I got the the cafeteria before most people the next morning. It was empty except for the foreign exchange students, all huddled at their table whispering over something. I swear I heard the sound of newspaper shuffling as I exited the lunch line, making my way over to the Billings table. Astrid and Trey entered shortly after I came in. They sat across from each other, casually, still not wanting to publically admit they were dating. As more students shuffled in, the table filled up with Billings Girls and Ketlar boys. Josh sat at the other end of the table from me, but smiled at me as he shoveled donuts into his mouth.
"I wonder what the news has for me today," Trey said, lifting a copy of the New York Times from his messenger bag and placing it on the table.
"You and your obsession with the New York Times," Astrid said smiling. "He can't go a day without reading it," she said to me.
I nervously picked up my milk and took a sip, just waiting. Suddenly, the newspaper flopped open, knocking Gage's half empty glass of orange juice into his lap.
"Holy shit dude, what was that?" he yelled at Trey, standing up. Instantly, all eyes were on our table.
"Sorry. It was my newspaper," Trey said, trying to clean up the mess with his one napkin. Gage picked up the newspaper and was about to use it to mop up the orange juice when he started turned his eyes to the picture on the front.
"Hey Carmichael," he called to Amberly, at the table next to us. "Your dad's front page." Everyone was still watching us.
I watched as Amberly buried her face into her hands.
"What? Why?" Josh asked, coming over to us with a bunch of napkins. His knee brushed against me as he mopped up the mess. "Sorry," he said smiling at me, then turning his attention to the newspaper.
Trey was reading the headline and Gage was scanning the story.
"Apparently the guy likes to do it with minors," Trey said, not looking up.
Suddenly, anyone in the room with a copy of the New York Times was reading. Amberly's face was still buried in her hands.
"Score 1 for Papa Carmichael!" Gage said.
"Gage, your disgusting. He's like 50 and he's having sex with minors," Noelle said.
"He is pretty hot though. I'd do him," London said.
"London, you'd do anything that walks," Tiffany replied. "I think it's gross."
A round of laughs went around the room and suddenly Amberly stood, staring at Noelle and I. I plastered an apologetic smile on my face and tried to catch her eye. Her face looked so hurt. She gave me a look, narrowing her eyes at me, as if saying "thanks for all this." And I instantly felt terrible.
Josh was still standing there, his knee still touching me. He finished scanning the story, then turned towards me.
Uh-oh. He had that look on his face. That disappointed look. He looked me in the eye for a few seconds then left the cafeteria.
"What's Hollis' problem?" Vienna asked.
"Who knows," Noelle said, giving me a knowing look before pulling out her touch screen Blackberry. I was silent.
Seconds later, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
From: Noelle
To: Reed
are you going to go after him or what?
From: Reed
To: Noelle
should i?
From: Noelle
To: Reed
of course
"I just realized I forgot something back at Billings. I'll catch up with you all later," I said picking up my bag and standing. After a short goodbye, I was standing outside on the steps, trying to figure out which was Josh had gone. I saw a blue jacketed figure making its way over to Ketlar and immediately noticed the jacket as being Josh's. I set off behind him, running.
I ran all the way to Ketler, using my key card to get it. I ran through the common room and up the stairs, not even caring if anyone saw me. But everyone was at breakfast. It was deserted. I ran up to Josh's floor and banged on his door. There was no answer, so I pushed it open to find Josh setting up an easel inside. He looked up at me with that same look of disappointment in his eyes.
"Reed, go away."
"Josh, no. I'm not leaving until I talk to you."
He ignored me, sat down on a stool, and began opening paint jars.
"Look, I know that you know what Noelle and I were doing in New York yesterday." He continued to ignore me. "Josh, please."
"What do you want me to say? I thought we agreed that you would only use your Billings powers for good. You lied to me."
"Josh, I didn't exactly do anything. I mean, I accompanied Noelle, but I didn't even say anything. I felt terrible the whole time. I didn't want to do that to Amberly. I just…" I just don't know how to explain this,
"Whatever happened to just blackmailing her. I thought you weren't going to have to release the information."
"She wouldn't leave Billings. So Noelle followed through on her plan."
"Why didn't you stop her?"
"You of all people should know that Noelle is unstoppable. I couldn't have stopped her if I tried."
"That's the thing. You didn't try," he said, a hurt look in his eyes. A look worse than any I've ever seen. I officially felt terrible.
Josh began to sling paint on his canvas, just like we'd done that one day last year. I knew it meant he was mad and trying to get his mind off things, but I just stood there.
"Are you just going to stand there?" he asked, sounding irritated.
"Yes," I said quietely.
He let out a long sigh. "Grab a brush?" he asked, as if it were a question.
I didn't speak, just walked over to his jar of brushed and took one. I walked over to the canvas and dipped it in red paint. I flung it at the canvas, and, unlike last time, none of it hit the wall. It formed a huge gash across the canvas. Next I flung green, the blue, then purple. I didn't even notice that Josh had stopped flinging paint. I was gasping for breath when I was done. I set down the brush and took a step back to survey what I had done. The whole canvas was covered in paint splotches of various colors.
"So you really didn't mean to hurt Amberly?" Josh said.
"What? I mean, of course not. But where did that come from?" I questioned.
"That," he said pointing to the canvas, "is a sign of someone who is very troubled."
I turned away from the painting and towards him.
"I feel terrible about the whole thing. I didn't want it to happen."
"I can tell," he said smiling. "It's nice though, your first painting."
"If it even qualifies as that."
"It does. It's nice. I like it," he said.
"So your not mad at me anymore?"
"I can tell that you obviously didn't mean for this all to happen, so no. I'm not mad."
"Good, because I could really use you right now," I said stepping closer to him.
"What's wrong?" he asked, wrapping his arms around my hips and pulling me closer.
"I feel so bad about this whole thing. Amberly gave me this look when she left the cafeteria. It was…" I didn't even know how to describe it.
"That bad, huh?" he said, pulling me onto his lap.
"I feel like a horrible person," I said.
"Good thing you aren't one," he said kissing me on the forehead.
"Promise?" I asked. He placed his forehead against mine.
"Promise."
By Wednesday, a media storm had picked up the Dustin Carmichael story, Amberly was locking herself in her room only to come out for finals, Mr. Carmichael was brought into questioning by the police, and six underage girls whose names could not be released were given the chance to press statutory rape charges. To deal with all of this, we were having a Billings meeting in the parlor.
"Sorry to pull you from your studying, girls, but in the face of current events, I felt we should have a meeting. We all know that this is a tough time for Amberly and her family, and she would like to say something."
"Hi, everyone. I just wanted to tell you that I'll be leaving Easton after this semester to return home to Seattle. My family needs me and I will do homeschooling there. So, Noelle, looks like you got just what you want."
Noelle gave Amberly a dirty look and Astrid spoke up.
"What does she mean by that, Noelle?"
Whispers went around the room. Amberly stood.
"She just means that she blackmailed me trying to get me to leave Billings. Obviously I didn't leave, and this happened."
More chatter went through the room. Noelle looked like she didn't know what to say.
"You did this Noelle?" Tiffany asked.
"As a matter of fact, I did. And don't act like you all wouldn't have done the same thing. The only reason Amberly is even in Billings was because of me. I told you to vote her in, and you did. Now we won't have to worry about her anymore."
"But you didn't have to hurt her whole family," Astrid said. "I can't believe this."
"Astrid, don't make me do the same thing to you. Now girls, quiet."
The room was so quiet I could hear Constance breathing beside me.
"Alright," Noelle said now that it was quiet. "Meeting adjourned," she continued, standing and walking out of the room.
The whispers started again, but no one except Amberly. I could tell they were going to talk about this now that Noelle was gone, and I honestly didn't want to hear what they had to say. I stood up and walked to the staircase, ready to follow Amberly up.
"Reed, don't you have anything to say about this," Astrid said. "I'd think you'd be against this." The room was quiet again.
"Actually, Astrid, no. I sort of knew about it. Noelle and I blackmailed Amberly. I didn't want to go to the Times, but its not like I could have stopped Noelle," I said turning to walk up the stairs.
"Reed, wait! You knew about this!?" Astrid called.
The whispers had resumed again and I really didn't want to be a part of the discussion so I ignored her. Up in my room, I sighed and collapsed on my bed. Billings was exhausting. I couldn't wait to go home for break and sleep. But just before I fell asleep there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," I said sighing.
"Hey, Reed. It's me, Amberly." I opened one eye.
"What do you want?" I said, opening the other.
"Well, I figured that since you ruined my life and all, you could come help me pack." This should have sounded bitchy and cold, but Amberly had a light, joking tone. Friendly, almost. I sat up surprised.
"Reed, look, I don't want to be mad at you. I know that I'm just a freshman. I'm no match for you. And I understand that it was mainly Noelle who did the whole thing, so I forgive you. Now do you want to help me pack or not?"
I sat for a minute thinking. Did I really want to befriend her? "Well I guess it's the least I can do."