We Are the Ants(35)

I knew, in his own way, my brother was trying to make me feel better, but Charlie doesn’t know the meaning of subtle. He probably can’t spell it either. I looked out the window to discourage him from talking; it didn’t work.

“You need to cut it out with the alien crap.” Charlie nodded to himself. He was conveniently forgetting the fact that he was the big mouth who told the whole school about the “alien crap” in the first place. “You make yourself a target.”

“So you’re saying I asked for it? That I got what I deserved?”

Charlie backhanded my shoulder. “Jesus, Henry, you know what I mean.”

“You’re not a father yet, so stop trying to act like one.”

Charlie was quiet until we pulled up to the front of CHS. He stopped me when I tried to hop out of the Jeep. “If you want people to treat you normal, you have to act normal.”

A few of the other students being dropped off cast stealthy glances in my direction. Space Boy was back for their amusement. “I never asked to be treated normal, Charlie. I just want to be left alone.”

? ? ?

Someone left an alien mask on my chair in Ms. Faraci’s class that I discovered when I slipped in right before the final bell. I wasn’t kidding about what I said to Charlie—I really did want to be left alone. I made certain I was the first person out of class and the last person in.

I froze when I saw the mask. I recognized it immediately, and the memories of the attack rushed at me in a torrent I couldn’t stop. I felt the paint oozing down my skin. Felt them kick me in the balls. But I refused to let them see me upset. I made my bones steel and my skin chain mail. I was diamond on the outside, and I would not break.

Inside, though, I was already broken.

“What’s the matter, Space Boy?” came the hideous whisper. I didn’t look at them. I just stood by my desk, willing the mask to disappear.

“Henry? Is there a problem?” Ms. Faraci’s voice sounded scratchy and distant, like a faded recording. “Henry?”

I yelped when she touched my shoulder. She saw the mask and reached past me to grab it. “Who put this here?” The rest of the class stared at me, at their desks, and no one spoke up. The attention made everything worse. I should have brushed the stupid alien mask to the floor. But I hadn’t, and now Ms. Faraci was going to wave that thing in the air until someone copped to leaving it on my desk.

“Tell me immediately, or I will simply fail you all for the semester.” Ms. Faraci was trembling. I should have been flattered that she cared, but I hated the feeling of every student in the classroom looking at me, despising me. I doubted she’d actually flunk everyone, but there was a chance, and they would blame me.

“Adrian did it.” Audrey Dorn spoke loudly and clearly. She turned to look Adrian in the eyes. “I saw him put it on Henry’s desk.”

“Bitch!” snarled Adrian, but Ms. Faraci rounded on him.

“Get your bag and report to Principal DeShields’s office at once.” She towered over Adrian as he gathered his belongings, glaring at me and Audrey and Ms. Faraci.

“I need a pass,” Adrian said in a voice resembling a growl.

Ms. Faraci shoved the alien mask at him. “Here’s your pass.”

Adrian elbowed me on his way out, likely already plotting his revenge.

Even though he had gotten into trouble, and Audrey had handed Faraci his head on a platter, I was the one people would talk about. The one they’d laugh at between classes. My skin began to itch like I’d been sunburned and blistered, and my stomach filled with bile. Ignoring Ms. Faraci’s concerned shouts, I fled the classroom for the restroom. I clamped my hand over my mouth to keep from puking until I reached the toilet. It wasn’t food that made me sick; it was knowing that I was Space Boy, that I would always be Space Boy. That poison infected every cell, and I vomited so hard that I felt my muscles tear from my ribs. It wasn’t enough.

“Henry?”

I recognized Marcus’s voice and threw my shoulder against the stall door. My nostrils burned with snot and bile, and I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

“I told Faraci I forgot my book in my locker, but I wanted to make sure you’re all right.”

“Get the f*ck out!” I was shaking, scared of what he might do. “I know it was you.”

Marcus’s shadow floated back and forth across the tile floor, but he didn’t try to open the stall. “It was only a joke.”

I wasn’t sure whether Marcus was talking about the mask on the chair or The Incident. Not that it mattered. “That wasn’t a joke, Marcus; it was felony assault! What’s next, acid in my face? I hear hot tar and feathers is a real crowd pleaser.” I was trembling so badly, the door rattled, but my rage was the only thing keeping the terror at bay.

I imagined Marcus standing in front of the sinks, trying to figure out the right thing to say to make me see he wasn’t to blame. Telling himself he was a good guy, and it was my fault if I couldn’t take a joke. I wished it were Audrey on the other side of that door. I wished I’d forgiven her and that we were friends again, because without Jesse, I was alone. I got my phone out of my pocket and began typing a text to send her, begging her to rescue me from Marcus, but I deleted it and put my phone away.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” Marcus said after a few moments of silence. I’d begun to think he’d left. “Are you going to tell anyone?”