by Kai Juniper
Later that day, just after five, I'm sweeping grass off the long walkway that leads to the Landon estate. The house is huge, and it sits on three acres of land, which is a lot for this neighborhood. It takes all afternoon to mow and trim the lawn and sweep up all the grass.
"How's it going?" my dad asks, holding the trimmer.
"I'm getting tired. You almost done?"
"I need to trim around the flower gardens. It'll probably be another twenty minutes, maybe less."
As he goes around back, I continue sweeping and notice the sound of the gate opening. I look up and see a Porsche that looks a lot like the one Briggs drives. Mr. Landon must've got a new car to add to his collection. He already has six of them in his eight-car garage.
The Porsche pulls up beside me and parks. What the hell? Is that Briggs?
He gets out and walks over to me. "I need to talk to you."
"What are you doing here?"
"I just told you. I need to talk to you."
"How'd you get through the gate? And why aren't you at practice?"
"Practice is over, and I got Landon's maid to open the gate. I told her I needed to talk to you."
"And she just let you in, without even knowing you?"
"I might've dropped the Chadwick name and mentioned I know Mr. Landon from the country club."
"Do you?"
"I met him at a golf tournament I was in with my dad, but I'm sure he doesn't remember me."
"I can't talk now," I say, going back to sweeping. "I have to finish this walkway in twenty minutes, and if there's even one blade of grass on it, Mr. Landon calls and complains to my dad."
"Seriously?" Briggs asks, like he doesn't believe me.
"Rich people like things to be perfect." I wipe the sweat off my forehead. "You need to go."
"Do you have another broom?"
I look up at him. "What?"
"Another broom. Do you have an extra?"
"In the truck. Why?"
He takes off, heading to the truck. He's wearing a tight black t-shirt and black track pants. I watch as he pulls the broom out of the truck, his arm muscles flexing. I quickly look away when he turns to walk back. He stops a few feet in front of me and starts sweeping.
"I know you don't believe me," he says. "But Parker's the one who called Calvin. It wasn't me."
"Briggs, I don't want to hear it. If you're just here to tell me more lies—"
"I'm not lying. Parker did it."
I stop sweeping and look at Briggs. "And how do I know you didn't put him up to it?"
"If I was going to do it, I'd do it myself. I wouldn't have Parker do it. You know how he's always fucking everything up." Briggs just started sweeping and already got a few feet of the sidewalk done. At this rate, we'll be done in a few minutes. "I went to see the principal. I told him someone might try to hack into the system."
I keep quiet, deciding not to tell him that Charlotte overheard his conversation with the principal.
"If you don't believe me, ask Principal Perkins." Briggs stops and looks at me. "If I was the one who called Calvin, why would I tell the principal that the system might get hacked? It doesn't make sense."
He's right. It doesn't. So maybe he's telling the truth, but I still don't get why Parker would do this. Is it just because he hates me, or because he wants to get Briggs back on his side?
"So what are you telling me? Are you saying you're over your obsession with being valedictorian?"
He looks down, not answering me.
"Are you or not?"
He blows out a breath. "It's complicated."
"How is it complicated? You either accept that I'm valedictorian or you keep fighting me, hoping I'll give in to your demands. So which is it? And by the way, I'm never giving in to your demands."
"Ella!" I hear my dad yell.
I turn back and see him coming around to the front of the house, his eyes on Briggs.
"Hello, Mr. Quinn," Briggs says.
My dad looks down at the broom in Briggs' hand. "I don't remembering hiring a new crew member."
Briggs smiles. "I was just helping Ella out."
"How did you know we were here?" I ask Briggs.
"I remembered you saying how much you hate Wednesdays because every Wednesday you have to work here and sweep for hours and how it hurts your back."
My dad glances at me, probably wondering why I never told him that.
"I appreciate the help," he says to Briggs, "but technically you're not an employee and I'm not allowed to have non-employees doing the work. I'm sure you understand."
"Yeah, okay." Briggs walks back to the truck to drop off the broom.
"Nice job, though," my dad says, admiring Briggs' section of the sidewalk.
"Thanks," Briggs says, walking back to us.
"Is that the first time you ever used a broom?" I ask Briggs.
"Yeah, I think so." He gets his phone out and checks it. "I should get going. I'll see you tomorrow, Ella." He goes past me to his Porsche.
"What was that about?" my dad asks as Briggs drives off.
"He wanted to tell me something."
"It must've been important if he showed up while you were working. Did you tell him he had to help sweep?"
"No. He just did it. I think he thought I'd listen to him if he helped out."
My dad turns to me. "I know I've asked you this before, but what's going on with you and Briggs? Are you two seeing each other?"
"No," I say with a laugh. "Could you seriously see me with Briggs?"
"Actually, I could," he says, wiping his hands on the rag he keeps in his pocket. "You're both smart. Get good grades. You seem to get along okay."
"It depends on the day. Some days we can't stand each other."
"From the way you were looking at him, I'd say today wasn't one of those days."
"What do you mean? I wasn't looking at him. I was sweeping."
"Okay," he says with a slight smile.
"Dad, I'm telling you, Briggs and I are just friends, not even that."
"He seems to show up a lot for someone who isn't a friend."
"Only because we have to do assignments together."
"It seems like more than that to me. I was once a young man and I know what it means when a young man keeps showing up at your door."
"It means he has a question about the assignment," I say, rolling my eyes. "What are you implying? That I should be friends with Briggs? I thought you didn't like him."
"I don't like his father. I haven't made a decision about his son. But I do like seeing my daughter smile more."
"That isn't because of Briggs. It's because I'm almost done with high school. I'm counting the days until it's over."
"It's not just that. There's something else behind that smile."
"So what's going on with you and Susan?" I ask, changing the subject. I don't want to talk about Briggs, and he is not the reason I'm smiling more. I don't even think I am. My dad probably just said that to see if I'd admit that I have feelings for Briggs.
"I was hoping to talk about that later," my dad says.
"Talk about what?"
"Let's finish up. We'll talk when we get home."
"I don't want to wait. Just tell me now."
He pauses. "I'd like to give Susan a key to the house."
"Our house?"
"Yes. I know we won't have it for much longer, but there are times when I'm late getting home from work and she's stuck waiting outside."
"I can let her in."
"You're not always home when she's there. Ella, if this makes you uncomfortable, I won't do it. It's just that she gave me a key to her place and I feel like it's time she had a key for ours."
"Do you really want her to be alone at our house? What if she takes something?"
He smiles. "She works at the police department. I think we can trust her not to steal from us."
I try to think if there's anything she could find that would link me to the hit-and-run, but I can'
t come up with anything. Even if there was something, it'd be in my room, which she wouldn't be going in.
"I'm okay with it," I say.
"Good. I'll give it to her tonight. She's going to stop over after work."
"How's the case coming? Is she getting closer to catching the person?"
"I think so. She has someone working on the video from the gas station camera. As it is now, it's too blurry to see the faces of the people who were making the call at the pay phone, but apparently they can fix it to make it clearer."
"I didn't know they could do that," I say, suddenly panicking. If they fix that video, Susan will see it's me standing by the pay phone, and Briggs making the call.
"They can do all sorts of things," my dad says, taking the broom from me.
"Dad, I can do that," I say as I watch him sweep.
"I'll do it," he says, moving to a new section. "Why didn't you tell me this hurt your back?"
"Because then you wouldn't let me work. It's not that bad. I just get sore after sweeping for hours. The sidewalks here go on forever, and then I have to sweep the porch and the patio and the stones by the garden."
"I'll finish this up. You go ahead and go home."
"Dad, I'm fine. Just let me do it."
"I'll see you at home."
Why did Briggs have to tell my dad what I said about my back? Now my dad will hire someone to help me, or maybe not let me work here at all.
Briggs shouldn't have shown up here. He's determined to prove to me he didn't make that call to Calvin, and I think I believe him, but it doesn't matter if he's still determined to be valedictorian. I'm not giving it up, no matter how much he pressures me, so what's he going to do? How's he going to get what he wants?
Chapter Eleven
Briggs
This morning I got to school early to talk to Coach. He says he wants to go over plays from last week's game, but that's just an excuse to get me to show up. The real reason we're meeting is so he can lecture me about how I need to step up during practice and lead the team. I haven't done it because I've been preoccupied with all the other shit going on in my life. The hit-and-run. My parents' divorce. And Ella.
Ella takes up most of my thoughts. When I'm not thinking about how much I want to be with her and hold her and have her in my bed, I'm thinking about how to take the valedictorian title from her without hurting her. I don't think it's possible. I'd rather just let her have it. It would mean not getting the car when I graduate, which takes away the money I would've gotten for it, but I could get by without the money. I'd have to put off college and get a job, but maybe that wouldn't be so bad. I haven't figured out what I want to do with my life, so maybe taking a year or two off would be good. It'd give me time to explore my options.
But I can't let Ella be valedictorian. If she is, my father will destroy her. He'll find a way to keep her out of college and keep her from getting a job. He'll go after her dad's business and get it shut down. My father won't care that it's not Ella's fault I'm not valedictorian. He doesn't think that way. He only thinks about what he wants, and how to tear down the people who stand in his way. And if he doesn't get the outcome he wants? He uses revenge to make himself feel better. He makes the person who took what he wanted the enemy and he destroys them.
"Stop it right now!" I hear Ms. Higgins say as I turn to go down the hall. She's standing between Jason, one of the guys on the rugby team, and Donovan, one of the tech geeks.
"I swear I didn't see him," Jason says to Ms. Higgins, a smirk on his face. "I came around the corner and my arm must've swung out just as he was passing me." He looks at Donovan. "Tell her. Tell her that's how it happened."
Donovan doesn't respond.
Ms. Higgins turns to Jason, her hands on her hips. "You expect me to believe you were walking around with your hand in a fist and just happened to swing it up and hit Donovan in the face?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying," Jason says, trying not to laugh.
"I have had enough of this!" Ms. Higgins says. "Hitting a fellow student for your own amusement will not be tolerated. I don't care if you're on the rugby team and have friends who support this behavior. I will be talking to Principal Perkins about this, and if I see this happening again, you will get detention and possible suspension."
"Yeah, whatever," Jason says. "Can I go now?"
"Yes, but I better not see this behavior again."
Jason goes down the hall, smiling when he sees me. "Hey, man. You meeting with Coach?"
"Yeah. In a minute."
"I got called into his office too. I think he's gonna yell at me for being late to practice."
Ms. Higgins glances at us, then shakes her head and goes in her classroom. I don't know where Donovan went. He must've gone down the other hall.
"What was going on with you and Donovan?" I ask Jason.
"The fucker gave me a dirty look so I punched him."
"Did Ms. Higgins see it?"
"No, but she heard the idiot making noise when I hit him and came out of her classroom to see what was going on. I hate that bitch. She's like an older version of Trailer Girl, all prim and proper, always following the rules."
Ella isn't prim and proper, at least not with me. She let me do things to her I never thought she'd let me do, and I get the feeling she'd be up for more if we were still together. Now I'm getting turned on. It happened yesterday too when I went to see her at work. Her hair was up in a messy ponytail and she was wearing cut-off shorts with a tight tank top that showed off her tits. There was a trickle of sweat running into her cleavage that I couldn't stop staring at. I had to get the broom and start sweeping to get my cock to settle down.
"I gotta get going," Jason says, walking off. "See you at practice."
I go to the coach's office, and as expected, he yells at me for not leading the team. As team captain, he thinks I should be doing all this shit I'm not doing, and he's probably right, but I don't want to do it. I'm sick of rugby, sick of my teammates, sick of having to go to team parties and pretend to like everyone there. I don't think I'd feel this way if it weren't for the accident. It changed me, and so did Ella. I no longer feel like the guy who went out with his friends to get weed that night. From the moment I saw that man lying in the road, something changed in me. I'm not even sure who I am anymore.
After Coach is done yelling at me, I go to class, getting there early so I can study for the test we have today. I get my phone out to text Ella about what I saw in the hallway this morning, but then decide not to put that in a text. I'll have to tell her later, but it needs to be in private and I don't think she'll meet me behind the bleachers again. I can't tell if she's still pissed at me or not. She didn't seem too happy to see me yesterday when I showed up at her job.
Why am I trying so hard with her? I'm supposed to be getting her to hate me. I should've just let her believe I was trying to hack into her grades, so why didn't I?
The day goes by and I don't get a chance to talk to Ella about Ms. Higgins, but I really think she's the one who was there that night. She's on a mission to take down bullies and she knows I'm one of them, along with Finn and Parker. She's never caught us doing it, but she knows our reputation. Everyone does, which is why they fear us and why we have power.
"Briggs!" my dad yells as soon as I walk in the door. I did a shorter workout at the gym so I could get home and finish a paper that's due tomorrow. It's just after seven and I was hoping my dad was still at work.
"I need to study," I tell him as he comes up to me, a drink in his hand.
"I want to kill that bitch!"
Fuck, did he find out about Ella? How? When?
"Did you know your mother is spreading rumors about me?"
So this is about my mom, not Ella.
"What rumors? What's she saying?"
"She's telling people I was too harsh to her during our marriage," he huffs. "Too harsh? By giving her everything she could ever want?" He swigs his drink. "If she were here, I'd kill her! I'd strang
le her with my own two hands!"
"Dad, don't say that. You wouldn't do that to Mom. You're just angry and saying things you don't mean."
Actually, I think he really would kill her if he was angry enough, and drunk.
"If this is how it's going to be, I'll tell stories about her too. People are already on my side in this divorce, saying what a fool she was to leave." He takes another drink.
"How do you know she's spreading rumors?"
"Are you calling me a liar?" he says, getting in my face.
"No." I step back. "I was just asking."
He glances at my laptop bag. "How was school?"
"It was okay."
"How are your grades?"
"Good. I got the highest grade on the AP Chem exam I took last week."
He turns and walks the other way. "Why would she do this? Why would your mother say such horrible lies about the man who cared for her all those years?" He whips back to face me. "Why, Briggs? Why would she do that?"
"I don't know."
He narrows his eyes at me. "Is this because of you? Did you put her up to this?"
"What? No. Why would I—"
"You did, didn't you?" he says, stalking toward me. "You've been feeding her stories about me. Lies. Telling her I'm a horrible father!"
"Dad, I swear I'm not doing that. I never even talk to Mom."
He throws his glass against the wall, shattering it. "Then why is she doing this?" He grabs my shirt and shakes me. "Tell me, Briggs! Why?"
The liquor on his breath is so strong I feel like I could get drunk just being next to him. His tie is off, his shirt is wrinkled, and he stinks like cologne and sweat. He's a mess. He's probably been drinking for hours.
"I don't know," I say, my heart pounding. I've never seen my father this angry. It can't just be my mom making him like this. There has to be something else going on. "Can I go upstairs? I have a paper to finish."
He leans into my face, his eyes on mine. "Why would your mother say these things? Tell me, Briggs!"
"I don't know," I say, hearing my voice shake. "I really don't."
His lips turn up just slightly. "She said I was too harsh with you too. Why would she tell people such a thing? How would she even know?"
"I didn't tell her anything. I swear."