The New Husband(99)

Ben seemed to agree.

We were nearing “Mr. Fitch’s” classroom and my stomach did a flip. I think I slowed down, and Ben knew why.

“Want me to go ahead, see if he’s in there?”

“No,” I said. “We’ll go together.”

We walked side by side, every step a bit more tentative than the last as we neared the creeper’s classroom. At the open door, I tried to keep my eyes forward, but I couldn’t resist looking. I turned my head just a bit, just so, and there he was, standing at the front of his classroom wearing his dumb polo shirt and dumb khaki pants. Same old Simon. The leather bag my mom bought him was on the floor next to his desk. It was so wrong that he still used it. I mean, this guy poisoned me and stole our dog! How could they let him teach children? What a whackjob!

I tried to turn my head before he saw me, but Simon caught my eye and there it was—the look I had tried so hard to record. Even from a distance I could feel its heat. He wanted to kill me, no antique gun this time. He would shoot me dead if he could, that’s what his eyes were saying.

Simon made a thin-lipped smile, but the darkness didn’t leave him. He put his hand up, fingers waving at me, and the smile on his face grew wider until his teeth were showing. To me he looked ghoulish, like the worst Halloween mask ever. I wanted to scream and run away, but instead I froze in place. I couldn’t move a muscle. Simon continued to stare at me, until Ben finally dragged me away, and that broke the spell.

“What a freak,” he said as we walked away, but this time at a faster pace.

“A freak with my dog,” I snarled. “If I could get at his briefcase, I’d take his keys and go get her myself.”

Ben stopped suddenly and grabbed hold of my arm. “What did you say?”

“I said I’d go get the keys to his house, which he always keeps in that bag, and go get my dog myself.”

It was all talk, of course. Maggie’s big show! But I was feeling extra combative at that moment.

Ben locked eyes with mine, no blinking, deadly serious.

“You mean it?”

I gave him a funny, sideways glance, because I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right. I kind of laughed it off.

“It’s not like I can go in there and just take his keys,” I said, rolling my eyes at him.

Ben looked around like he was scanning the hallway for something. Then, he locked on his target.

“You got one chance,” he said to me, showing me a single finger. “One. Take it.”

“What?”

I didn’t know what he was talking about, but off he went, like a sprinter, backtracking toward Simon’s classroom. I reached out to stop him, but he was moving too fast. I told myself he wasn’t doing what I thought he was doing. But sure enough, he had Justin D’Abbraccio, my former pal, the boy who started all the whatnot with Laura Abel, in his sights, and he was heading for him with a determined look on his face.

“Hey, Justin!”

Justin whirled to see Ben storming at him, hands balled into fists at his sides. When he got to within spitting distance, Ben reached out a long, skinny arm and took hold of the front of Justin’s T-shirt.

“What the—?”

Justin looked like someone had dumped cold water on his head—it was that kind of shock and surprise.

“You really should learn to be nicer to people, you know that?”

Even when he was being aggressive, Ben sounded polite. He shoved Justin with some force, and that wasn’t polite at all. Laura Abel was nearby and she and a bunch of her cronies moved in close to watch.

“Hey, back off, Odell,” Justin said, sounding a little unsure. “What’s your problem?”

“You.” Ben gave Justin another hard shove and this time Justin shoved back.

“What the hell, Ben?”

Justin couldn’t understand what was happening to him, and honestly, neither could I.

“Maggie is a nice person and you’ve been nothing but mean to her and I’ve had enough of it.”

Justin didn’t look like he wanted to fight, but the kids who gravitated to the action were salivating for one. Ben gripped Justin’s shirt harder. Justin grabbed Ben’s. And that was all it took. It was a full-on kid fight. No punches thrown, just a lot of going around in a circle, holding on to each other’s clothes, trying to drag the other person to the floor. One second we’re on our way to class, and the next it’s WWE, Seabury style. It took me a bit to figure out what the heck Ben was up to, but when I saw Simon bolt out of his classroom, along with a few other teachers, well, then I got it.

Ben wasn’t defending my honor. I mean, cute if he was, but he wasn’t.

He was creating a distraction.

I knew I wouldn’t have long. I slipped into Simon’s classroom unnoticed (I hoped), which was now empty because the action was out in the hall, and went right for the leather bag on the floor. The noise level was like a fire drill on steroids. Nobody would hear me rustling about.

It took two seconds to feel around inside the bag before my fingers brushed up against his keys. I grabbed them, put them in my pants pocket, closed up the latches, and went back out into the hall. When I got there, Simon and another teacher were pulling the combatants apart. Ben caught my eye and I gave him a thumbs-up sign. He smiled sweet as could be. Then I took off to find a quiet place where I could call my mom.