Page 81 of Finding a Melody

No one said anything when I didn’t go back home the later it got, and I didn’t ask why Bryan was also sticking around. Instead, Seth dug out cards and we played late into the night, pretending we didn’t have responsibilities in the morning.

It wasn’t until I was lying in the guestroom bed that motivation hit me. I grabbed my phone, opened the notes app and began writing to my dad, planning to write it all out tomorrow.

Dear Dad,

I never knew about your letters. Lindie never shared them with me....

Chapter Twenty-Five

Going back to school ended up being a bigger deal than I expected on Wednesday. Not only was I getting curious looks because of the guys’ serenade before they got kicked out, but also because some people knew of the car chase that had occurred. I didn’t pay attention, but Bryan had kept me up-to-date with all the rumors, thinking I wanted to be prepared. At least the rumors around the car chase.

The other rumors were still there too, about me, what I had to do to get their attention. They were nasty rumors that made my skin prickle, especially when guys I didn’t know looked at me in that sleazy way that made me want to gag. It had been going on all through last week, and I was sure it was only going to be worse after the weekend I’d had.

Walking through the entrance doors, I was hit with a wall of stares. It seemed everyone had something to say about me. I sighed, hiking my bookbag higher up on my shoulder and power walked to my locker. Bryan stayed by my side as we went to my locker, then to his, and then to homeroom. As soon as we walked into the room, all the whispering came to an end.

“Well, that wasn’t overly obvious,” I whispered to Bryan.

“Ignore them.” Even though he said that, his words were strained. He pushed me over to our seats.

“I know.”

Someone in the room snickered, and Bryan sent them a scathing look that had them stopping and looking away.

“Ignore them.” I tossed his words back at him.

Bryan clenched his teeth and didn’t say anything as he focused on the textbook he had carried in, practically slamming it on his desk as he sat down.

We still had a few minutes before class started. I barely had time to even start unpacking my books when Micah came storming in, dark brown hair disheveled. He barely held on to his books as he looked around the room. Once he found me, he practically tripped over a desk.

“Cadence, let’s talk.” He grabbed my arm and tugged me up. “You’re head—”

“Hey! Don’t touch her like that,” Bryan snapped, jumping to his feet.

The entire classroom turned deadly silent as they watched the confrontation, no doubt hoping that a fight would break out so early in the morning.

“It’s fine, Bryan.” I easily removed Micah’s hand from my wrist.

“Who the hell is he?” Bryan looked ready to rip Micah’s head off. I needed to intervene before he actually tried. I wasn’t sure if Bryan was the type to get into a fight at school, but the thunderous look on his face right then made me not want to find out. Micah would get demolished.

I hooked my arm through Micah’s. “A good friend of mine.”

That seemed to throw Bryan off as he finally looked at me. “What?”

“An old friend of mine who just moved here. I’ll explain after I talk to him. I’ll be right back.”

Bryan didn’t acknowledge anything I said as he went back to glaring hard at Micah. I sighed. Now was not the time for him to get all protective over me, but with everything that happened lately, Micah’s aggressiveness definitely didn’t help.

I yanked Micah with me and we went into the hallway. My classroom was at the corner of the hall so we went into the corner, near the garbage bin to talk.

“What the hell happened?” Micah whispered. “Why did I have to hear about what happened to you through the fucking rumor mill instead of from you?” He pulled out his phone, pulled up our chat and shoved it into my face. “Nothing! I got nothing from you about this. In fact, I haven’t heard from you since Sunday. Three days you ignored me.” He sounded more hurt as he talked. “What the hell happened? Why is there a bandage on your head?”

I lifted my hand and gently prodded the wound, wincing at the pain. I had been avoiding looking at myself in the mirror since the accident. I wasn’t too badly bruised, but I didn’t want to see the reminder of the car chase. “The Ryder gang is after me.”

That got Micah to stop asking me a million questions like I thought it would.

“Gang? The one you mentioned to my parents? You’re kidding, right?” Good memory, though it’d been long enough for him to have heard other things about them too. The Ryders definitely weren’t a welcome existence in this area.

“I wish. I don’t know how they knew where I was, but they tracked us down and ran us off the road when we were coming back from the rec center.”