The Fragile Ordinary(74)
Thanks to Vicki, I didn’t have time to execute my lame plan.
School was over and I walked out of the building alone, feeling unnerved, full of trepidation, wondering what would come of my confrontation. To my shock, I was confronted. And by my boyfriend.
He hurried out of the school toward me. “You weren’t going to tell me,” he seethed, his tone incongruous to his actions as he pulled me into him for a hug. “I am so done with this. We’re talking to Stevie together.”
I gripped him tight. “Vicki told you.”
“Yes. And Jimmy is lucky I was in class when she did, because it gave me time to calm down. He still gets a threatening warning, though.”
“Tobias, don’t.”
His grip on me tightened, his gaze fierce. “Jimmy likes to act big but he’s a bug, a tiny, repulsive little bug, and I need him to know that if he touches you I’ll squash him for good.”
“I wish you wouldn’t talk like that,” I grumbled, pulling out of his hold.
“Yeah, well I wish bullies could be fought with rainbows and unicorn shit, but they can’t,” he snapped at me.
I threw my head back and let out a yell through gritted teeth.
He cupped the nape of my neck, massaging it gently. I closed my eyes at the feel of his lips on my temple. “I love you, you know that, right?” he murmured, nuzzling me.
Leaning back into him, I sighed. “I love you, too. I just...can’t believe what a day it’s been. And it’s not over. Please...please don’t get into it with Jimmy. Promise?”
“Hey, I think that I have done impressively well up to this point.” Tobias defended himself. “But threatening you like that crossed a line. Don’t pretend it didn’t.”
“So let’s go talk to the ringleader and end this once and for all.”
Determination hardened his features. “He could be at the park where they get high sometimes.”
“What if they’re all there?” I said.
“If we see them all there, we’ll leave and find another time to get Stevie on his own.”
As it turned out, they weren’t all there.
But Stevie and Jimmy were there in the graffiti-covered, run-down old playpark that was strewn with old battered soda cans, empty crisp packets and stubbed-out cigarettes.
Stevie was sitting on a rusted swing smoking a roll up while Jimmy leaned against the metal frame laughing at something his friend had said. Neither of them were dressed for winter, wearing only hoodies and tracksuit bottoms. It hadn’t escaped my notice that Stevie had stopped wearing the hat, scarf and gloves I’d gifted to him. It wouldn’t have surprised me to discover that he had burned them.
The thought didn’t have much time to hang around, however, because as soon as Tobias saw Jimmy he forgot all about staying calm. One minute he’d been at my side and then the next he was sprinting toward Jimmy like a bull at a red flag. Stevie jumped off the swing, eyes round with surprise. Jimmy turned to follow his friend’s gaze and tensed at the sight of Tobias. It was too late, though. Tobias kept running at him and as soon as he neared him he threw a right hook that hit Jimmy with such force it knocked him off his feet.
“Tobias!” I yelled, my feet finally coming unstuck. I ran toward them, watching as Jimmy cupped his nose and groaned on the asphalt of the playpark.
To my relief, Tobias just stood over him, not making another move to attack. “You come near her again and I’ll kill you. You think ’cos I’ve stayed quiet, let you assholes taunt us, that I’m soft? You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“What the hell is goin’ on?” Stevie said, looking down at his friend, his mouth slack with shock.
As I drew to a stop by Tobias I gaped at how painfully thin Stevie had gotten. It was more than drug abuse. He obviously wasn’t eating much at all, and I wondered why. Was all the money he was supposedly making doing drug deals going back into his own drug habit, and his mum didn’t know because she was so sick? What about his little brother? Was someone feeding Kieran? My old friend stood and faced us in nothing but a hoodie and jeans, and he trembled. But there was something...twitchy about it. Like it wasn’t from the cold...but from an irritation, an impatience for something. “Whit? Whit dae ye want?”
Tobias got straight to the point. “When is this going to stop, man? After Jimmy tries to rape Comet?”
The word rape seemed to slap Stevie. His head jerked back and his pale skin turned even paler. He looked down at Jimmy who groaned and sat up, wiping the blood from his nose. “He wouldnae dae that.”
“Jimmy’s a repulsive dickhead. He cornered her on her own and pretty much threatened to do it. He does what you tell him to do, and then takes it five million times further.” Tobias strode forward and gripped Stevie’s shirt, causing my breath to stop. But it wasn’t an aggressive move. Tobias’s words became a plea. “I’m your friend, your family. What the hell are you doing?”
Stevie looked so lost and alone, staring up at Tobias, that I couldn’t help but feel for him, despite everything that had happened. I wanted to help him but I didn’t know how without making everything worse. He shrugged out of Tobias’s hold and stumbled back, looking skinny and unwashed and neglected. He stared at the ground for a moment and then finally looked up, staring right into my eyes with his haunted ones.