She removed the covers, still wearing her jeans and blouse from the night before. The room was relatively dark, the clouds dimming the sun. She stood and checked herself in the mirror attached to Rick’s dresser. Her straight brown hair was disheveled, her eye makeup smudged. She went to the attached bathroom, washed her face, and used his hairbrush to make herself a bit more presentable. She found a brand-new toothbrush under the sink and brushed her teeth. She tiptoed into the living room. He slept on the couch, his stocking feet uncovered, a flannel blanket on top but not large enough to fully cover the big man. She kissed him on the cheek, his stubble rough on her lips, but he didn’t stir.
Gwen went to the kitchen and poked around the refrigerator. She removed eggs, bacon, butter, bread, and orange juice. She found plates and pans and glasses in the cabinets. Gwen hummed as she poured a glass of orange juice.
“Good morning,” Rick said.
Gwen jumped and yelped, startled. She turned around. “You scared me.”
Rick stood by the fridge, dark circles around his eyes, wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants. He filled out his shirt nicely, his body bulging in the right places. “Sorry. I heard you in the kitchen.” He paused for a moment. “Did you sleep okay?”
“Yes. Thank you for giving up your bed. You didn’t have to. I could’ve slept on the couch.”
“You don’t want any part of that couch. Trust me.” He bent his torso left and right, his back cracking.
“You could’ve slept next to me. I trust you not to …”
“Take advantage?”
“This is all very new for me. It’s been a long time since I dated.”
Rick nodded. “I understand. No pressure is coming from me. I enjoy being around you. We can take it slow.”
“Thank you.” Gwen paused. “I—”
“There’s something I have to tell you.”
“That’s exactly what I was about to say to you.”
“You first.”
Gwen nodded, her face resigned. “I really do like you, Rick, but …” She took a deep breath.
Rick smirked. “What? Are you married?”
Gwen looked away, her face hot.
“That was just a bad joke. Are you actually married?” Rick asked.
Gwen looked back to Rick. “Technically, yes.”
Rick winced as if he’d been punched in the gut.
“I’ve already signed the divorce papers. It should be final by Christmas.”
Rick sat at the small kitchen table, slumping into a chair. “Do you still love him? Sorry. That’s none of my business. Of course you do. He’s your husband.”
Gwen sat at the table next to Rick. She took his hand. “I do love my husband, but we’ve been separated for three years, and we’re not getting back together. I need to move on. Slowly and cautiously but I do need to move on. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
Rick nodded again. “What happened between you two?”
Gwen swallowed hard. “Our lives went in different directions.”
Rick was quiet, his eyes vacant.
Gwen’s stomach tumbled with the feeling that something was really wrong in Rick’s life, even beyond her marriage revelation. She almost didn’t want to know. “What did you want to tell me?”
Rick blinked, his eyes alert again. “I don’t know how to tell you this.” He ran his hand over his face. He looked tired. “To be honest, I’m terrified. Nobody’s said anything to me about it, but I’m sure people at school have seen it. I wanted to tell you when it happened, but this between us is so new, and I didn’t want this to ruin everything before we even got started. And I thought I was gonna make it go away, but, when the time came for me to do what I was supposed to do, I couldn’t do it.”
“I don’t understand. I’m not following.”
“You know that Facebook page I was telling you about, the West Lake Watchdog? The one that’s always criticizing me?”
“Yes.”
“They posted something really bad about me.”
“I don’t care about what some stupid Facebook page says. I’m not even on Facebook.”
“I had a relationship with Heather Miles.”
Gwen retracted her hand from his. “Caleb Miles’s mother?”
Rick nodded. “Unfortunately. It was stupid. I never should’ve gotten involved with her. I’ve never been involved with a player’s mother before. I ended it about six weeks ago, and the Facebook page started shortly after that.”
“You think Heather Miles is running the page?”
“Along with Janet.”
“Janet?”
“Yeah, I think what Heather posted came from Janet. She’s blackmailing me because she wants me to start Shane—”
“Blackmailing you? With what?”
Rick rubbed his temples for a moment. “She has a picture of me.”
“Doing what?”
“This is gonna sound crazy, but I’m telling you the truth. I swear.”
Gwen crossed her arms over her chest.
“Ashlee Miles broke into my house while I was in the shower. I told her to leave, but she wouldn’t, so I had to remove her. When I opened the door, she kissed me, and I’m pretty sure Janet was there, and she took a picture.”
“Of you kissing Ashlee?” Gwen’s voice went up an octave.
Rick looked away for a moment. “Yeah.”
“Were you naked?”
“I had on a towel.”
Gwen stood from the table. “So, let me get this straight. Ashlee broke into your house?”
“Yes.”
“How did she do that?”
“The door was unlocked.”
“And you just happened to be in the shower?”
“Yes. I know it sounds bad.”
Gwen shook her head. “It’s beyond bad. And they have a picture of you kissing her in your towel.”
“She kissed me.”
“I can’t believe this. I’m so stupid.” She glanced around the kitchen. “Where’s my purse?”
“Gwen, I’m telling the truth—”
“Where’s my purse!”
“On the coffee table.”
Gwen went to the living room and grabbed her purse from the coffee table, Rick on her heels.
“This is what Janet wants,” Rick said. “She wants to ruin me.”
“Did you make up all that stuff about seeing her car that night after the Toad’s Stool?”
“No, she was following us. That was the night she took the picture. She must’ve followed me home from your house.”
“And Ashlee Miles just happened to show up?”
“Yes.”
“Or did you call her because I didn’t put out?”
“I was so happy with our date. I didn’t even think sleeping together was an option—”
“Save it for your lawyer.” Gwen left Rick’s house, slamming the door behind her.
CHAPTER 58
Caleb Ditches
It was overcast and cool, the wind whipping through the drying corn, the brown stalks crackling. Caleb lit the end of his pipe and sucked the meth into his lungs. Shortly thereafter, hidden in the middle of that cornfield, his heart beat rapidly, ecstasy coursing through his veins. The meth made him feel strong, like he could do anything. He opened his backpack and glanced inside. His gun was right where he’d packed it. Caleb shouldered his backpack and continued toward school.
He thought about the look on their faces. The fear. It was time for them to be afraid of him for once. It was time for the world to know what they did.
As he approached the school, beat-up cars and trucks drove too fast into the parking lot. Yellow buses lined the front entrance. Kids, zombie-eyed from the weekend, barely awake, with backpacks strapped to their backs, trudged into school. Girls, gossiping in packs, walked inside like they owned the place. Big boys walked slowly, hogging the sidewalk, causing the smaller and the less cool to walk around.
But they all went inside, as if they didn’t ha
ve a choice, as if it wasn’t even a consideration. Sheep. Fucking sheep. That’s what I’ve done my whole life. Caleb stopped in his tracks, the realization smacking him across the face.
I have a choice.
Fuck these people. Fuck this place. My life is gonna end up in the same place regardless. I might as well do whatever the fuck I want. Caleb turned on his sneakers and walked back home. Fortunately, his mother wasn’t there. She didn’t come home last night, which wasn’t out of the ordinary. She’s probably with some dickwad who she met at the gym.
He lay on his bed, too wired from the meth to go back to sleep. He thought about how he’d ditched school. He had felt powerful making his own decision. In that moment, he was more powerful than every kid in school. He had had the courage to do what he wanted. He thought about what he had to do. His Holy Grail. Soon.
CHAPTER 59
Rick and That God-Awful Picture
On Monday morning, Rick walked into the locker room for his first-period PE class. He was on time but barely. He hadn’t slept well, then slept through his alarm. He had felt nauseated on his way to school, wondering how he’d be treated by his coworkers. By Janet? Principal Pruitt? A middle-aged man stood in the locker room with a clipboard, the roll call attached. Kids were already changing quietly. They were always subdued in the morning.
“Can I help you?” Rick asked the man.
“I’m the substitute,” the man replied.
Did they think I wasn’t coming? “Are you sure you’re in the right place?”
“Pretty sure. Are you Mr. Barnett?”
“Yeah.”
“Principal Pruitt told me to send you to his office if you showed up.”
“Why wouldn’t he call me?” Rick asked more to himself than the sub.
The man shrugged.
Rick left the locker room, remembering that, after Gwen left, he’d turned off his phone and vowed not to open his laptop. He thought, if he ignored everything, it might go away. Rick hurried to the office.
“Good morning, Grace,” Rick said as he entered the main office.
The old secretary looked up from her laptop and looked back down without a word, one side of her mouth raised in disgust.
Rick walked to Pruitt’s office and knocked on his door.
“Come in,” Principal Pruitt said.
Rick stepped inside.
“Close the door. Sit down.” Pruitt motioned to the chairs in front of his desk.
Rick shut the door and sat across from Pruitt, his heart pounding in his chest. “Why do I have a sub? I was a little late, but I made it before the bell.”
Principal Pruitt wagged his head. “It’s not about that, Rick. You might wanna get your union rep in here.”
“I’m not in the union.”
Pruitt removed the upside-down picture from his in-box and turned it over. It was the same picture that Janet had showed him. Rick, wearing nothing but a towel, kissing Ashlee at his front door. It looked like a good-bye kiss after an intimate affair.
“I can explain,” Rick said. “Janet’s blackmailing me. She’s pissed that I benched Shane. She followed me after the Garden Grove game. The Friday before last. I went out for drinks with Gwen Townsend, and Janet followed us to the Toad’s Stool.”
“Did Gwen see her following you?”
Rick shook his head. “No, but I know it was her. I was pulled over by a cop on suspicion of a drinking and driving—”
“I don’t need to hear this,” Pruitt said, putting his hand up like a stop sign.
“I wasn’t drinking and driving. I only had two beers. I passed the breathalyzer. You can probably call the police. They might tell you that Janet was the one who called them. She was trying to get me in trouble. I dropped off Gwen at her house, and, when I went home, I saw Janet’s car.”
“Where was her car?”
“She passed by right when I turned into my neighborhood.”
“Are you certain it was her? Did you see her?”
“I saw a blue BMW.”
“But you didn’t see her.”
“No.”
Pruitt frowned. “Go on. Explain how you ended up in this god-awful picture.”
“I went home, and I took a shower, and Ashlee Miles broke into my house while I was in the shower. I left the front door unlocked, but I didn’t invite her.”
Pruitt nodded, his beady eyes narrowed. “Go on.”
“I asked her to leave. Told her that I was gonna call the cops if she didn’t. Then she threatened me. Said she’d tell the cops that I invited her in and that I took off all my clothes in front of her. I was pissed, and I was in a no-win situation, so I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her from my room. She got the message and walked on her own to the front door. I had to reach around her to open the door, and, when I did, she kissed me. That’s when Janet took the picture. But a split second afterward, I pushed Ashlee away and slammed the door in her face.”
Principal Pruitt sat silent for a moment, his jaw taut.
Rick tried to fill the silence. “I’m telling the truth, Don. There has to be pictures of me pushing her away. I swear on my mother’s grave.”
“Don’t do that,” Pruitt said, shaking his head. “There are no pictures of you pushing the girl away.”
“Janet destroyed them then—”
“Stop. I’m a nice guy. You know that, but I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday. First of all, Janet didn’t give me the picture. Second, do you really expect me to believe that Janet was waiting out front of your house to take some picture of you kissing Ashlee in a towel? What are the chances that she just happened to be there? I think it’s more likely you’ve been doing this for quite some time, and you finally got caught.”
“Don, I swear—”
“Shut up, Rick. You’ve put this school district in one heckuva bad position. People are talking about it on Facebook. You’re lucky they haven’t posted the picture.” Pruitt paused for a beat. “I can’t guarantee that Ashlee’s parents won’t press charges. You could end up in prison.”
Rick hung his head and rubbed his temples. “What am I supposed to do?”
“That’s for you to decide, but, as of now, you’re suspended, pending the investigation. I suggest you get a lawyer.”
Rick swallowed the lump in his throat. “What happens next?”
“We’ll investigate. We have a tentative hearing scheduled for next Tuesday the eleventh. I suggest you be there with your lawyer. It’ll be there that we decide whether or not to initiate termination proceedings.” Principal Pruitt leaned forward, his elbows on his desk, glaring at Rick. “If we find evidence of a crime in our investigation, we’ll have to hand that information over to the police.”
“Even if I did kiss her, technically that’s not a crime.”
Pruitt shook his head. “That’s the only reason the police aren’t here right now. If we find evidence that you had sexual relations with that girl, you better believe your job’ll be the least of your worries.”
“Did you talk to Ashlee? She has issues, but I can’t imagine she’d lie about this.”
“We’ll talk to her and her parents. In the meantime, don’t be stupid, Rick. Stay away from the girl. During your suspension, you are not allowed contact with any students or to be on campus for any reason whatsoever. That includes extracurricular activities. I better not see you anywhere near the football team. Coach Schneider will take over as interim head coach. Any questions?”
Rick shook his head, his eyes cast down.
Principal Pruitt stood from his chair and motioned to the door. He wore a sweater with a leaf pattern in a band across his chest. Very festive. His face told a different story. This debacle had already taken its toll. His beady eyes were bloodshot, and his ruddy face was especially blotchy. The stocky principal escorted Rick like an expelled student, neither man saying a word. Thankfully, classes were in session, so the halls were empty.
Rick glanced into Gwen’s door window as they walked
past her classroom. The sight of her standing and smiling at her students, as if nothing had happened, as if Rick had meant nothing, was the straw that almost broke his back. He hadn’t cried since his mother had died, but he almost lost it, right then, right there.
In the parking lot, Rick opened the door to his truck. He turned to Principal Pruitt. “I didn’t do this.”
Pruitt crossed his arms over his barrel chest. “It sure looks like you did.”
CHAPTER 60
Janet and Bob’s Lucky Day
Janet waltzed into Bob Schneider’s classroom. It was a somber affair, the desks orderly, the walls mostly barren. Bob stood by his desk. He shoved his keys into his pocket and shut his laptop.
He glanced at Janet as she approached. Barely making eye contact, he said, “I’m headed to lunch.”
Janet slithered within touching distance. “Lunch can wait.” You could stand to skip a few meals.
His voice quivered. “Please, Principal Wilcox. I tried. I really did. I’m not even calling the plays anymore. I have a baby. My wife stays home. If I lose my job, we’re screwed.” His eyes brimmed with tears. He hung his head.
Janet smiled wide. “Then this is your lucky day.”
He looked up tentatively, like a soldier peering out of a foxhole.
“I think congratulations are in order.”
Bob glanced side to side, shifty-like, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“You haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
“Rick’s been suspended. You’re the new head football coach. Congratulations.”
He smiled small, still waiting for the strings. “Why was he suspended?”
“That’s confidential, but I will tell you that it’s serious, and I don’t think he’s coming back. It’s your team now. Pruitt wanted to interview for the job, but I told him that you were the brains behind the operation.”
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