Call It What You Want(79)

Probably best that she not commit assault in front of a hundred witnesses.

“I want to talk to you,” she says, her voice quiet and vicious.

“I’m asking you to leave,” he says.

“I’m not leaving.”

“You’re putting your grade in danger, Miss Day. I’ve told you before that I will not tolerate disrespect—”

“You think I care about my grade?”

“I’m asking you to leave. Now.”

“I’m not leaving until you talk to me. You can block my calls. You can have—you can have your—your wife—” Her voice hitches. Oh no. She’s going to lose it.

I stop next to her and wrap her hand up in mine.

I don’t know if it’s her emotion, or the rapt attention of the students behind us, but DavidLitMan seems to lose his cool. His cheeks have reddened, and he glares at us. “Go!” he snaps. “I’m not having this conversation in class.”

“I’m not leaving until you talk to me,” Samantha says. A tear snakes its way down her face.

He moves a step closer to us, turning his back to the class. “I could lose my job here,” he hisses. “Just—just go to my office. We’ll work it out, okay?”

Samantha draws a big indignant breath—but then David adds, “I still love you. I want to work it out. I just—I can’t do it here.”

That breath slides out of her lungs.

No, I think. No.

But Samantha is nodding. “Okay,” she whispers. “Okay.”

She takes a step back. Turns for the door.

My strong, amazing sister. It’s all a front. Inside, she’s as insecure and desperate as I am. As we all are, really.

I grab her arm and hold her there. “No,” I say. “No.”

“I’m sorry,” says David. “I have a class to teach.”

“No,” I say again.

Samantha sniffs and looks at me. “Megs. What—”

“You don’t love her,” I snap, and I make sure I’m loud enough that the back row is getting a good earful. “If you loved her, you wouldn’t have blocked all her calls. You wouldn’t have refused to talk to her or meet with her or discuss what you did together.”

His face has turned beet red. “Young lady, you are way out of line.”

“No, you are out of line,” I say. “You don’t love her. You don’t have any business telling her you love her.” I’m so angry, I’m yelling now. “You had sex with a student. You’re disgusting. And now she’s pregnant, with your baby, and you think you can make it all go away by whispering that you still love her?”

He takes a fury-filled step toward me, and he looks so menacing now that I’m worried he’s going to hit me.

Samantha shoves me to the side. “Don’t you dare touch my sister.”

“I wasn’t—” He rakes a hand through his hair. Sweat has beaded up on his forehead. You could hear a pin drop in this classroom. “I didn’t do anything. I don’t know what you girls think you’re pulling—”

“I’m pregnant,” Samantha yells at him. “I’m not pulling anything. I’m pregnant. With your baby. And you need to deal with it, because I can’t do this by myself.”

Then she bursts into tears. I pull her against me. She sobs against my shoulder.

David stands there, and his expression is some mixture of anger and defeat and regret and fear. A lot of fear.

But no compassion. No sympathy.

“Come on,” I murmur to Sam. “Let’s go.” I glare at David. “I’m telling my father who you are. He’s a cop. So worry about more than your job.”

It’s not really a threat—we live out of state and whatever he did with Samantha was consensual. But David goes pale again anyway.

We’re halfway down the hallway when running steps come slapping down the tile behind us. I turn, expecting David to be barreling down on us, but it’s a pretty girl with waist-length dark hair. She’s slender and athletic like my sister.

“Oh,” says Sam. She swipes at her face. “Hey, Vic.” A loud sniff. “Megs, this is Victoria. She plays midfielder.”

Victoria has no time for niceties. “Is that true?” she says, her voice hushed. “Is that where you’ve been?”

Sam nods hard, then buries her face in my shoulder again.

“Tell Coach that I’ll call her tonight,” Sam says, and somehow Victoria makes that out from the muffled sobs on my shoulder, because she nods.

“It’ll be okay,” she says. She puts a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay.” She glances at me. “I’m glad Sam has a sister to lean on.”

I hug Sam tighter. “Me too.”





CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Rob

“You look like crap,” says Owen.

“Tell me how you really feel.” We’re sitting at our usual lunch table. Connor is sitting at his. I don’t feel like anything was resolved last night … but I don’t feel like the tension between us is the same as it was yesterday. By the time my alarm went off, he was gone.

Maegan isn’t in school today. I keep looking at our text messages and want to send her one, but I don’t have the courage to do it.