The next morning, the beep of my alarm was exceedingly annoying. I’d already pushed the snooze button twice and was tempted into hitting it a third time. Topping my list of least favorite days had to be the day after Winter Break ended. New classes always meant a whole crap load of homework. I rolled over, trying to get back into the warm comfy spot that would lull me back to sleep for another five minutes. My eyes had just drifted closed when my door banged open, bouncing off the wall.
“Get your butt moving,” Chloe said as she marched over to my closet and rummaged through the clothes hanging there.
“You do understand the concept of privacy, don’t you?” I reluctantly sat up, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. “What are you looking for?”
“I know you borrowed my black cardigan.” She yanked out a pink top, along with a few more shirts and threw them over her arm. “I should have known you were the one taking all of my clothes.”
“Hey! That’s not yours,” I said as she added a dark blue blouse to her collection.
“No, but it’s Lily’s and she’s going to wear it this weekend.”
“Do you honestly think you’re going to find the sweater in there?” My closet was notoriously bare.
“You’re right,” she said and walked over to a pile of laundry I’d yet to put away.
I watched her dig through for a moment before dragging myself out of bed. There was no avoiding it. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee drifted into my room. Dad was awake, and any chance I had of ditching school was out the window.
“Can I ask you something?” I glanced back at her as she made her way to the door, the clothes dangling from her arm.
“Go ahead,” she said, turning around.
“Do you think it’s strange that Tonya lied to me about Trevor?”
She seemed to consider it for a moment. “No.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“Phoebs, you’re not really the best person to discuss relationships with.”
“What does that mean?”
“Come on. You and Nathan have been flirting for almost two years and, until the other night, neither of you did anything about it. And even then, you couldn’t keep your smart mouth closed.”
“Gee, I always knew you loved me.” I brushed past her and stomped out of the room.
“Phoebe,” Chloe said, following me down the hall. “Tonya has a reason for lying about it.”
That stopped me. I swirled around to face her. “Did you see something?”
“No, well...not really. I saw the two of you at the hospital. That was it, but I know it’s connected somehow.”
I wanted to ask for specifics, but knew she wouldn’t say anything else. For the longest time Chloe had basked in the joy of telling us everything that was going to happen, but over the past year or so, she’d chilled on sharing the more serious stuff. Maybe she’d realized how frustrating it was for us to know and not be able to change it.
“You’re going to be late,” she said, brushing past me to head upstairs. “Mr. Arnold’s gonna be pissed.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I grumbled at her departing back. It would have been nice to be able to do something about it, but there was no way I’d be showered, dressed and at school on time. What good was a sister who could see the future if she didn’t wake you up on time?
Forty minutes later, I wandered down the hall to Mr. Arnold’s class, refusing to run when I was already late. I neared his door and wondered about Chloe’s warning. Mr. Arnold was a pretty cool teacher, even if he was almost forty. I’d been late lots of times when I had him for chemistry during sophomore year and he’d simply seemed glad I’d shown up at all.
“Bitch.”
I spun around at the snarled word. Vivian stood a few feet away. So not what I needed. I turned back around, intent on getting to class.
“Don’t walk away from me!” she yelled.
Her heels clicked behind me, closing the distance. Crap. I felt her hand on my shoulder, and then, with a shove, she sent me flying forward. My books scattered across the hall and I slammed into Mr. Arnold’s door, bracing myself with my hands.
I wasn’t a fighter. Sure I mouthed off a lot, but somewhere inside of me hid a chicken that had managed to avoid anything resembling a catfight. But she’d attacked me first. I pushed away from the door and faced her. I didn’t even have time to think of what I was going to say. She came at me like some crazed ghetto girl, arms flying, and she got in a few whacks before I clued in enough to raise my arms in defense.
I grabbed a chunk of her hair and yanked. She screamed and her fist hit my eye. Letting her hair go, I placed both hands on her chest and pushed as hard as I could. She fell back, landing on her ass just as people poured out from the surrounding classrooms.
“Phoebe, what is going on?” Mr. Arnold asked. I didn’t need to see his face to know that Chloe had been right. He was pissed. And what’s worse was that I knew I looked guilty.
“She started it!” I pointed to Vivian who was still on the floor trying her best to look innocent.
“Everyone back to class,” he said, waving his hand around at the mass of people who had gathered in hopes of a brawl, and then waited for them to clear the hall. “Ladies, you know we have a zero tolerance policy for fighting here on campus. Would either of you like to tell me what you were arguing about?”
Nathan appeared in the door and my already hot face seemed to burst with fire. No way was I going to admit I’d been fighting over a boy. How many times had I laughed at other girls who did that? Technically, I’d only been defending myself, but still, if Nathan hadn’t dumped Vivian like he had, there’s no way she’d have come after me. Looking at him now, I wondered what he thought. I could see concern as he took in my eye, which was swelling shut, but there was also humor. He wasn’t going to let this go.
“It was nothing,” I said when Vivian remained silent. “Just a misunderstanding.”
“Well, both of you are going to the office.”
Vivian seemed to finally realize the trouble we were about to get into, because she stood up and rushed over to us.
“Mr. Arnold, please, it was just a mistake. It won’t happen again. Please!” she said, and this time when I saw the tears in her eyes, I could actually believe they were real.
“I’ll let it slide for now-”
“Thank you, thank you!” Her voice grated on my nerves.
“But after school, I expect both of you here for detention.”
I barely contained the snort of laughter as horror swept across Vivian’s face. Unlike me, I doubted she’d ever had even the threat of detention before.
“But-”
“Your other option, Ms. Winters, is to take this to Mrs. Peters and your parents.”
“We’ll be here,” I said before Vivian could say anything stupid.
“Good, now inside. Both of you are late.” Mr. Arnold turned around and looked at Nathan standing alone in the doorway. “Mr. Lauer, I trust you’re not encouraging these ladies?”
“No, sir.” He turned tail and practically ran back to his desk. Definitely not one to stand up for his girl. Then again, was I even his girl?
Walking to my desk, I was surprised not to see Tonya. We’d compared our second semester schedules the day before, so I knew she was supposed to be there. I sank into an empty seat, ignoring a smirk from Chloe when our eyes met. As if Vivian’s presence wasn’t enough to make me hate the class already. I gave Chloe my best evil eye and winced at the pain in my right one. She could have at least warned me that I was going to get socked in the eye.
I probed gently at the tender flesh, sucking in a breath at the pain.
“Phoebe, do you need to go to the nurse?” Mr. Arnold asked.
“No, I’m fine.” The nurse meant going through the office and having to explain just how I ended up with a black eye. I preferred to suffer until I found Lily.
When the bell rang, I slid out of my desk and headed for Lily’s locker. I w
as almost there before realizing someone was following me. Twisting my head around, I found Nathan right behind me. I turned back, ignoring him.
“Are you really okay?” he finally asked when I stopped at Lily’s locker. I rested my back against the cool metal and he leaned his shoulder on the one beside me.
“I will be.”
“Then what’s wrong? You seem pissed about something.”
“Gee, I wonder.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, your ex-girlfriend attempted to beat the crap out of me and you didn’t even try to defend me.”
“Seriously?” His shock seemed genuine, but could he really be that dense?
“Yes, seriously. I thought we...you...” I didn’t know what I thought we were, but still he should have done something.
“I’m sorry. I guess I should have hit her or something?”
“No.” I sighed.
“Maybe I should have told Mr. Arnold you and Vivian needed to go to the office and be suspended or even expelled.”
“No.” This time I cracked a smile.
“Oh, then I should have started yelling that you’re my new girlfriend and Vivian is a jealous bitch.”
I wanted to say yes, but I was in shock. “Am I your new girlfriend?”
“Yeah, sure. I mean you’re a girl and you’re a friend, right?” His lips twitched and I slugged his arm. “I’m kidding!”
He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine, lighter than last time, but the shivers that ran through me were the same. I could so get used to being his girlfriend.
“Is there a reason you guys are making out in front of my locker?”
We pulled apart at Lily’s words. I ran my fingers along my lips, as if I could hide the fact that my sister had caught us kissing.
“Wow, that’s a nice shiner,” Lily said.
“Yeah, I was hoping you might be able to fix that.”
Lily stepped closer and laid her fingers lightly on my eye. I watched her as the pain faded. She grew quiet and still. Her face paled slightly and I wondered what she felt as she healed me, but it was a subject she always managed to avoid talking about. After a moment, she dropped her hand. “Better?”
“Much.” I poked at it gently to check for tenderness. She swatted my hand down.
“Don’t touch. It’s still a bit pink, but if you leave it alone, it’ll probably be fine in about an hour. It’s a good thing Chloe warned me this morning, otherwise I wouldn’t have come back to my locker.”
“She told you Vivian was going to punch me?”
“No, just that you’d need me. Why did Vivian punch you? Never mind, I think I can figure that one out.” She looked pointedly at Nathan.
“I’m hoping to avoid a repeat,” I said.
Nathan chuckled. “Apparently you don’t know Vivian very well.”
I managed to put the thought of detention right out of my mind until the last bell rang. It helped that Nathan was in a couple of my classes and had eaten lunch with me. Wondering about Tonya took up a good chunk of time as well. After a series of painfully typed texts done under my desk in class had gone unanswered, I decided to call before heading to detention.
“Hello?” Tonya answered.
“Hey, where are you? You should have told me you were skipping. I so could’ve ditched today. Vivian went ape-shit on me this morning and Nathan totally flaked out.”
“I’m not skipping.”
Liar. Crap, I was getting really sick of these cramps.
“What’s wrong then?” I asked.
“I’m sick.”
Liar.
Forget about it. It didn’t matter.
“Oh. Well, I’ll talk to you later.”
“Sure.” She disconnected before I could even say bye.
She was lying again and I had no clue why. A hollow pit in my stomach formed. Maybe it had to do with her mom. The last time Shondra James was released from jail, Tonya had missed almost two weeks of school before her gran got her back when Shondra took off with her latest boyfriend. Of course, Tonya could be sick. I could be hearing things. If she truly was sick then her grand would know. I started scrolling through my phone’s contact list for Mrs. Robinson’s home number.
“Miss. Matlin, don’t you have somewhere to be?” My shoulders sagged as Mr. Arnold appeared at my side.
“I’m coming right now.” I shoved the phone into my pocket and closed my locker.
I barely remembered the last time I’d had detention. A year ago? Definitely not the daily occurrence like in elementary and middle school. Dad liked to think it was because I grew up. I thought it had more to do with the teachers in high school realizing they couldn’t really make you stay after school.
Mr. Arnold walked down the hall and I followed. As much as I wanted to skip out, I couldn’t risk him taking it to the principal if I didn’t show. Then again, if Vivian didn’t come I was definitely going to bail, because there was no point in wasting an afternoon if my Dad was just going to kill me for getting expelled.
Walking into the room, I found Vivian already at her desk, a sheet of loose-leaf paper in front of her. On another desk was an identical paper with a pencil sitting next to it.
“Have a seat, Phoebe. The two of you are going to write an essay about what happened, why it happened, and what you’ll do to avoid a similar situation in the future.”
I sank into my seat and started.
Nathan dumped Vivian and she’s pissed at me for it. She called me a bitch then pushed me into the door. I pushed her back and she fell. From now on, I’m going to stay the hell away from her.
I wondered if he was going to give me shit for cussing in it, but really, I was just being factual. Satisfied with my paper, I placed my pencil on the desk and glanced over at Vivian. She was working on the backside of what looked like her second page. She was probably going to make me out to be the bad guy. I picked up my pencil and began writing again.
Thirty minutes later, Mr. Arnold collected our papers. I’d managed another paragraph at least. Not really my greatest work, but it at least looked like I made an effort, although compared to the novel Vivian handed in, it wasn’t much.
Mr. Arnold sat on top of a desk at the front of the class, looking back and forth between us.
“I’ve given the two of you girls an opportunity here, because I believe that both of you know better than to do something like this again. But... if I ever see one of you even speak harshly to the other, you’ll both be in Mrs. Peter’s office so fast you’ll leave skid marks of fear behind you.”
I dutifully nodded and kept my eyes averted. The best practice was to show shame and fear. Vivian, stupid as she was, smiled at him, then waltzed out the door ahead of me. Starting toward the exit, I looked over my shoulder. Mr. Arnold turned back into his classroom and tossed the papers in the trash. At least I hadn’t slaved over the thing.
I pushed through the outside door, welcoming the cool breeze. Some school district idiot figured since it was winter, the heating should be on inside, despite the mild southern Cali climate.
“Hey,” Nathan said from where he lounged on the steps.
“Hey yourself.” I bounced down the steps. “Who’re you waiting for? Me or Vivian?”
“Ha-ha.” He followed behind me and slung an arm over my shoulder when he caught up. “I don’t double back.”
“Good to know.”
“So, I was thinking, maybe we should go out on a date or something.” He shrugged, and the shy Nathan I typically saw around other people peeked out for just a moment.
“Ya think?”
He gave a crooked grin, shyness completely gone. “Yeah. What about a movie? There’s some kind of girly movie coming out this weekend.”
“I’d rather see the new Wes Craven movie.”
“Horror? God, why did I wait so long?” He pressed a kiss to my cheek.
When we arrived at my car, he reached around and hugged me close. Our lips met and my entire body tingled. Th
e gentle sweep of his hands along my back made me press closer. Only the sound of an approaching car pulled us apart. Engine revving, Vivian’s sporty red convertible sped past us.
Laughing, I dropped my head to his chest, feeling his matching chuckles against my forehead.
“I need to go,” I said.
“Hot date?”
“Yeah, with my trig text.”
“Well, I was thinking of chasing, but I suck at math. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I gave him a quick kiss and got in my car. Through the window, I watched him walk to his own vehicle and wondered if I was dreaming. Then I almost slapped myself. There was no way I could be turning into one of those silly girls, fawning over some guy. As hot as Nathan was, no way was I going to let myself become obsessed again.
If Tonya were there, she’d be laughing her ass off at me. Tonya. The lies she told me over the phone popped back into my mind. She could really be sick. It was possible. I pulled out my cell and opened up the contact list, searching for Mrs. Robinson. When I located her, I pressed send and listened as it connected and started ringing.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Mrs. Robinson, it’s Phoebe. I was wondering if Tonya was feeling any better?”
“Better? She’s fine, or at least she was when she left for school this morning. Did she leave sick?”
“No, well, just at the end of the day she mentioned not feeling well.” Yes, I lied. What else could I do? “I guess she hasn’t made it home yet. I’ll try her cell.”
I said bye and hung up. Guilt and indignation warred inside me. I’d lied to Tonya’s grandma and doubted Tonya. But damn it, she’d lied to me again.
So, if she hadn’t been at school and she wasn’t at home sick, then where was she? And more important, why had she lied to me?
The next day at school, I slid up to Tonya as she grabbed her things for class from her locker.
“Where were you yesterday?” I asked.
“What do you mean? I was sick.”
“Tonya? Please, give me some credit. I’m not an idiot.”
“What makes you think I was lying?” She paused and looked at me.
I hadn’t mentioned the whole hearing voices thing to her yet, but it seemed like the perfect time, especially considering the fact that I’d already told Nathan. If she found out I’d told him first, she’d probably kill me.
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