Page 80 of Atticus
I turn.
Phil Sullivan stalks toward me from down the hall. “Walking around here like you’re so smart. Party’s over, tin man.”
Trey squints at him. “You need to relax.”
“I’m just enjoying the karma, Trey,” Sullivan replies. “No harm in that.”
Principal Carlisle throws open the office door. “Atticus!” she fumes. “Come here. Now!”
I dislike her tone and the way she barks at me like I’m a disobedient dog. “No.”
She straightens, her gaze flashing with ire. “What?”
“No,” I repeat.
Bryant touches my arm. “C’mon,” he urges under his breath. “Let’s get this over with. Trey and I won’t let her eat you alive.”
Reluctant but with his backing, I step into the office with Bryant and Trey behind me. My circuitry surges. The office is in a state of chaos. The phone is ringing off the hook. Renee either hangs up on the callers or directs them to voicemail, appearing flustered. Several of the teachers and staff stand with one another, talking loudly, but they all hush when I enter.
“So? Where is she? Where’s your little girlfriend?” Sullivan demands as he follows us through the door.
“I’ve been trying to reach her all day,” Renee pipes up from the desk. “But she isn’t responding.”
“I imagine that’s because you’re incapable of keeping your mouth shut and caused this entire problem in the first place, Renee,” Trey clips.
She looks shocked anyone would address her in such a way. “I don’t know what you mean,” she stammers.
“Don’t play dumb,” Bryant counters. “Everyone in the entire damn school knows it was you. You practically skipped to my room to tell me all about it.”
“I did not!” she protests.
“So what if she did? We have a right to know if deviant behavior is happening on school grounds. Lucy is a coward. She’s probably hiding at home,” Sullivan snarls.
Anger courses from my motherboard right through my biocomponents until indignation fills every ounce of me.
“She isnota coward!” My outburst takes several of the staff off guard. “And we have never done anything inappropriate on school grounds.”
“Hey.” Trey gently puts his hand on my shoulder. “Let’s let level heads reign here. It’s okay. Don’t listen to a word he says. Keep calm.”
I have to harness myself in, a difficult thing to do when addressing Sullivan. “I am also unable to reach her. I don’t know where she is. But she isn’t hiding.”
“Aw, that’s cute.” One of the other teachers, Henry Myers, snorts at me. “The Tin Man got a heartanda brain.”
I ignore the sparse snickers his mockery earns.
The school nurse, Denise Cartwright, standing beside Rebecca Curtis from the school’s financing department, speaks up. “I think this is all getting blown out of proportion. We’re freaking out why, exactly? Atticus isn’t a student. He’s not underage, Lucy’s broken no school rules as far as I know. And she certainly hasn’t broken any laws.”
“It’s sick,” Sullivan points out.
“That’s your opinion,” Denise counters.
“That’s the whole town’s opinion!” Sullivan points at me accusingly.
“Not my opinion,” Trey retorts. “I couldn’t give less of a damn.”
“Nor mine, either.” Bryant folds his arms. “You’ve got far too much of an invested interest in Miss Warren’s private life, Phil. Wonder why that is.”
“Oh, come on, don’t give me that. This is a machine. He is incapableof making his own decisions. He’s not a person, he’s athing.Why the fuck does he even havea penis?”
