by Blair Young
The last thing we needed was for Chad to get blamed for something like that when he didn’t do it. I knew when Damon came down on him, he’d come down hard. And that was going to be something everyone would talk about for quite some time.
Then again, they might just let it go. I didn’t see Damon making the first move on Chad. He still tried to be as passive as possible at school, even if most of the things he dealt with during the day got under his skin more than he liked to admit.
It was part of the reason he would do the fighting. I knew he had a lot of frustration from school, and he took a lot of that into the ring with him when he fought. It was part of the reason I didn’t blame him when he did get his anger out that way.
If violence was the way he handled it, at least he was taking care of it in the ring where the other person felt the same way. I would rather see him going about it in an organized way with people who were willing to fight than to pick fights on the playground like a bully.
Still, there was an unsettled feeling in my stomach as I kept expecting the sound of a fight to break out at any moment. I didn’t want to think that it would happen right there at school, but then, I had seen crazier things in my life, and I didn’t want to put it past possibility, either.
Come on. You know Damon. He doesn’t want to get in trouble at school when you’re so close to being done with everything. If he can just tuck away some of that anger and focus it in the ring next time he fights, then he doesn’t have to take it out on Chad, here.
You hate the guy, too, and you aren’t going to pick a fight with him. On the other hand, maybe Chad will tell him he’s crazy and to forget it if he tries to call him out for the bike. Maybe Chad didn’t do it at all, or maybe he’ll be afraid he’s going to get in trouble and he’ll deny it.
Or, maybe the whole thing’s just going to blow over and we can move on with our lives. We don’t need to blow this up into something that’s bigger than it already is. Really. It can just be another crappy thing we dealt with on our senior year and leave it at that.
This is all going to be over in just a matter of months anyway. Done and over with for good.
I knew I could hope for that all I wanted. I spent the morning trying to convince myself I was worrying too much about what Chad might do or what Damon might say, but really, I hoped that they would both just keep up the mutual silence toward each other and let it all go.
The party was bad enough, and Peter had stepped in before anything could go awry. So, maybe he would step in again if things were to get tense here. I knew it wasn’t a guarantee, but I also knew Peter was looking out for the best interest of all of us.
And I could only hope he would step in and make sure things didn’t get out of hand.
Or, better yet, that Damon wouldn’t get in a fight with Chad in the first place.
“Fight!”
“Fight!”
“Fight!”
Despite all my hopes that nothing was going to happen, it was pure denial. With the way Damon had been acting all the way to school, I knew something was going to go down, and it happened during lunch in the cafeteria. Of course, that would be the best place for a fight to unfold if it was going to happen at all.
It was the only time in school when we were all together in one large, open room and the teachers weren’t immediately present. Sure, the shouts of the fight taking place as well as the crashing of the tables and chairs were enough to alert them, and most fights only lasted a matter of one or two minutes, but that was enough time for some real blows to be dealt.
And that’s exactly what happened this time.
Though Chad had taunted Damon more than once about being better since they were in the ring, Damon had no trouble throwing him to the ground more than once before the teachers intervened. Chad might have been able to get back to his feet faster than when they fought in the ring, but Damon was clearly the winner.
There was no denying it.
Part of me wanted to rush over to him and throw my arms around his neck, kissing him fiercely over his victory, but as soon as the fight was over, he was being whisked away to the principles office. I knew what was going to happen in there.
The same thing that happened to me when I got in a fight with Molly. And, I could imagine the same thing would happen to Chad. She got off scot free when I had punched her, and I could only guess that Chad would, too.
And Damon, well, I was positive he would get the same sentence that I had. And it turned out, I was right.
I met him in the parking lot after school. He had left right after lunch, and I assumed he had gone home. But instead, he had merely gone down to the board shop to hang out with Dean for the afternoon before coming back to the school to walk me home.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi,” I replied, hugging him and giving him a warm kiss. “You okay?”
“A little sore. He got in a couple of good hits before I put him down. Did you see it?” Damon asked.
“Just the end,” I said. Damon had a bruise over one eye, but that was the only visible bruise he had. “When you knocked him to the ground.”
“He thinks he’s some tough guy. I think I showed him,” Damon said with a smirk. “But the teacher was far from happy, and the principle was even less happy with the whole thing.”
“What did they do?” I asked.
“Two weeks suspension,” Damon said with a shake of his head. “So I guess you’re going to have to do your part and bring my homework now.”
I laughed. “You know I will.”
“Do you want to take the long way home?” Damon asked.
I cocked my head to the side so he explained. “They called Susan when I was in the office, and let’s just say she’s not happy. I don’t really want to deal with that right now on top of everything else. I got to hear lecture after lecture all afternoon from Dean, I don’t want the queen of lectures to get in my face and remind me of how much I really screwed up this time.”
“You know she’s going to have a speech prepared when we get home,” I told him.
Damon nodded. “And I’m not sure I want to hear it. So, I mean, it’s a great day to take the bay route home.”
I laughed, intertwining his fingers through mine as we joined hands. I didn’t really look forward to hearing the lecture Damon was going to get, either, so I was more than happy to take our time getting home. It was only a few more months of dealing with any of this, and we would be out of there.
Sure, it was a bittersweet feeling with Abby leaving, but at the same time, I was over all this drama and nonsense we were dealing with. I was ready not just for answers, but for a change in my life.
And the sooner it happened, the better.
Chapter 15
Sutton
Although I wasn’t the one who was going to get the lecture when we got home, I had to admit, I was glad to take our time in getting there. I knew what it was like to be lectured by Susan, for this very same thing, actually, and I felt for him.
Though I spent most of the morning hoping he wouldn’t get into a fight with Chad, I knew deep down that was optimistic thinking. Of course he was going to stand up for himself, and if he genuinely thought that Chad was the one who destroyed his bike, then he was going for the guy, no matter what.
The suspension wasn’t good. We both knew that. Neither of us were happy with the punishment, and I was interested to know if Chad was going to get in trouble for the fight as well. Damon couldn’t tell me one way or the other. They were still talking to Chad when he was sent back out of the office.
But, we both figured Chad was going to get away with it. It always seemed that the other person was able to get away with things we never were able to do ourselves. And Susan only made it worse.
Still, there wasn’t anything we could do about it now. The lecture was coming, and we both knew it was likely Damon was going to end up getting more punishment heaped on top of him from his foster mother. Though he made it clear to her ove
r and over he was going to do his own thing in life, she still did her best to steer him in the right direction.
I couldn’t blame her for trying her best, and I had to admit, there was likely never a point in a parent’s life – foster parent or not – when they gave up and stopped parenting. If Susan saw hope in giving Damon more punishment on top of it, we both knew she would try it.
The whole thing made the thought of going home less desirable than ever, as though I needed it. I didn’t want to deal with Dean, not in the very least, and I could imagine Damon didn’t, either. He had already dealt with the lectures all afternoon from his foster father, to have him teamed up with Susan was just going to make it all that much harder to keep his mouth shut.
But, I still did my best to cheer him up on the way home.
“You should have told me when you were going to knock his lights out. I would have liked to see the whole thing,” I teased.
“It just sort of happened, really. I planned it out a lot smoother in my head, but when it came down to it, my fists did far more talking than my mouth did,” Damon said with a grin. “I mean, I shouldn’t be proud of it, but it still felt good to hit his smug jerk face right in the nose.”
I laughed. “I bet it did. I’ve wanted to do that to him more than once, and other people, too, for that matter.”
Damon laughed now, and it felt good to hear. I knew he was going through a lot, and to know I was cheering him up at least that much made me feel like I was doing something good for him.
“You should just do it, it’s freeing,” Damon said.
“In the moment,” I replied. “But then you have to deal with all this other stuff that comes after.”
“I’m still trying to decide if it’s worth it or not,” Damon said with a grin. “Part of me says no, but most of me says it’s more than worth it. I’m glad that I did this, let’s be honest.”
I laughed. “Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me, like, at all.”
“Really? I’m full of surprises,” Damon said. “I bet you didn’t think I was going to actually punch the guy in the face today.”
“Actually,” I said. “I was spending most of the morning hoping that you wouldn’t.”
“I thought you just said you wanted to do the same thing!” Damon retorted.
“I do, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to do it. I mean, I don’t want to deal with another suspension because I had to take matters into my own hand to see any real results from them,” I said with a shake of my head. “And trust me, I know how you feel. You leave anything to the adults to handle and nothing gets done.”
“I’m sure I would just end up with another bike as a surprise and Susan and Dean would pat themselves on the back for being great foster parents when really I want my old bike back and justice for what happened to it,” Damon clutched his backpack straps hard as he spoke, and I reached over and hugged him sideways.
“You know just how I feel,” I said. “I’ve been thinking the same thing about my parents for months.”
“I know,” Damon said, his face full of compassion. “Which is why we are going to find who did it and bring them to justice. I promise, I’m going to make it happen.”
“I hope we do,” I said, trying not to put all the pressure on him. “It makes me so mad to think that my parents are in the ground and that person gets to walk around free as a bird. They need to be locked up.”
“Among other things,” Damon said in a low tone. I knew what he meant, and I felt the same way, too. But, I knew they were more likely to get life in prison when they were caught, and I was just going to have to be happy with that. I was going to catch them and bring them to justice one of these days.
And all this craziness that had become my life would go away. I knew it would.
We both tried to keep the information light and cheerful as we continued toward the bay, neither of us in any rush to get back to the house. But then, Damon suddenly grabbed my arm. We were getting close to the elementary school, and I hadn’t thought anything of it until I saw him standing in the middle of the sidewalk, his eyes transfixed straight ahead.
Confused, I followed the trail of his eyes over to the playground where there was a man standing near the fence. At first, he had his back to us, but he turned slightly and for a brief moment, his eyes locked with Damon’s. Though he was half a block away from us, he unfolded his arms and turned to the fence, his eyes glued on the two of us.
“Damon!” he called out.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Damon said.
“Who is that?” I asked. But, Damon didn’t answer. He just pulled me along with him toward the other side of the street, and we continued on, taking a different route to the bay. I was confused. I didn’t know he knew anyone at the elementary school, and I had no idea who that man was.
He had a striking resemblance to Damon, but it still surprised me when Damon finally broke the silence. “That was my real dad.”
The words hung in the air, and I gasped. “What!”
“Yeah. I guess he’s been working there for a while now, and I try to avoid it. I’m still trying to figure out a time and a way to talk to him, and I promise it’s going to happen, I just need to work it out in my head before I face him. I don’t want a repeat of what happened in the cafeteria today to happen when I talk to him, and he’s one of those people I would really like to punch in the face.”
I compassionately put my hand on his shoulder, doing what I could to comfort him. I knew his father was an asshole. Susan was the one who told me originally that Damon had been abused by father, and that was the reason he was taken into the foster care system in the first place.
Of course, there would be a lot of residual pain in Damon’s life, but seeing his father seemed to have a particularly nasty effect on him. I wasn’t sure if I should try to comfort him more, or if it would be better just to let it go. I knew Damon was going through a lot, and it wasn’t helping that he just saw his father. Clearly, he was reaching the same point in life that I had.
It didn’t matter what we did or how hard we fought against our circumstances, there were just times when it didn’t seem we could catch a break on any front. No matter what we did or how hard we were trying to get our lives together, something was always falling apart.
It was frustrating, that was for sure, and I didn’t know how to deal with it. Damon walked in silence beside me for a while, but he soon opened up. He hadn’t said much about his father to me before. The most I knew about Richard was what Susan had told me.
When we found his name on the case file my father had active when he died, Damon had insisted he talk about his mother instead of his father. I didn’t push at the time, I knew how hard it was for him to talk about his father, and since I really wanted his help, I didn’t push it.
Now, I just listened as he talked about the things his father used to do to him when he was young, and with each thing he said, I felt that much worse for him. I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to live under those circumstances when he was just a little boy.
Though it didn’t excuse the way he had treated me, or the things he had admitted to doing after he moved to Secret Bay High, I could understand a lot more now why he did some of the things he did in life. It certainly did explain why he fought so much, and why he was so abrasive when people tried to dig into his life.
So much of it he had to keep hidden when he was young, so of course he wasn’t going to be happy about opening up to just anyone now. I felt the same way in relationships. I had been so open with Molly about so many things when I was younger, and she had taken that and turned it into one of the worst things I’d ever had to endure in my entire life.
She had been the one person to make me distrustful of so many, and though it wasn’t fair to the rest of the people I met in life, I knew that it wasn’t something I could easily change. Maybe with time and effort I would be able to let go of my distrust of the rest of the world, but at the same time, it was har
d for me to even imagine wanting to.
It was so much easier for me to keep things close to myself, and only share them with the people I knew I could trust. I had been burned enough times, I had found out things about myself that really made me question everything, and when I learned more about Damon, I could see that he had gone through the same thing.
It only made me wonder how much of the life I lived was a lie, and how much any of us knew about ourselves or anyone else.
Strangely, I felt affected by the fact that we had seen his father. I had imagined so many things when I thought of what Richard might be like in person, and now that I’d seen him, I realized the photo my father had had of him on file must have been old.
He didn’t look quite the same, though. Perhaps it was the fact that now had no facial hair. It made him look a lot older than the photo my father had in the file. Then again, if my father knew who he was looking for, perhaps it didn’t matter to him that he didn’t have an entirely accurate photo of the guy.
Still, it was a bit of a shock to me to see him in person.
I did my best to distract Damon on the rest of the way home. I knew he was in for the lecture of his life as soon as we walked through the door, and it didn’t help that he had just seen the man who had been the root cause of why he didn’t grow up in a home with his real parents in the first place.
I could only imagine what was going through his head as we reached the path leading up to the front door. And I clasped his hand on the way across the lawn. I didn’t care if Susan looked through the window and saw us. There was no denying that we were together now, that was for sure. I would face any of the comments she had for me, too.
But, we both knew Damon would be the focus of the night, and I didn’t want to be in the room while he was getting the lecture. It had to be embarrassing for him, even if he was proud of the fact that he had taken Chad down in the cafeteria. And, of course, we weren’t going to say a word about the fact that we had seen his real father on the way home from school.