"I'm ok with that," Luke assured me.
"And to be a snobby bitch," I added.
"Not as good, but if it helps, I'll forget it happened." But he was smirking at me. "What's up with her?"
"She said she wanted to be sick and come home. I told her that bullies are like dogs, and they just want to be dominant, so if she wants them to stop, she needs to be top bitch."
Luke's eyes closed and he groaned. "You're right, but I'm going to pretend like I know nothing about that."
"Good, because I told her not to tell you." Then I pushed my phone back into my pocket. "Luke, her problem is that she's too smart for this place. Faith isn't satisfied with the easy answers. She doesn't want to be the cute girl to get the cute boy. She wants to be the best. It's the same problem Violet had. She wanted to be the smartest, the strongest, the toughest, and the most amazing, and she couldn't be all of it."
"So how do I make this easier for Faith?" he asked. "Ash, I never had to worry about it. I was the cool kid. I started playing football when I was young. By middle school, I was on the starting string. By high school, I was the local star. They didn't even call the quarterback's name as much as mine. I dated cheerleaders. I was invited to all the parties. I can't even guess how to help Faith, so I'm over here begging."
I leaned closer and caught his hand. "You let her mess up. Cool kids aren't easy kids, Luke. Following the rules never got any of us ahead. Look at you. You did everything they wanted, and then they punished you for it."
"I was supposed to have married her," Luke grumbled. "My parents said they'd sign the forms so we could do it. So Faith wouldn't be a bastard. Can you believe that shit? As if anyone cares about that anymore. But they wanted me to get married at seventeen, rent a trailer, and settle down for the rest of my life. I didn't know shit and couldn't get a job, but they said that I needed to man up."
"And you did," I pointed out. "Once you stopped playing by their rules, that's when you began to succeed."
"I fed cows," he shot back.
"And learned how to run a farm," I replied. "Yeah, but it doesn't sound impressive like that, right? How's this? You became a self-taught engineer. You want to know why I'm so impressed with what you do? Because that's how I see it. You make the tools you need. You justunderstandhow all of this equipment works. You look at something for what it can do, not who it can impress. You design and execute complex mechanical feats that I can't even wrap my mind around, and you call it 'making hay.'"
He slid his thumb across the back of my hand. "Yeah, I think I needed to hear that."
"That's all we're doing for Faith," I told him. "We listen when she needs an ear. We remind her that someone out there thinks she's worth something - and not because we have to, like her parents. We lift up the things she's good at, and we ignore the ones she has trouble with. We help her shine, Luke."
"How do I make it better?" he asked.
"What could your parents have done to help you when everything fell apart?" I countered.
"They could've loved me," he said.
I nodded slowly. "And you do that. You make it clear that no matter what, you'll love her. Even when she fails, you will still love her - so let her fail. Luke, she said the kids at school know about the videos."
"We knew they would," he mumbled.
"Yeah, but they're asking her if she slept with him. This is one of those crossroads in her life. She can feel ashamed of that, or she can shove it back in their faces. Now, Violet would have some amazing advice about how to rise above it, but she asked me, and I'm a real simple man. I told her to shove it in their faces."
"She's going to get in a fight," he breathed.
"Yeah," I agreed. "And I'm going to show her how to throw a punch so she doesn't get hurt. No, I don't want her to, but if it's that or cutting herself again?"
"Teach her," Luke begged.
I nodded. "I will, and then I'll remind her that she needs to use her powers for good. I'm walking a line here, Luke, but I'm not going to let her become like Violet. I'm not going to sit here fretting while she's learning how to hate herself. I'd much rather she learned to fight back, gets branded as a bitch, and we have to worry about who's driving her to the next town over or figuring out how to run a homeschool."
"She shouldn't have to deal with this shit," Luke said, shoving to his feet. "It's not right."
"And you never picked on the dorky guy?" I asked. "C'mon, Luke. That's what the popular boys do. You find the weakling and laugh at him. You make jokes about his glasses or that his teeth aren't straight. You push him down when he gets in your way, and you keep on walking because you were the alpha male."
His breath rushed out. "I wasn't a bully."
"I bet you were. This? It's your penance."
"No," he insisted. "I wasn't a fucking bully, Ash. I beat the shit out of the guys who were, but I wasn't a goddamned bully. My brother was the dork. I saw him come home with bloody noses and black eyes. I wasn't a fucking bully!"
I looked up and nodded, because I actually believed him. "Is that why you picked her up?"
