Unbreakable Rules (Too Many Rules Book 3) (13 page)

She reached up and placed a hand on my arm. I twisted away and said, “That’s okay Hailey, it wasn’t your fault.” The last thing I wanted was her comforting me like some sick puppy. “Come on, let’s go.”

Her eyes crinkled in concern. I know that I’d hurt her by turning away from her touch, but I didn’t care. The anger building up inside of me fought with the shame. They combined to become a raging fire of emotion. I had to get out of there before I blew up.

Without waiting to see if she would join me, I started towards the backyard gate. No way was I making my way through that crowd inside the house. Let them regret their absence from the great beating. They would have to get their stories from those that were there.

I was half way into the front yard before Hailey caught up.

“Do you want me to drive?” she asked.

“I’ve got it,” I mumbled through my split lips. My teeth hurt. Hell, everything hurt. My vision was getting blurry on the left side, but there was no way I was going to be driven home like a little kid.

“I think you need to go to the hospital. You might have a concussion.”

“No,” I snapped. Then seeing how she drew back in shock I took a deep breath. “No, no doctors. No police, no to you driving. I’ve got it. I can, at least, do this and get you home safely. Please let me do that, at least.”

“Ryan,” she gasped. “You can’t be thinking like that. You were great. It took three of them and you still broke his nose. Improved it if you ask me.”

I looked over at her, was she serious? How could she see it that way? I had failed. Been beaten like an adopted step-child. Left her alone and undefended. There was nothing between them and her except me moaning on the ground. Every part of me that had ever hoped to be a man felt like I had failed her.

I could take the pain, I could take the humiliation. I couldn’t take the fact that Hailey had been placed in danger because of my failure.

Without looking at her, I got into the car and waited for her. The drive home was quiet. I couldn’t look at her and I was pretty sure she didn’t know what to say.

My hands gripped the steering wheel like I was trying to break it in two. The anger wouldn’t go away. I couldn’t shake it off. All I wanted was to get home and start planning my revenge.

His jaw was set in stone and his knuckles where white. He was angry. I could understand why. Hell, I was pissed as hell. But, why was he taking it out on me?

Was he going to not want to see me ever again? Was this the last time he would talk to me? My soul felt crushed at the thought.

Yes, it had been my idea to go to the party, but I didn’t think something like this would happen. Who would think that Jarret would be such a jerk? A little piece deep inside of me acknowledged that I should have known.

A flash of sorrowful guilt settled over me. I glanced over at him. The side of his face was already starting to turn purple and his eye was swelling shut. I worried about his ability to drive.

As I looked at him, his tongue reached out and wiped at his bloody lips. Cool air flowed in as he rolled his window down and spit out a wad of blood. He glanced over at me as if embarrassed or something.

“Ryan, we have to do something.” My heart wouldn’t stop pounding and my mouth was dryer than anything I had ever experienced.

He signed and said, “I’m okay, nothing permanently wrong. I can tell. I’ve still got all my teeth and the bruises will go away.”

“Yes, but …”

“Hailey, drop it. Please.”

I shut up and scooted to the side of my seat. He was going to dump me. The beginning of something really good was going to be ruined.

As we continued on, I couldn’t get rid of the picture of Jarret punching him, then Ryan bringing his head down on Jarret’s nose. I could still hear the crunch it made.

My stomach was in complete turmoil. I had never been around violence. Not like that. Sure, I witnessed the occasional wrestling match in the school yard and the fake stuff on TV. But, not true, gut sickening violence like that. It had been so fast, so … so, violent.

That was the only word for it. So out of place with the world I knew. My heart squeezed every time I thought of Ryan being hurt. Every punch, each kick had been like a blow to my own body.

I wanted to rip Jarret’s face off. As for the three girls who had held me back, I was going to make them pay. Somehow, someway.

When Ryan pulled in front of my house, he put the car into park, but didn’t turn it off. Instead, he continued to stare out the front windshield.

“If it’s okay I won’t walk you to your front door. I need to get home and get cleaned up before my mom gets there.”

“Um … Sure, I guess.” My world was falling apart. “I really am sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, Hailey. I should have seen it coming and taken steps to prevent it.”

“Ryan, you can’t blame yourself.”

“Oh, I don’t, believe me. I know who is at fault and it isn’t either you or me. Goodnight, Hailey. I won’t say that I had a good time. You understand.”

My heart sunk, this was it then.

“Are you sure you can drive home? Call me when you get there. I need to know you got home safe.”

He thought for a moment, then nodded his head. “I’ll text you.”

What, no phone call? I wanted to hear his voice, to know that he was truly okay. Instead, I nodded my own head in acceptance. We were communicating with body language, now. It was as if we couldn’t trust words between us. Why was he so mad at me?

It took a day for me to get my bearings and come up with a plan. I spent most of Saturday night and all of Sunday avoiding Mom. I’d buried myself in my lab. Only sneaking upstairs when I knew she had left for work.

The last thing I needed was her freaking out. There was no telling what she would do.

No. I was going to handle this. My way. The Nerd way.

The hum of the streetlights broke the silence of the night. Three in the morning is always a quiet time in suburbia.

I turned my headlights off and quietly pulled into a spot a few houses down from his and waited to see if anyone would notice. My heart raced as I studied the neighborhood for movement. A porch light coming on. Anything to say that I had been spotted.

There come those moments in life when you know right from wrong, but chose wrong, anyway. This was one of those times for me. Every part of my brain was screaming, ‘Stop! Don’t do this. You’ll regret it.’ At the same moment, every part of my soul was yelling for me to ‘take him down.’ I’d like to say that I was torn, that I at least fought with myself about it, but I didn’t. Nothing could have stopped me.

Most home computer systems aren’t that hard to break into. Not if you know what you’re doing. Not if you’ve got a couple of good password cracking apps and any semblance of smarts. The average cracker could break into one in about an hour.

It took me eight minutes to break into Jarret’s.

When you’re inside someone else’s system, the trick is to not leave footprints all over the place. Nothing that can lead them or the authorities back to you. Nothing that trips an alarm. The best way to do that is to know what you’re doing before you get in. To have a plan.

My lips hurt from Jarret’s right fist, but it didn’t stop me from smiling as I pushed the button to start uploading my program. I set the traps that would gather every Email, Facebook post, and each text message. I was going to know everything about him.

Once it was done, I backed out, making sure everything was as clean as a whistle. Turned my computer off and drove away.

Fifteen minutes, tops.

The next morning, school seemed to be more alive than normal. An energy permeated the halls. A buzz of excitement. Several people glanced my way. Their faces registering shock when they saw the black and blue eyes, split lip, and scraped up chin.

They would see my face and shake their heads as if to say.
What did I expect?

I silently slipped into my seat in Mr. Seaver’s homeroom.

Several of the students were looking at their phones. Mr. Seaver allowed it. After all, it was homeroom. Who cared?

I’d counted on this fact. I wanted to be there when it happened.

Hailey glanced over her shoulder at me. Her eyes narrowed in concern. I could tell she was upset and that bothered me. A lot of things bothered me. The fact that Jarret McGee continued to draw breath bothered me the most.

Suddenly, at exactly two minutes after eight, everyone’s phone chimed with the delivery of an Email.

An Email sent to a fictitious girl named Joanna. A girl no one had ever heard of before.

Hey Joanna.

You were great the other night. Don’t worry about the whole no condom thing. You’re on birth control right? And I got my STD thing fixed last year so that shouldn’t be a problem. As for my girlfriend Emily. I told you, she doesn’t really mean anything to me. She’s not even that good in the sack, but hey. She’s the best that’s available in this crappy school. I’ll talk to you on Saturday. Keep it warm and wet for me
.

Jarret

The room erupted into gasps and snickers. Kids leaned over and showed each other the Email.

Emily’s face drained of all color as she stared at her phone. I thought back to the way she had held Hailey, her fingers digging into her shoulder. That look of ecstasy and pleasure had disappeared. I could only hope it would be gone for a long time.

She slowly turned to look at her boyfriend. Her eyes were cloudy as if she couldn’t truly focus. Then, without warning, she reached back and slapped him across the face. It was a full on, beautiful slap. The kind you see in the movies. An open hand fully connecting with his cheek. The loud sound of open hand meeting cheek reverberated through the room as she got up and ran out.

Some people laughed, others could only stare in wonder. Jarret’s eyes were as big as pizzas as he held a hand to his cheek and tried to figure out what was going on.

Hailey twisted to look at me, her eyebrows raised in question. I ignored her. The less she knew, the better. This was between Jarret and me. The last thing I needed was Hailey knowing what was going on. Besides, it hurt to look at her. To think of what she had seen that night.

I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I wondered if I ever would.

What Numb Nuts McGee didn’t know was that at the same time, another Email was dispatched. A more official Email arrived at Oregon University admitting office.

Dear Ms. Shuster

This Email is to inform you that I am withdrawing my application from Oregon University. I realize that because of the lateness of my actions my parents will be forfeiting their deposit. Will you please inform Coach Nerves that I will not be attending summer practice and will not be attending the University next year?

I am sure you are wondering why I am willing to sacrifice a partial scholarship and an opportunity to attend your institution.

I have considered it from several different angles and come to the conclusion that your university is CRAP. While you might have a nationally recognized football program, they are not that great. The rest is just terrible. What’s worse is that I have determined that Oregon is not really a party type school like you advertise. You expect students to work for their grades.

Sincerely

Jarret McGee             

When Oregon’s Ms. Shuster replied later that day, her Email did not appear in the inbox with the hundreds of others. Instead, it, along with all future Emails from Oregon were automatically delivered to a folder marked Trash. This folder deleted all its contents every hour on the hour.

When the bell rang, I was out of there before Hailey could stop me. The concerned frown on her face sent a chill to my heart, but I ignored it. I needed to get through this day without blowing up. Her look of concern or worse look of pity would send me over the edge into Crazy Ville.

I floated through the morning classes until lunch. Swallowing heavily I got my food and made my way to the Nerd table. It was going to suck. But, where else could I go at a moment like this?

Howard winced when he saw may face. Tony just shook his head.

“Man, you look like you got attacked by a lawnmower.”

“Thanks, Tony. I knew you’d capture the true meaning of things.”

Mark laughed and shook his head. He’d already seen me at my worse and heard the whole story. He scooted over to make room and waited until I got situated before he leaned over and asked, “Was that you? With the Email Jarret sent?”

I looked back at him with my best innocent expression. “Who me? Why would I do something like that?”

He stared at me for a moment, then smiled and shook his head again. He dropped it. He knew full well that there are some things that are not to be talked about. Especially in a crowded lunch room.

The other kids were staring at me. Their look of concern might have been sort of cool except they made me feel like a kid with cancer. As if I had but days to live.

I took a deep breath and stared back. “Get over it guys. I got my ass kicked, life moves on.”

“Aren’t you going to do something?” Meagan asked. “We should do something. It’s all your girlfriend’s fault. I tried to tell you she was no good.”

“Back off,” I snapped. “It wasn’t Hailey’s fault. Don’t blame her. It was mine. I should have seen it coming.”

“Meagan’s right,” Tony said. “We can’t let this happen. The Celebs will think they can push us around.”

Howard laughed. “They’ve always thought that.”

“This is different. We can’t let them get away with this.”

His indignant anger made me feel good inside. It also made me worried. I didn’t need someone screwing up their school career for me.

“It’s okay Tony. Listen, everyone. Let it go. There are only a few weeks left in school.”

“Are you really going to ignore this?” Meagan asked with surprise.

“I’ll handle it, Meagan, in my own way.”

The group fell into a quiet silence for a moment as each of them thought about what that last statement might mean.

“The Email. It was you,” Tony said with surprise.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I said with a sick little smile. “Besides, do you really think that would be enough?”

Slowly, they returned to normal. Talking about the upcoming finals, the latest Star Wars movie. Now, that they knew I was getting revenge they could relax. Their King had not rolled over and taken it.

The fact that I had obtained my revenge from inside his system only made it sweeter in their mind. A cool twist that only a Nerd could pull off.

I might have been able to start back on the path to normalcy, but Mark chose that moment to nudge me in the ribs.

Hailey was standing in the middle of the lunch room as if lost. My heart went out to her. We needed to talk. I couldn’t leave her in misery like this. It wasn’t her fault I reminded myself. I couldn’t make her pay for my mistakes.

She looked to our corner. Our eyes locked for a moment, she frowned before she turned and joined her friend Bri. For a brief moment, I had seen fire jump into her eyes as if she were mad. Really pissed off. I had a sinking feeling it was me she was mad at.