Glass Girl

by Kurk, Laura Anderson

  “I’m going with you. I’m pretty deeply invested in this thing now.”

  Annie met us at the door looking horrified and Thanett immediately put his arms around her shoulders and pressed his forehead gently against hers. “Mom, we’re fine. We look a lot worse than we feel. There was a slight misunderstanding in the locker room today and Meg felt compelled to throw herself into the middle of it. I had to come to her rescue, of course.”

  “What happened, Meg?” she demanded. “You tell me the truth because I know Thanett won’t.”

  “Annie, take a deep breath, and I’ll start at the beginning.”

  We sat at one of the reading tables in the middle of the store and Annie held onto our hands. Thanett rested an elbow on the table, with his chin in his hand, and gazed at me, wondering how I would talk our way out of this one. He had a slightly mischievous look on his face, and I was amazed that either of us found anything humorous in this. Were we resilient, or in shock? We’d know later if we both went into organ failure while we slept.

  I sighed and gave in to the waterfall of explanation. When I finished the story, I managed a shaky smile. “Other than that, it was just a fine ending to a fantastic week. Wouldn’t you say, Thanett?”

  “I think you hit on all the main points. I would just add that because of what happened today, I pledge my eternal fealty to you, Lady Meg.”

  He smiled his crooked smile and I knew that everything would be all right. Neither of us had broken, really, neither of us had shattered. And we were friends, real true-blue friends. I smiled back at him, meaningfully.

  “I don’t think I’m getting the whole story and I aim to find it out if I have to go to the school myself,” Annie argued.

  We both jumped on that like our lives depended on it and talked her down.

  Thanett grabbed her hand and pleaded. “Mom, if you start making trouble at school, I swear to you things will change for me, and I’ll be begging you to move us back to Chicago.”

  I quickly agreed. “Annie, truly, what happened today will never happen again because we’ve both seen a side of certain people that told us all we ever need to know. Thanett might lose a few friends out of this, but they’re friends he had no business having in the first place. I know you know who I’m talking about. I promise you with my entire being that we’re okay. Thanett is okay. If this goes any further then it would just make things hard for us.”

  She breathed a long breath in through her mouth and then blew it out in a measured rhythm through her nose while she scanned our faces for signs of dishonesty. She must have been reassured by what she found in our eyes because she relaxed her posture a bit.

  “Okay, you two. I won’t push any further but you have to promise to tell me if there are any uncomfortable consequences that come from whatever happened today. And I want to know if these mutants ever lay a hand on either of you again because I’ll slap a lawsuit on their parents faster than they can say jock-strap. Thanett’s dad made a lot of money punishing bullies like this in court.”

  When Annie seemed sufficiently calm and Thanett looked worn out, I stood up to leave. Before I could start my Jeep, though, I began to shake. The muscles in my legs contracted so hard that I could see knots moving under my jeans.

  I felt the waves of terror that should have hit me as soon as that locker room door opened today, and the light-headedness that snuck up on me threatened my grasp on consciousness. What was I thinking? They could’ve really hurt me. Really hurt me. I leaned over the steering wheel to hide my face, and I cried, and it was a lonely, intense sobbing that I wouldn’t have recognized as my own if I hadn’t heard it so many times before.

  I silently prayed that no one could see me and I let it take me. I was devastated most of all that what killed Wyatt, the sick, misguided thoughts, could happen here, in an instant. There was no use in being lulled into a false sense of security anymore. What happens in one town, in one relationship, could happen in any town, in any relationship. When I was spent, when my eyes were dry and the wracking spasms had stopped, I sat up and put the key in the ignition. I slowly backed out and headed toward home.

  The town looked different now. It’s like that verse in the Bible that says something about seeing through a glass darkly. Well, my glass ain’t dark any longer.

  When I pulled into our drive, I saw Henry’s truck parked close to the house. The driver’s side door stood open and I swung my eyes around to find him sitting on the steps of our porch with his head in his hands. He looked up when he heard the Jeep, jumped to his feet and walked to me. He had my door open before I’d even fully stopped.

  “Why didn’t you call me, Meg?” he said with more force than I’d ever heard in his voice. “I had to get a call from Thanett about this…about you?”

  “When did Thanett call you?”

  “Twenty minutes ago. He wanted to apologize to me for what happened to you. He feels terrible. He thought surely I had talked to you by now. I was on my way to the feed store, so I raced over here instead.”

  I hung my head, feeling all the shame in the world. “I was afraid if I stopped moving long enough to call you that I’d just lie down wherever I was and not be able to get up again,”

  I moaned, feeling the tears streaming down my face again and burning the cuts in my cheek. “I haven’t called my dad yet either. I was going to call you both as soon as I got inside.”

  Henry rubbed his hand over his face and hissed through his teeth. “Meg, look at you. I’ll kill him.”

  He helped me out of the Jeep and leaned back in to take the key out and grab my bag. Then he picked me up to carry me to the house.

  “My legs are fine, Henry,” I said.

  “I’m just trying to get you inside so you can lie down,” he growled.

  I fished the key out of my bag and he unlocked the door and put me on the couch. He paced back and forth in front of me, running his hand through his hair over and over. He wasn’t looking at me. I wish I knew how to take blood pressure, because I was sure his would be through the roof. That can’t be good.

  “Okay, I’m sure you’d like to take a bath and clean up a little. I’m gonna sit here to try to calm down. I’m sorry I was angry before. I wasn’t angry with you.”

  The tenderness that I loved tried to work its way back into his voice.

  He walked into the bathroom and I heard him moving the shower curtain around. He started the water, and I could already smell my strawberry bubble bath. I went into my room and grabbed a tank top and some sweats. Henry met me in the hallway and gently ran his fingers through my hair for a second. Then he trudged to the living room, leaving me to clean my wounds and get out of my bloody clothes.

  I undressed and slid into the hot water and strawberry bubbles. I could hear Henry’s silence pounding through the walls. The clock in the hallway ticked loudly, and I tried to get my breathing and heart rate to match its slow, steady rhythm. When I felt warm enough, I stepped out and carefully avoided the little mirror over the sink. I wasn’t ready to see whether or not I really looked like Frankenstein’s monster.

  Henry had started a fire, and taken a quilt off my bed, and he waited for me on the couch. When I walked in, he stood and wrapped me in the quilt and then pulled me onto his lap.

  He took a measured breath and I could tell he was trying to show restraint. “Are you okay, honey? Does it hurt?”

  “A little. I thought you might already be at Grayson’s.”

  “I want to make sure you’re okay. Then I’m going to Grayson’s.”

  “Mmmm…” I lay my head on his shoulder and relaxed. Henry started taking an inventory of my injuries—running his fingers over the bandages on my face and looking at the bruise in the shape of Grayson’s hand on my arm. He nearly choked when he found that one.

  “Sorry, Meg. You can’t fade out yet. I need to know everything that happened.”

  “Didn’t Thanett tell you everything?”

  “Thanett edits.”

  My tears
flowed silently as I told him what happened. He asked questions here and there: “Why were you in the hall alone?” and “Exactly where were you standing when Grayson pulled you in?” and “Where were his hands when he had you pinned against the lockers?” and “Do you think he pushed you toward the window?” and “Did you see what they did to Thanett?”

  When I’d told him everything, and how it made me feel, and how badly I reacted, and how I was afraid I had hurt Thanett even more by being a witness, and that if I hadn’t been there, they would have walked away and left him alone, and how all of this was my fault, he hugged me and kissed my forehead and my cheeks gently.

  “Well, there’s no pretty other side to it, is there?” he sighed.

  “No. It’s all ugly,” I said quietly.

  “You know what surprises me the most? More than what they did?”

  “What could possibly surprise you more than what they did?”

  He made a noise in his throat. “I know what they’re capable of, so I’m not surprised by them. But I am surprised that you’re ashamed about how much this crushes you. That you think there’s something wrong with the way you reacted. That you somehow, God knows how, feel that you’re to blame.”

  He stroked my cheek with the back of his hand and looked at me with eyes full of emotion.

  “Meg, only you would have heard those noises in the locker room and decided you needed to help. You hardly weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet. What did you think you’d do when you got in there? You carry things on your shoulders that have no business being there. It’s heartbreaking to see you hurt this way.” He stopped, choosing his words carefully. “But it’s also really, really beautiful to me.”

  He used a corner of the quilt to carefully dry the tears that were still coming down, and he whispered softly to me. “Thanett was lucky that you were with him today. He knows that. You’re a good friend to him. None of this was your fault.”

  “What about Grayson and the others? What am I supposed to say to them now? I can’t face them at school. It’s like…it’s like I watched them humiliate Thanett, and then he had to watch them humiliate me.”

  His perfect, beautiful eyes turned very dark and, for a second, I worried about what Henry might do to Grayson.

  “You’re gonna let me deal with them. They will never touch you again.”

  I believed him.

  “Have you eaten anything today?” he asked.

  I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t had anything but a banana for breakfast. I skipped lunch to finish a Biology test. I glanced at the clock and it said five-fifteen.

  “No, nothing, really. I’m starving.”

  “Wait here, I’ll make us a sandwich. I haven’t eaten either.” He went to the kitchen and I listened to him getting plates out and digging through the refrigerator. Too tired to help, I let him fend for himself. After a few minutes, he came back in balancing two plates with sandwiches and chips and drinks. He sat next to me on the couch and we ate silently in the darkening, warm room. When we were done, he took our plates to the kitchen and put them in the dishwasher. I don’t think Wyatt knew what the dishwasher was for. I laughed imagining the thought of him making his own dinner and cleaning up after himself.

  I got up with my quilt wrapped around me and joined him in the kitchen. I watched his back as he stood at the sink and rinsed out our glasses and I felt an overwhelming tenderness for him. I couldn’t resist the urge to touch him so I put my arms, quilt and all, around his waist and buried my aching face between his shoulder blades. He dried his hands on a towel, moving slowly so he wouldn’t hurt me, and then turned around to hold me.

  He pulled my face up to his with one finger under my chin to kiss me softly. “Don’t be sad, sweet Meg. Thanett is okay and you’re okay, and I’m going to take care of the rest.”

  I always feel tongue-tied when he’s holding me. “I just,” I said, and then stopped to clear my throat. “I want you to know how much you mean to me, Henry. You…you’re very… important to me.”

  He laughed quietly and waited to see if I would say anything else. “Well, I just want you to know, Meg, that I love you. What do you have to say to that?”

  I sensed a burning flush in my injured cheeks. It was too important to say it with my imperfect voice. “I love you, too, Henry, so much,” I whispered.

  He kissed my knuckles and then walked me to my room, tucked me in, and handed me the book we were supposed to be reading for Landman’s class. Then he turned on the lamp next to my bed, disappeared for a second, and came back to give me the phone from the kitchen.

  “Call your dad.”

  I flinched thinking of how difficult that conversation would be. Annie’s reaction would seem mild in comparison, I was sure.

  Then, without another word, he pulled on his coat and walked out the front door, locking the doorknob before he pulled it closed quietly behind him. I didn’t want to think about who he was going to see.

  I tried to read for a while, but I found myself staring at the same paragraph while I thought through everything that had happened. A few hours later, Henry called to check on me and I asked him what happened with Grayson.

  “You don’t want to know, Meg. It’s best this way.”

  “No, you have to tell me. I can’t face him at school if I don’t have all the information.”

  Henry blew out a long breath and cleared his throat.

  “Before you moved here, Grayson’s dad did something pretty bad. Really bad, actually. He’s as immature as Grayson.”

  “What’d he do?”

  “Well, he cheated on Grayson’s mom with her little sister, Grayson’s aunt, who was only twenty-five or so. Grayson came home one day from practice and caught them together.”

  “Eeewww. That’s horrible. Poor Grayson.”

  “Anyway, his dad threatened him with all kinds of pain to get Grayson to swear he’d never tell. And Grayson believed him because his dad’s a pretty violent guy when he’s drinking. Grayson’s mom is a nurse, and she supports the family. His dad is mostly a drunk who works odd jobs as a carpenter. So Grayson felt like he was protecting his mom and himself by keeping the lid on his dad’s affair. But it was eating him up and one day I happened to be sitting next to him at a softball game. He seemed messed up and angry and I asked him what was wrong. He needed to talk and he did. He told me everything but made me swear not to tell another soul. I never did because I knew deep-down Grayson was doing what he could to hold his family together.”

  Henry paused for so long I thought we’d been disconnected.

  “Henry?”

  “Yeah, so today when I saw your face, I was so mad that I wanted to hurt him. Here I’d kept his dirty little secret for him and he turns around and attacks my girlfriend! I found him sitting on his couch, playing a video game. I told him to apologize to me and then to call you and Thanett to apologize. He laughed, so I hit him. I think I nearly broke his jaw. I can’t believe I hit him but I couldn’t help it when I saw his smug face.”

  “Henry, did he hit you? Are you hurt?”

  “He didn’t hit me. He just yelled for a while. I told him that I was through keeping his secrets for him and that I planned to go to his mom unless he swore not to lay another hand on Thanett or come within ten feet of you. He’s not to even look in your direction. If he does, I’m calling his mom and you’re pressing charges.”

  “And what did he say to that?”

  “The ‘pressing charges’ seemed to get his attention because he’s jonesing for a football scholarship so he can get out of this town when he graduates. He said he’d apologize and leave you guys alone.”

  “Thank you, Henry. I’m sorry you had to be involved in this.”

  “Of course, Meg. Of course I’m involved.”

  “Hey, one more thing. Whose softball game?”

  Henry chuckled. “You don’t miss anything, do you?”

  “Nope. Are you going to tell me?”

  “No.”

  “What
position did Brooke play?”

  “Meg, I’ve already told you everything you need to know about her. I didn’t feel anything for her because I was waiting for you.”

  “Charmer.”

  “Get some sleep, sweetie. I’ll check on you in the morning.”

  I hung up and waited for my dad to get home. When I heard the kitchen door open, I turned on my lamp and sat up. Within seconds, Dad came into my room looking angrier than I’d ever seen him look.

  After he checked over my injuries, he sat on the end of my bed.

  “Okay, Meg. I’ve got some questions. First of all, what were you thinking when you left the building without calling the police or involving the principal?”

  “Dad, we just sort of wanted to get out of there. We didn’t want to be the major players in some epic school scandal! Thanett has enough problems as it is. And I’m the freakishly quiet new girl with a past to hide.”

  Dad sighed and ran his fingers through his hair making it stand on end the way Wyatt’s did. “So you think we should just sweep it under the rug and let these guys get away with violence on a school campus. My God, Meg, you’d think we, of all people, should be pursuing this with the police! I’m sure the school has a no tolerance policy and this kid would get kicked out.”

  “It won’t ever happen again. Grayson’s being considered for a football scholarship and he knows that if he screws up again he’ll lose it. I think, mostly, that our injuries were accidents. Grayson could’ve helped us, or at least apologized, but he didn’t and that’s because he’s got other issues. Thanett’s mom agreed to just trust us on this one. Can’t you do the same? If I feel threatened in anyway, I’ll tell you and we can talk to the principal. But the last thing I need right now is to be known as the school narc. I’m not stupid and I know what it means to be in danger. I’ll let you know, I promise.”

  “You know it goes against everything I believe in to let this go, Meg.”

  He took a deep breath and smoothed the quilt over my legs while he thought.

  “Okay, but if this Grayson does or says anything to you that you don’t like, I want to get a call. And I want that call to be from your principal. And I want her to tell me you’re sitting safely in her office and that she is going to do whatever it takes to protect you.”