I sprinted up the stairs as the argument broke out.
Christy, who was five foot nothing and light as a feather, was standing on top of a bleacher right in Amber’s face. “If you’re gonna be a psycho, at least be a smart one. If you’d actually seen him naked you might’ve been able to fool me.” Whew. Straight outta the gate. She could’ve stated that better. My mother was watching. Along with everyone else on this side of the bleachers.
Jilly was leaning back, looking at Christy like she was the psycho. I caught her eye and shook my head. She cocked her head, eyes wide in disbelief, and I nodded.
I had horrific visions of Amber shoving Christy backward down the bleachers, so I put my hands against her back just in case. I don’t know if she knew it was me, but she didn’t even flinch, which told me she most likely did. All I could see was her backside, which I would’ve enjoyed any other time. It was a wall between me and Amber and I wished I could hold Christy up and see her face all at once. But the crowd was already pressing in. I’d have to be content with listening.
Amber had her hand on her hip. “Sure. You’ve been with him. In your dreams.”
Christy snorted. “See, that’s the difference between me and you. I don’t have to dream because I’ve had my hands allover the real thing.” That won her some catcalls. I winced. My mom was going to lecture me after this. “And,” she threw her arms out, gesturing at the entire room, “Everyone here knows about it, thanks to you.”
At least five people gasped.
“Yes, everybody,” Christy addressed the already rapt crowd. “You may as well know it was Amber here who hacked into the security cameras. And then broadcast that picture to your children during a pep rally.”
“No way! Alyssa’s aunt?” a girl said, beginning the outcry. Murmurs ripped through the bleachers like we were doing the wave.
“Fight, fight, fight!” some students yelled from the back. “You get her, P. Thorn!”
My heartbeat was shooting off alerts to every cell of my body. The last thing we needed was a brawl. And the last thing Christy needed was to lose the job she just got back.
I looked over my shoulder, searching for Silas, praying he’d stop this. But he was next to Lemon and my parents, arms crossed, letting it all unfold. A school security officer was heading this way. He’d stop it. But no, Silas grabbed him and pulled him to a halt. They began whispering back and forth.
“No!” Christy’s hands patted down their shouts. “Guys. Violence is not the right way to handle a bully.” A hush went over the students that would’ve been comical if it hadn’t felt like the room was about to explode. Then she turned back to Amber. “But calling them out is. And that’s what I’m doing. Right here in front of everyone.”
Amber’s nonchalant facade was crumbling. Her hands shook a little at her sides. “I’m not a bully. And I don’t have to listen to this. I’m leaving.” She tried to turn to make her escape, but Jilly was there, stopping her. She turned the other way, and Peyton and the Spartan team blocked that direction.
Christy folded her arms. “I’m afraid you’re not. At leastnot until I’m done telling everyone all the nasty things you’ve texted me. And Amber, you are a bully. A grown-up ‘mean girl,’ if there ever was one.” She looked over at the students. “Bear with me, guys. It’s quite the list. Try not to interrupt or you might miss something.” They shushed each other until it was deathly quiet.
I felt her inhale and let it out quick. “I am not going ‘back to where I came from.’” Her fingers made quote marks. “I’m not ‘ugly.’ I don’t ‘need a nose job,’ or Botox, or a facelift. My butt is the perfect size. And my chest is perfectly fine the way it is.” Facts. “I don’t talk funny. You guys do.” There were a few chuckles. “I’m not any of the awful names you’ve called me that I can’t repeat in front of my students. And I’m not, no matter how many times you try to put it in my head, going tokillmyself.” Wide eyes, gasps, hands over their mouths, all the reactions you would expect.
And I thought I might puke. That’s exactly what Amber had said to Savannah. Over and over until Savannah had finally done it. Only back then, Amber hadn’t texted those words. She’d spoken them when no one else was around.
Amber had said those things to Christy—myChristy—all this time, and I hadn’t known? I’d thought staying away would put a barrier between them, like a shield. But instead, Christy’d been the target of an open-air attack. And when I should’ve been right by her side, she’d been deflecting all by herself.
What a fool I had been. And that was the nicest thing I could think about myself just then.
Christy threw her hands out, not done. “And, for the love,” she paused for one intense heartbeat, “if you’re going to Photoshop someone to appear naked and use it to put doubts in their girlfriend’s head—which is a felony, by the way—” Her fists clenched as she let out a controlled exhale. “I mean, if you’re going to commit a freaking crime that could get youlocked up, the least you can do is Get. It. Right.” Her left arm flew straight out and she jabbed her right pointer finger into her bicep. “He’s got a tattoo right here. A suicide prevention semicolon. And if you’d ever so much as seen him with his shirt off in the last ten years, you’d know that.” I hadn’t realized she’d ever noticed the tattoo. Then she hooted. “Slept together, my eye.”
Holy. Wow.
“Well, look at that Bo,” Mom said. “That stupid tattoo actually saved his butt. Can you believe that?”
Again, wow.
A few students high-fived each other and I glared them back to silence. Then Christy gasped like she’d just figured something out. And the hair on my neck stood on end from the way her body tensed against me. She leaned forward and I glanced around trying to see her face, but I couldn’t. “It wasyou,” she whispered. Then louder, “Youbullied Savannah Clark to death.”
The room erupted and my stomach plunged to my knees. Jilly’s eyes welled up and she looked so ashamed. Of what, I’m not sure. But I guessed it was that she’d chosen to believe Amber’s lies ten years ago instead of the truth I’d tried to tell her.
“Savannah Clark?” The rumble started back up.
“Who’s that?”
“Oh, I remember her.”
“She was a darling girl. So Tragic.”
“She and Holden dated in high school, remember?”
