Being popular was the one thing that kept Rory from being unremarkable. Jeremy could easily take that away from her. She’d seen the way he’d turned others into social outcasts, practically dictating whether others should like or scorn them. As she charged toward him looking every part the bit of the brave hero, Rory knew her entire high school experience and reputation were on the line.
But all she could focus on was the look of terror on Troy’s face as Jeremy towered over him menacingly, threatening to break his glasses and his face. Was that how Grace had felt at the end, scared and isolated? The thought broke Rory’s heart.
“Hey!” she screamed at Jeremy, venom in her voice. “Jeremy!”
He turned around.
In retrospect, that very instant would be a catalyst in Rory’s life.
CHAPTER 10
A big, dumb grin spread over Jeremy’s broad face as he laid eyes on Rory.
“Hey!” he called out, seemingly oblivious to the disgust in her voice. “Look at this loser,” he guffawed, jerking his head in Troy’s direction. “I told him his stupid shoes were so ugly they were offensive, so now I’ve rid him of the problem, hahaha! But you know what?” Jeremy added, turning to look at the cowering nerd. “I don’t like his glasses either.”
Rory glanced at Troy and felt sick. He looked like he might throw up at any moment, his slight frame pressed against the brick wall as though he was trying to sink into it and disappear. His eyes darted around nervously and Rory knew what he was thinking. He was trying to calculate whether he’d be able to make a run for it…but they both knew there was no escaping Jeremy Beal.
“Jeremy, can I talk to you for a second?” Rory asked, hoping to distract him without making a big scene. “It’s important…”
The brutish bully shook his head, hell bent on terrorizing Troy. “Just wait,” he said dismissively, taking a menacing step toward the shaking, bespectacled young man. “We can talk in a minute. First I have to take care of this little twerp.”
“But Jeremy…”
He ignored Rory. Addressing Troy, he demanded, “Give me your glasses.”
Troy was almost as tall as Jeremy – Rory guessed they were both close to six feet. But while Jeremy was solid, all muscle under a layer of fat, Troy was thin and fragile looking, with pale skin and scrawny limbs. There was no way he was a match for the football player who’d earned himself a reputation as a violent beast on the field.
“I can’t see without my glasses,” Troy said timidly. Rory was surprised by how deep his voice was and then, with some guilt, realized she wasn’t sure she’d ever even spoken to him before.
“I said give them to me!” Jeremy screamed so loudly that he sprayed spit on the glasses in question. There was such rage in his voice that it made Rory jump. She cast a nervous look over her shoulder to ensure that Rebecca was still recording.
The fear Rory felt was mirrored on her sister’s face. As Jeremy’s temper flared, Rory saw Rebecca grab for the handle of the door. Rory adamantly shook her head, not wanting Rebecca to subject herself to whatever was about to happen.
Rory hadn’t been able to save Grace, but she was determined to keep her sister out of harm’s way even if it destroyed her in the process.
Frantically, Troy fumbled with his glasses, trying to get them off before Jeremy beat him to a pulp. He nearly dropped them because his hands were shaking so badly. As he handed them to the big dumb jock he begged, “Please don’t break them.”
A slow sneer spread across Jeremy’s face as he appeared to have a brilliant idea. Well, brilliant by his standards, that is. He turned his attention back to Rory, looking at her with a gleam in his eye that made her stomach churn.
“Oh don’t worry buddy,” Jeremy said to Troy although his eyes never left Rory’s face. “I’m not going to break your dorky little glasses. Rory here is going to take care of that, aren’t you Rory?”
Her eyes widened as Jeremy thrust the glasses toward her. “Jeremy, what the…?”
“Take them,” he growled predatorily.
Reluctantly, Rory took the glasses from them, holding them gingerly so as not to damage them. “Jeremy, this is getting out of hand,” she told him, her free hand on her hip in a display of defiance. Although she appeared self-assured, she took an instinctive step back. “I’m not breaking Troy’s glasses. Let’s just go, okay?”
He scowled at her, obviously displeased with her response. “I thought you were cool, Rory. But you’re no different than that bookworm sister of yours, are you? What’s her name, Rachel? It’s a shame…she’s got a hot little body but she hangs out with this chess club loser? I bet he wouldn’t even know what to do with a tight little –”
“Shut up!” Rory yelled, cutting him off. The way Jeremy was talking about her sister was revolting and she couldn’t stand to listen to another minute of it.
“No one even likes you, Jeremy! You push people around and act like you’re funny but no one except you thinks it’s cool. Everyone’s just too scared to tell you what an ass you are but you know what? Screw that. I’ll tell you. Jeremy, you’re an ass! No one cares about any of the dumb nonsense that comes out of your big mouth so just shut up!”
Although her body was trembling, her voice was clear and strong. Giving Jeremy a piece of her mind felt good even though Rory knew the consequences of doing so would be dire. She might not be good at academics or sports, but at least she was no longer afraid to take a stand. It felt empowering.
The look on Jeremy’s face was one of pure shock. Clearly no one had ever stood up to him before. For a moment it looked as though he was stunned, unsure of how to react. Then his eyes narrowed and he advanced on Rory, grabbing her roughly by the arm. “You just made the biggest mistake of your life, bitch,” he snarled menacingly.
Rory braced herself, expecting Jeremy to hit her or spit in her face or...something. Whatever he had planned, she was resigned to the fact that it would be bad. Even so, she had no regrets about intervening. She only hoped Troy would be able to get away.
Just then a well-placed punch caused Jeremy’s head to jerk backward and he lost his grip on Rory’s arm. She whirled around just in time to see Carson, hair still wet from his after practice shower, tackle Jeremy, effortlessly taking him to the ground.
“What the hell are you doing, man?” Carson yelled as he got his teammate in a headlock. Carson was well built and fit as hell, but Jeremy must have had eighty pounds on him. Had Carson not had the element of surprise working in his favor, there was a pretty good chance Jeremy could have wiped the floor with him.
But Carson’s anger seemed to give him superhuman strength. The blatant display of unbridled testosterone was actually pretty hot, Rory had to admit. Or at least it would have been had the situation not been so tense and volatile.
She took a step back out of harm’s way and watched in horrified awe as the violent scene unfolded before her very eyes. She was dimly aware of Rebecca joining her but was too preoccupied with the drama to even glance in her sister’s direction.
“If I ever see you touch Rory – or anyone – ever again, you’ll be sorry,” Carson snarled as Jeremy flailed about on the ground like a beached whale. “Got that?” It was the angriest Rory had ever seen him.
She was afraid for Carson. Both of the football players were absolutely irate. She didn’t particularly care what Carson did to Jeremy – if he caused an injury, she reasoned it would be well-deserved. But if Jeremy managed to break free of Carson’s ironclad grip, then it would be like a bull in a china shop: a disaster.
Frantically, she looked around for something, anything, to use to defend Carson if need be. There was nothing. All she could do was stand over the two young men wringing her hands and hoping the star football player didn’t get hurt.
She held her breath, willing Carson to be safe, afraid to even move. When Jeremy managed to get a hand free and hit his opponent in the face, she shrieked in alarm. Beside her, she heard Rebecca inhale sharply.
&nbs
p; “Stop right there!”
When Rory turned and saw Clive Jackson running toward them in his police uniform, the sense of relief she felt was immense. Carson looked up and did a double take when he saw a cop advancing on him. To his credit, he was able to reel in his anger and release Jeremy.
Jeremy, of course, didn’t have the good sense or the restraint to do the same. The second he was free he immediately lunged at Carson’s legs, knocking him to his knees. Then the violent bully flipped him over, pinned him to the ground and began to pummel his face.
Rory screamed and started toward the scuffling footballers. She didn’t know what she was planning to do – her petite frame would be no match for the two furious athletes. But she had to do something before Jeremy really hurt Carson!
“Get back,” Clive ordered, pushing Rory aside. He was completely professional and on task just as any good cop would be, but she saw the look of fatherly concern in his eyes. Being called to a violent conflict involving the O’Neil girls couldn’t have been an easy thing for him considering how close the two families were.
Considering his age, Clive was in remarkable shape. Without missing a beat, the broad shouldered cop grabbed Jeremy by his shirt collar and wrestled him off of Carson. Rory winced, afraid for Clive as he came to the rescue. After all, he was Sheck’s dad. If anything happened to him…well, it just couldn’t. The possibility was simply too difficult to even consider.
Although Jeremy tried to take a swing or two, he was off balance and apparently blind with rage. He was no match for the seasoned cop. Rory could tell Clive was angry, and rightly so. He slammed Jeremy up against the brick wall and held him in place as he frisked him to make sure he wasn’t carrying any weapons.
Carson, meanwhile, was slowly climbing to his feet. Rory rushed toward him, startled to see him wipe blood from his face. “Are you okay?” she demanded, her voice shrill with fear. She took him by the arm and looked up at him anxiously, fearful that he’d been badly injured by Jeremy’s cowardly attack.
“I’m fine,” Carson assured her, accepting the tissue Rory offered him. “It’s just a bloody nose…no big deal.” He swiped at his face with the tissue, turning it red with his blood. Then he turned his attention to her, examining her face anxiously. “Are you okay?”
Rory nodded even though she was still shaking. “I’m fine.”
“What the hell happened?” Carson demanded. “I came out of the locker room and saw your sister standing in the hall staring out the window. At first I thought she was you – you two look awfully alike from a distance, you know. But when I got closer I saw you standing outside and then Jeremy grabbed your arm and I just snapped…”
“Jeremy was being Jeremy,” Rory said bitterly.
She noticed she was still clutching Troy’s glasses in her hand. She relaxed her grip on them, thankful she hadn’t inadvertently broken them in the midst of all the commotion. As Carson walked toward the closest water fountain to clean himself up, Rory made her way over to where Troy and Rebecca stood.
“Here,” she said, thrusting the glasses toward Troy. She couldn’t quite bring herself to look him in the eye…not when she saw the expression of utter and complete humiliation on his thin, pale face.
“It looks like Clive is taking Jeremy in,” Rebecca commented, nodding toward Clive’s police cruiser parked by the curb a short distance from the school. Clive was authoritatively marching Jeremy toward the squad car.
“Good,” Rory spat, happy to see that Clive had cuffed Jeremy’s hands behind his back. “I hope they throw the book at him.”
“Hey man, are you alright?” Carson asked, taking a step toward Troy.
Troy cowered a little. He was apparently afraid that Carson might have a go at him as well. As far as Rory knew, Carson had never terrorized anyone the way Jeremy had. She couldn’t even remember ever seeing him egg Jeremy or anyone else on, for that matter. But she supposed she could understand how Troy might make the association that all jocks were assholes – because if she was completely honest with herself, a lot of the guys that hung around with her clique were jerks in one way or another.
Carson, undeterred by Troy’s less-than-warm response, held out his hand. “I don’t think we’ve ever actually talked before,” he said somewhat apologetically. “I’m Carson Keller,” he said politely, as though he needed any introduction. “Your name is Troy, right?”
Troy nodded and hesitantly shook Carson’s hand.
“I’m really sorry about that buffoon,” Carson said, referring to Jeremy. “I know he’s been giving you a hard time for a while…I’ve seen things in the cafeteria. I should have told him to knock it off sooner. I guess I just thought it wasn’t any of my business, you know? But I was wrong. I should have made it my business.”
“I’m going to need you to come with me.”
Clive had returned after putting Jeremy in the backseat of his police cruiser. Now he was addressing Carson with an unreadable look on his face. “Turn around and put your hands flat on the wall,” Clive ordered.
“Clive,” Rory interjected, “Carson didn’t do anything. I know it probably looked bad when you got here but Carson was just defending me, I swear.”
Anger flashed in Clive’s eyes at the suggestion that Rory had needed defending from anyone or anything. Val had told Rory many times that she and her sister were like the daughters she and Clive had never had. Although he maintained his poker face, Rory notice that his tone softened somewhat when addressing Carson.
“It’s standard procedure,” Clive explained. “We’ll call your parents and get this all sorted out once we get to the station.”
“Yes sir,” Carson replied respectfully, sounding bewildered. Rory was pretty sure the star athlete and “A” student had never found himself in trouble before. She felt a twinge of remorse knowing he was being taken away in the back of a police cruiser thanks to her.
“You three witnessed the assault?” Clive asked after he’d led Carson to the police cruiser.
Rory nodded, biting her lower lip anxiously.
“It was all a misunderstanding, sir,” Troy interjected, his voice shaking a little. “Jeremy started it and Carson was just trying to help. It was just a schoolyard fight,” he insisted. “It was no big deal, honest.”
Rory and Rebecca exchanged glances but said nothing.
Clive looked at them, the wheels in his head clearly turning. It was evident that he didn’t buy Troy’s version of events, and rightfully so. “Girls?” he asked as though he already knew the answer. “Is there anything else I should know?”
Rebecca hung her head and said nothing. Rory shook her head, her mouth dry. “It – it happened the way Troy said,” she finally managed to choke out, perturbed by the strange turn of events. She didn’t understand why Troy was trying to minimize what had taken place but she wasn’t about to contradict his rather glossed over version of events.
“Can I go now?” Troy asked anxiously, looking as though he wanted to be anywhere but there. “I’m late for a dentist appointment.”
Clive didn’t look satisfied with the information he was getting. He hadn’t been born yesterday and Rory knew he was a fine police officer. She was certain his gut was telling him there was more to the story than the high school kids would have him believe, but as he looked first at her and then at Rebecca, she could also see that he was torn between his job and his loyalties.
Wearily, he nodded his head, swiping a hand over his brow. Troy immediately took off. “What happened to his shoes?” Clive asked the girls as they watched the beanpole of a boy scramble away in his socked feet.
Rory shrugged, feigning ignorance. “What’s going to happen to Carson?” she demanded.
Clive sighed. “If it’s a first offence then chances are we’ll end up sending both boys home with a warning,” he replied. “Schoolyard fights are tricky territory when it comes to the judicial system. I’m not sure I agree with it but the department seems to lean toward letting the school administra
tion handle it.”
“Carson really is a good guy,” Rory insisted.
A faint smile played over Clive’s lips. In that instant, the resemblance he shared with his son was uncanny. “Okay,” he nodded, “I get it. You and this Carson guy must be very close friends for you to be so adamant about defending him,” he said with a knowing wink.
Rory blushed immediately.
“I’m glad you called me, Rebecca. This could have ended up a lot worse. Do you girls need a ride home?” Clive asked. “I can call Sheck to come and get you, or maybe Val is even around…”
“We’re fine,” Rory assured him, wondering what the situation with Sheck’s parents was like these days. There had been no scorn in Clive’s voice when he said his wife’s name, but that didn’t mean much. Rory couldn’t remember Clive ever really being the expressive type; strong and stoic was more like it.
As the girls watched Clive drive off with their two schoolmates in the backseat of his squad car, Rory took a deep, shuddering breath. “What was that?” she asked. “Why did Troy act like what happened was no big deal? I mean, I was there. I saw and heard everything. It felt like a pretty big deal if you ask me.”
Rebecca looked just as confused. “I don’t know,” she confessed. “Maybe Troy is embarrassed and just wants this all to go away as quickly and as quietly as possible. Or,” she added, “Maybe he’s afraid of pissing off the football team if two of their best players get expelled.”
“Oh God,” Rory gasped. In all the commotion, the thought hadn’t even occurred to her, but Rebecca was absolutely right. “When the school gets wind of this they’re going to expel Carson, aren’t they?” There was a sinking feeling in her stomach.
“I don’t know,” Rebecca shrugged, “But I would think he’ll at least be suspended for fighting, no? I mean, the school has a zero tolerance policy and all…”
Catalyst (The Best Days #1) Page 13
