by Kai Juniper
It sounds like Briggs' dad, and like it's coming from the kitchen. Shit! I wasn't supposed to be here when they got home.
I quickly get dressed.
"Did you hear me?" his dad yells. "You know nothing about this!"
"I don't even know what I was looking at!" I hear Briggs say.
"Don't play dumb with me, Briggs! You know exactly what you were looking at or you wouldn't have been looking at it!"
"I only looked at it because you told me to read the files!"
"Not THOSE files! I swear to God, Briggs, if you even consider going against me on this—"
"On WHAT? I don't know what you're talking about!"
There's a loud noise, like something slammed against the wall. I need to get out of here. I hurry to the gate.
"Dad, stop!" Briggs yells. "I'm begging you, stop!
I turn around, my pulse racing. What the hell is going on in there?
There's a loud thud, like something fell.
"I promise you," Briggs says. "I'm not going to tell anyone. Just stop."
He's in pain. I can tell from his voice.
I run to the door that goes to the kitchen. I open it and see Briggs' dad punch Briggs in the gut, hard, with all his strength.
Oh my God. It's his dad. His dad is the one doing this. His dad is the reason Briggs is covered in bruises.
"Stop!" I race up behind his dad.
"Ella, no!" Briggs yells.
His dad whips around and sees me. His expression turns from rage to an eerie calm, his lips turning up to a slight smile. "Ms. Quinn, what are you doing here?"
"Leave him alone!" I yell.
His dad laughs. "You misunderstood. Briggs and I were just roughhousing. It's what fathers and sons do."
I glare at him. "I saw you punch him."
"Ella, go!" Briggs yells. "Get out of here!"
I keep my eyes on his father. "He's covered in bruises."
"He plays rugby. It's a very physical sport. Ms. Quinn, you need to leave or I'll be forced to call the police. Breaking and entering is a very serious offense."
My gaze goes to Briggs. He's hunched over, gripping his stomach, and his mouth is bleeding.
"Dad, just go," Briggs says. "I'll walk her out."
His father leans down to me, a look of warning in his eyes. "This is a private matter between my son and me. Whatever you think you saw today is false. If I hear you're talking about my family in a negative way, I'll have to take action against you. I hope I've made myself clear." He walks out of the kitchen and I hear his dress shoes clicking on the wood floor as he goes down the hall.
"Ella, you need to get out of here," Briggs says.
I race up to him, my arms wrapping loosely around him so I don't hurt him. "Briggs."
"Get out!" he yells.
"I can't leave you here with him." Tears stream down my face. "He'll keep doing it! He won't stop!"
"I can handle him."
"Briggs, please!" I look at him. "Get out of this house! I'm begging you."
"I'll be fine." He grits his teeth as he straightens up. I can't even imagine the pain he's in. His dad is big and tall and threw all his weight into that punch.
"I can't leave you." More tears fall. "What if he—"
"He won't." Briggs' expression softens as he wipes the tears from my cheek. "I wish you knew—" He stops and takes a breath. "I wish things could be different. But they can't. I'm sorry, Ella." He pulls away from me. "You need to go." He holds my gaze a second longer, then leaves.
I stand there, not believing what just happened. I want to run up to Briggs' room and be with him, but I know he'd just tell me to go. I'll have to talk to him tomorrow and convince him to get out of this house, away from his father.
How could his father do this? He acts all sophisticated, pretends he has a perfect life, but behind closed doors, he's a monster. An evil bastard that covers his son in bruises so bad he can barely move.
I need to get Briggs out of there. I don't know how. I just know he can't stay with his father or things will only get worse.
Chapter Seventeen
Ella
Last night, I kept texting Briggs, but he didn't text back. I was up all night imagining all the horrible things that could be happening at that house. Now it's morning and I'm panicking because I still haven't heard from him.
When I get to school, I search the parking lot for his car, but I don't see it. Finn's Range Rover flies past me and I wait for him to park, then run over to him.
"Have you heard from Briggs?" I ask as he's getting out.
"What the hell?" He looks around. "You know you're not supposed to talk to me here. Get the fuck away from me." He shoves past me and heads to the school.
"Did you hear from him or not?" I yell.
He ignores me.
I notice Parker going around the side of the building and run after him.
"Parker!" I yell as he goes down the hill.
He turns back, looking annoyed. "What do you want?"
I catch up to him. "Have you heard from Briggs today?"
"Yeah."
"Is he coming to school?"
"He better fucking show up. He's the one who called this stupid meeting." He stops just behind the bleachers.
"What meeting?"
"You weren't invited?" he asks, giving me a smug grin.
"I guess not. What's it about?"
"The text we got on Friday."
"What text?"
Parker laughs. "He didn't tell you? Guess you two are finally over."
"What are you talking about? What text?"
"You're late." I hear Briggs' voice and relief washes over me.
I turn and see him behind me. "Briggs, why didn't you return my messages? I was so worried I didn't sleep."
"Worried about what?" Parker asks, looking between Briggs and me.
"Nothing." Briggs shoots me a look like the kind he used to give me when he bullied me. A cold, threatening look meant to intimidate me and silence me and make me back down. But I'm not backing down. I need to know what happened and why he didn't text me back.
"Are you okay?" I ask Briggs.
"Why wouldn't I be?" he says in a cocky tone.
"What the fuck happened to your face?" Parker asks Briggs. The bruise on Briggs' cheek faded a little overnight but the one on his neck is still a dark shade of blue.
Briggs chuckles. "She got a little rough with me on Saturday."
"Who?" Parker looks at me. "Ella?"
"No! The girl I was with. When are you going to get it through your tiny brain that I'm not doing shit with Ella?"
His words slice through me, making my chest ache. I know he wants to hide our relationship from Parker, but telling him he was with another girl? Acting like just the thought of being with me disgusts him? He didn't need to do that. All he's doing is hurting me, and he knows it.
Parker smiles. "Who was she?"
"Nobody you know," Briggs says. "She doesn't go to our school. She's in college."
Parker smiles even more. "What'd she do to give you that?" He points to Briggs' neck.
"I'm not fucking telling you." He laughs a little. "Let's just say it was worth it."
I stare at him, furious he'd make up a story like that in front of me. And why is he acting like I'm not even here?
"Where's Finn?" Briggs asks Parker.
"He's not coming. He said he's done with this. He doesn't care what happens."
"It's not just him this affects. It's all of us."
Parker shrugs. "I'm just saying what he told me."
"I'll deal with him later." Briggs turns to me. "You need to leave."
"I'm not leaving," I say. "Parker said you got another text. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it doesn't involve you. Now get the fuck out of here."
Parker chuckles. Briggs and I shoot him a dirty look and he gets serious again.
Briggs looks back at me. "I told you to leave."
"And I told yo
u I'm not." I get in front of him, my hands on my hips. "Just because I'm not getting the texts doesn't mean I'm not part of this."
"That's exactly what it means. Whoever's doing this is going after Parker, Finn, and me. You're off the hook. Whatever happens from here on out is between us, not you. So get the fuck out of here."
I can't believe he's acting this way. Last weekend he was acting like we were a couple, like that's what he wanted. And now he's acting like we're enemies again. What the hell?
"If you don't tell me what's going on," I say, "then I won't tell you what I find out from Susan. I have inside information that might actually help us, but if you guys want to do this on your own, then fine. I'll leave."
Parker looks at Briggs to say something. When he doesn't, I go around him and storm off.
"Wait!" I hear Briggs say when I reach the end of the bleachers.
I turn around. "What?"
"You can see the text."
"And? Then what? I'm back in your little group?" I roll my eyes, annoyed I have to even ask to be part of it. How dare they exclude me.
"If you give us information, then yeah. Do you want to read this or not?" He holds his phone up.
I walk back to him and snatch his phone from his hand. I read the text, not really surprised by what it says. I knew this was coming. Finn and Parker didn't cooperate, and now whoever saw us is going to the cops. But will they say I was there that night or not? And when's it going to happen? The text didn't say.
"So he's turning us in," I say, giving Briggs his phone.
"That's it?" he says. "You're not going to get all crazy about us going to jail?"
"What's the point? We knew this was coming." I'm playing it cool, but the truth is I'm freaking out. This could all come to an end at any time. At any moment, a cop could show up at my door, or here at school, and haul me off to jail.
"Just get to the point," Parker says to Briggs. "Why are we here?"
"Because there's a chance the cops could show up at school today and arrest us. Or it could be tomorrow. Or next week. Who the fuck knows? But when it happens, I need you to keep your mouth shut. Same goes for Finn. We say nothing, not a word. You only talk to your lawyer."
Parkers nods. "Yeah, got it. But I can't see Finn going along with that. He'll try to fight with the cops."
"I'll deal with Finn."
"Was that it?" Parker asks.
"Yeah, get out of here. I need to talk to Ella."
Parker smirks as he goes past me, like he thinks I'm about to get yelled at by Briggs. It's more like the other way around, me yelling at him for being a jerk.
"What was that about?" I say to Briggs when Parker is gone. "Did you really have to say you were with some other girl?"
"How else am I supposed to fucking explain this?" he says, pointing to the bruise on his neck. "Why are you getting pissed about this? There is no girl. I just made it up."
"Why didn't you just tell Parker the truth? I thought you guys were best friends."
Briggs leans down to my face, his eyes dark and threatening. "Nobody knows. And nobody's going to find out. If you tell anyone what you saw, I'll—" He stops, his gaze locked on mine. "Nobody can fucking know."
"So you're just going to let it keep happening?"
"Stay out of it," he says, his jaw clenched.
"I can't stay out of it. He's hurting you. Beating you. How can I just stand by and let that happen?"
"Because I told you to." He backs me up to the bleachers and puts his hands on the metal poles on each side of my head. "This is not your problem. It's not yours to fix. You tell no one. Not your father. Not anyone at school. No one."
I feel my heart thumping in my chest, hard and fast, like it did when he used to threaten me. I feel like we've gone back to those days, where Briggs is bullying me and I'm trying to remain strong, hiding my fear of him. I would never be afraid of the Briggs I was with last weekend, but this one? This one sparks fear in me, and uncertainty. I never know what he's going to do next.
"How long has it been going on?" I ask.
"None of your fucking business," he says, his eyes locked on mine.
"Why does he do it? Does he have a reason, or does he just like beating you up?"
"What is this? A fucking intervention? You don't get to ask questions. It's not your life. Not your fucking problem."
"I care about you. I care about what happens to you. So in a way, it IS my problem, because I don't want anything to happen to you."
He looks down, then back up at me. "It's over, Ella. You and I are done. You need to stop calling me, stop texting me, stop showing up at my house."
My heart crumbles into pieces hearing him say that. "I don't understand. What about last weekend?"
"What about it?"
"I thought we were back together. Everything was so great between us. Friday night—"
"Was just sex. That's all it was."
I look back at him, my eyes stinging from the tears threatening to fall. He's back to being the mean, hateful Briggs I'm all too familiar with, but in his eyes I see the other Briggs, the one that doesn't want to treat me this way.
Why is he doing this? Why is he pushing me away?
He takes a step back. "Go. You're late to class."
"So are you."
"I can be excused. You can't."
I hurry past him, just wanting to get away from him.
"One more thing," he says.
"What?" I snap, turning back.
He comes in front of me. "This valedictorian shit isn't over. You WILL give it to me."
"No. I won't," I say, staring back at him. "Go to hell, Briggs."
I storm off, up the hill and into the building, angry and hurt and not wanting to be here. I walk into class late, but Mr. Walker doesn't say anything. He just gives me a dirty look. I'm sure I'll get detention. I don't even care anymore. I'll probably be going to jail soon so getting detention won't even matter.
Briggs doesn't even glance at me all morning. He sees me in the halls and in class but won't acknowledge me. Charlotte notices and mentions it at lunch.
"What's going on with you two?" she asks.
"He's back to being A1."
"So you guys aren't together?"
"I don't think we ever were."
"Ella, don't say that. You were crazy about him. You smiled whenever you talked about him."
"Clearly there was something wrong with me. I don't know why I ever thought Briggs would change. He's a good actor, I'll give him that. He had me fooled into thinking he actually cared."
"I don't think he was pretending. I think he really did care about you, and probably still does."
"Yeah, right." I glance at his table and see him talking to Nicole, a tall, gorgeous cheerleader. "See? He's already got a new girlfriend."
"You don't know that they're together. He could just be talking to her."
"It doesn't matter. It's over. End of story. We don't need to talk about it. Tell me about you. Have you heard from Asher?"
"No. He ghosted me. I think he found someone else."
"His loss."
"I know, right? But what am I going to do about prom? I need a date."
"You could go with me. I'm an awesome date."
She laughs.
"Charlotte, I'm serious. Why don't we just go together? We'll have more fun than we would if we went with guys we didn't like."
"I guess we could, but it's only going to make people think the rumors are true."
"What rumors?"
"Aubrey and Vanessa keep telling people we're lesbians."
"Yeah? So? Who cares? By the time prom comes, the year will be almost over and then we'll never see these people again." My phone dings and I sigh when I see who the text is from.
"Who is it?" Charlotte asks.
"Calvin. He wants to talk."
"About what?"
"He didn't say. I'll be right back." I leave the cafeteria and see Calvin in the hall, looking nervous as he pace
s back and forth, chewing on his lip.
"Calvin?"
He stops pacing and turns to me, giving me a nervous smile. "Hey."
I walk up to him. "What'd you want to talk about?"
"I, um..." He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
"Calvin? Are you okay?"
His eyes pop open. "I'm good. Just a little nervous."
"About what?"
He takes another deep breath. “Ella, would you go to prom with me?"
That's why he wanted to talk? I thought he was over his crush on me. He hasn't talked to me in over a week, but I've caught him looking at me.
"Sorry, but I'm already going with someone."
"You are?" he asks, his face filled with disappointment. "Who?"
"I'd rather not say, in case it changes."
"If it does, would you go with me?"
I hesitate, not sure how to word this without hurting his feelings.
"You don't want to go with me," he says, looking down.
"It's just that I see us more as friends. I'm sorry, Calvin."
He nods. "It's okay. I get it."
"I'm sure there's someone else you could ask. How about one of those girls from the computer lab?"
"They already have dates. I probably just won't go." He looks to the side, then back at me. "What ever happened with that friend of yours?"
"What friend?"
"The one getting the texts. Did you ever find out who's sending them?"
"No. But I don't think he'll get any more."
"Why?"
"I don't want to talk about it," I say, knots forming in my stomach just mentioning it. I've been trying not to think about it, but all through class this morning I kept looking at the door, expecting a cop to walk in and arrest me.
"Is everything okay?" Calvin asks. "You seem stressed."
"It's just stuff with school. There's a lot going on."
"I wouldn't worry. I'm sure everything will work out."
"Yeah, I'm sure it will. Hey, I need to get back to lunch. Charlotte's waiting for me."
"Okay, see ya."
"What'd he want?" Charlotte asks, when I get back to the table.
"Looks like you have competition as my prom date."
She laughs. "He asked you to prom? What'd you say?"
"I told him I already had a date. I didn't say who."
"Was he upset you told him no?"
