Page 63 of Catch Me

“Arrogant. Cocky.”

“Handsome,” Jules says, fluttering her eyelashes at me.

“Well, yeah. Duh.”

“Girls,” the nurse calls. “He’ll see you now.”

I start in my seat and then stand, Jules right behind me. She points down the hallway, and we go through a set of swinging doors. Once we’re inside, I take my phone out and start the recording. I have no idea where I’m going, but I try to act like I do while the scent of alcohol hits my nostrils. Then, I see him. His door is ajar, and he has a nameplate at the front of his desk that says Dr. Campbell, so that was easy enough. We walk in. He looks up, and his expression is definitely on the unfriendly side. “Hello, Dr. Campbell,” I say. “I’m Lizzie, this is Jane. We’re Sasha Pontine’s cousins.”

“So my receptionist tells me.” He leans back in his seat. “I have patients, you know. And I’m pretty sure you ladies should be at school.”

“I promise we won’t take up any more of your time than we need to. Sasha would be here herself, but she’s busy,” I tell him, trying to speak as clearly as I can. “She wants to know why you approved Reid Parker’s return to football.”

“Christ,” the doctor mutters. He gets up and closes his door before turning on us. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I can’t believe you’re coming to my place of business to talk about this shit.”

I swallow. I’ve never heard a doctor behave in such an unprofessional manner. Jules speaks up then. “Well, frankly, Doctor, Sasha can’t believe you did what you did, so I guess we’re all on the same page.”

The doctor sighs. “I already told her…” he breathes out, then shuts his mouth. He returns to the other side of the desk, sits, and steeples his fingers in front of him. “Did your cousin tell you I already talked to her on the phone?”

“She did,” I say. “That’s why she sent us here. She doesn’t believe you.” I have no idea if what I’m saying is the wrong thing or the right thing, but I’m just trying to put myself in Sasha’s shoes. If she had some sort of arrangement with the doctor that would keep Reid out of playing, she would be calling this guy out right now.

“I told her I’d call Mitch about this.”

“Well, you must not have done that yet, which is why we’re here.”

“Jesus,” the doctor says. “The trouble you’ve all gone through to get one kid out of playing football. It better—.”

“Oh, it’s worth it,” I say. My insides jump. I’m practically screaming from the rooftop. This guywasin on this. Not only that, so was Mitch. Fucking Mr. Pontine.

“I told Sasha, and I’ll tell Mitch when I talk to him. I did not sign that kid’s return to athletics note. I told him I would keep him out, and I did. I kept him out. Even though the kid is as strong as an ox. He could’ve returned right away.” He leans forward, resting his elbows on the desk in front of him, scattering some papers. “You know how much trouble I could get in for this? Why would I fuck it up by signing his damn return letter? I know the consequences.”

I want to ask him what the consequences are. I want to ask him what the hell the Pontine’s have over him, so he would do this despite the consequences, but if I’m really Lizzie, Sasha’s cousin, I would know this already.

“More than likely, the kid forged the note, which is what I told your cousin when I talked to her. There’s nothing I can do about that.”

Jules turns toward me. She nods, her eyes widening a fraction. “I don’t know, Lizzie. I think he’s telling the truth.”

“Me too,” I say.

“We’ll be sure to let our aunt and uncle know.”

The doctor sighs. “Good. And tell them I’m not working with anymore kids. I’ll deal directly with them next time.” He gives us a disgusted look then returns to the paperwork on his desk, ending the meeting

Jules shrugs, and then we both stand and head for the door. Our footsteps increase as we walk down the hallway, the waiting room, and finally the outside before we make it to Jules’s car. “Holy shit,” she breathes as soon as we get inside.

“He kept him out,” I say, still disbelieving that we actually got what we came here to get. I pull my phone out and stop the recording. For good measure, I go to the beginning and play it again, making sure everything can be heard.

When we listen to the whole thing again, Jules smiles. “We got him.”

We do indeed.

27

We don’t run to the school or to the guys right away. Jules leaves the doctor’s parking lot and goes to a nearby playground to park while we talk things through. We come to a decision that we should take the recording to Coach first because we did this first and foremost for Reid. Then, we’ll take it to the principal who might finally be able to do something about Sasha. He might not be able to do anything to her like the police can, but this started about high school, it should end about high school.

Sasha thinks she runs the school. If the principal gets out of this what we got out of it, she won’t for much longer.

Once our plan is ironed out, we decide to head to Spring Hill High. Usually, slipping into school is harder than slipping out of school. Luckily, when we open the double doors and go in, no one’s around to ask for a hall pass. We both make a beeline right for Coach’s office and knock on it.

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