Sweet Liar (Candy #2)(37)

Whatever the vice principal said to Mr. Harris had him standing stock-still, his gaze bouncing around the room as if he were looking for an escape route. Short of climbing out the window, there was only one way out, and Mr. Harris walked very slowly and hesitantly toward the door as the vice principal moved to stand behind his desk.

I looked at Jonah but he kept his gaze trained forward, not acknowledging me. When Mr. Harris was out in the hall with the door closed again, someone said, “The police are out there.”

“Two cops,” someone else chimed in. “What do they want Harris for?”

At that moment, the vice principal told us she would stay until the end of class, and we were to continue working on our assignments. Which everyone took to mean they should start whispering and gossiping about what had just happened.

“Jonah,” I whispered loudly.

He finally gave me his attention.

“Did you do this?”

With a sly smile, he leaned over the aisle and spoke in a quiet voice. “I’ve been talking to some of the girls in the complaints. Ones that graduated. I convinced them to exert a little pressure. Turns out one of them knew another girl Harris took advantage of, but she kept quiet about it. They convinced her to come forward, and that’s when the ball got rolling. This girl’s mother is some hot-shot attorney. Harris should have chosen his victims more wisely.”

“He never actually forced himself on anyone. Did he?”

“No. He just made them believe he was in love with them. He didn’t have to do any forcing after that. Naive teenage girls.” Jonah mumbled the last part.

“Not naive. Lonely, insecure, and wanting to be loved. That’s a normal teenage girl.”

“Is that you?” he asked.

It took me by surprise how quickly he’d turned my comment around on me.

“Is it, Candy?”

I scoffed. “When have I ever been normal?”

I looked down at my notebook, noticing that my heart was beating a little faster. Of course the answer was yes to at least two of them, maybe three, but I wasn’t going to say it. I’d already made myself vulnerable enough to Jonah. He wasn’t getting me to admit those things to him.

“Nice move, by the way,” I said, still looking at my own scribbles. “You did a good thing here today.”

“Glad you approve.”

Jonah shifted in his seat, and the next thing I knew he was talking to the blonde. As I listened to their hushed voices, I glanced at the clock and wondered what he was doing. My stomach knotted a little more each time Jonah made her giggle. Not too much later, he had the girl in stitches, and I couldn’t help scowling in their direction. He wasn’t that funny, so I had no idea what she could be laughing at.

When the bell finally rang, I stood up and reached the door first. As students spilled out into the hallway, everyone was talking about Mr. Harris. By the time lunch rolled around, I thought I might vomit if I heard his name again. Good thing I didn’t bring any food to eat.

Outside the cafeteria door, I found Ethan questioning Lea. “Did that perv ever touch you? You had him last year.”

Lea shook her head.

“Are you being straight with me?”

She huffed in frustration. “I swear. He never hit on me. I’m probably not his type, or maybe I’m just not pretty enough. Never thought that would turn out to be a good thing.”

Ethan’s forehead wrinkled. “What are you talking about?”

It was at that moment that Lea spotted me. “Did you hear?”

“I’m pretty sure everyone’s heard.”

“Did he try anything with you?” Ethan asked in a way that made me smile at his unexpected protective streak, although his voice had been a lot fiercer when he’d asked Lea.

Like Lea, I shook my head, but didn’t reveal that it was thanks to Jonah.

The three of us walked to the lunch table together only to find everyone else was already there. When I spotted Jonah relaxed in his seat with his legs sprawled out beneath the table, I wondered if he ever worked on that car in the auto shop classroom anymore. Had his interest in the car been the truth, or just a lie to get me alone? My chest felt uncomfortably tight at the possibility of more lies Jonah might have told that I hadn’t even thought of yet.

As I sat down at the familiar round table, I wasn’t surprised to hear more gossip about Mr. Harris. Apparently half the girls in school were claiming he’d done something with them. For some reason, they all wanted in on it. I bet if Mr. Harris looked more like Homer Simpson and less like Bradley Cooper, they wouldn’t be so eager. The claims against Harris were piling up, and I had no idea how he could have done it all and still taught any classes.

When Parker hinted that Harris had flirted with her and possibly more, I wanted to grab the closest fork and jab her in the eye. Fabricating stories about Harris could only hurt the real claims, and I was fairly sure she was full of it.

Finally, when I couldn’t take any more, I looked at Lea and said, “I’ve got things to do. I’ll see you later.” Then I got up and walked out. As I reached the door, I heard Jonah say my name before he came up beside me.

I raised my eyebrows curiously.

“You’re not eating,” he said.

“What?”

He bent down to put his face in front of mine. “Other than one bite of those awful pancakes, I haven’t seen you eat a thing in the past few days, and I’m betting there’s no cookie stash in your locker anymore.”