I’m prevented from responding by a burst of laughter from a couple of the biology students. Nell glances at the two boys moving along the rows of wildflowers and herbs. A sudden tension ripples through her.
I follow her gaze to a big, dark-haired kid who is studying the stem of a flower. I don’t need to look at Nell to know who he is.
With effort, I back away from her and return to the classroom. I did some digging into school records and discovered that Billy Wilson has no record or even a single detention.
Aside from Nell’s word, there’s no evidence against him or the other two for what they did to Clover…or what they’d intended to do. My guess is that if the school administration found out about the situation, they either couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about it.
But—at least, to some extent—I can. I check Billy’s schedule and locker number online and wait until the final bell rings before walking to the science wing. He closes his locker and hitches a backpack over his shoulder.
I start toward him.
“Billy.” Nell’s voice.
He looks up.
She strides down the hall, her gray eyes flashing. As she passes me, she puts her hand up in a stop command.
I stop. My heartbeat increases.
Billy watches warily as she approaches. With forced casualness, he asks, “Hey, what’s going on?”
“I want to talk to you.” Nell comes to a halt in front of him and grabs a fistful of his shirt.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He grips her wrist.
I start forward, then stop again. Anger crackles from Nell like a force field.
“What am I doing?” She gives the boy a hard shake. “A hell of a lot less than what you and your buddies were about to do to an unconscious girl last weekend.”
He goes white. “Look, that was a…a misunderstanding.”
“The fuck it was.” She tightens her grip on his shirt and looks him in the eye. “I heard you. If I hadn’t been there, you’d have committed a felony and destroyed that girl’s life. You didn’t even have the fucking decency or backbone to stand up to your so-called friends. All three of you were going to rape her.”
A glint of fear appears in his eyes before bravado takes over. “You can’t prove that.”
“No, I can’t, which pisses me off like you wouldn’t believe.” Nell pushes him so hard that his back hits the lockers. “But you take this as a warning. You have no idea how lucky you are. If you’d gone through with it, you’d be a rapist. You’d end up in juvie at best, prison at worst. You’d be labeled a sex offender. Not to mention you could forget about any career as a damned lawyer. And you tell your asshole friends that if they ever think about violating another girl ever again, they’ll regret it. And they sure as hell won’t walk away next time. Neither will you.”
She shoves him away. He stumbles backward. He opens and closes his mouth.
“Stop being a fucking coward,” Nell hisses. “Imagine if that girl had been your sister or your mother, or your friend. Have some honor and courage. Do the right thing.”
Billy’s gaze darts to me. He hurries off, shoulders slumped and head bent.
My breath burns my lungs. I clench and unclench my fists. Force myself not to stride toward Nell, grab her, and—
Turning, I stalk out the front doors to the parking lot. My blood is hot.
“You need to leave him alone.” She falls into step beside me.
“That little bastard?” I stop beside my SUV and face her. Her cheeks are flushed, her expression set. “Why?”
“Because you have no proof. Neither do I.”
“I don’t need proof to scare the shit out of him.”
“Darius, you cannot confront him.”
The order scrapes down my spine. I can’t give that kid the beat-down he deserves, but I sure as hell can put the fear of God into him. I can also force him to tell me the names of the other two shitheads.
“I saw the way you looked at him in the garden this afternoon,” Nell continues. “I knew you were going to go after him, which is why I followed you to his locker.”
“Why are you protecting him?”
“I’m not protecting him, you ass.” She spreads her arms out. “I’m protecting you.”
I stare at her. Sparks fire into her gray eyes. She’s righteous, angry, and so fucking beautiful my knees go weak.
“What…what are you talking about?”
“Darius, you’re a teacher.” She paces a few feet away, her shoulders tense. “Not only that, you’re the most well-known person in this town right now. There are rules about how a teacher can interact with students. If you confront Billy about a situation that has no proof, I guarantee word will spread and you’ll get in trouble.”
“I wouldn’t have hit him.”
“You’d have wanted to,” she snaps. “And you might not have been able to stop yourself from grabbing him, but even if you hadn’t, you’d have scared the crap out of him. Whatever you did, he could have gone to the administration making accusations about you threatening him or assaulting him or who knows what else. Then everyone would know, and the administration would get involved…and I can’t stand the thought of you being the target of shitty gossip or a stupid scandal, especially when it would all be a fucking lie.”
She’s breathing hard. Her eyes are still blazing.
In the hostage compound, there hadn’t been any grass. No flowers or plants. Only barred windows, stained concrete, impenetrable stone walls.
But in a corner of my cell, weeks into my captivity, a tiny weed began pushing its way through a crack in the concrete floor. One single tendril that caught the midday sun leaking in from the high, narrow window.
I began watering the stalk every day, just a few drops that soaked into the fragile roots. At night, I imagined I could hear it growing. A second stalk grew, then a third. I moved my pallet and began sleeping beside it. With a daily dose of water and light, the little green plant started to thrive. It was the first thing I saw every morning.
Now, miles away, almost two years later, a lifetime, as I stand in a high-school parking lot looking at a girl I’ve known since she was born, something happens inside me. A shift, a break, an almost imperceptible movement. Like a tiny plant struggling against insurmountable odds, striving for water and sunlight.
The sound of screeching laughter breaks the feeling apart. A group of kids approach the parking lot, talking, giggling, jostling each other.
“Be careful.” Nell doesn’t take her eyes off me. “Please.”
Because there are rules.
I turn away from her. When I’d told her class about my escape, I’d said I’d moved on pure instinct and adrenaline. That had been only a partial lie.
In the split-second before I’d kicked open the truck door, I’d hesitated. Because I’d suddenly thought of a little green plant that might still have needed me.
CHAPTER 26
Nell
The days following the party are tense, unbalanced, shifting. I look in the mirror and see the same girl I’ve always been, but still inside me are the rumbles of fire and fury. Of discovery and a pulsing desire that echoes my heartbeat. Of an awareness so sharp, so painfully beautiful, that I both want it to stop and to go on forever.