The Girlfriend Shield

by S. A. Hunter

“The fact that she laid one finger on you is unacceptable,” he said.

  Noah had been right. I shouldn’t have shown him the video. I thought he’d shrug it off. It hadn’t seemed like a big deal. She was disgraced and that was it.

  “Do you wish to press charges? I’ll be happy to summon the police,” Mr. West said. He’d appeared behind Dad. Damien was with him.

  “No, it’s fine,” I said.

  “That is for your father to decide,” he said.

  “Dad, really, no.”

  “I need to discuss it with your mother.”

  I hated how I wasn’t the one who was making this decision. I was the one who’d been attacked.

  Dad turned and left, presumably to talk to Mom.

  “Don’t worry, Sarah. Your mother will talk him down. There’s no way she’d press charges against that woman.”

  “Why not?” Noah asked.

  I was surprised he wasn’t arguing against the idea. It was his mother we were discussing having arrested.

  “You’re a student of Noble. Charging a parent just isn’t done,” Cora said. There was a touch of sadness in her voice.

  “She assaulted Sarah. It’s on video. There’s nothing to debate,” he said.

  I couldn’t look at him. I was remembering the first day of school. Damien had attacked me, and when my father defended me, he was the one taken into custody. I was sure that was all on video, but it didn’t matter. My father was made to apologize to him.

  “Noah, come to my office and we’ll discuss it,” Mr. West said.

  That hadn’t been a request. He left with Mr. West. Angela, Cora, Damien and I remained.

  “Is today a bad day to see the dolphins?” he asked.

  I’d forgotten that he’d planned it for today.

  “No, I think it’s perfect. I’ll chaperone. Leave all the grown-ups here to do their boring grown-up things,” Cora said.

  I was fully onboard with Cora’s plan. I turned to Angela. She was so excited that she was vibrating.

  “Let’s change into our swimsuits quick and meet back at the front door,” I said.

  Angela tipped over her chair running out of there.

  In fifteen minutes, we were ready to go. I wondered about telling my parents where we were going, but I didn’t want to go near them right then.

  Cora saw I was looking in the direction of their room. “I told them. They said have fun.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Of course. Sarah, they’re not mad at you. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

  “But this isn’t good,” I said.

  “It’ll blow over. Now, do you have a towel? Sunscreen? Fish treats for Flipper?”

  “I’m fresh out of dolphin treats. Do you think we’ll get to feed them?”

  “I’d think so, but we’ll see. This is a wonderful way to spend New Year’s Day.”

  She was right. This was excellent.

  “Are we ready to go? Where’s the car?” Angela asked in a bikini and nothing else.

  “Ang, don’t you want to put on shorts or something?” I asked. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt over my bathing suit.

  “They’ll slow me getting to the dolphins.”

  Damien surprised me by opening the front door from outside. “Is everybody ready?” A gray limousine waited behind him.

  I wasn’t sure where we were going. I’d half-imagined we’d go out on a boat and meet a pod of dolphins, but that wasn’t correct. We went to a resort. The aquatic park was a part of the grounds.

  The limo dropped us off right at the front doors. There was a pair of employees in polo shirts and khaki shorts waiting for us.

  “Welcome West party,” one of the women said.

  Angela hopped out still in only her bikini. “Where are the dolphins?” she demanded.

  The other woman held up her hands. “We’ll get to them. Don’t worry. We first need to fill out a bit of paperwork and get you fitted with life jackets.”

  The next hour was orientation. We filled out waivers. Got our life jackets. Saw a safety video about the park. But eventually, the pair of park employees were ready to take us to one of the dolphin lagoons.

  Angela was on their heels the whole time. She’d been attentive about the safety regulations, and I was sure she wouldn’t do anything to hurt or upset the dolphins, but she was not going to waste a second getting to them.

  We were led to a lagoon and the handler had us wade into the shallows. She taught us the proper way to greet the dolphins and how to pet them. When she was done, it was our turn. It was amazing. We got to swim with them, feed them, and do tricks with them. We spent the whole morning with them, but eventually, our time had to end. I got a little worried if we’d be able to get Angela out of the lagoon without force, but after giving the dolphins farewell kisses she got out of the water. We had lunch at the resort. We opted for simple burgers and fries, but it all tasted better than it should. I think because we were enjoying ourselves so much. The aquatic park had more than just dolphins. After lunch, we were shown different pools. We fed sea turtles and petted stingrays. I would remember that day for the rest of my life. It was a long exhausting day, but worth every minute. As we rode back to the mansion, we were all droopy with exhaustion.

  “I’ve never had a better New Year’s Day,” Cora announced.

  “Yeah, it was amazing. Thanks, Damien,” Angela said.

  Damien and I were sitting together, leaning against each other. Propping each other up actually.

  “Yeah, thanks,” I said.

  “It was fun,” he said.

  “Did you not expect it to be?” I asked half-jokingly.

  He shrugged. “Yeah, a little. I’ve done things like that in the past and didn’t really enjoy them.”

  Angela leaned across the limo to whisper something in his ear. I didn’t catch what she said.

  “Maybe not the right ones,” he replied.

  When we got back to the mansion, I showered and changed out of my swimsuit. I kept expecting someone to appear to summon me, but no one appeared at my door. I went looking for my parents. I had to know what they’d decided about Patricia Nash.

  They were down on the beach, sitting on beach loungers, watching the waves.

  “Hey, honey, how were the dolphins?” Mom asked.

  She and Dad seemed pretty chill. I sat down on the corner of a lounger and looked out at the ocean. “It was amazing. We got pictures.”

  “I can’t wait to see them.”

  “Are you pressing charges?” I asked.

  “No, we decided not to,” Mom said.

  I peered at Dad because he hadn’t said anything during this and realized that he was asleep.

  “Is Dad okay with that?”

  “No, but he’ll get over it. As long as she doesn’t do anything else to you.”

  “Yeah, but she might.”

  “We have the video, but I think she’s getting punished enough by the court of public opinion.”

  “Oh?”

  “They played it on all of the morning talk shows. People are outraged. I believe you’re trending on Twitter.”

  “Oh, great,” I said glumly.

  “Are you hungry?”

  “No. Have you eaten?”

  “We’ve been snacking. Maybe later.”

  Dad stirred. “Hey, kiddo, did you have fun with Flipper?”

  “A ton of fun.”

  “Good. Is it time for dinner?” he asked while taking a big yawn.

  Mom rolled her eyes. “You still haven’t eaten enough today?”

  Dad was still pretty groggy. “It’s dinner time. It’s when we have dinner.”

  Mom helped him get up. “Okay, I guess we can eat something. Do you want to go out or stay here?”

  “Not a vacation if you have to cook,” he said.

  “I don’t mind cooking for my family.”

  Dad stared into space still too out of it to make a firm decision. Mom slipped her arm around his waist and guided him
to the mansion. “You sure you’re not hungry?” she asked me as they walked ahead.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  They went to their room. I saw Noah was in the den. “Hey,” I said.

  “Hey.” He was watching CNN. Or rather he had it on in the background. Most of his attention appeared to be on his phone.

  I waited to see if he said more but he didn’t. I wondered what Mr. West had said to him, but wasn’t sure if it would be polite to ask.

  Damien came looking for me. “Do you want to take a walk on the beach?”

  I liked the idea, but my eyes landed on Noah. ‘You, Angela, and Damien walking down the beach hand-in-hand-in-hand.’ I dismissed the memory of Noah saying that and nodded. “Sounds nice.”

  Noah stood up with me.

  Damien frowned. “What are you doing?”

  Noah held up a finger for him to wait while he continued to tap something out on his phone. I had a suspicion of who he was texting.

  “No one’s gonna be watching us,” I said.

  “That’s what you think. After last night, the paparazzi will be circling us, hoping to cash in further on this story. A love triangle would be a juicy angle.”

  “We ready to go?” Angela asked, coming into the room.

  I’d been right. He’d sent a message to her.

  I looked over at Damien. I knew he hadn’t suggested the walk as a group activity.

  “Do you still want to go?” I asked.

  “He doesn’t have to. I’ll go with you,” Noah said.

  Damien glared at him and headed toward the beach.

  Angela looped her arm with mine and gave it a sympathetic squeeze. “A walk on the beach at sunset is romantic,” she said.

  “Exactly,” Noah said, linking his hand with mine.

  So instead of Damien, I was hand-in-hand-in-hand with Noah and Angela. I didn’t like Noah holding my hand. It didn’t feel natural. I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let go.

  Damien saw my predicament. He stopped and looked ready to pull him away from me. Angela left me to take his arm. “This is nice,” she said in a fake upbeat tone.

  This was definitely not what Damien had envisioned when he invited me to take a walk with him and it wasn’t what I’d agreed to either. I didn’t mind Angela, of course, but Noah’s closeness was making my skin crawl.

  There weren’t a lot of people on the beach. I didn’t see any of these determined paparazzi that he was so sure were following us.

  “Let go,” I said, tugging my hand.

  “Not unless you’re intending to take my arm like Angela has Damien’s.”

  Angela was wrapped around Damien’s arm. It was a very romantic hold. It should surprise me how natural they both made it look, but I knew Angela had plenty of practice with the move. She often took his arm to hold him back from getting into a fight, but she had to hide what she was doing because often people didn’t know how close Damien was to taking a swing at them.

  I sighed and let Noah keep holding my hand.

  Angela let go of Damien and turned around to walk backward. “You know we should just swap boyfriends. I mean all I need is a fake boyfriend and that’s all Noah wants. We can be fake together.”

  “That wouldn’t work,” I hedged. Angela still didn’t know Noah had once had real feelings for her.

  “I know because of Patricia and all, but it makes sense, right?”

  “No, it doesn’t,” he said.

  “Why not?” Angela asked in challenge.

  “Sarah plays better.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “For the narrative, it’s better if it’s Sarah.”

  “So what? It doesn’t have to be Sarah, and she’d be able to have a real relationship with Damien.”

  “I like that idea,” Damien said.

  My cheeks reddened slightly at his ready endorsement.

  “There’s no point discussing it. Sarah’s locked in as my girlfriend. I can’t switch up now.”

  Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

  “Yeah, Sarah is great. She’s smart, she’s kind, she’s got a backbone,” she said.

  “Exactly,” Noah agreed. I could tell she was planning something.

  “And if you say she’s your girlfriend enough maybe it’ll become true.”

  She’d put two and two together and got five.

  “That’s not it, Ang,” I said.

  “Then what is it?” she demanded. “He could’ve dated any girl in the school for real, but he decided he had to fake date YOU.”

  “Ang, it’s okay. It’s not what you think,” I said.

  “How isn’t it?” she asked, clearly not believing me.

  “I decided to fake date Sarah, as you so charmingly put it because I couldn’t really date you. At the beginning of the school year, I thought she’d help me break you and Damien up but that was never going to happen because you two aren’t in a real relationship. And you can’t be in a real relationship with me. The only girl I ever wanted is gay so please excuse me if I’m not ready to date someone else right now.”

  We’d stopped walking as Noah made his confession. He let go of my hand to wipe his eyes. He turned and started heading back alone.

  Damien was the first to start following him.

  Angela came up beside me. “Did you know?”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t feel it was my place to tell you.”

  “He flirted with me, but I’d shut him down pretty hard every time. I didn’t think it’d gone beyond simple attraction.”

  “Oh, he had it for you bad, and Patricia knows.”

  “I’d wondered why you told him, but I figured that if you trusted him, so could I. But it was because he had a crush on me?”

  I winced. “Oh God, no. I didn’t tell him anything. You did inadvertently. You remember the bug at the West Estate?”

  She went still. “He has a recording of that?”

  “Yeah.”

  She turned and stared at me in alarm. I couldn’t hold her gaze. This time she was putting two and two together and getting blackmail.

  We walked back to the mansion in silence. I felt like such a traitor for not telling Angela about Noah’s recording.

  When we reached the mansion, Angela went inside, but Damien called my name from the back garden. I went into the enclosed space and found him under the banyan tree.

  “How’s Noah?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” he said dismissively.

  He was fiddling with something in his hands that I couldn’t see.

  “Sorry about the walk,” I said.

  “Not a big deal.”

  He turned and got down on one knee in front of me. The pose made me immediately uncomfortable. It was too formal and was usually only taken for one reason.

  “Damien, what are you doing?”

  He held out his hand to me. Nervously, I put my hand in his. With relief, I watched him put a flower ring on my finger. I’d been half afraid he’d put a diamond ring on me.

  “Will you marry me?”

  I gasped and jerked my hand back like it was scalded. “That’s not funny!”

  “What does that mean?” he asked.

  He was still kneeling.

  “Stop joking around.”

  “I’m not joking.”

  I waved the hand with the flower ring on it. “Clearly you’re joking. Ha. Ha.”

  “No, I’m not. We love each other. Why shouldn’t we be engaged?”

  “Because we’re only freshmen in high school!”

  “So?”

  “So? We’re too young to get engaged.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says me!”

  “I know we have to keep it secret, but why can’t we be engaged?” he asked again.

  “Because we’re too young,” I repeated.

  “We love each other,” he countered.

  “So?” I said.

  “So? Why shouldn’t we commit to getting married?”

  “Dami
en, I’m not old enough to drive a car yet. How the heck am I old enough to be engaged?”

  “I said we’d keep it secret. Only the two of us need to know.”

  “Why?” I pleaded. How could he seriously be suggesting this? We were not old enough to be thinking about marriage.

  “You don’t think we’ll be together through high school?”

  “It’s not just high school. It’s the rest of our lives! We’re not grownups yet. We shouldn’t be making grownup choices.”

  “You know, for all of your protesting, you sound pretty grown up to me.”

  “Don’t joke about this. We would have to keep this completely secret because no one would be happy about it. My parents would forbid it. I’m sure your parents wouldn’t be thrilled. Everyone would say we’re too young. And they would be right.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know getting engaged to me would be such a terrible idea.”

  “Damien,” I said with a sigh.

  “No, you’re right. I’m an awful human being. Everyone agrees on that. I’m impulsive, violent, with anger management issues. Who would want to marry me?”

  The really mean part of me wanted to say, “Exactly,” but I held my tongue. Instead, I said, “You have known me for four months. That’s not long enough to discuss marriage, and WE’RE TOO YOUNG.”

  His shoulders slumped. Maybe I was finally getting through that thick skull of his. “Just say it.”

  “Say what?”

  “Say you don’t want to marry me.”

  I wasn’t getting through to him. I couldn’t do what he wanted. I couldn’t say yes or no to his proposal because I wasn’t old enough for the question, but trying to explain that to him wasn’t working. And I couldn’t turn to anyone for help. If I told a grown-up, we’d get in trouble. They might even try to separate us and I didn’t want that. I took the flower ring off my finger and held it out to him. “I can’t accept this.”

  “You’re saying it?” He went pale.

  “I don’t want to, but if it’s the only want to get you to drop it, then I will.”

  He snatched the flower ring away and tore it apart. Seeing the petal fragments fall to the ground made me feel sad for some reason. “Say it.”

  “You’re not listening to me.”

  “I am. Right now. Say it.”

  I was too tired to try and explain it to him again. “I don’t want to be engaged to you.”

  He gave me a clipped nod, turned around, and left me alone in the garden.