Page 246 of As the Rain Falls
see you soon and stay safe while you’re traveling <3
AFTER THE STORM
Cassandra
JANUARY, 2017
The next few daysare so anxiety-inducing that I spend my time eating just to throw everything up.
The police allow the school to impose punishment on Laura and the two other girls who helped her, and they get suspended for excessive use of violence, but the matter of the pictures is something entirely different.
They tell me the pictures constitute illicit child content since I’m still only seventeen. It’s a weird thing to think about, how a few months from now I’d be considered anything else.
Phones get confiscated, and some of the pictures are deleted. Not all of them, though, which means that I’m still exposed. Online, in Le Port’s circle of kids.
It’s terrifying how everything happens so fast, and Kayla and Angelina spend hours texting people to ask them to delete texts and posts. It takes an entire week to get everything taken down, but by then, everyone already saw what they wanted to see.
I’d care about that a lot more—care about my reputation and what this means for me—if Dad wasn’t so furious. I’m making the school look pretty bad, which means that the higher-ups are threatening his job.
Mom calls me twice to check how I’m doing, but our conversations are cut short by Grandma feeling too ill. She’s worried about me, as far as I can tell, and unhappy about my decisions.
Nathaniel is… suspiciously quiet.
I don’t know whether I should be worried about that or glad that he’s forgetting about me for a second.
I end up missing out on two weeks of school before being allowed to return. My phone is completely unusable, so I have to get a new one to call my friends.
Kayla came back from her competition with a dislocated shoulder and a broken heart, and it seems like more than just having a lifelong friendship, we also happen to share the same terrible bad luck.
She hugs me tightly as soon as Nathaniel drops me off by the gates. It’s the first time I’ve felt safe in a very long time. I try to revel in this feeling, knowing it probably won’t last long.
“I missed you so much, Cassie!”
“I missed you too!” I hug her back, taking in her sweet floral scent for comfort. “What happened at the competition? I forgot to ask in our last call.”
“Absolutely nothing interesting.” Kayla sighs, presses a kiss to each side of my face, and grins in an encouraging way. Her French side is really coming through today. “I just slipped while I was getting off stage and almost broke my arm trying to hold onto the curtains.”
“Ohmygod!” I gasp, feeling super worried. “Are you okay?”
“Yes! But everybody saw me fall headfirst and laughed; it was super embarrassing for me,” she says with a pout. “I hope Alice dies sometime soon, because of course she had to laugh the hardest.”
“Oh.” My face falls, trying to picture a clumsier version of Kayla. Somehow, this feels impossible. “I’m really sorry. I’m sure it was just a fluke.”
“I don’t think so,” she admits, looking more troubled now. “I feel something’s up in the air, Cassie. Something wrong and sordid! Bad, bad omens all around!”
“Don’t say that.” I pout a little too. “I’m tired of bad things happening to us.”
We keep chatting about her next dance competition, and Angelina joins us a few moments later, her hair tied up in two low, messy buns. I watch her waiting for the right moment to speak, not knowing whether I should thank her for being kind to me or just let it slide under the radar as one of those things we now do for each other.
“What’s up, Cardoso?” Kayla flips her hair back. “Did you bring the goodies?”
“Yeah, I did.” Angelina hands me a bright orange Tupperware, which I gladly take from her. “Cass, I brought you homemade chocolate donuts. Kayla said you have a bit of a sweet tooth.”
“Oh!” I start to pull the lid off, and the smell of vanilla and Nutella hits me right in the face.
The donuts are small, perfectly round, with white powdered sugar sprinkled on top. Angelina watches me attentively, trying to catch my reaction firsthand.
My eyes immediately start to water.
