Chapter ThreeTaylor
I had known for weeks that something wasn’t right at Kami’s house. Everyone had heard about their money problems by then. I hated all the gossip about her. Lots of people called KamiLittle Miss Perfectand were relishing her downfall, and Kami knew it too. She wasn’t stupid. The fact that she’d become distanced from her friends wasn’t helping matters. Only Ellie kept trying to stay close, concerned whether everything was OK.
I didn’t like Kami isolating herself, and it seemed she was doing it more and more. At least I was one of the lucky ones she still let in. But I knew she needed her friends too. Maybe not that idiot Kate, but her other friends would have been a good distraction.
I knew I had to get Kami out of there when I saw how sad she looked in English class. Maybe the bee sting act was overkill, but it had come out of nowhere. We could get busted, worst-case scenario, but I didn’t care. I’d be the one to get in trouble, not Kami. And Kami was the only thing that mattered to me. I hugged her, her body seeming to melt into mine as she shook with sobs. “Hey, it’s OK,” I said, stroking her hair and back.
I don’t know how long she cried, but when she finally pulled herself together, she seemed more exhausted than before.
“Sorry,” she said, wiping her face and looking at my shirt, which was damp with her tears.
“You can use me as a handkerchief whenever you want,” I said, and when I smiled at her, she actually smiled back.
“It’s just, everything’s been so hard, you know,” she said. And then she went into detail about her parents’ divorce, their financial situation, her worries about college, and how Danny Walker’s brother was bullying Cameron.
“I’d like to beat the shit out of that guy,” I said, furious.
Kam shook her head. “Stay out of it, Taylor, please,” she said, running her hand across the soft grass. “I need to take care of this on my own.”
“If you want my advice, a kick in the nuts should do the trick.”
She shook her head and giggled. “I’m going to talk to Danny. Not that I think it will get me anywhere. I need to keep an eye on my brother. Look for the signs. Kids, you know, they can be so good at hiding stuff. I mean, this has been going on for two months and we had no idea.”
“I’ll talk to Thiago,” I said. “Now that he’s working with the kids, he should—”
“I already talked to him,” she admitted, and I felt a stab in the chest when I thought of the two of them together. “He told me he’s going to keep an eye out.”
“When did you two talk?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t notice the tension in my voice.
“He was the one who realized what was going on. He took me to talk to Cam’s teacher. Maggie, I think, is her name.” I couldn’t help but notice her frown as she said that name.
Maggie… I knew all about her. She’d been at our house constantly since Thiago first invited her over a week before.She was beautiful, and I guess she liked him—I could have done without having to listen to them screwing in the bedroom across the hall—but they seemed to have fun together. That was all she was to Thiago, though…just a pleasant distraction.
“Thiago loves your brother, even if he’d never say it out loud. If he told you he’s going to watch out for him, you can believe him.”
Kami didn’t seem convinced, but at least she’d relaxed enough to tell me what had been going on. I’d been through the same thing, more or less, eight years before: my own parents’ divorce, the loss of my four-year-old sister, Dad cheating on Mom and then disappearing, Mom falling into depression.
I missed Dad sometimes. He’d never been a bad father; he was the typical dad who took us camping, drove us to basketball games, and bought fireworks on the Fourth of July.
“There you are!” Ellie interrupted us, sticking her head under the bleachers. “You’re not going to believe what happened!”
She made us follow her, and when we got back inside, the halls were filled with people shouting and arguing; others were murmuring in small groups. When Kami and I worked our way past them, we saw what all the commotion was about.
Someone had spray-painted the lockers.Slut, one of them read;douchebagread another; there were more:bitch,asshole,pedophile. The wordcuckcovered mine. I saw red, forgetting everything else.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” someone shouted at Kami from the end of the hall. I turned and saw Danny.Abuserwas written on his locker. Kam and I watched him approach, and when he was within arm’s length, it was all I could do not to punch him in the face.
“What are you talking about?” she shouted.
“Your locker’s the only one that didn’t get defaced. Some coincidence, huh?”
We looked around, and it was true. Whoever had done it had passed her over on purpose.
“It wasn’t me!” she protested.
But Danny’s accusation had the desired effect, and soon everyone was shouting at her, including Julian, who scowled and said, “You were the only one who knew!”
Kami shook her head as she looked at Julian’s locker, where the wordgaywas written in giant letters.
