Page 26 of Lace

Levi picked up Caleb’s hand, placed the armband across his palm and closed his fingers. “No, Caleb, you don’t.” He turned again, picked up his book bag and shuffled head down, to the door before he finally gazed at Caleb. “We told him yes, if you care. The rest of the guys weren’t sure, but the girls out-voted them.”

“How…?” Caleb tightened his grip on the bracelet. “How did you vote?” he asked, damning the small, uncertain squeak of his voice.

“The really sad thing, Cally? You should already know the answer to that question.”

Then he was gone, and Caleb was left to stare after him, confused and completely at a loss. The second person to walk out on him in as many hours. He was pretty sure that would give him a complex, if he didn’t know he already had one.

There was no point staying there on his own. He left, locking the door behind himself. When he caught sight of his reflectionin the window, of the scarf knotted so gently—if messily—around his neck, his eyes watered.

“Fuck.” He dug his fingers into the twist of the knot, but the memory of Levi’s hand on his face, his defeated look, his sadness, stopped him undoing it. It had, for an instant, felt like some kind of claiming. He couldn’t bear to undo that.

Walking through the halls, he felt as though every person he passed stared. Judged. Like he was wearing his bastard status, the fight with Levi—even the skirt he was too chicken to claim as his own—out there where all the world could see and call him on all of it.

One snicker was all it took. One jibe as he walked by and heard someone mumble under their breath something about a freak. He couldn’t even say afterwards what, exactly, the comment had been. He only knew he recognised Shank’s voice, saw red, and his reflex was to strike first.

The guy fell like a sack of bricks and Caleb lent over to grab the front of his coat to haul him up and lay him out again. He had the bully’s weight in one fist clenched around a handful of his jacket and the other fist raised and back when he felt resistance against his swing, heard shouts and voices penetrating the fog of anger.

“Caleb, for God’s sake!” Levi’s voice, urgent and furious, knifed through his consciousness and he glanced over his shoulder. “Stop it! Let him go!”

“What do you care?” Caleb snarled, straining against Levi’s hold. “Get off me.”

“Let. Him. Go!” Levi’s eyes snapped with anger and the shock of seeing such ferocity directed at him snapped Caleb out of the aggression. He loosened his hold on the offender and Shank staggered back a few steps.

“Freak,” he snapped, touching a finger to a bleeding lip.

Caleb growled and turned on him again, arm once more raised. The asshole’s flinch sent a ferocious wave of gratification through him and he grinned, showing all his teeth.

“Caleb!” Levi thrust him back and inserted himself between Caleb and his victim. “Just go, jerk off!” He said, turning and shoving Shank back. He kept his other hand on Caleb’s chest to hold him in place.

“I didn’t do anything!” Shank protested. “You saw! He hit me first?—”

“And I’ll hit you second. I heard what you said and if you don’t want to be sued for slander or harassment, walk the fuck away.”

“You can’t do that…” The guy looked less certain as Levi continued to glare at him.

“Can’t I?”

“You…” Shank’s friends had already drifted away. All but one who now plucked at his sleeve.

“Jeez, Lare, just come on. They’re not worth it. Let’s go.”

“Whatever.” Shank dabbed at the blood on his lip again and jerked his coat back into place on his shoulders. “Couple freak-ass homos.”

“I swear to God…” Caleb snarled, but Levi stopped his forward momentum with that hand on his chest.

“Stop it, Caleb. Just stop.” When he finally turned from watching the other men walk away and fixed his gaze on Caleb, he looked tired. “You always have to be the first one to throw a punch, don’t you?”

“You heard him!” Caleb pointed after the guy.

“So? He’s a jerk. But he’s entitled to his opinion, and just because you don’t like it doesn’t give you the right to punch him in the face. One of these days, one of them is going to sue your ass and you won’t have a leg to stand on. You’re just lucky he walked away. He was well within his rights to call the cops.”

“You…” The hollow in his gut filled with acid and bile. “You’re defending him? He gets to spew hate and I have to just take it?”

Levi sighed and backed up a step. “He can say whatever he wants. If you ignore him, it’s just so much hot air. For once, be the bigger man, Cally. Don’t give him a target. Don’t give him a reason to keep being an asshole.”

“Right.” Caleb closed his fingers around the tail ends of his scarf. “You’re right. I should have just kept it all to myself.” He ripped the knot holding the scarf loose and yanked it off, barely able to control the shaking of his hands long enough to free himself of the damning bit of silk. “Thanks. Good to know.” Dropping the colourful material on the floor, he spun away, all but running before the cloud of acidic emotion ate him alive from the inside out and left him puddle on the floor.

“Caleb!” Levi called after him but he didn’t slow. “Cally! That isn’t what I meant!”

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