by Naomi Niles
She crossed her arms and frowned. “I think they went outside.”
I hurried to the outside doors. We weren’t supposed to go out this way, but I peeked anyway.
“Taylor Dean, where are you going?” Mr. Carter said.
Dang chaperones. “Just getting some fresh air. I’m not leaving the gym.”
He stared at me until I closed the door. I hadn’t seen anyone outside, but the lights only lit up part of the field. Where were they?
I returned to Bailey. “Where did Barbie say they were going?”
“I’m only going to help you so that she doesn’t win. I think she was taking him under the bleachers. She had a blanket set up there earlier.”
I squeezed her arm. “Thanks.”
Now, I had to get out of the dance without a chaperone noticing. I needed to find Dylan and Barbie before anything happened.
My phone dinged. I looked at the screen. A group text from Barbie.
“We’re going to do the deed.”
Shit. I hoped I wouldn’t be too late. Dylan would probably be pissed at me for butting in, but I didn’t trust Barbie. She was going to make this a big deal and I doubted that she’d even thought about birth control.
***
I had never seen the football field so dark. Thankfully, I spent enough time here to know it by heart. I also knew the place under the bleachers that Barbie would pick. At least, I thought I did. Someone had tried to bring me there once.
I had my phone, but then I was afraid that they would know I was approaching if I used the light on it to see where I was going.
I got to what I thought was the fifty yard line, but I wasn’t sure. The whole place looked different in the dark. I pulled out my phone, suddenly creeped out by how quiet it was. I saw where I wanted to go, then turned off the flashlight.
I hurried, trying to listen at the same time. Would they be making noise?
I stopped. There was someone behind me. Who could that be?
“Taylor?”
My heart jumped out of my chest. “Bailey?”
“Yes. I’m coming with you.”
“Fine.”
“Use your phone,” she said.
“I don’t want them to see me coming.”
“Okay, then hold my hand. This place is creepy in the dark.”
“I know.”
I knew Bailey was only helping me because she didn’t want Barbie to win the contest. I mean, really. Couldn’t they have picked someone other than Dylan? “Why Dylan?”
Bailey snorted. “He has tattoos and is a bad boy.”
“He joined the mathletes.”
Bailey laughed. “I don’t think that Barbie knows that. That makes him less cool.”
I thought it made him cooler, but what did I know. Everyone thought I was cool and I had no idea what cool was. I seemed to have the right clothing and attitude and I was a cheerleader. The right genes had made me cool. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Whatever.
Somehow, it all seemed so stupid as we were walking across a darkened football field. So stupid. And, Dylan was going to get hurt. We had to hurry. I didn’t know how long it would all take, but I hoped I got there before the deed was done.
I stopped. Bailey ran into me. “What?”
“I think I hear something.”
“I know where they are,” Bailey said.
“Then you lead.”
She got me to the back of the bleachers. I really needed to find new friends. This was ridiculous.
The night was chilly, and I hoped I’d find them soon.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Barbie said.
I stopped in my tracks. Bailey pulled out her phone and turned on the light. She shone it on Barbie and Dylan still dressed. Dylan looked pissed – he must have realized that I was there, too.
“Taylor?”
“Dylan, she’s just using you,” I said. “I can prove it.”
I still had the text stream on my phone. Why she’d discussed in a series of texts, I’ll never know, but it was evidence in my favor.
Bailey brushed past me and grabbed her sister by the hair. “You’re a slut. I’m done with this contest.”
She dragged her sister out from under the bleachers. Barbie was screaming. Dylan was trying to separate the two.
“Stop it,” I said.
Barbie punched Bailey.
I grabbed Dylan to get him away from them. “Stop. Let them fight it out.”
He stepped away, then glared at me. I put a hand on his arm. “Look.”
I showed him the conversation on my phone. He took it from me to get a better look.
“She’s a bitch,” I said.
I could only see his face from the light on my phone, but he didn’t look too happy. “I was trying to warn you, Dylan. That’s all.”
Barbie had Bailey on the ground. I actually didn’t care what happened to them. There was so much drama around them that they tired me. I would still be a cheerleader, but I didn’t think I’d hang with them anymore.
Helena would be ecstatic. She didn’t like any of my cheerleader friends. What had I been thinking? Their father owned the largest house in the town. Maybe I’d been thinking like my mother.
“Are you doing this virginity thing?” Dylan said, handing the phone back to me.
“No.”
I wasn’t. I wanted it to be special. Not with some guy on the football field, under the bleachers as part of a bet. My father had taught me to have more self-respect than that.
Dylan rubbed a hand down his face. “I can’t believe this.” He glanced at Bailey and Barbie, who had finally stopped pounding on each other.
“This sucks,” he said, then ran into the darkness.
“Dylan?”
I ran in the direction he went, but couldn’t find him. Shit. This wasn’t good.
“Bailey, Barbie, I can’t find Dylan. Come help me.”
“Fuck you,” Bailey said.
I rolled my eyes. We were going to be picked up in a half an hour. Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Dylan?”
I kept jogging in the direction he went, but he wasn’t there. I would cover for him. Hopefully, he’d come home tonight. I wandered over to the front of the school, hoping I didn’t look a mess. I didn’t want to have to explain to my dad what had happened.
It was too complicated. My father drove up and I gave him a big smile.
“How was it, kitten?”
“It’s was good, Daddy.”
I sounded too cheery to myself.
“Where’s Dylan?”
“Some idiot got drunk and Dylan is making sure he gets home safely. He didn’t want you to wait for him. He said he’d be a little late and he was sorry.”
My father pulled out of the lot. “No, that’s a good reason to be late. If he’s doing a good deed, I can forgive him.”
“The guy was falling down. It was stupid.”
“I’m glad you feel that way about drinking to your age, pumpkin. It’s best to wait.”
“Sure, Daddy.”
I stared out the window, willing Dylan to please come home tonight.
PART TWO
Chapter Eleven
Taylor
When Daddy pulled into the garage, I was hoping with all of my will that Dylan would be home before us. I didn’t want him wandering around, and I didn’t want him screwing this up. He’d back in that trailer if he did. I hadn’t even seen the thing, but it made me shudder, anyway.
He’d once said that the trailer he lived in would fit in his bedroom in the house. I couldn’t imagine living in that, but he’d had no choice. Now, he did, and I wanted him to make good ones. I was rooting for Dylan.
I entered the kitchen to see my mom there. “Where’s Dylan?” she asked.
My father spoke. “He had to take a friend home who got drunk.”
My mother eyed both of us. I’m sure that she didn’t think we were telling the truth. I kept my gaze steady. Any sign of weakness and she would know tha
t I was lying. I didn’t want to lie, but her scrutiny of all of Dylan’s actions made it that way.
Besides, I couldn’t tell her what really happened. I couldn’t even tell my father. That was new. I could tell him a lot of things, but I didn’t think Dylan would want me to. I had to respect his privacy, even if I hadn’t felt I should earlier.
“Okay, I guess that’s a valid reason for being late.” She was in her pajamas. She waved at us. “Going to bed.”
“Good night, Mom.”
I looked in the refrigerator for something to drink. My father sat himself at the island as I grabbed the orange juice. “Pour me some of that, kitten.”
“Sure, Daddy.”
I set a glass in front of him and then sat next to him, drinking my own. He turned to me. “Are you going to tell me what’s really going on with Dylan?”
I almost choked on my juice as I coughed a little. “What do you mean?”
“Is it a teenage thing? Or is it a Dylan thing?”
“Still not sure what you are talking about,” I said.
I tried to play it cool, but it was hard to lie to my father. He knew when I was. My mother was easy to lie to because sometimes she didn’t want to know the truth. My father always did. He faced life head on.
“Is Dylan coming back tonight?”
“Of course he is, Daddy.”
“Are you sure?”
I crossed my fingers where he couldn’t see them. “Yes. He likes it here.”
“Good because I can only make excuses for so much behavior. He’s been great, but if he slips up, your mother will want to throw him out. I want to see him succeed.”
“I do, too.”
“You two have become friends. It’s nice to see.”
“We have. He’s really helped me with my math.”
“I’m glad to hear it. We have so much. It’s good to help someone who needs it. We can’t just give a hand out. We need to show them how to be successful.”
“Right, Daddy.
I wanted him to go to bed. I wanted to see Dylan when he got in, just to know he was safe. He was pretty pissed when he ran away from me. I finished my juice and decided I need a snack.
“You want some potato chips, Daddy?”
“Sure.”
I went downstairs and grabbed a small bag. Barbecue was my father’s favorite, and he smiled when he saw it. They were just okay to me, but there was no reason not to soften him up. I wanted him to be okay with what Dylan had done. Or what we’d told him Dylan had done.
Well, I had started the lie. It was me lying. Hopefully, Dylan didn’t have an attack of conscience and want to tell the truth. I’d be screwed. The car wouldn’t come back to me any time soon.
“You ended up not going to the dance with anyone?”
I shook my head. “Sometimes there is too much drama when you have a date. It was more fun being just me.”
“That’s very mature. How do you think you did on the SATs?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I tried.”
“You really should have applied to colleges by now.”
“I know.”
That was hanging over my head. We had visited many of them, but I still couldn’t decide. Well, I could, I just knew the answer wasn’t going to be one that anyone else liked. I wanted to go to community college to study nursing.
Not that I really wanted to stay home, but I didn’t need to go away to college. My mother insisted that I should, though.
My dad patted my shoulder when I yawned. “Go off to bed, kitten. I’ll wait up for Dylan.”
Shit. That would mean that I couldn’t warn him. A text it was, then. I kissed my father on the cheek and climbed the stairs. Before I did anything when I reached my room, I sent a text to Dylan.
“I told them you were helping a drunk friend get home. Please come home, Dylan.”
I got no reply. I didn’t expect one. He’d been pretty mad about the situation and maybe it was even a little embarrassing. As I got ready for bed, I jumped every time a car went by.
Not that he would be in a car. He’d probably be walking, unless someone gave him a ride.
Please come home, Dylan, I thought. I knew I’d done the right thing, even if he was mad at me. I hoped he wouldn’t stay mad at me forever.
I was beginning to like Dylan a lot. Not in a romantic way, I didn’t think, but he was a friend. Maybe a brother I never had. To think that I’d been afraid of him in the beginning. He was a good guy and I just wanted to make things right for him, kind of how my dad was doing it.
But in my own way.
I snuggled under the covers in the dark.
Please come home, Dylan.
Chapter Twelve
Dylan
I’d been impulsive. And stupid. And now, I was a little lost. I could use the GPS on my phone, but I was afraid the battery wouldn’t last.
Home. What a concept. When had I started to think about the Dean house as home?
Then a text came in. I looked down at it to see it was from Taylor. She clued me in on what she’d told her father about my absence. She had lied to her father for me. I knew how close they were, it must have killed her to do that.
I rubbed a hand down my face. She’d been trying to protect me. She cared about me. And now, she’d covered for me.
Taylor Dean had my back. I stopped walking for a moment. No one had ever had my back. In my entire life, no one had had my back.
Taylor did – at a great personal risk to herself. I couldn’t let her down. I couldn’t be the old Dylan that just ran away from things. I had to go back. I had to apologize to Taylor, too.
She’d been right about Barbie. The text conversation had said it all. Barbie hadn’t sent a text to cover my butt. She hadn’t even sent me a text to see how I was. Bitch.
I turned on the GPS and realized how far away I was. I’d never make it home in the next half hour.
Should I call Mr. Dean? Or should I call Cole?
“Hey, Cole,” I said when he answered. “I need a favor.”
“Sure, bro.”
“I need a ride.”
I told him where I was. I sat on a bench, hoping no cops came by. I thought about what Taylor had done. She might have risked her standing in her social group. She might have risked her father’s trust.
All for me. No one had done that. My mother had never done that for me. I’m sure the woman loved me, but she loved her addiction more. As much as Taylor’s mother could be a pain, at least she was the same every day. I never worried if I was going to meet her drunk or stoned.
Her dislike of me had been consistent.
A cop car rounded the corner. I wanted to run. I might have in any other circumstance, but I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. There was no curfew. I had a ride on the way.
So I sat, looking at my phone, praying the battery would last.
I stared at the text from Taylor. She cared and it warmed me.
The cop parked his car then climbed out.
“Good evening, officer.”
He put his hat on while he looked at me. I couldn’t see his face, but I’m sure he was taking in my appearance. I should look respectable. My tattoos, which seemed to mark me as bad news in this neighborhood, were covered.
“Evening. What are you doing?”
“Sitting here waiting for a ride. I went out for a walk and got lost.”
“Oh?”
He leaned in, probably to smell my breath. I didn’t drink. I’d seen what my mother did when she was drunk. That’s how I came along, after all.
“Yes, sir. I called a friend and he’s picking me up.”
“Can I see some identification?”
I pulled out my wallet and gave him my license. I was eighteen, so there wasn’t much he could do if I hadn’t committed a crime. Loitering was the worst thing I was doing tonight.
He handed it back. “Okay, Dylan. How about I wait with you until your ride gets here?”
“Sure, officer. It sho
uld only be a few minutes.”
He sat down next to me. “Did you go to the dance at the high school tonight?”
“I did.”
“Was it fun?”
“Not as fun as I thought it would be,” I said.
He chuckled. “Yeah, teen girls are tough. I have a daughter who is twelve and she’s already starting.”
“I just know them from school, and I don’t understand them.”
“You never will, son. Sorry. Been married fifteen years. Still don’t understand my wife,” he said. He thrust out his hand. “I’m Officer Kenney.”
I shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Cole pulled up at that moment. “Is this your friend?”
“Yes, sir.”
I stood. Officer Kenney spoke to Cole, then let me slide into the car. “Have a good night, son.”
I waved at the officer then Cole drove away.
“Was he hassling you?” Cole said.
“No, just chatting. I didn’t run since I wasn’t doing anything wrong. And, I am eighteen.”
Cole dropped me at the front door to the Dean’s house. I thanked him before he drove off. I took a deep breath before I walked into the house. The only lights on were in the kitchen. I needed food anyway.
Mr. Dean was perched on a stool. He turned to me with a smile.
“Sorry, I’m late.”
“Taylor told me. You were helping a friend home? He or she?”
Shit. Taylor hadn’t specified. “She. It was a little sad. Her boyfriend left her there,” I said as I headed to the refrigerator. My stomach was empty.
I found some leftovers and reheated them in the microwave. Mr. Dean sat with me while I ate, making small talk. I was glad he didn’t press me for further details on my story.
He seemed to believe what I had to say, probably because of Taylor.
“How was the dance?”
“Too much drama. I’m sort of ready to be done with high school.”
“Yeah, I remember fourth quarter was tough. I didn’t want to concentrate. I was accepted to where I wanted to go to college. There wasn’t any reason to go to class. “
“Did you?”
“I did even if I didn’t want to. What are your plans?”
“After high school? I don’t really know. I guess I’ll have to get a job. Maybe go to college online.”