Undercover Badge; Next Generation

Chapter nine

CHAPTER NINE

"You have plenty to be sorry for? What does that man have to be sorry for? Of all you could have said-Oh. My. God. Matthew Cavalier - Mathew freakin' Cavalier talked to you! - And you said he has plenty to be- No. NO. I am sorry. It is I who is sorry. You, you should be sorry too- Oh My God! MATTHEW CAVALIER!" Ingrid was pacing back and forth in front of me, her hands flying around her face as she ranted in disjointed sentences. We were at our picnic table. I had my feet on the chair and my ass on the table, elbows to knees and my chin in my hands.
"He's not that great, Ingrid." I regretted it before I'd finished the sentence. She stopped, turned her head and stared with a gaping mouth.
Her hands suddenly latched onto my shoulders and she shook me back and forth hard with nails digging into my skin.
"N-oh-ot Ah-agai-een!" I coughed out during the process and managed to jerk myself out of her grasp with a scowl.
"Not great?" she mimicked. Suddenly she grabbed a hold of her boobs over her button down blouse.
"No. These A-cups are 'not great.' Those sneakers are 'not great.' Matthew Cavalier is great." she informed me.

"I don't know, Ing. The dude had some serious problems, okay? He scares the shit out of me." I muttered. She stopped with her scowl.
"What?" suddenly her words were concerned and she stepped closer. "Why?"

So I told her.

"Look, freshman year I was at this party. You know the cheerleaders liked me back then-" she snorted. "-so I was still sort of, I don't know, the in crowd. I don't know, up to that point I didn't even really think about Him. We'd all been forced to listen to Jordan sing his stupid praises. You've heard about Jordan, right?" I asked.
"From what I've heard, the chick that socially crucified you?" Ingrid straddled the bench to my left and looked up at me.

"Yeah. Anyway a big part of being her minions meant hanging on to very word she said about him. Shit, she could talk." I rubbed my eyes hard with the heels of my hands. I'd been too young to hear that type of conversation. I blamed that for stripping away a lot of my innocence, my belief in the world. No fourteen year old girl should have been exposed to that- the way Jordan spoke about sex was enough to damn her for eternity. At the time I wasn't ready to hear it, and at the time I didn't own the strength of character to know I shouldn't.

"Trust me, the girl was sick. She loved forcing that shit into our heads and most of us didn't know anything about it anyway. Whatever, the point is I only knew of him by reputation, and I'd seen him. I used to think he was cute, but I was fourteen and he was eighteen and I literally watched him take down guys, like, three times my size without breaking a sweat on the football field- that was already enough to scare me, dude." I sighed and she nodded, knowing I needed to think for a second.
"But the whole thing is about his attitude. I never ever saw emotion from him- he was the blankest slate you could ever see. He looked at everything like he was bored. He looked through you like you meant nothing. But anyway, so we were at that party; fourteen year old girls being forced margaritas, tequila and wine coolers and being pawed off to eighteen year old guys to whom we totally meant nothing- never mind, sorry. So I was standing there and this jock gave me rum and coke. I was one of the only sober people, you know me, I don't really drink but I was acting how I was supposed to. I was hanging on jocks and giggling and stupid shit like that." I pushed my hair all back over my shoulders and cracked my neck left and right.

"So, all of a sudden we hear this huge bang upstairs. See the staircase is like, on the left and when you came down it you're in the lounge and over some couches there were patio doors." I was using my hands to explain the floor plan.
"We all looked up the staircase and there's Matthew at the top and he's got this guy by the neck and he literally threw the guy down the stairs. So he walks down, but slow and calm." I looked to the sky and tried to shake off the feeling.
"He got to the bottom and WAITED for the dude to get up, right, but as he does, this kid swings at Matthew, but he totally missed and starts to fall but on his way own Matthew kicks him in the face. The dude rolls onto his back, right, and stars coughing. His nose is broken there's blood everywhere...." I swallowed, and looked at Ingrid.
"And this guy, he looks right at me. Of everything in the room, he looks at me. So the dude rolls over onto his stomach and he just...." I sighed and gritted my teeth.