Page 3 of Off the Naughty List

She didn’t know why, but she started to cry again.

Ms. Laurier exhaled, pulling a tissue out of a box on her mahogany desk and handing it to her. Maya took it, if only to have something to do with her hands.

“This is unacceptable,” he told the principal. “You’ll hear from us again.”

On that note, he tugged on Maya’s hand and led her out of school. The sun was shining too bright—because it was mid-morning, not early afternoon, when she normally got out.

“Damn. I should have thought to call Marc ahead of time, so he could pick us up.”

He looked down to Maya. “I guess we could walk home. Fancy a hotdog in the park?”

Just that. Not an inquisition, not a word of reproach.

That would come from her mom, just as soon as she heard about what had happened today.

Bennet

To say that Bennet was worried was an understatement. He was terrified. He’d heard about kids getting bullied, and worse. The thought of something like that happening to Maya was driving him mad.

He bided his time, letting her calm down. After a hotdog and a long walk through Central Park, he had to try again.

“You know I’m supposed to tell your mom what happened, right?”

Maya pouted, but she nodded, not denying it.

Good.

“I’m prepared to be convinced not to, though. If you tell me why you fought with that Vera girl? I’ll keep it a secret. How’s that, Honey Bee?”

He was bribing Maya, and he wasn’t even sorry about it.

Her eyes widened. “You’d do that?”

Bennet was actually considering how much Piper would bust his balls when she heard. Because she’d eventually hear about it, of course. But to get to the bottom of what was going on, he’d make just about any deal.

If it was bad, he’d have to tell Piper. Hopefully, he wouldn’t lose Maya’s trust in the process.

He was walking on a knife's edge, and he knew it.

“We have some secrets. Your mother knows that.”

Maya grinned for the first time that day. But then, infuriatingly, she was back to staring at her hands.

“It’s nothing, really. I shouldn’t have reacted like that. Vera got new lacrosse gear—you know, helmet, shoulder pads, gloves, and elbow pads—and she told me that her dad took her shopping this weekend. I asked where they went, because her stuff looked more comfortable than mine. I thought I could shop there, too, you know? But then she told me there wasn’t any point in my knowing because I had no dad to take me. I told her my mom or you would take me, but she said you weren’t my dad, you were just nice to me because you want in my mother’s pants. So, I hit her boobs. Then, she hit my head. We fought with fists then. I think I might have bitten her.”

Ben said nothing for several seconds, because his very first thought was probably not what one would consider good parenting. He wanted to tell her well done and ask if she bit hard enough.

What the actual fuck? Kids didn’t used to be that mean. That he could remember. And okay, maybe he didn’t have that many memories from back when he was ten, but still.

“Maya…you know that’s not true, right? You know I love you for you? You’re my Honey Bee. If anything happened to your mother, I’d still be here for you.”

She gulped. But to his relief, then she nodded. “I know that.”

It hurt all the same, Bennet guessed.

It wasn’t just that kid’s words, it was a deeper wound, a scar that may never fully heal. Because Maya did have a father and he just didn’t care about her. That was bound to leave a mark.

Bennet did something he hadn’t planned on doing—not now, not to Maya.

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