice was high in annoyance.
"Uhh, I was showering, thought you'd appreciate me being funkless and all. Sorry if you'd rather me reek like you."
"Ha, ha ha, look w
ho's got the smart mouth, if I wasn't so damn proud of you for putting Lexie in her place I'd be kicking your bony little ass." Rhi said.
I towel dried my hair and put the phone on speaker.
"Hello are you freaking there, of all the damn annoying?" Rhi said.
"Rhi, I can hear you ya know. You're just on speaker." I said.
"Oh great, fine, whatever, anyways I had the girls do a few drive by's last night and they found nothing. Not a damn thing. Lexie just up and disappeared. Liv tried to call her parents but they hung up on her. No one knows where she is, or what she's planning. It's a little spooky. She didn't say a word to anyone yesterday, not even her fellow bobble heads. I'm here though so I'm gonna come up while you finish getting ready."
I heard the dial tone and realized she hadn't even waited for me to answer before she hung up. That’s my Rhi, always the considerate. I was blow-drying my hair when she walked into my room.
"Spazz, why are you running so late?"
I shot her a dirty look and yelled over the noise.
"Uh I waited up for my best bitch of a friend to call me. Funny thing, she never effing did. What happened to you?"
Rhiannon smiled secretly.
"Bad Girls official business. If you actually made it to another damn meeting, I'd tell you the rest. Speaking of which, did you ask your dad to----"
I interrupted her words. "No, it's been a little crazy lately so, no I haven't had a chance. But I promise I'll get around to it this weekend"
Rhi exhaled and flopped down on my bed. I brushed through my hair with my fingers, and started doing my usual scant amount of makeup.
"So now that we have a chance to have some very needed girl talk. What is going on with you and Dean." She asked.
I sighed and rolled my eyes, I wish I had an answer.
"Honestly I don't really know. He hasn't exactly asked me to be his girlfriend or anything, so right now, I guess we're 'just friends'."
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