Page 5 of Above All Else
She pushed her lower lip into her mouth and bit down with a slight nod. Her gaze shifted up to mine, then beyond, her expression stiffening.
“Let’s go, Care, I don’t have all day.” A scratchy, familiar voice boomed behind me, making me whirl around.
David Tatum leaned against a battered Chevy from the nineties, his torn, oil-stained jeans a testament to hard, dirty work. His white shirt wrinkled and stretched tight over his gut. His dark, patchy facial hair matched the thinning, greasy strands on his head, completing the image of a man who had seen better days.
“Mr. Tatum, you’re late. Again.”
He raised a brow and yanked open the truck door with a metal-on-metal screech. He snapped his fingers, causing Caroline tojump beside me. “Care, get in the truck.”
Without hesitation, she moved, their paths crossing as he stepped toward me, their gazes never meeting.
A dark cloud loomed overhead as his heavy booted footsteps pounded the cement.
“Don’t chastise me, Ms. Collins. You are not my superior.” He stood over me, the top of my head meeting the base of his shoulders. “You’d do best to remember that.”
“Step back, Mr. Tatum. I won’t be intimidated by you.”
A slight sneer pulled back his lips, revealing nicotine-brown teeth and a missing molar. “That’s not what the principal said when you complained about me the last time.”
I squared my shoulders and met him glare for glare. “If you hurt a hair on her head, it’ll be the last thing you do, Mr. Tatum.”
He whooped, a full, boisterous laugh, which had me stepping back from him, a lump in my throat. “That’s cute.” He stepped closer. “I’m afraid of you, June.”
My name slipping from his lips, sent my stomach into somersaults. “It’s Ms. Collins.”
“Does the formality make you feel safer?”
“Do I have a reason to feel unsafe, Mr. Tatum?”
My vision snapped to black, my mental eye twisting his wrist with a refreshing crack.
“Stay in your lane, lady.”
The satisfying image vanished as he turned his back to me and walked towards his truck.
Asshole.
I gritted my teeth as I walked into the school and turned into my empty classroom.
I can take him.
I could do something…
I can make a difference.
Puffing out a held breath, I grabbed my bag and cell phone with lazy footfalls, then turned out the classroom lights.
With hasty steps across the parking lot, I shut myself in my car, locking the doors as muscle memory took hold, my gaze darting to the rearview mirror, searching the backseat.
My hands shook as I fumbled with my phone, my thumb vibrating above Ethan’s picture. The one we took at his company Christmas party.
Where did the happiness go?
Tapping the screen, I held the phone to my ear and started my car.
“Hello?”
“Hey, I’m heading home.” Heat built in my cheeks as David’s altercation burrowed underneath my skin. “I’ve had the worst day.”