“Taylor!” Kami giggled adorably, looking back and forth to see if anyone in the hallway had heard us.
“What?” I asked. “Are you offended by my vulgar comments?”
“I’m just surprised by how horny you are.”
“Says the girl who was begging for it the other day…”
She put her hand over my mouth, telling me to shut up before I could say any more. I stuck my tongue out and licked her palm, and she pulled her hand back, wiping it on her shirt, and shouted, “Gross!”
“Come on,” I said, looking at my watch, “we’re late.”
Noting the time, Kami opened her eyes in horror, then took my hand as we ran to biology class.
The students were all already inside and seated, and when we opened the door, we were surprised to find not Ms. Davies’s gentle smile—but my older brother’s cold stare, waving us in. Kami froze as they stared at each other. It was impossible to say what the meaning of that look was.
“You’re ten minutes late,” Thiago said, shaking his head.
“Sorry,” Kami replied, pulling me over to our table. As soon as we’d sat down, I noticed Thiago was actually furious, and the rest of the class had picked up on that, too. They seemed to be waiting for a fight to break out.
“And just why are you late?” Thiago asked.
“I don’t think they were playing Parcheesi, Coach,” Victor Di Viani said, and everyone laughed.
Kami nudged me with her elbow and pointed at her lips. Shit! I wiped my mouth with the back of my sleeve, and a big streak of Kami’s lipstick rubbed off on it. I tried to avoid my brother’s stare as I shot a nasty glance at Victor. I might just kick his ass later.
“That’s detention for both of you,” Thiago said indifferently. “I’ll see you after class.”
“Come on!” I couldn’t believe it.
“That will give you time to make up what you missed during the first ten minutes of class.”
“Taylor’s already got his makeup on,” Di Viani said.
I clenched my fists. I was going to kill that jerk.
“Di Viani, that’s detention for you, too,” my brother said, taking some papers out of his bag. That, at least, took the edge off my anger. Victor sat there, dumbfounded. I wondered what was up with my brother. There were times when it seemed like he couldn’t care less about anyone around him.
That wasn’t the case with Kami, though. She hadn’t taken her eyes off him since he mentioned detention.
“I work this afternoon,” she said.
Thiago looked up at her. For a few seconds, he said nothing, then he responded, “Do I look like someone who wants to hear your life story?” A hush fell over the class, silent as a funeral.
“I can’t miss work,” Kami said, sitting up tense in her chair, her face filled with dread.
“Thiago, it won’t happen again,” I cut in. This whole thingwas starting to piss me off. I mean, he was my fucking brother. Couldn’t he just chill out for once?
“Whether it happens again depends on whether you’re capable of learning that actions have consequences, and we’ll only find that out after you’ve served your detention.”
“You’re not even our teacher,” Kami objected. “If Ms. Davies were here, she wouldn’t even care.” She was starting to raise her voice.
“Yeah, well, here’s some news for you: Life is unfair, and I’m your teacher today,” Thiago retorted, clearly unfazed. “And I’d like to start class now. I hear Ms. Davies assigned you guys a project. Today I’ll tell you the order you’re to present in…”
“Look, Thiago, I’m not going to detention. Sorry, but there’s no way I’m going to lose my job just because I was ten minutes late to class,” Kami announced, interrupting him again.
She crossed her arms, and my brother looked up from the list in his hands. “Kamila, get out of my classroom,” he ordered her.
“It’s not your classroom,” she fired back.
I squeezed her thigh under the table, trying to calm her down. I knew Thiago, and talking to him like that in front of all the other students was a truly bad idea.
“Out,” he repeated, pointing at the door.
Kami stood up so fast her chair made a screeching sound. She grabbed her books and her bag and walked out, slamming the door. Thiago shut his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. Then he looked straight at me. I was glaring at him, but he didn’t seem to care. He stood up and started reading off the list of projects.
I was livid. I knew he wasn’t really punishing us for being tardy. He was still pissed about Kami walking to school while Julian was still out there. And Thiago knew that if Kami spent the afternoon with him, Julian couldn’t get to her.
He was punishing her, but he was also protecting her.
A part of me wished I had the power to do the same.
