Page 19 of The Way I Am Now
“I’m just not interested, okay?” I answer, so he’ll drop it. And I take another sip, trying to pace myself.
“Okay, okay.” He holds up his hands like I’m the one being an asshole right now. “Saw you talking to that girl at the concert. Was that . . . uh . . . ?” He looks off, snapping his fingers like he’s trying to summon her name.
“Eden,” I answer.
“Right,” he says. “Question, though. Didn’t she kinda screw you over last time? Like cheat on you or something?”
“No, she didn’t.”
“We’re talking about Caelin McCrorey’s little sister, right?”
“Yep.” I watch him as I take another long pull and swallow. “I seem to remember you once called her a slut, didn’t you?”
He chuckles like it’s nothing. “Isthatwhy you’re pissed at me?”
“Who said I was pissed at you?”
“Man, that was a million years ago.” He stares at me, and there’s this weird smile edging onto his face, like he’s half amused with himself, half scared of me. “What is this? Did she say something about me or . . . ?” He trails off. “’Cause it was just a joke.”
She never mentioned a word to me about Zac, but now he’s making me wonder if there’s something more than that one slut cough in the hallway senior year.
“Like what?” I ask. “What would she say about you?”
Before he can answer, the three guys who had been racing around the track are bounding up the bleachers toward us, the former cheerleaders trailing behind them. Dominic is walking over to us now too, his arm around the shoulder of the guy he likes—not so secretly, it seems—and the rest of them are following.
“Dude, did someone just say something about Caelin McCrorey?” one of them asks as they’re approaching. “Did you hear what happened to him?”
“Oh yeah,” another answers. “Heard he got kicked outta school or something, right?”
“No, no. You’re thinking of his friend,” one of the cheerleaders answers. “Kevin, remember? Kevin Armstrong.”
Hearing his name sends a chill up my spine. I try to catch Dominic’s eye.Eagle.
“He didn’t just get kicked out of school. I heard he’s in prison or something.”
“No, he’s not in prison,” someone else answers. “He did get arrested, though.”
My heart is racing.Eagle, I shout in my mind.
“That Boy Scout?” Zac spits, laughing. “What the fuck for?”
I keep drinking. No one seems to know. My heart slows a little. Maybe they’ll drop it.
“I know,” the other cheerleader chimes in now, waiting until everyone looks at her before continuing, louder. “He raped someone.”
There’s an uproar of voices saying things like “what” and “are you serious” and “no way,” but it’s Zac’s voice that breaks through: “Okay, now I want to know who’s accusing him because that’s bullshit!”
I turn to look at him, and I can’t think of one word to say because all my thoughts are preoccupied with restraining myself from knocking him on his ass right now.
“No, it’s true,” the first cheerleader says. “I know the girl. We met her.” She points to the other cheerleader. “Remember? Kevin brought her home over Thanksgiving last year. Jen or Gin, something like that? She was his girlfriend.” So Eden was right; people really have been talking.
“Obviously not anymore,” the other girl adds, snorting through her words before dissolving into laughter.
“Oh, his girlfriend?” Zac shouts, throwing one of his arms forward, all sloppy. “Well, there you go.”
“What does that mean?” I finally say because I can’t restrain myself this much.
“Come on, how’s his girlfriend going to accuse him of rape?”
