“Yeah,” he said groggily.
“Danny, it’s me.” I knew I was probably the last person in the world he’d want to hear from.
“What do you want?” he asked bitterly.
“There’s something you should know…”
***
Thiago and Taylor drove me to school that day.
“As soon as we get there, I’m going to the principal,” Thiago said. “I’ll tell him everything I know. If we’re lucky, they’ll expel him on the spot. After that, you can go straight to the police, Kam. That fucker’s going to pay for what he’s done, for all his manipulation and lies.”
I was nervous. I didn’t want to see Julian; how could I talk to someone so two-faced?
“Don’t say anything to anyone else yet,” Thiago went on. “Things are already bad enough, and…”
Shit.
“Thiago, Danny knows,” I interrupted him. Taylor and Thiago looked at me in the rearview mirror.
“You told Danny?” Thiago shouted.
“I needed to apologize. People were calling him a rapist!”
“Dammit, Kamila! Danny Walker’s not going to wait for this to be solved peacefully!”
Thiago was right, we realized that as soon as we pulled into the lot. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Danny was leaning on his SUV. Waiting. His friends were with him. So they knew too, just as we did. Word got around fast in Carsville. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the entire school knew. We didn’t even have time to get out of the car.
Julian was nearing the entrance when Danny and his friends surrounded him.
“Shit,” Thiago said.
“Don’t get involved,” his brother told him.
We were frozen in place. Were we wrong to stay back? Maybe. Probably. But sometimes people are more animal than human…and this was one of those times.
“So, you like lying to people, manipulating people?” Danny said. “You think it was funny to turn the whole school against me?” Everyone’s eyes were on him.
Julian looked around, not understanding what was happening.
“Did it make you feel like a man to punch and kick me in this parking lot, to break my arm?” Danny motioned to his friends, and they grabbed Julian by the arms so he couldn’t fight back.
“Let me go! What the fuck are you talking about? Why are you all defending him? He’s a fucking rapist!”
Danny’s fist struck Julian’s face, and blood splattered the ground. A crowd closed in on them, and we had to get out of the car and move closer to see what was happening.
Was I happy he was getting what he deserved?
Yes.
Did that make me a bad person?
Maybe.
But he had deceived me in every possible way. Julian Murphy had violated my trust, sexually assaulted me, he’d made me a laughingstock, an outcast.
And he needed to pay.
