Page 238 of As the Rain Falls
I just want out.
Accusations.
Yelling.
I break.
I'LL KEEP HER SAFE
Beckett
JANUARY, 2017
Antony, Mateo, and Iaresupposedto go surfing at one of the beaches further down the coast. Mateo has never surfed before, and I’msupposedto teach him how to do it. I’m fairly good at teaching, but whether I’ll be good at teachinghimor not is another story.
Truthfully, Mateo seems overly confident to me about it, and people who don’t have enough patience to learn always get disappointed once they realize surfing takes time. There’s no use in being reckless.
Still, I’m here. Wearing nothing but a light sleeveless shirt, cargo pants, and my flip-flops. It’s about to be a fun afternoon. No stress involved.
“Ouch!” I pause, talking to myself. “Whenever I think something like that, shit always goes wrong.”
Chuckling, I turn the volume up and readjust the AC levels. I’m humming the lyrics to a song when Antony rushes to the car, shirtless, his eyes wide with alarm.
When I roll the window down to see what’s up, he opens the door to the passenger seat before shouting.
“Help me!”
I frown. “What?”
“They fucking—they cut her shirt off!”
I try to pause the music but end up turning the volume down instead. “What?”
“She’s… I can’t believe this is happening!”
“Tony,” I beg impatiently. “Please, find the sentence.”
“She was half-naked in the main hall. They’re not letting her come out. I had to—” His face twists with distress. “I had to give her my shirt, man.”
“Angelina?” I ask because I know Alice has her twisted ways with her.
I wouldn’t put it above her to turn to physical violence again. There’s something wrong with that girl, bad blood between Angelina and her that I clearly don’t know enough about. But to my surprise, Antony shakes his head, looking more troubled than before.
“No, no. Not Angie! it’s Cassandra!” He motions towards the main entrance. “You need to come; she won’t stop crying. I don’t know what to, man. Her father isn’t—”
Cassandra?
Before he finishes, I jump out of the car.
“Where is she?”
“Main hall.” Antony stumbles behind me, trying to catch up.
“How did this happen?”
“I don’t know.” He shakes his head. “This is about Caleb. Laura thought it’d be fun to teach her a lesson.”
“Laura?” I walk into the school in silence, even though the main hall is buzzing with noise. “Who the fuck is Laura?”
