by Orts, Teresa
Nate pursed his lips firmly and, turning his face away, freed a loud laugh. “You make me laugh, and believe me, I don’t laugh that easily,” he clarified.
I had to stop making him laugh if I didn’t want him to think of me as a buffoon, and I needed to think of something bright to say. I heard voices and turned to see Tyson and Chase walking our way. When I looked back to tell Nate they were my friends, he was gone.
“Did you see anyone walking to the house?” I asked Chase and Tyson as they approached me.
Tyson and Chase looked at each other, and Chase spoke, “I think I saw someone walking that way. Sophie, what are you doing back here anyway?” He looked confused. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere. Don’t you check your phone? I sent you three texts. Megan’s not feeling well and wants to leave.”
“Emma and Megan are already in the car waiting for us. Let’s thank Ethan. We want to make sure we’re invited again next year. And then let’s hit the road,” Tyson said hurriedly.
We stepped into the dimness of the living room where the strobe light continued to flash. A boy who’d fallen asleep hugging one of the Roman sculptures caught my eye. The room wasn’t as crowded as before, and the people left were staggering around to the beat of the music. One of the people stumbling on the dance floor was Ethan Dulwich.
The moonlight that came in through the French windows was brighter, emphasizing the poor combination of the room’s rococo decoration and the disco balls. I looked around and soon spotted Nate by the DJ, immersed in a conversation with a friend. When Nate realized I was looking at him, he turned his back, transforming me again into an invisible girl. A rush of anger traveled through my body. It was obvious Nate had decided that our chat in the garden had been a mistake.
I grabbed Tyson’s hand and dragged him to Ethan’s side. Tyson tapped Ethan on his shoulder, but he was so intoxicated he didn’t notice. Chase went around us to face Ethan directly, and murmured something into Ethan’s ear. Ethan then hugged Chase, leaning on him and almost making both of them collapse. Then Ethan hugged Tyson, resting his head on Tyson’s shoulder for so long we thought he’d fallen asleep. Tyson managed to softly push Ethan away, even though Ethan was totally unaware of what was happening around him.
I thanked Ethan, keeping the distance between the two of us. All of a sudden he stepped forward and slid his arms around my shoulders, pressing his body against mine. After a few seconds, I tried to push him away from me, but he grabbed my top from the sides and was pulling me toward him.
“Where do you think you’re going? You’re staying here with me,” he whispered hideously in my ear.
People were dancing around us, unaware of what was happening. I looked out the corner of my eye to see Tyson and Chase stunned, not knowing what to do. Finally, Tyson pulled Ethan away from me and said, “Hey, Ethan, let go!”
Ethan was still holding me tightly. My vision was flooding and the room was closing on me, and all I could see was Ethan’s face appearing and disappearing at the rhythm of the strobe light.
His fingers were running through my hair, and when Ethan’s lips began traveling along my neck, tears propelled down my cheeks.
Someone shoved us apart, and I looked at his face. It was Nate. He looked at me, enraged, and said something to me that sounded like, “Am-teus.”
“What is it?”
Then he turned on his heel and next thing I saw was Nate’s fist superimposed over Ethan’s face. They were both gradually falling backward among the rhythm dictated by the thundering of the strobe light. Nate was on his knees, grabbing Ethan’s shirt with one fist and punching his face with the other.
Tyson and Chase tried to get Nate away from Ethan, but he was so possessed by rage, he didn’t notice that two guys of his same size were basically on his back.
All hell broke loose. Champagne glasses smashed to the floor as people pushed to leave the room. I stood in front of Nate and Ethan, unable to react. Ethan lay on the floor like a corpse, and his head wagged from side to side with each punch. Each time the room went dark and the light flashed back, a larger part of Ethan’s face was tinted with the red of his blood.
“Stop! What do you think you’re doing? Please, stop,” I wanted to yell, but the words were only thoughts.
Nate abruptly closed his eyes again and then his punch missed Ethan’s face, hitting the floor. Chaos turned into silence as the DJ finally cut the music, and people stood still surrounding Nate and Ethan. Nate rose, and fearing his rage, Tyson, Chase, and I stepped back. He walked out of the room, looking disorientated. Then people were crying and yelling, but no one was actually helping Ethan.
“Chase, give me your blazer! Quickly!” I said, kneeling next to Ethan and placing Chase’s blazer under his neck. Then I brought my ear close to his nose to hear that he was still breathing.
“Sophie, let’s go. The police are going to get here any minute, and Emma and Megan are still waiting in the car,” Tyson said, pulling my arm.
“Let’s call 9-1-1 first,” I begged.
Chase grabbed his cell phone out of his blazer pocket and called 9-1-1. Then, dragging me by my arm, he instructed, “They’re on their way. Let’s go.”
We darted out of the house and drove off of the property. We saw a caravan of police cars speeding up the hill minutes later. After explaining to Emma and Megan what happened, we lapsed into silence, wondering whether Ethan was going to make it. Ethan’s behavior toward me had been inappropriate, but Nate’s reaction had been way out of proportion. None of us could imagine what could’ve brought Nate to commit such an atrocity.
CHAPTER III
ON MONDAY MORNING, EVERYONE stared at me as I walked to the back of the school bus. I had no doubt why I was suddenly the center of attention. It was okay that Nate had tried to protect me from Ethan—up to a point. But Nate’s crazy overreaction could’ve had nothing to do with me; it’d probably been all about some unsettled business with Ethan. Nate was the center of female attention at school, and that probably bothered Ethan, creating some friction between the two of them. Anyway, I didn’t need Nate to protect me; I was old enough to look after myself.
“That’s the girl from Saturday’s fight,” one girl sitting in front of me murmured to her friend.
How could anyone refer to Saturday’s event as “the fight” when a fight could only occur if there was active involvement from both parties? In this case, Nate had physically assaulted Ethan while he was unconscious on the floor, leaving the scene without a scratch. This could be called anything but a fight.
Two girls turned to look at me, and one whispered to the other, “I heard that Nate had been after Ethan for a while, and last Saturday, he finally found the perfect excuse to give him what he deserved.”
I didn’t know why they were whispering to each other when I was sitting literally twenty inches from them. If her friend could hear her whispering, I could hear it, too.
“I also heard that Ethan only has a broken nose, but he’s fine,” the same girl murmured to her friend. “I wouldn’t like to be in that girl’s shoes if Ethan blames her for it,” she added, nodding at me.
Nate had literally hammered Ethan’s face for what seemed an eternity, and it was a miracle he only had a broken nose. My main concern was that Ethan could think somehow I’d asked Nate to defend me, blowing the consequences of grabbing me out of proportion. Ethan’s family had a lot of connections and, if blamed for what happened to Ethan, they could make sure no one ever spoke to me again. My paranoia was so monumental that I was even concerned about next year’s university application. If Ethan’s father decided to make a few phone calls, he could guarantee I wouldn’t get accepted anywhere.
“Did you see the school website announcement about the fight?” the girl sitting next to the window asked her friend.
I wasn’t planning to sit in the bus for half an hour, pretending I couldn’t hear them talking about me. “Excuse me,” I said. “I’m not sure if you think there’s an invisible wall
between your seat and mine, but I can clearly hear you.”
The girl sitting by the aisle fidgeted in her seat and turned to check whether I was talking to her.
“What’s on the school’s website anyway?” I asked.
The bus careened along the road at high speed, making us move from side to side each time it took a turn.
The girl spoke nervously. “There was a statement saying that since the fight happened outside the school boundaries, the law enforcement authorities were going to deal with the matter.”
After moving a lock of hair away from her face, she continued, “My family knows Ethan’s family, and I also happen to know that his parents weighed the possibility of pressing charges against Nate, but Ethan is already in enough trouble with the law due to his DUIs, and ultimately, Ethan’s parents decided to not press charges.”
Emma would definitely be impressed with the ability of this girl to gather information. “Thanks,” I replied.
The two girls smiled at each other and moved on to talk about their friend’s birthday party.
Surely Ethan wasn’t going to be thrilled about Nate walking away without facing any consequences, neither from the school nor from the police. Having both of them at school through the semester was like a ticking time bomb. As long as they didn’t involve me in their problems a second time around, though, I didn’t care what they did.
Once at school, I waited for everyone to get out of the bus, as I was done with my fifteen minutes of fame. But as I drifted across the lawn, looking for my friends, I could hear the students whispering as I passed them. They followed me with their gaze, and I fixed my eyes on the ground, letting my loose hair cover part of my face. I couldn’t take so much attention.
My friends were at our usual bench. I rushed to the safety of their side, but Emma, Megan, Tyson, and Chase were also staring at me as though I had one leg and three eyes.
“Hi, what’s with the staring?” I asked, shrugging.
None of them said anything. I felt my chest tightening. Emma and Megan were sitting in the middle of the bench and Tyson and Chase, on either side, seemed to be their bodyguards. They were defiantly waiting for me to make an announcement. The problem was that I didn’t know what they were expecting me to say.
“What’s up?” I asked, testing the waters. “You look like you saw a monster right before I arrived.”
Everyone else behind the gymnasium seemed to have gone back to minding their own business.
Emma’s intrigued look was nerve-wracking. She finally spoke, opening Pandora’s box. “We’re still shocked about Nate’s reaction last Saturday. It’s one thing to protect you from Ethan’s wandering hands, but another to almost kill him. What’s wrong with that guy? He totally lost it.”
“What do you want me to do? I didn’t ask him to defend me,” I murmured nervously, holding my hands together as though I didn’t know what to do with them. Standing in front of them felt like I was trying to make the jury believe my alibi.
“People at school are saying that you asked Nate to teach Ethan a lesson,” Megan said, shaking her head. Her lips curled. “After all, Nate was defending you when he left Ethan unconscious.”
This was absolutely unfair because I didn’t deserve to be accused of conspiring with Nate. I didn’t even know him. Why would anyone blame me for anything when it was Ethan who started the whole episode by grabbing me? I went to that party to meet Travis Roy, not to trigger any fight.
“I can’t believe you’re suggesting I was at that party on some obscure mission,” I mumbled. “Just think how absurd that sounds.” I couldn’t believe my friends doubted me.
Just then I spotted Ethan on another bench farther down. His dark bruised face magnified the redness of his eyes. A bandage covered his nose. He was talking to a friend, and after propping a hockey stick against the gymnasium wall, he glanced at me. I needed to know how bad the situation was before Ethan accosted us.
I took a long breath and gathered the courage to make them talk. I wanted to know the truth, and only the truth, before it was too late. I formed the question that was foremost in my thoughts. “Does Ethan think I asked Nate to beat him up?”
They looked at each other and none of them said a word. I stared into Tyson’s eyes, but instead of speaking what he knew, he brought his gaze down to avoid meeting mine.
“Please, Tyson! I need to know.” I begged, squatting down in front of him and forcing him to look at me.
He finally spoke, breaking the silence. “Apparently Ethan said that you’re with Nate, and any friend of Nate is an enemy of his.”
“If you promise you had nothing to do with Nate’s reaction, we’re behind you all the way. I’m not scared of Ethan, not a bit,” Emma stated curtly.
I couldn’t believe this was happening. The thing that concerned me most wasn’t that Ethan somehow blamed me for what happened to him. It was that my friends had considered the possibility I was somehow “in” on this with Nate.
“You shouldn’t even need to ask me. Come on! You know me! How many times do I need to say it? I don’t even know Nate.”
They seemed thoughtful, as if they’d realized their accusation had been utterly ridiculous.
Finally, Megan groaned. “I guess if you say you don’t know why Nate blew up on Ethan, I believe you.”
The backyard was buzzing with activity as the bell rang; students were amassing in the building entrance. We’d promised that we wouldn’t be late for class anymore, and before I could react, Emma ordered, “Let’s move.”
We advanced in silence toward the main school building. I felt like each of them was still internally debating whether to fully believe me or not. I didn’t want to jeopardize my friendship with them for some stupid fight, and I realized there was only one person who could explain to me what really happened on Saturday—Nate Werner.
Tyson and Chase went into the science lab, while Megan, Emma, and I continued walking down the hallway to the English classroom. I was upset with Nate because I suspected the real reason he assaulted Ethan had nothing to do with me. There must have been a history between the two of them. I didn’t care what people said, but Nate was going to explain to my face why I ended up in the middle of his problems with Ethan.
“I need to go to my locker. I’ll meet you in class in a moment,” I told Emma and Megan.
They went into the classroom, and I waited outside in the hallway, searching for Nate. His car wasn’t in the parking lot, so probably he was nowhere to be seen. I surveyed the corridor, and surprisingly, spotted him taking his books out of his locker. He still seemed to carry himself with the same superiority he always did, not showing any remorse about what happened on Saturday.
The hallway was still packed with people, and I compulsively began advancing toward him. My vision closed into a tunnel, focusing only on my target. People were whispering as I passed them, but everything around me had become secondary. The only sound present in my mind was the echoing of my steps on the hallway.
Nate was unpacking his bag, unaware of the storm approaching. When I reached him, I stood between him and his locker. To my surprise he looked shocked.
“What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be talking to me,” he growled, reaching around me to close his locker.
Nate turned around to double-check every student in the hallway was indeed staring at us and shifted to the gap between two sets of lockers, motioning for me to follow.
This was utterly wrong. How could I still feel attracted to him after what he’d done? I used all my energy to block my feelings and focus on my mission: getting the truth out of him.
As I stepped between the lockers, Nate murmured as though he didn’t want the spectators in the hallway to hear. “Whatever I did to Ethan is my problem, not yours. What you’re doing right now is just a big mistake. Just let it go.”
Why did he think he could order me to walk away after he got me mixed up in his problems with Ethan? The problem wasn’t that I was talking to
him now, but that half the school thought he nearly killed Ethan in my name.
“Why did you get involved?” I said, staring defiantly into his eyes. “I can look after myself. Don’t you think breaking his nose because he grabbed me is a bit much? I don’t understand what happened, and you owe me an explanation.”
“Like I said, that’s my problem with Ethan. I’ll pay for what I’ve done. You don’t need to.” The tone of his voice raised; he spoke with more urgency.
I wasn’t going to walk away without an explanation. “Everyone at school seems to think I asked you to beat up Ethan. This is my problem as much as yours now!”
Nate’s forehead creased as he listened to my accusations. Then he moved his gaze to the floor. “Okay, I’ll give you an explanation, but not now—outside the school, and only if you promise to keep your distance after that.”
I wedged in between Nate’s body and the set of lockers into the hallway. “Okay, I’ll choose the place, and don’t worry about me keeping my distance. I’m in for that one,” I said skeptically.
Hanging his backpack on his shoulder, Nate gave me a scrap of paper. “That’s my phone number.”
I stowed the small piece of paper in my pocket, and we went in different directions. I didn’t like that he’d dodged my demand for an explanation on the spot. But the way he tried to protect me from being seen with him made me feel just the smallest amount of empathy. I knew what he’d done to Ethan was unspeakable—there was no excuse for that—but he genuinely seemed to hate himself for it. Maybe he had a convincing explanation for why he acted the way he did.
When I got to the classroom, Ms. Harris had already begun the lecture. I waited outside, peeking through the door window, and when she turned to write on the board, I tiptoed to an empty seat in the last row. Thankfully, the place next to Megan and Emma was taken. I didn’t want them to continue interrogating me about Saturday’s events.
Ms. Harris was reading a passage from Moby Dick, but I was incapable of following the lecture. I replayed the encounter with Nate in my mind over and over. What could be troubling mysterious Nate?