by T. Banny
“ Stay away from her, you lousy piece of shit!”, Joaquim spat, staring Chan down.
“ Get out of my way, or I swear I’ll smash your face in”, Chan growled. I’d never heard him sound so hostile. He was taller and stronger than Joaquim, but Joaquim was so angry he was practically shaking.
“ Do it. Try it”, Joaquim said, shoving Chan hard in the shoulder.
It would have erupted in a brawl if Ty hadn’t come bounding toward them. He stood in the middle, his arms outstretched, holding them apart.
“ Yo! Chill out!”, Ty said, firmly. “Both of you back off”.
“ I’ll back off when your brother gets down on his hands and knees and apologizes to Nellie!”, Joaquim shouted.
A crowd had gathered. I looked at Chan through my tears. Chan’s green eyes were narrowed, and his hands were balled into fists. If looks could kill, Joaquim would have been dead on the spot.
“ I don’t have to apologize for anything”, Chan said, through clenched teeth. “Let me talk to my girlfriend alone”.
“ Your girlfriend? Is how you treat your girlfriend? Putting these nasty pictures all over the place!”, Ro cried, her voice high and shrill.
“ Do you really believe that, Romina? That my brother would do something like this?”, Ty asked her, incredulously.
“ If not him, then who? ”, Ro snapped. She turned back to Chan. “ This was a really fucked up thing to do to Nellie. She loves you so much! All she ever does is talk about you! She gave up being with Joaquim to be with you. And this is how you pay her back?”
The crowd was getting larger. It seemed like everyone, A-kids and Cove kids, had gathered around to listen. I saw Bettina Grant, looking at us intently. She looked away when she saw me staring at her. She was with the other girl who was Samantha’s friend, Abby.
“ I’d never do this to you, Nellie”, Chan said to me. I was still standing behind Joaquim. Chan looked so wretched I couldn’t help it. I slowly approached him. He grabbed me so fast and so tight I nearly lost my balance. I buried my face in his chest. I wanted so badly to believe him.
“Chan this is the worst day of my life”, I whispered, looking up at him. “ I’m so embarrassed”.
“ Nellie, you have to believe me”, he said, wiping my tears away with his thumb. “ If I could make this all disappear, I would.”
“ The principal wants to see me”, I said, and I put my hand to my head. I could feel an intense headache coming on.
“ He wants to see me, too. But I’m not going to see him just yet. Not until I take care of this”. He turned to Joaquim, still holding me close. “Help me take these down”. Joaquim nodded, then started helping Ty and Channing grab the printouts off the lockers.
I went to the nurses office before I went to the see the principal. My headache was so bad by then she gave me permission to go home, after she got approval from my mother. I spoke briefly with my mom. She was on her cell phone.
“ Nellie, what’s going on? I got a call from your principal. He said he has an urgent matter to discuss with me”, she asked, worriedly. “ Is everything OK?”
I decided to be blunt with her. I’d rather she heard it from me than from anyone else. “ Someone put pictures of me and Chan having sex all over the school”.
“ What!”, my mother cried, so loud I almost dropped the receiver.
“ Can you give the nurse verbal permission to let me go home?”, I asked her, weakly. “ I’ll explain when I see you”.
“ OK, put her on. I‘ll be home as soon as I can”.
I handed the phone to the nurse. I was about leave when the nurse called me back. My mother had called back on the nurse’s line.
“ Nellie, I want you to go straight home. I don’t want you talking to the principal until I’m in the office with you. You don’t need to do this alone”, she said.
I was so grateful to have a mother so supportive I almost burst into tears again. But I didn’t. I just hung up, and went out of the office to tell Ro I was going home. Both she and Ana were waiting for me outside of the office. Em had gone to class. Chan, Joaquim and Ty had gone off to more of the pictures down. They had gone down to the main level of the school, where the pictures were more numerous.
“ You’re in no condition to drive”, Ro said, putting her hand on my forehead.
“ Ro, you drive her home, and I’ll follow you in my car”, Ana offered. “Nellie, don’t even go to the main office. Let’s just cut out. You can’t get in any more trouble than you already are!”.
I agreed, and we made our way out of the school from side door. Luckily, there weren’t any guards around. I suspected they’d been asked to take the pictures down as well.
“ It couldn’t have been one person who put all those pictures up”, Ana commented, as we walked hurriedly to the student parking lot. “ Not unless they sneak into the school, and spent the entire night tacking them up”.
“ I think you’re right”, Ro said. “ There were just too many up, all over the place, for it to have been one person”.
“ They’ll all be gone by tomorrow, Nellie, you’ll see”, Ana said comfortingly. “ And people will forget about it. Heck, I think they’re more shocked you’re seeing an A- boy than anything else!”
“ I’m just glad Joaquim wasn’t mad at her”, Ro said.
“ He’s an amazing friend”,I said, recalling how he’d stepped up to Chan when he thought Chan was responsible. “ Ro, remember when I told you I had a feeling we were being watched? Up at the cabin?”
Ro nodded. “ Yeah, you said you were so spooked out you could understand why some folks go camping at all in those mountains”.
“ What if it was Samantha I sensed up there? What if she was the one who did this? I saw Bettina Grant and that Abby girl today, but no Samantha. Don’t you think that’s odd?” I asked.
“ Everyone always says that girl is nuts”, Ana said. “ So, maybe you’re right”.
“ We have time to figure out who it might have been”, Ro said, but I could tell from her voice she was skeptical about it being Samantha. “For now, Nellie, you just need to rest”.
“ Ro, Chan wouldn’t do this to me”, I said. It would make me feel so much better if my best friend believed me. “ He loves me”.
“ Gosh, Nellie!”, Ro snapped, frustrated. “ He’s the same guy who got a girl pregnant at fifteen. The same guy who forced you to sneak around with him because he was still with his girlfriend. The guy you caught kissing his girlfriend at Winter Dance, and who didn’t bother to go after you when he saw how upset you were. And Ana here says she saw him just yesterday with Samantha. I just don’t know what to believe anymore!”
It sounded so awful when Ro put it way. I knew it wasn’t like that…there so many different emotions involved…but I couldn’t deny Chan didn’t sound like a great guy. Still, I just couldn’t believe Chan would be so cruel.
“ And anyway”, Ro continued, still angry, “ the only ones who knew about Chan’s workshop were you, me and Ty. How would Samantha know he was up there? And know you and Chan were going to hook up? How would she have been able to set up a video camera without you guys noticing?”
“ It wasn’t a video camera”, Ana said. “ Those pictures weren’t screen shots. They were too clear. It was a camera”.
“ A camera?”, Ro repeated.
Ana nodded. “ It’s not so crazy to think someone hid in the bushes to take those pics. All you need is a good camera, and a zoom lens. That’s how those paparazzi take sneaky shots of celebrities”.
Ana squeezed my shoulder. “ And from the looks of it, Nellie and Channing were kinda…into each other. They probably wouldn’t have noticed someone snapping pics of them”.
I blushed, and even Ro’s lips twitched.
“ Get in the car, Nellie. Let’s get you home. You need to rest”, Ro said.
We got to my house, Ro driving my car, and Ana following in hers. I kept my fingers pressed to my temples the whole way. My head was pound
ing.
When I got out of the car, I turned to my friends and gave them each an appreciative hug.
“ I don’t know what I’d do without you guys”, I said, gratefully.
“ Take some painkillers, and lie down”, Ana said, kissing my cheek.
“ And don’t worry. We’re going to do damage control”, Ro said, firmly. “ Even if it takes me all day I’m going to make sure there’s not one copy of those pictures left”.
“ Give us a call if you need anything”, Ana said.
Ro got into my car, and Ana in hers. They waved as they drove away back to school.
I opened my front door, and went to the kitchen. I drank a glass of water along with a Tylenol. Then I went upstairs to my room, and got into bed. My headache was a piercing sharp pain behind my eyes and the sides of my head.
But it was nothing compared to the pain in my heart. I felt so ashamed, and humiliated, and yeah even a bit doubtful. I wanted desperately to believe Chan wasn’t behind the pictures. It was agonizing to think maybe, he’d cared nothing about what we’d shared, that he would embarrass me in front of everyone.
Maybe he was just as wacked out as Samantha, and that was what had kept them together. Maybe having to lose his child, and dealing with his tyrannical parents made him snap. How could I know? Maybe he just wasn’t the boy I thought he was.
My cell phone rang. I wanted to let it go to voice mail, but I picked it up in case it was Ro or my mother. It was Channing.
“ Hey”, I said, tiredly.
“ You’re home?” he asked softly.
“ Yeah. I got permission from the nurse”, I said.
There was silence.
“ I already spoke to the principal. He wants all our parents to get together tomorrow”, he said.
“ My mom said she’d speak with him”. My voice was flat. My head hurt so bad I really just wanted to hang up, and go to sleep.
“ You don’t think I was the one who did this, Nellie? You can’t possibly think that”, Chan said, his voice low and hurt.
“Ana said she saw you and Samantha at the Ardsley Mall yesterday. In the food court”, I said.
He cursed, then I heard him take a deep breath. “ Yeah. I saw her. But only because she kept calling Nate’s house. She was hysterical.”
“ I thought you told me you were through with her!”
“ I am through with her!” he shouted. “ But she was babbling, and screaming out her usual threats. She kept calling my cell, and calling Nate’s house. I thought if I spoke with her she’d get a grip”.
“ What happened when you saw her?” I asked.
“ The same thing that always happens with Sam. She started begging me to get back with her. She said she was going to kill herself. That she couldn’t stand being without me.” Chan sounded tired, and resigned. “ But I told her I was in love with you. I told her I’d never get back with her because I have you”.
“ I think she’s the one did this, Chan. Who else could it have been?” I said.
“ I think so too”, he said, his voice quiet, and disgusted. “ You know, I thought I’d thrown out all my workshop registration papers. I didn’t want my parents to go through my room and find them. But Ty told me Samantha came by the house while I was up in the mountains. She said she had some stuff she needed to get from my room. My mom let her into my bedroom. Ty said he tried to rush her out, but my mom told him to leave her alone. I’m thinking maybe she found something…something that tipped her off to where I was”.
“ I told you I felt strange, like someone was watching us”, I reminded him.
“ Yeah. And I just brushed you off”, he said, guiltily.
“ It’s pretty sick, Chan. If she was the one who did this. It meant she was sneaking around in the cold. Spying on us”. I shuddered. It was so invasive and intrusive, and just wrong.
“ I know”, Chan murmured. “ But Sam’s pretty sick, Nellie. It’s why I stayed with her for so long. I’m just sorry you had to get dragged into it”.
“ Oh, Chan”, I sighed. “ I thought I was going to die when I saw those pictures. Those horrible words. It made it all seem so nasty and cheap. When it wasn’t like at all, was it?”
“ No, it wasn’t. It was perfect”, he said, huskily. “ Me, my brother and Joaquim pulled down every single one we saw. I mean, they even hung them up in the library and the lunchroom. Bastards.”
“ So you think it was more than one person?”
“ Definitely. One person alone couldn’t have hung up all those papers in practically the entire school campus. They must have sneaked in, and spent the entire night hanging them up. But when I find out who did it, they’re going to regret it. I swear it, Nellie.” Chan sounded fierce.
“ We should just let the school authorities handle it, Chan. Whoever did this is probably going to be expelled”, I said. I didn’t want him to do anything that would get him in trouble. More trouble than we already were.
“ Listen, I’ve got to get to class. Keep your phone on, baby. I want to keep in touch with you”, he said, sounding so sweet and tender, I wished he were right beside me. “ I love you”.
It was the first time he’d ever said it to me. I hated he’d had to say it under such awful circumstances. But I’ve always had awful luck.
I slept fitfully, that anxious troubled sleep you get when you’re deeply worried. I kept dreaming about the pictures, and how naked I was in them. I could hear the voices of the students, whispering, commenting, judging. I kept seeing the big black type floating across my eyes…Nellie Depaola is a dirty slut.
Chapter 10
I woke up to hear my cell ringing. It was dancing along my night stand with each ring. I grabbed it, wanting to hear a normal human voice, and not the eery voices from my dreams.
“ Hello?”, I said, my voice cracking.
“ Nellie.” It was only my name, but it gave me chills. I recognized the airy, almost ethereal quality of voice.
Samantha St. John.
“ Who is this?”, I asked, shakily, even though I knew.
“ I think you know who this is”, she said, and she gave a strange little laugh. “Nellie, I really need to talk to you”.
“We don’t have anything to talk about”, I said, so nervous the cell phone almost fell from my sweat soaked hands.
“ Oh, I think we do”, she said, casually. “ Why don’t you meet me at the docks off Main Street in like a half hour?”
“ I don’t have a car. My friends dropped me home”, I said quickly.
“ Fine. I’ll pick you up then. Wait for me around the corner of your house”.
“ I can’t do that. I really shouldn’t be talking to you, Samantha”, I said.
“ Oh that’s funny. You can’t talk to me. But it’s OK for you to sleep with my boyfriend?”
I couldn’t get used to the tone of her voice. It sounded so babyish, like a kindergartner’s. And like a kindergartner, all of her sentences seemed to end as if she were asking a question. It was unnerving.
“ Samantha, I’m going to hang up now”, I said, feeling my headache returning.
“ I wouldn’t if I were you”, she warned, but again, it sounded more like a question, not a threat. “ If you thought today was bad, trust me. It’ll get worse. I have pictures of you and Chan that would make a porn star blush. Unless you want them splattered all around town…and not just school…I’d advise you to wait for me around the corner of your house”.
“ So it was you”, I breathed. “ You’re the one who did it”.
“ Yes, you dumb bitch”, she said, sweetly. “ It was me. Now, I’m on my way to pick you up. I should be there in about fifteen minutes. If you dare tell anyone…your mommy, your friends, Chan…I will make you regret it. You’re going to wish you were never born, Nellie”.
She hung up. I was shaking so bad the cell phone crashed to the floor. I didn’t know what to do. I’d never been so afraid. Spiders made me panic, but this was just plain old fear.
> I bent down to pick up my phone, wanting to call Chan, Ro, anyone. Tell them what had just happened. But I was too scared. I already knew what Samantha was capable of. Lurking, hiding, taking pictures. Printing out hundreds of copies and breaking into the school to tack them up.
Chan had spent years at her side, afraid to leave her. He knew how dangerous she was.
I dialed Ro’s number, but disconnected the call before she picked up. I had to face Samantha alone. I didn’t want her to do anything worse.
I got out of bed, and wrote a note for Ro. It was already one in the afternoon, and school would be out soon. Hopefully, I’d be back before my mother got home. I went to the bathroom, and splashed water on my face. I wiped my palms on my jeans. I grabbed my bomber jacket, my phone, and went outside.
There’s a grocery store around the corner of my house, and I decided to wait for Samantha there. I had no idea what kind of car she drove. I stood in front of the store, smiling at people as they walked in and out. It was bitter cold, a salty wind blowing in from the shore. But my hands were sweating as if it were ninety degrees.
Samantha pulled up in a sleek forest green BMW. She rolled the front passenger window down, and leaned over.
“ Hey you!”, she said, smiling at me as if we were old friends. “Get in out of the cold”.
I smiled hesitantly, and got into her car. I don’t know if anyone noticed. Even if they did, they would probably be think it was just two friends meeting up with each other.
“ Put you seat belt on, Nellie”, she said, pulling away. “ I’ve already got a gazillion tickets. The cops in Egg Cove suck”.
I put my seatbelt on, my hands trembling so bad I had some trouble getting it to click.
“ Aw honey”, she said, patting my hand reassuringly. “ Don’t be so nervous. I know you must feel bad talking to me. It can’t be easy talking to the girl whose boyfriend you were fucking behind her back”.
“ Please don’t use that kind of language”, I said. “ I don’t like it”.
“ You know what I don’t like?”, she asked, turning to look at me with her sleepy blue eyes. “ I don’t like stupid Portuguese girls who think its okay to steal a girl’s boyfriend. Couldn’t you find your own little Egg Cove loser?”