Page 81 of Losing the Rhythm
“Mr. Stokes, a word before you run out the door, please,” Mr. Mendes said, making the both of us halt in our tracks.
Paxon frowned. “Is there an issue?”
“Nothing a quick conversation can’t fix. I’ll give you a late pass.”
Paxon glanced over at me.
I sighed. “I need to get going. My study hall is on the other side of the school.”
“Let me—”
“I’ll be fine,” I said and left him standing there. I really couldn’t wait for him, and while the teacher promised to give him a late pass, I wouldn’t have one. Besides, it seemed like no one was approaching me anyways or planning to. It has been rather quiet so far. Probably so because Bryan blocked all the messages and phone calls.
I headed to Paxon’s locker to grab what I needed for study hall. So far so good. I carefully put in his locker code, thinking about what I needed for the homework I wanted to get done.
Just as I was getting his locker open, an arm went past my head and slammed against the door, forcing it shut with a loud clang.
I jumped at the all too familiar sound, my blood turning cold. For a moment, everything went black, and once again I was staring down a gun. But then someone shoved me forward, breaking the dark memory. I barely had time to brace myself before my face slammed into the locker.
I turned enough to see a girl standing there. She was familiar, but my brain wasn’t dredging a name up to go with her face.
“I didn’t realize we had rats at this school,” she snarled at me.
“What are you—”
“Why else would Principal Calgary have done that stupid assembly on Monday? You talked to her.”
“Oh.” Realization dawned on me. Of course this would have happened after that assembly. All the stares. Everyone knew what was going on with me. They’d have to live under a rock to not know. Anger built up inside me. So many knew what was slowly building up and no one cared. Even with the warning from the assembly, they didn’t care. They were too lost in their own little worlds to think outside of it.
“You think she’s dumb?” I asked.
“What?” the girl’s dark brown eyes widened. She wasn’t expecting me to talk back.
“Do you really think I needed to say anything to Principal Calgary for her to realize what’s going on? And do you think she’d tolerate it?”
She began to look confused. Good. Confusion meant she wasn’t yelling at me. I pushed forward, trying to hide the trembling in my hand by gripping my books harder.
“It’s too obvious. Someone trashed my locker. Publicly. It was obvious bullying.” I pulled out my phone. “This is nothing. Call me all you want. Text me all you want. I don’t care. I can turn my phone off. Block you all. But publicly destroying property”—I shook my head—“I hope whoever did that is ready to face charges with destruction of public property.”
The girl paled and then slowly, her face turned red and she stepped closer to me, closing the gap and getting all too close. Her expression grew darker. “You’re only getting what you deserve. The rift in the soccer team is because of you, because you only care about boys.”
“Aren’t you the one who only thinks about boys?”
“If you thought about Paxon at all, you wouldn’t distract him. You wouldn’t pit him against his own teammates. They played together for years. Since junior high. And then you come along and he’s getting into fights with them.”
“What the hell are you even talking about? I’m not distracting him.”
She snorted. “You’re too busy drooling over them to realize it. Not just Paxon, but Justin too. Justin’s the gentle one, and you’re going to get him in trouble. You already got all of them suspended for a week. When are you going to stop? When they’re expelled?”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “You should stop.”
“You’re one of them, aren’t you? Those girls who enjoy multiple partners.” Her lip curled into a snarl. “You’re disgusting. To think you were a whore this whole time and now you’ve set your eyes on Paxon, Toby, Justin, and Bryan. Are you dragging Seth down with you too? Are you trying to break them apart?”
The longer she spoke, the heavier I felt. Her voice dimmed as her words stabbed me over and over. All my fears came out of her mouth. I didn’t want to ruin their friendship. That was the last thing I wanted. But kissing Seth, and just last night, Justin. I didn’t understand what was going on. Either way, I didn’t want this girl giving me her input when I didn’t ask for it.
“Are you done, Trinity?” Hazel asked, managing to insert herself between the two of us, which was impressive considering how close the girl had gotten. “You better get to class. I heard you’re facing the risk of detention if you keep being late.”
Trinity. Right. Now I remembered. She hung out with the soccer team. More information clicked into place. Kyler. My frown deepened. After what happened with Kyler, I wasn’t too keen talking with anyone from that group.