Page 23 of Saving Tracey
He nodded toward the dining room. "Let's get a seat far away from Miss Bitch." His voice was loud enough for Lacie to hear him, but that meant Miss Brinson heard him, too.
"Trevor!" Miss Brinson snapped as she came into the kitchen from the dining room.
He sighed. "Sorry." But he didn’t sound sorry at all.
I followed him out of the room, and I settled into a seat, Trevor sitting next to me. Paul plopped down in the seat next to me. "Don't want you to be next to Lacie.”
I grimaced and shuffled away from him a little, my face morphing into one of disgust. "Close your mouth when you chew.”
Trevor snickered beside me. "Glad you're dealing with that tonight and not me."
I sent him a glare, making the smirk on his face widen. "Keep on, and I'll force you to trade seats with me." He and I both knew that was an empty threat though.
Trevor just rolled his eyes at me and forked some rice in his mouth. Kaleb entered the room with Lacie and took a seat across from me. It felt nice for someone to be protecting me for once, especially three people.
And I couldn’t help but feel like Trevor was going out of his way to make sure Lacie couldn’t hurt me—physically or emotionally.
Lacie sat next to Kaleb, and Krista sat on the other side of Kaleb. Emily sat beside Trevor, and Miss Brinson took the seat at the head of the table. "Mom, I want to go shopping Saturday." Krista looked at me. "Oh my gosh, you should totally come with me!" I jumped in surprise. Jeez, she had a set of vocal chords on her.
I sent her a small smile. "Shopping sounds . . . fun?" I had never had the opportunity to go shopping like normal girls my age did.
"Oh, it is! You need new clothes for school, too! You're so pretty. You should start dressing like it!"
I blushed at her compliment, muttering a small thank you. I could feel Trevor’s eyes on the side of my head, but I didn’t dare turn to look at him. Krista looked at her mom. "So, can we?"
Miss Brinson rolled her eyes. "I'll give you money Friday night so you two can leave the house whenever."
"The food is really good, Miss Brinson.”
I kept my eyes away from Lacie when she spoke, keeping them trained on my plate instead. I didn't want to look at her. She made me want to make myself invisible.
She terrified me.
"Thank you, Lacie. How's school?"
Miss Brinson was honestly such a nice person. She was nice to everyone, even people that she really didn't like. She had taken me in with open arms and treated me like a real mother should. And though we all knew how much she disapproved of Kaleb dating Lacie, she was still nice.
I wish I could have had this my whole life.
"School is so boring. All everyone is talking about is this girl that got abused and put in the hospital.” I tensed up at her words. Miss Brinson set her fork down, her jaw tightening. “It's so stupid. It was her own fault for being abused. She was obviously doing something wrong."
Miss Brinson was about to speak when Trevor cut her off. "How nice of you to give us your goddamn input on your thoughts of the fucking abused girl. You're such a fucking stuck-up bitch, only caring about your petty fucking drama.” I jerked my eyes up to his face in alarm at his words. “If I were a girl, I'd slap you and yank all of those died fucking blonde strands out of your fucking head."
Miss Brinson didn’t even warn him about his language.
I went to get up, really just wanting out of the room and to get some fresh air, to get away from Lacie, but Paul shook his head at me. "Don't. You don't want to show her that you're scared of her. She's like an animal. She can sense that shit. She knows you’re that girl. You’ve got to show her you're stronger than what she thinks you are."
I stayed in my chair, but my whole body was tensed, and I felt like throwing up. "How dare you?!" Lacie dropped her fork onto her plate with a loud clang that made me flinch in my seat.
"How fucking dareyou?" Trevor never raised his voice, but it still whipped across the table as if he were yelling. "I'm not stupid. Everyone knows it's Tracey that was fucking abused.” I swallowed vomit, fisting my hands so tightly in my lap that my nails dug into my palms. “Don't sit there and act like youdon't know who the fuck it was. You've been going around, having your fucking little followers ask everyone at school for information on her, all because you feel like she's a threat to your stupid ass fucking popularity.” He let out a humorless chuckle, shaking his head. “Guess what, Lacie? Tracey lives in this house, with your fucking boyfriend, and she's fucking ten times prettier than you'll ever be.” I swallowed hard at his words, my heart racing in my chest—not in fear this time, but because of his words.He thought I was pretty.“You're the ugliest bitch I've ever laid my eyes on, and you would be doing us all a fucking favor by walking the fuck out of here and never interacting with us ever again."
Her mouth was hanging open in shock by the end of his speech, and she was at a complete loss for words. She swung her furious gaze to me and let out a blood-curdling scream, sending her plate of food flying across the table. I quickly curled in on myself and put my arms over my head, squeezing my eyes shut. I felt the plate smack my arms as the food fell all over me.
With my heart racing in fear, I jumped up and ran out of the room, tears running down my face, my chest heaving up and down as I desperately tried to fight the panic attack working its way through my body.
I ran into my room, slamming my door closed behind me. I flung open my balcony doors, desperately gulping in the fresh air. I clutched the railing with a white-knuckled grip, forcing myself to focus on the fence, forcing myself to count the cracks I could make out in the wood as I forced myself to calm down.
My door opened behind me a couple of minutes later after I finally managed to calm myself down. Kaleb stepped into my room. "Tracey, I am so sorry."
