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Chapter Nine
October 1968
After a day of reflection Peggy had concluded that she was no fan of Tim Shepard, and she didn't think he was much of a fan of hers. He'd acted like an ass to her, completely unprovoked, and as far as she was concerned Curly was just as complicit by his inaction. She'd also decided that she wasn't going to let this one slide.
She'd looked for him throughout the day but she hadn't seen him at lunch, and they didn't share any classes. It wasn't until that afternoon that she saw him, hovering around his car with a couple of his friends.
"What'd he do?" Jane asked.
"What d'you mean?" Peggy replied.
"What did Curly do that has you glaring at him?" Jane clarified. "You look like you're out for blood."
"His brother was rude to me yesterday, and he didn't do anything to stop him." She explained. "And I'm not glaring. I'm just frowning in his general direction."
"Ooh, Tim Shepard, he's hot." Lori interjected.
"Thought Curly was the one you liked?" Jennifer asked.
"A girl can like multiple guys at once."
"Well, I think he's a jerk, but whatever." Peggy said. "Anyway, I'm gonna go talk to Curly."
"Confront him you mean." Jane said.
"Same difference."
Weaving her way through the crowd, she walked like a woman on a mission. Curly was leaning against his car smoking a cigarette, laughing at something Jimmy said to him. It wasn't until she stopped right in front of him that he noticed her.
"Can we talk?" She asked, crossing her arms. "In private."
A few of Curly's friends were waggling their eyebrows suggestively at them and whistling. They were acting like she'd asked for a sexual favour and not a conversation.
"Sure." Curly replied, nodding to his friends who then dispersed, but not without flashing her a few smug grins that she ignored. "Whatcha wanna talk about?"
"Yesterday."
"What about it?" He asked, his expression was neutral, a complete shift from his usual jovial demeanour around her. It was a shame, his goofy grin was more handsome.
"I want to know why you were acting like a jerk yesterday."
"How?" He asked, dropping his cigarette on the ground, crushing it under his shoe. "I didn't do nothing to you yesterday."
"Exactly, you did nothing." She said. "Your brother was acting like a real jerk to me and you didn't say anything."
"What was I s'posed to say?"
"I don't know, maybe defend me. I defended you." Peggy said. "Don't know why, since it's not like you've even thanked me for that. You ungrateful ass."
"I'm an ass?" He asked, raising his eyebrows incredulously.
"Yeah, you are." She said. She didn't actually think that but she wasn't about to back down now. "I don't know what kind of problems you have with your brother,"
"I ain't got any problems with Tim."
"But I don't want you pulling me into a pissing competition with your brother." She continued. "I haven't been anything but nice to you, and I don't understand why you acted like that."
"There's a lot you don't understand." He said, bitterly.
His anger was completely unjustified. There was nothing that she'd done that could've had him acting like this. Mere annoyance would've been an unwarranted response for everything she'd done for him.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means, that you, little miss high and mighty, don't understand everything." Curly said. "Tons of shit you don't get."
"And what, you and brother are one of those things?" She asked. "Maybe you're right, since I thought we were friends."
Curly seemed to falter for a moment, looking away while she kept her gaze steady. Somehow this had turned from a minor disagreement to an all out argument without. An apology, possibly an explanation, was all that she had wanted. He had completely overreacted, but maybe she had overestimated his easygoing nature.
The situation only went from bad to worse when Michael appeared at her side. Whether he thought he was sticking up for her, or he wanted to wallow in her anger towards Curly, she wasn't sure. By his self-satisfied smirk probably the latter.
"C'mon, Peggy." Michael said. "He ain't worth the trouble."
Curly scoffed, pushing himself off his car to stand straight, as if he was readying for a fight.
"See you ain't got the memo that she don't want you around no more." Curly spat out. "Guess she ain't gotten 'round to dumping your ass."
"Curly!" Peggy admomished, her eyes going wide.
"You don't know shit." Michael said, but he didn't exactly look confident in the claim.
"You're the one that don't know shit." Curly said. "Cause she told me yesterday she was gonna dump ya."
Michael's already tenuous confidence in their relationship status must have plummeted. His frown fading away as he turned to her, realisation setting in when she didn't refute the statement.
"That true?" He demanded, his fists balled up at his side.
There was no way out of this. No way to avoid admitting the truth that didn't involve lying to his face, and she couldn't do that, even if it might've hurt him less. He deserved her honesty if nothing else.
"I'm sorry,"
"Is it true?"
"Yes, yes it's true." Peggy blurted out. "This isn't the way I wanted to break up with you, but yes I wanted to break up with you."
"It's not like you even want to be with me." She quickly continued. "We both know you only asked me out because your mom told you to. And I only said yes because my mom wanted me to."
Michael's lips curled as he sneered at her. "So you were gonna dump me to slum with this worthless hood. Real classy of you."
Peggy wasn't sure who threw the first punch, but the next thing she knew Curly and Michael were tussling. Instantly their schoolmates encircled them, eager for the entertainment. Only Peggy tried to stop them, but her cries fell on deaf ears and she didn't dare try to physically part them for fear of getting on the wrong end of a misaimed hit.
Michael put up more of a fight than she expected, getting in a few good hits before the fight decidedly swung out of his favour. This was the first proper fight she'd ever actually seen, and she was glad she'd almost made it eighteen years without seeing such a thing. Fighting was a brutal and bloody endeavour she wanted nothing to do with.
"Alright, break it up." Principal Miller yelled, pushing through the crowd to get to them. "Now boys."
Finally they backed away from each other. Neither of them looked too worse for wear, though blood was dripping from Michael's nose, as they continued glare at each other.
"Lucky for you three detention hasn't started yet." Principal Miller said. "Get your stuff and come with me."
Peggy wanted to argue her innocence but the protest died in her throat when she realised everyone was staring at her. They may not have all heard what Michael had said, but word would soon spread about him fighting Curly over her. She hoped the fight boosted both their egos, because it certainly hadn't made things better for her. She may have felt guilty about her unceremonial break-up if she wasn't so furious with Michael for publically embarrassing her, or Curly for instigating the whole fiasco.
Ignoring both of them she followed Principal Miller back inside the school and into a classroom where two bored looking students sat. Taking a seat at the front desk, she pulled out her books. But she couldn't bring herself to do any work, not when she screwed things up so immensely. Her plans to preserve her friendship with Michael were ruined. There was no way he'd be able to even look at her after this, and if he hated her so would his mother, and she'd hate Peggy's mother. So she'd destroyed two relationships and her only gain was that she wouldn't have to suffer as Michael's girlfriend anymore. Not much of a consolation.
Curly was always on a high after a fight and this time was no different. He could easily suffer through detention for finally getting to beat that smug look off of Michael's face. He was already pissed off when Michael showed up, and he'd been wanting to hit the guy for months.
The self-satisfication faded a little when he saw how devastated Peggy looked. He probably shouldn't have thrown her under the bus like that, but he was annoyed with her at the time and wasn't thinking about how she'd feel about him having it out with her boyfriend. Or ex-boyfriend now. He didn't even try not to be pleased about that.
Detention was as boring as ever, especially when Peggy ignored his attempts to get her attention. It wasn't that he felt bad for having it out with Michael, that was long overdue, but she looked damn near tears. Maybe that's why he followed her when she bolted out of detention as soon as it ended. He didn't run though, more like a fast walk.
"Peggy," he called out, pushing through the front doors after her. He caught up to her at the bottom of the stairs, grabbing onto her arm and pulling her to a stop.
"What do you want?" She demanded, ripping her arm from his grip. "Come to gloat?"
"I ain't gonna gloat."
"Then what do you want?"
"To talk."
It was bad enough that he'd done what he did, but now he wanted to talk. As if he hadn't just treated her like absolute garbage and forced her to break up with her boyfriend in the worst possible way. And he had the nerve to say it so casually.
"Talk about what?" Peggy asked. "About how Michael probably hates me now because of you, which I deserve. Or how I'm going to have to go home and explain this to my mother, who will be devastated."
Curly shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. However he expected this to go it apparently didn't involve her yelling at him.
Peggy let out a sigh, the worst of her tirade over. "Look, I'm sorry for whatever I did to piss you off. Whatever it was I didn't mean it."
His eyes softened for a moment with what she thought to be guilt. Or at least that's what she hoped it was, it would be terrible for him to treat her like that and be remorseless for it.
"You didn't do anything." He admitted. "I was just pissed off."
"About what?"
Curly shrugged. "Stuff."
That was all he was going to say on the matter so she didn't press him. His secret troubles were no concern of hers.
"Let me give you a ride home." He offered. "It's the least I can do."
"Damn straight it is." She huffed, not waiting for him before walking over to his car.
As they pulled out of the parking lot she saw Michael in the side mirror, glumly watching them. Now he probably thought she had gone and jumped into Curly's arms as soon as she was single, confirming what he already suspected, that Curly had played a major role in their breakup. He hadn't. If anything it was a minor role, more like a recurring character than main, but she'd have a hard time convincing Michael of that.
"You don't deserve to be hated." Curly told her.
"Yes I do." She said. "That was a terrible way to break up with someone."
"Shoulda done it ages ago."
"Are you saying this is my fault?" She asked, incredulously.
"Shit, Peg, I'm tryna apologise here." Curly said. "Sorry for...what just happened."
He was grimacing in a way that looked like he'd just ate a lemon. Apologies must not often feature in his vocabulary, but at least he was trying. It wasn't enough to earn her forgiveness and she was still pissed as all hell, but it was a start.
"You're not a worthless hood." She told him. "Michael was wrong."
"Ya think?"
"Yeah."
