Unlovable (35 page)

Out on the field, I watched Hillary
bouncing her pom-poms directly at him. It gave me some satisfaction
to see he wasn’t paying much attention to her. She looked more than
a little perturbed by it, and I couldn’t help smiling.

Dwayne was adorable to watch. He never
took his eyes off Karen. She appeared to have waved at us a couple
of times, only I wasn’t sure because I was too busy staring at
Seth. Halfway through the rally, Hillary bounced up the stairs,
seized Seth by the hand, and tried dragging him down onto the
field. He escaped her grip and quickly crawled into a seat in the
front row of the bleachers. Undaunted, she cheered directly in his
face instead.

After the rally, I hauled Dwayne down
to the field and straight over to Karen. “Hi Karen, you looked
great today.”

“
Thanks, Maggie. How are
you? We haven’t talked in forever.”

“
I’m fine,”
aside from a broken heart.
“Do you know Dwayne?”

She tucked her pom-poms
carefully into a bag and started changing her flashy, blue cheer
shoes for tan sneakers. “Yes. Hi, Dwayne.” Her face flushed, and
she appeared nervous
. Did she like
him
? “We have Biology together. You
probably haven’t noticed me, I sit in the back.”

“
I’ve noticed,” he said,
smiling back shyly.

“
I didn’t know you and
Maggie were dating.” Her face registered disappointment. This was
going better than I hoped.

“
We aren’t dating,” I said.
Dwayne was frozen in place until I nudged him.

“
No,” he said, “we’re just
friends.”

“
Really.” Karen smiled
shyly.

“
Dwayne, I have to use the
rest room, why don't I meet you at the car? Don’t rush, I’m sure
there’ll be a line.” He nodded. I turned to Karen, “Nice talking to
you again.”

Dwayne handed me the car keys, looking
eager for me to leave. I took a shortcut through a couple of the
buildings to reach the parking lot. Zack appeared out of nowhere,
looking like he hadn’t slept in a week. Probably overtraining for
baseball again.

“
Hey.” He put his arm around
me. I shoved it away. “I hope you’re not still angry about lunch on
Tuesday. I didn’t mean to offend you. You know how warped my sense
of humor is sometimes.” I walked on in silence. “Maggie, it’s not
very nice to hold a grudge. Let me give you a ride home, we’ll even
stop at Burger Palace and get something for your dog to
eat.”

I dangled Dwayne’s keys in his face.
“Oh, well, I’ll walk you to the car then.” I continued to ignore
him, and walked toward the student lounge, stopping only to gather
some books from my locker.

“
You look pretty today, real
pretty.” My mistrusting nature kicked into overdrive, he was up to
something. He’d never complimented me before. “Wait, I need to get
something from my locker.”

I didn’t wait, continuing instead as
if he wasn’t there. “Come on, give me a chance to prove I’m a good
guy.” He jumped in front of me with a ridiculous pout on his face.
“Please.” Fairly certain Dwayne would still be talking with Karen,
I silently turned and followed Zack, why I had no idea. I must be
more desperate for human companionship than I thought, not that
Zack was human!

He ran ahead a few feet and turned the
corner to his locker. Rounding the corner after him, I looked down
the hall and saw Seth, with Hillary wrapped around him, their faces
were mashed together in a kiss. I stepped back around the corner,
falling against the wall, my breath caught in my chest.

“
Sorry, I didn’t realize
they would be here. They’ve been at it all day, it’s really
starting to get on my nerves.” He draped his arm around my shoulder
and led me away. I was dazed, paying no attention to where he was
taking me. We went down several hallways before turning into a
deserted classroom.

“
All day?” I finally managed
to speak. To think I had almost convinced myself I’d been wrong
about him, and that he really did care for me.

“
Rumor has it she spent the
night at his house last night. Does that bother you? You two broke
up, right?” It took me a few seconds to realize he’d wrapped his
arms around me and was rubbing my back.

“
Stop it!” I shoved him away
and turned to leave, not wanting Zack to witness my
meltdown.

He had other plans. Grabbing the hand
holding my book bag, he twisted my arm behind me, pulling me
against him.

“
Maggie, forget about him,
he’s out of your league. You and I are more logical.”

“
More logical? Based on
what?”

He gripped my face, and I winced at
the pain as his fingers dug into my cheeks. He dropped his slimy,
foul-smelling mouth down onto mine.

“
Stop it!” I twisted my head
to the side and punched him in the chest. His grip stayed
strong.

“
No! I waited for you and
your stupid ideas, then you started dating him and just gave-in.
Melody told me all about it. You’ve been sleeping with him for
weeks. You owe me, Maggie.” His eyes were frothed with
lust.

“
Melody’s wrong, we didn’t
do anything.” I swung my free arm at him. He caught it mid-swing
and twisted it tight behind my back, next to the other. It felt as
if he were going to rip them both off.

“
Lies, Maggie! Everyone can
see the way you look at him.” His left hand grabbed my face once
more as he tried to press his mushy lips to mine. This time I was
ready. With my now freed hand, I swung my book bag around, smacking
him hard on the side of his head, sending him toppling over a
couple of desks. I rushed out the door and ran straight to Dwayne’s
car. Zack followed.

Before I could lock myself inside, he
caught me from behind, slamming me violently onto the ground. I
winced at the sharp pain in my knees while droplets of blood wept
through my right pant leg. I glanced around looking for help, but
the parking lot was deserted.

“
I put up with your innocent
virgin crap for months while I patiently waited for you!” Patiently
was not the word I would have chosen, it was more like a full court
press on every date. “Then you go and sleep with that clown after
how long, Maggie, three whole weeks?”

“
I swear Zack, we
haven’t—”

“
Shut up!” He dragged me up
by my shirt and forced me against a nearby car. “Come on, Maggie.
Kiss me like you kissed him.”

I shook my head. “Please stop, Zack,
please don’t do this.” Tears were streaming uncontrollably down my
face. He glowered at me for several moments, as if debating what to
do next, and I didn’t like what I saw in his eyes.

Slowly, very slowly, he let go of my
shirt. “Vile piece of trailer trash. You’re probably full of
disease anyway.” He brutally shoved me aside. I fell again, this
time tearing the right knee of my jeans as I hit the asphalt. My
book bag spilled open, spewing books everywhere. He gave me one
last look before spitting on the ground next to me and walking
away.

I sat on the ground, pulling my knees
up against my chest and hugging them fiercely, refusing to let my
mind replay what had just happened. I thought to lock myself in the
car, only my body wouldn’t move.

But I had to. I gathered up my
belongings and forced myself up off the ground as Dwayne showed up.
He wore a grin from ear to ear on his cherub face. Good, maybe he’d
be too excited to notice my disheveled appearance. I quickly
smoothed my hair back into place.

“
I did it, I—what happened
to you?”

“
Nothing, I fell. I’m fine,
really,” I said, casually.

“
That’s not true, Maggie,
what happened? Did someone hit you? Why are your cheeks
red?”

“
No, really, look at my
knee. I fell and my jeans tore.” I showed him the rip. There were
several more blood droplets around the tear now. “Dwayne, I’m fine.
Tell me about Karen. Did you ask her out?”

“
Yes.” Doubt filled his eyes
as he answered. “She said she’d love to go out with me. She didn’t
just say yes, she said she’d
love
to
.” He relived the moment several more
times while driving me home.

“
Maggie, do you want to get
a burger or something? It’s still early, and I want to thank you
for your help. If you hadn’t gone with me tonight, I would have
never asked her out. I owe you big time.”

“
You don’t owe me anything,
that’s what friends do, they help each other,” I said, stepping up
onto my porch.

“
If that’s how you really
feel, will you hear me out before you go inside?”

“
Yes.”
Now what
?

He looked around as if he wanted to
make sure no one would hear him, not a good sign. “Seth wanted to
tell you about his being an undercover agent for a while, but he
was afraid you’d dump him when he did.” He paused slightly. “And
you did dump him, so apparently he was right.” I had already heard
this from Booker. I didn’t want to hear it… Wait!

“
You know?” Seth told Dwayne
about himself, yet he didn’t bother telling me until my mother was
almost killed? It ignited the anger inside me all over
again.

“
Maggie, a couple of years
ago, he arrested my dad for buying drugs. Instead of jail time,
Seth convinced the judge to admit him into a rehab program. He’s
been clean for two years, and he has a job thanks to Booker.
They’ve been good to my family,” he said humbly. “My dad and I have
been trying to help him find out who is supplying the area with
heroin.”

“
Oh, Dwayne, I had no
idea.”

“
He wasn’t trying to betray
you, Maggie.”

“
I’m starting to think
you’re right.” I felt a huge relief as I admitted it. I still felt
betrayed, no matter how hard I tried not to, but under the
circumstances I certainly could understand why things were the way
they were.

I said good night and went inside to
try to figure out what to do about the mess I’d made, but only
after showering a couple of times to get the feel of Zack off my
skin.

26

Unable to sleep any longer, I got up
at five and had a bowl of Cheerios, with milk. I decided to skip
school and spend the day at the hospital. It was going to be a wash
anyway, all classes had been canceled, and the entire day was being
dedicated to educating us on the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse,
complete with guest speakers. I certainly didn’t need to be made
aware of the heartaches of substance abuse, I knew
firsthand.

Washing my face, I noticed four dark
spots on my cheeks. “What the heck?” Looking closer, I realized
they were bruises where Zack had grabbed my face. “Who does he
think he is?” He wasn’t going to get away with this, not if I could
help it. Shoving my arms into my sweater, I left for the hospital,
only I didn’t get far before…

“
Good morning, Maggie. I do
believe you’re heading in the wrong direction for school, not to
mention it doesn’t start for another hour and a half.”

Booker! Good grief, the vulture must
sit outside my door just waiting for me to leave! “How do I press
charges for police harassment? Surely there’s some law against
this?”

“
True, police harassment is
against the law, but again, my stellar reputation on the force,
against your word, a mere teenager, who appears to be skipping
school I might add, no one would believe you.” Booker grinned,
obviously satisfied at his superior ability to outwit me. “I’ve
also just completed law school, and I'm well-versed in loopholes,
you’d never get the charges to stick.” He climbed out of his car
and held the door open with his Cheshire cat grin spread across his
handsome face. Why I ever thought that grin of his was cute I’ll
never know.

I kept my face innocent and looked him
straight in the eye. “Hmm, a liar and a lawyer. How
redundant.”

“
Six in the morning and you
still have a quick wit. Impressive.” He sauntered around and got
back into the car. “Alright, I’m guessing you are on your way to
the hospital?”

“
You should come with me;
maybe there’ll be an ambulance you can chase after.”

“
And,” he ignored my jab,
“since there’s not enough time for you to get to the hospital, and
then over to the school, I’m thinking I was correct about your
skipping school today?”

“
Hmm, sounds like
circumstantial to me, officer.”

“
You could be arrested for
truancy, are you aware of that, little Miss Sarcastic?” I shrugged.
“May I ask why you’re skipping? Half the police force will be there
today for an assembly on… ah, never mind.”

“
Yeah, never mind” I said
quietly.

“
Sometimes life gives us a
raw deal, you know? We have to make the best of it.” Okay, what was
he up to? This was more than simple compassion.

“
Agreed,” I said
cautiously.

“
Take Seth, for
instance.”
That’s what he’s up
to
! “He isn’t perfect and he makes
mistakes. Everybody does.”