Chapter Five
“Promise me you’ll at least be nice to him” I say to Alex the next morning on our way to school concluding a conversation we just had about Tristan.
He sighs “I promise.”
We arrive at school a few minutes later and head to homeroom. We take our seats as quickly as we can because we’re already late, but I can’t help but take a glance around the room.
No Tristan.
Maybe he’s just late, I think to myself.
But, at the end of class, there’s still no sign of him.
That, unfortunately, is not the worst part of my day. Everywhere I go people are whispering to each other and glancing my way. What the hell is that about? I ask myself. Then I hear a fragment of a conversation.
“……Kim….. what a whore. Can you believe her?”
I keep walking thinking I heard wrong but I keep in mind to listen for anything else.
Then I hear, “About time Kim got caught, she’s such a slut, how long did she think she could hide it?” one of Kim’s so called ‘friends’ says. I’m about to walk up to her and give her a piece of my mind when someone pulls me into an empty class room. Before I can scream I hear Jason’s familiar voice in my ear.
“Calm down, it’s just me.”
“What the hell? God, you scared the crap out of me.”
He ignores my statement. “Mikayla, what the fuck are all these people talking about? Everywhere I go I hear people calling Kim a whore and a slut and something about bleachers. What’s going on?”
Dammit! Now I have to be the one to tell him.
“I didn’t want to say anything. I thought she was going to be the one to tell you.”
“Tell us what?”
“Yesterday, when she said she got in trouble for getting into a fight, she lied. She got in trouble for PDA.” I say quietly looking intently at the floor.
“WHAT?!?! Kim?!?! Are you fucking serious?!?!” Damn, when I imagined him getting mad about this I wasn’t expecting him to be this furious. “What the hell was she thinking? WAIT! Who did she get caught with?”
Crap! That’s the question I was hoping he wouldn’t ask, but I can’t lie to him now, that’ll just make things worse.
“Tyler Williams.”
If I thought he was furious just a minute ago he’s completely enraged now.
“Tyler?” he hisses through his teeth. I’ve never seen him this angry before, but I guess I can understand why. Jason HATES Tyler, almost as much as Alex does. Tyler and Jason have been enemies since the second grade, right after Alex and I became friends. They were competing in some competition and Tyler cheated and won. Jason, though, would’ve won fairly, but no one saw Tyler cheat except Jason and a couple other people, myself included. When Jason tried to call him out on it they both got into this huge fight.
They’ve hated each other ever since.
I simply nod, not wanting to say anything in case it sets him off even more. He makes a sound between a growl and scream and punches the wall next to him. He comes up to me and grabs my shoulders, “How come you didn’t tell me?” He yells in my face.
“It-it wasn’t my thing to tell.”
“It doesn’t matter Mikayla, you’re supposed to tell us. This isn’t something that you can help her cover up! This is a big deal! It’s already around the school that she’s a whore! What the hell were you thinking?”
I’m getting mad now, “This isn’t my fault! I didn’t tell her to do it. She went and did it by herself, so why the hell are you here yelling at me when I wasn’t the one who did anything!”
His eyes widen in shock at my outburst and he lets go of my shoulders as if he just came back to reality. “I’m sorry,” he says “I didn’t mean to yell at you. You’re right, this isn’t your fault, but you still should have told us.”
“I know I’m sorry. I didn’t think that it would get this bad.”
“I’m gonna kill him.” He says referring to Tyler.
“No, you’re not. One, because he’s not here right now, he got suspended too. Two, if you hurt him you’re going to make this whole situation a lot worse than it already is.”
“We have to do something. Let’s at least tell Ben and Zach. We can’t keep this from them, especially with all the gossip going around school.”
I sigh, “Ok we’ll tell them, but if they blow up, you’re taking the heat. I’ve had enough for one day.”
He gives me a small smile, “Deal” he says holding out his hand.
“You’re such a kid” I say, but shake his hand anyway.
His face gets serious again, “Mikayla, we have to do something about Kim. I had no idea she was doing that kind of stuff, and from the look on your face, you didn’t either. What’s sad is that, from what I’m hearing, everyone else knew. Except us, that’s not really a good sign you know? I really think we have to do something about this.”
“Yeah I know we do. I just don’t know what to do. I’ve never been in this situation before.”
“Me neither. We’ll talk more about this later, we better get back to class.”
“Yeah ok. See ya later Jase.”
“Yeah, see ya.”
We walk out of the class room and into the empty halls to our classes. Halfway there the bell rings, so I turn around and head toward the cafeteria suddenly remembering Tristan. Maybe he’ll be there at lunch, I walk a little faster until I reach the cafeteria and meet Alex next to the doors. We walk inside, buy our lunch, and sit at our usual table.
Still no Tristan. What the heck is wrong with me? I just had a whole ‘thing’ with Jason and all I can think about right now is how Tristan isn’t here.
“Maybe he got sick or something,” Alex says to me taking a bite of his turkey sandwich, “I mean he is human.”
I just nod and start eating my lunch when someone sits down next to me. I look over, hopeful, but it’s not Tristan. It’s just Ben, odd he never sits with us. I’m kind of popular with my brothers today.
“Jason said you have something to tell me?” Ben asks.
Ugh! Jason you traitor! I yell in my head hoping he gets my telepathic message.
“Yeah, there is something we need to tell you, but later ok?”
“Ok, but I have a question.”
I raise my eyebrows inviting him to continue. “Does it have something to do with the gossip going around about Kim?”
I look down at the table and mumble, “Yeah.”
“I thought so. Ok we’ll talk later.” And with that he gets up and walks away.
Alex gives me a look like what-was-that-about, so I tell him about the episode with Jason. When I’m finished he says.
“So Jason was pissed huh? I don’t blame him, Tyler’s such a douche.”
“Yeah but I don’t think this was entirely Tyler’s fault you know? From what I’m finding out, Kim is…….experienced.”
The bell rings and we head off to class.
The rest of the day passes by quickly and before I know it I’m in the car driving home with Alex in the passenger seat and Seth in the backseat.
“So how long is Kim out for?” Seth asks.
“Two weeks” I answer.
“Does anyone else know what she really got caught for?” He asks, ‘everyone’ meaning our siblings.
“Yeah I told Jason today when he harassed me in an empty classroom.”
He laughs at that, his sapphire blue eyes dancing with amusement. I figured out yesterday that Seth knows a lot more about things than he lets on. He knew what really happened with Kim and he also notices that there’s something wrong with Zach. He also brought to my attention that Liam is acting a little strange, I decided that I would watch him and see what he’s talking about. I told Seth that he’s a good right hand spy and that he can help me keep everyone in line. He just laughed and said he would be happy to. That’s Seth for you.
When we get home I run upstairs to make sure Kim is still there, we put her on house arrest this morning. I’m relieved to see that she’s still there, asleep, from what happened today I half expected her to sneak out and go do whatever she does.
I walk out of her room and down to mine where Alex is sitting on my bed with Jason and Ben is sitting at my desk. I look at Jason and he nods towards Ben, telling me I should tell him. I shake my head and indicate that he should tell him. We go back and forth like that for a few minutes in another silent conversation until Ben says, “Will you just tell me what’s going on!”
I sigh and give in. I tell him everything that Jason and I talked about today and what happened yesterday. When I’m done he just stares at me, a mix of disbelief and astonishment written on his features. Finally he speaks, “Are you freaking serious? How come you didn’t tell us yesterday?”
“’Cuz I thought she was going to be mature and tell you the truth, but I was wrong.”
“So that’s what everyone was talking about today.”
“Yeah, and from what we’ve heard this isn’t the first time this has happened. Just the first time she’s ever gotten caught.”
“How is that even possible? She’s only a sophomore. You mean to tell me that she’s been doing this stuff all of freshmen year?”
“Yeah I guess so. That’s what me and Jason think anyways.”
“You know we’re gonna have to tell Zach.”
“Yeah I kinda figured. I don’t want to, he’s not going to take this very well.”
“Maybe we should wait and just the three of us do something about it.”
“Do you think she’d listen to us?”
“Maybe, maybe not. It wouldn’t hurt to try.”
“Yeah I guess you’re right. We’ll wait in telling Zach, but it’d be good to tell her that you and Jason know.”
“Yeah, the three of us can talk to her after dinner.”
“Ok, speaking of dinner, what do u guys want me to tell Rosa to ma-.”
I’m cut off by the doorbell ringing. Ben and I exchange looks and I walk down stairs to answer the door.
I open it to find a very cute guy with dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes standing there with a cocky smile on his face. A lady in her late-forties standing behind him, who I’m guessing is his mom. And behind both of them is…………..
My dad.