: Fight School :
: Chapter Ten :
Connie could not think or breathe for a minute, sitting on the stone patio. Everyone around her had witnessed her humiliation; one minute she was the concerned girlfriend, the next minute, she was the stupid, foolish girl that had been screwed over by her boyfriend. Making out with another girl at a party? Shows he really didn't even care who might see, Connie thought, bitterly. Doesn't even care about making me out to be the fool. He could have had the decency to at least not get caught. She stared down at the bloody t-shirt in her hand and felt sick. There were so many contradictory emotions that were battling against each other inside her that she felt physically ill. She held onto her sides and let the anger, confusion, worry, and perhaps a little forgiveness, fight each other out.
"Connie, you okay?" Someone was at her side, pulling on her elbow to get up.
"I'm fine." Her mouth opened automatically, as though attached by a hinge, reciting an automated message.
"Bullshit," said Jesse. It was Dwayne and Jesse, standing on either side of her.
"Forget about what they said," Dwayne said.
"They must have gotten it wrong; you know how Guy is, maybe that Julie girl just kissed him and he was too surprised to stop her or something," Jesse said. He missed the frantic look that Dwayne was shooting him.
Of course. Suddenly, a little, treacherous gleam of hope seemed to blind her and consume her until she realized she needed to find this Julie. Find her and have her confirm Guy's innocence. She knew how hard she was setting up herself for disappointment; she knew that was why Dwayne was trying to silently signal to Jesse not to try to justify Guy's action. Because it would only give her false hope. Because it would only be ignoring what was already there: the ending of Guy and her relationship. It would only be dragging on something that was already dead.
But would she give it up because of a third person?
Like hell she would.
Connie didn't know who Julie was but she suddenly scanned the crowd with renewed vigor.
"Connie, let's just go," Dwayne said. "Jesse and I'll take you to Duke's and we can have milkshakes and burgers all night long."
"No, I'm not leaving until I find Julie," Connie snapped.
"Do you even know what she looks like?" Jesse asked. He had realized the mistake in what he said. "This is dumb, let's just go."
Connie caught sight of a girl standing on the opposite end of the crowd. A tall, good-looking boy was trying to talk to her but she was only staring at the wooden crates, the small splatters of blood that had formed around each one. Her long hair was bland and unstyled, her clothes comfortable and not particularly trendy; but suddenly, in Connie's eyes, Julie looked better than herself. She looked beautiful, almost, in a strange, untraditional way, with the firelight flickering over her hair, picking out the gold, and causing a glow to settle in her cheeks and eyes. Maybe she was imagining it but Connie wasn't sure; after all, Julie must hold something special, something better, that Guy saw, right?
She strode over to where Julie stood and only when she was five feet away from Julie did the other girl seem to notice her. And when she did, her face paled; it was obvious that Julie knew who she was.
"Julie?" Connie asked. Her voice came out more cordial than she had expected.
"Julie Gaffney," she said, and held out a hand, as if to shake. Connie stared at it for a minute, then took her hand and gave it a perfunctory shake.
"Are you going to beat her up?" asked the boy standing by her. "Julie didn't know Guy had a boyfriend. I guess it's the same deal. I thought Julie and I were going out but Julie says we weren't and that I was making things up."
"Scooter, shut up," Julie said.
"Look she might," Scooter said, genuinely worried. "She's on the lists, Julie. She's on the hockey team. You just made out with her boyfriend."
"I know who she is, can you give me some breathing space for five seconds?" she snapped.
"Just trying to look out for you." He scowled and stalked away.
"That was nice," Connie remarked. "He was just worried. Apparently I'm a formidable person."
"You're not going to beat me up," Julie said, exasperation lining her voice.
"Yeah? How do you know that? You don't even know me."
"Look, call me sexist but you're a girl and I know you're more sensible than that," she said.
Connie stared at her for a minute, then realized the breath she didn't realize she was holding. It was true; actually hitting this girl, hurting her physically, didn't even seen like a possibility.
"So you're Connie," Julie said. And real regret started to form and knot in her stomach; seeing an actual girl solidified Guy's girlfriend, made her a person, a real person. A real person that she just helped make miserable.
"I just have to know. Did you kiss him first? He's strange sometimes. Sometimes he doesn't want to hurt people's feelings. Maybe he just didn't stop you," Connie said. Already expecting the answer, she had instinctively pulled her long hair over one shoulder, as if by physically shielding herself, she wouldn't be hurt by the other girl's answer.
"I'm really sorry, Connie, I am, and I'm not trying to renounce my responsibility in all of this either, but he kissed me first."
There it was. Hitting rock bottom. Connie staggered back as though the other girl had hit her.
"Nothing will happen between us again, I promise," Julie was saying, but Connie wasn't listening. She just turned her back on Julie and started walking away on shaking legs, Dwayne and Jesse trailing behind her tentatively. It was only until they got into the car and Jesse began to back out of the large, circular driveway, that Connie, slumped in the passenger seat, turned her head away from her friends and quietly began to cry.
Adam was picking up a bottle of water and heading out the front doors when Riley suddenly grabbed his arm.
"What the fuck was that about, Banks?" he demanded. "Whose side are you on?" Adam shook his arm from the other boy's grasp.
"Side?" Adam echoed. "There's no need to be so dramatic, Riley. There are no sides. I just do what benefits me."
He rifled through his pockets looking for his keys.
"Yeah? Trying to play nice with the hockey trash so you can play on the school team with them? Cause daddy won't pay for your hockey practices anymore?"
"You better shut your mouth before I break your jaw," Adam said calmly, locating his keys.
"And you better remember who you belong with," Riley said. "You choose the wrong side and, number one or not, we'll bring you down."
"I'll be waiting for it." Adam left, slamming the front doors behind him.
Guy sat on the curb, head buried in his drawn up knees. His bare back still burned and he could still feel it bleeding. His thinking was on a complete halt and he only vaguely registered the faint music that had begun to play at Cole's house.
A car pulled up; Guy, squinting, looked up, shading his eyes from the headlights. It was a round, shiny Audi with windows too dark for Guy to see who was in it. The car looked like it would belong to a rich girl, but when the door on the drivers side opened, it was Adam that came out. He walked around the car to stand before Guy. He stood there for a while, just quietly watching. Finally, he held out a bottle of water. Guy stared at it for a second before taking it. A mouthful went to rinse his mouth, and the rest was split between pouring it over his head and down his throat.
"How's your back?" Adam asked.
Guy shrugged then winced. The movement made the cuts in his back open and close painfully. He was in too much pain to stop the other boy from walking around and inspecting his back. He jumped at the touch of the cool fingers, carefully following the lines of the wounds splayed across the skin.
"Well it won't kill you," Adam finally said. "There's a couple there that look like they might need stitches."
He sat down on the curb next to Guy.
"McGill is an idiot," Adam finally said.
"Because I couldn't tell without you telling me," Guy said.
"He tried to knock me out when we were in elementary school. Peewee hockey. Well, he did, but it didn't change anything," Adam said.
They lapsed into silence again. Guy could vaguely make out a few stars in the sky. He would have laid down on the pavement except even thinking about it and the pain it would cause made his jaws ache.
"You should leave," Adam said.
"I'm fine. I don't feel like going home yet."
"I mean Eden Hall."
Guy looked at Adam.
"Gonna tell me what everyone's been telling my friends and me since we got here? Telling us we don't belong, that we're not good enough? We don't want to be here any more than you want us here. We're here because this godforsaken school will apparently make something of our lives but so far, it's only made it hell."
"That's why you should leave," Adam said again. "Get out while you can."
"Right, and that has nothing to do with your xenophobia," he said.
"Shut up, Germaine and listen to me," Adam said. "Where can I go? You tell me. Blake? New Dominion? They'll find me wherever I am and they'll make me fight. They'll jump me every chance they get. I'm never going to escape this system. But you? People don't know you yet. That's why you have to get out while you still can, before they start noticing. Because they did today."
"You didn't exactly help," Guy said. "Yeah, telling them not to mess with me? You can't honestly think they won't get me sometime. You just encouraged them."
"They would have regardless. Have you checked the lists lately?"
When Guy shook his head, Adam said, "Julie Gaffney might as well have written and posted your obituary too. She put you at 18 and dropped Cole down to 25. He used to be 9. They would have gotten you anyway even if nothing happened today."
"I don't check the lists," he said.
"Yeah that's obvious because if you did, you would have had the sense to not show up today. Coming to Cole's house after beating the shit out of him? That was real smart. You're lucky you got away with that. They could have killed you."
Guy didn't answer. Yeah, he had to admit that was pretty dumb of him, now that he thought of it.
"You must have beat him pretty bad to have Julie pull that kind of ranking on you guys," Adam said. "She might have a crush but she's never biased." He gave Guy a sidelong glance. Guy caught it and suddenly, a corner of his mouth quirked up into a smile and suddenly he was laughing, not ironically or in disbelief but genuinely. It felt strange and unfamiliar but not unpleasant. In fact, it felt pretty damn good.
"Yeah, he got messed up," he agreed.
"You're in such deep shit, Germaine," Adam said, laughing.
"You still didn't help me any," Guy shot back, but he was laughing too.
"Yeah? Well then maybe it's a sign you should listen to me and get the fuck out of here."
He stood up and, oddly, ruffled Guy's hair. Guy looked up. A quick flash of an expression shot across Adam's face. An ironic smile maybe. Or perhaps just a weary blink of an eye. It was there and gone before Guy could even really figure out what it was.
As Adam got back in his car and drove away, Guy realized that whatever it was, it made him a little more inclined to believe what Adam had told him.