If the only two girls we happened to cross paths with on the bus knew about Sara and I, it was likely we'd quickly be faced with a lot more people who knew about our sexual relationship at school. I mentally prepared myself for the onslaught of slander and stares, but it was easier than I thought to ignore the crowd around me. I was walking by everyone so quickly that I couldn't even make out their faces, let alone focus on them long enough to tell if their attention was on me or not.
Sara was on a rampage, storming through the halls like she owned them on her rage-induced quest to find Ted, and I was following behind her as closely as I could. Sara and I couldn't have replaced bruised punk so quickly as the biggest news on campus just yet, especially since Ted would still be sporting that black eye, constantly reminding everyone that'd he'd lost in a fight against some jock who'd accused him of being gay. People would still be talking about Ted as much as they were about us, and all we had to do was search for crowds and people staring in order to find him. His black eye stuck out worse than a sore thumb, and it took Sara very little effort to track him down. I had trouble keeping up as she power walked toward him like a heat-seeking missile ready to explode when it found its target.
The day before, Ted had been shy and hid in the corner of the room out of everyone's sight as much as he possibly could. Shaun and Lindsey were the only people he let interact with him, but Ted even had a hard time tolerating them, shrugging away Shaun each time he tried to help. Yesterday Ted was pissed off and angry at the world, but today he seemed to be feeling the exact opposite. There was a group of people crowded around him, and he was smiling and laughing. When he talked, the other people, including Shaun who was the only face out of the bunch I recognized, laughed along with him, and I was scared to even think of what he could be whispering to them.
Sara seemed far less intimidated. She was trying to be the intimidator. She wasn't bothered by Ted's sudden shift in personality or the posse backing him up. She stormed up to him like a soldier carrying a loaded gun into a crowd of civilians, and she wasn't going to relinquish her control of the situation until they submitted to her willing.
"Ted, I need to talk you."
The short brunette seemed surprised that his joke had been interrupted, but he quickly shook off his shock, turned away from the group, and looked my sister in the eye. "I'm not sure I want to hear anything that comes out of your mouth," Ted retorted. "I know where it's been." Shaun and the group of girls around him chortled like their friend had come up with the snappiest comeback ever. I called his bullshit and stood up for my sister. If Ted was going to have a crew behind him, so was Sara.
"Whatever, Ted. When you heard that rumor about us a week ago you were practically drooling. You have no right to dis something you went home and jerked your tiny dick off to. And the same goes for you, Shaun!" Both of their smug smiles faltered as I exposed their secret fantasies to the group of friends behind them. The girls around the two looked just as displeased, and I could see them start to view Ted and Shaun in the same perverted light as Sara and I. Neither of the boys seemed pleased with my comments, but Ted looked especially agitated. The black eye made him look more sinister than he actually was, like he was the kind of tough guy who got into fights on a regular basis instead of just some dorky outcast who was beat up for being wrongly accused of homosexuality. But I knew the real story, and short, skinny little Ted Gowans was not going to intimidate me or ruin my life.
"Guys, I'll meet up with you later," Ted announced. "I'm going to deal with these two." Ted's fists clenched at his sides as the girls around him migrated like a flock of geese down the hall. Shaun stayed behind, taking his usual place at Ted's side, but his rightful position was quickly pulled out from under him. "That means you too, Shaun," Ted elaborated. "I can get rid of them on my own."
Shaun looked hurt, but he didn't expose his vulnerability for long. Sadness gave way to anger and irritation as I watched their bromance collapse before my eyes. That gay accusation and punch in the face had ruined them. Ted wasn't going to lean on another man ever again. Even if that meant tossing his best friend to the side of the curb, Ted would do it to repel the gay rumors surrounding him. He was going to as extreme of measures as Sara and I were to keep his name heresy-free. Shaun walked away obediently, but of his own accord. His own fists were clenched, and I doubted the animosity Shaun left with would ever allow the boy to return to his ex-beset friend's side willingly without an apology first.
I only let myself observe Shaun's irritation for a brief moment before my focus turned back to Ted's. Ted was seething at a more than Shaun, and I couldn't stop myself from contemplating what he might do with that anger. Mad men were uncontrollable and unpredictable, and there was no telling what Ted was capable of. Yelling was almost certainly in our cards, but would he go a step further and turn the argument physical? If Sara had threated to use her strength if need be, it wasn't a stretch to imagine that Ted would do the same, but Ted was weak and generally passive. He wouldn't hit a couple of girls, and he wasn't strong enough to pick a fight anyway; the black eye was evidence of that. But I also thought he would never abandon his best friend, and I had clearly been wrong about that assumption. Had that group of guys really harassed Ted into being an entirely different person? Would he now throw that punch at Sara that before he would have held back? Would he become the bully for the sake of losing his title as bullied? I didn't know exactly what to expect from Ted, but I knew to be prepared for anything. If Sara was the offense, then I would be the defense, and together we would take down Ted hassle-free.
My worry was unprecedented, though. That black eye didn't change Ted, it changed my perception of him. I easily overestimated Ted's willpower, and Sara quickly showed me how naive I was to think of Ted as anything other than an annoying little thorn in our side.
Sara saw too much red to see Shaun or the girls, and it was obvious her sole focus was prying the information – or blood – out of Ted that she needed. As soon as Ted's crew was out of sight and the scrawny boy was alone as he wished, Sara wasted no time in making her accusations, backing the injured Ted into a corner against the locker and pointing a stiff index finger in his direction like a sharpened dagger at his throat. "The fuck do you think you're doing, Gowans? Why are you suddenly telling everyone about Tegan and I and pretending you think it's disgusting?"
For a fraction of a second, Ted looked surprised that Sara was so straightforward with him. His right eye widened to twice its normal size, and his left eye, swollen shut from the broken blood vessels, opened far enough that I could finally see his pupil again. Then both of his eyelids retreated back into their droopy state, and another scowl replaced the shock. "Because I want to," Ted spat simply, trying to sound as forceful in his words as Sara was with hers, but he was still the one pinned against the locker and he was still the one who looked more pathetic in this position. Sara almost looked big in front of him, her back hunched over his direction and her palm against the locker beside Ted's face, intentionally blocking his exit.
"Why do you want to, Ted? What could you possibly get out of humiliating us?"
"Cause it sucks to be humiliated, doesn't it?" Ted countered. "It's because of talking to dykes like you that people think I'm gay. You lesbians are the reason I got this black eye. If I can humiliate you, then people will stop laughing at me." Ted seemed satisfied with his logic, but Sara just rolled her eyes.
"God, Ted, you're an idiot! You really think if you tell everyone that Tegan and I have sex they're going to look at you like some kind of gossip martyr? No, they're still going to see that black eye and think you're just some weak fag who couldn't defend himself. Then they're going to put down all three of us!"
Ted seemed to contemplate Sara's words and think on them for a brief moment, that thinking something I never knew he was capable of, but his moment of introspective intelligence didn't last long. "That's not true," he denied, having no claim in his words or his voice. He hunched forward and shrunk in on himself as his back rested flat against the blue sheet of metal behind him. He was still thinking about what Sara said, but I could tell he was trying not to.
"God, Ted." Sara scoffed. "What were you thinking? You didn't even think this through. And why the hell would you start sending us those notes two weeks ago if you weren't even beaten up until yesterday? Are you really that homophobic?"
"Notes?" Ted's spine straightened as he fell back into his comfort zone, actually being dumb instead of just playing it. His brow scrunched like crinkled gift wrap as Sara tried to pry the thin paper boundary away from his brain to see the reasoning hidden inside. "What notes?"
The arm that had been sheltering Ted indirectly now very directly impeded his ability to move freely. Sara lifted her elbow and tugged at the stretched, black collar of Ted's t-shirt, gripping the material in her fists like a fish on a hook. Ted squirmed and thrashed, desperate to make his way back to water, but Sara kept him on the line and trapped him against the ocean blue locker with just enough strength to produce a light crash from the hollow metal container that only Ted's ears could register as the back of his skull made contact with the thin sheet of iron. The display of dominance was intentionally subtle, and the sounds and sights of the physical intimidation taking place in our corner of the hall went unnoticed to the common passersby who stared at their feet as they walked with headphones dangling from their skull like earrings and phones tying their hands together like cuffs. Though her rage was contained, not one flexible, fluid spark from the flame of Sara's frustration left her eyes as she placed her nose closer to Ted's chin. I admired the control my sister kept over her actions even in the heat of such an intense moment.
"Don't act stupid, Gowans. Someone's been putting notes in my locker saying that they're going to tell the school about me and Tegan having sex if we don't stop sleeping together. If you try to tell me it's a coincidence that you're suddenly blabbing your mouth about that very thing, I'm not going to believe it."
Ted's tough resolve quickly recoiled as a woman smaller than him in size asserted her supremacy over him. The purple eye was starting to make him look less and less like a Disney villain and more and more like the coward he was. His worried eyes, heaving chest, and struggling legs as he fought against Sara's hold on him betrayed the confidence he managed to retain in his words. "I didn't write any notes!" He shouted the statement loud enough for it to seem like a scream to Sara's ears, but it might as well have been a mere whisper compared to the overall din in the hallway. Between scuffing shoes, slamming lockers, and creaking wooden doors, Ted's voice was lost in the racket. "You've got the wrong person," he insisted. "And you're wrong about people making fun of me, too. That wasn't even my idea. Someone else told me that would happen, and I believe them. It's worked so far. I told a couple of girls about you two and suddenly they want to know who I am and how I know things about people that they haven't even heard about yet. They think I'm popular and they like me. They don't feel sorry for me because I got punched in the face, and they don't think I'm gay. We're right, and you're wrong!"
Ted's torso tossed less violently as his words took over the thrashing for him. His sentences were more powerful than his muscles, and Sara almost seemed shaken, but she stood her ground. "Who's 'we?' Who told you saying that stuff about us would help you?"
"I'm not going to tell you that."
If Sara's resolve had weakened before, it increased tenfold now. Spitting snappy comments Sara's direction was not the right way for Ted to free himself, and Sara sunk the hook further into his pouting, fishy lips. Another shove tossed his unsupported head backwards uncontrollably like the oversized, unsutured skull of an infant into the metal behind him. The stars that had surely danced across his vision when his tormentor's fists socked him square in the jaw looked like they were starting to twirl their way back into his peripheral, like ballerinas practicing their routine side stage before taking the spotlight. Ted winced in pain. His gritted teeth didn't allow him to answer Sara's questions.
"Tell me before I have to give you another black eye," Sara threatened skillfully. "Was it Stacy who told you that?"
"I don't know any Stacys." Ted squinted his left eye, which caused the purple eyelid to shut completely. His left eyebrow sunk down below the thin veil of his short, dark bangs, and I could tell a numbing headache was creeping up on that side of his head because of Sara's blows.
"I don't believe you." Following through with her promise, Sara raised her free first to Ted's face, ready to strike.
"Wait, wait!" Ted shrieked desperately lifting his arms up and over Sara's at his neck to shield his already bruised mug. "I'll tell you," he surrendered.
To give him room to breathe, Sara lowered her fist, but kept her fingers wadded into a tight ball at her side as insurance, just in case.
Ted took a deep, relieved breath and lowered his own defenses as he relished in the new gap of space between his vulnerable visage and Sara's eager fist. He took his time regaining his composure, but he didn't push the boundaries of how long he could stall before vexing Sara too far. My sister was no doubt in control of him and the situation.
"Sarah."
"What?" Sara pressed, confirming to Ted that calling her name had gotten her attention.
Ted shook his head. "No. Sarah Fobes. She's the one who convinced me it would be good for me to tell everyone about you two. She said it would get people to stop thinking about me."
Now Sara was the one stunned into silent contemplation, and I was in the same headspace right beside her. Sarah Fobes talked Ted into this? Did that mean she was the one behind the notes and the threats, too? She was certainly smarter than Ted and more capable of pulling off the exposure, as proved by her ability to demote her dirty work to a susceptible minion like Ted, but anyone was smarter than Ted and what motive did she have to split Sara and I apart? Whether she played a larger role in this or not, Sarah was now worth an investigation. Ted had proved to be a good source of information.
I was freaking out inside, but Sara's authoritative position over Ted forced her to act with a clear head if she wanted to be taken seriously. Her fist unclenched at her side, but her knuckles remained the same strained shade of white and the force behind any potential blows her fist could deal out like a band hand of cards transferred to her words.
"Ted, you better listen carefully. I'm going to let you go, but if you keep pulling this shit, you can promise I'll find you again, and I won't give you a second chance. I want you to tell everyone you've told about me and Tegan that you made the story up. I want the whole school to know you're a lying sack of shit, and if that word doesn't get around you're going to have a hard time explaining how you got two black eyes only two days apart from each other. Understand?"
Ted nodded in promise, and the collar of his shirt snapped back into place as Sara released it. The black cotton sagged around his neck and the fabric would never be firm again, like the wrinkled skin of an old woman. Free, Ted tried to scamper away like an anxious kitten in the hands of a small child, but Sara snatched him up before he could get away, using her arm as a barricade once again. Ted was a rat in a cage.
"One more thing," Sara added. "If you see Sarah Fobes, tell her I'm coming for her."