Page 32 of Tell Me Softly
That made my heart race, but I couldn’t believe what he was saying was true. “Give me a break. Thiago can’t stand me! And Taylor, he was always my best friend. I hope he still is, but he’s like a brother; he’d never think of me that way.”
Julian’s lips pursed and moved to one side of his face as if to say,Poor little thing.
“Kami, Taylor’s in love with you, and so’s Thiago, whether or not he knows it. I get the sense that Thiago’s stuck in an inner struggle. A part of him wants to throw you against the wall and get it on with you, and another part of him wishes you’d disappear and never come back…”
How could Julian know all these things?
“You’re wrong there,” I said.
“I’m not, though. I understand men, and for them, you’re like…”
“You’re wrong!” I repeated, a bit too sharply. “You don’t know—there’s a million things you don’t know, stuff that happened between us you can’t even imagine.”
I was overcome with emotion and concluded softly, “Thiago hates me, OK? And he’s right to.”
With those words, I got up, grabbed my backpack, and headed for the car just as the sun started to set.
Chapter Twelve
Thiago
The students wandered in one at a time. If this had been a normal detention, they would have come in from 3:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. If I wanted, I could just let them go. Nobody was watching me—nobody who would tell on me, anyway. The only people left in the building were a few teachers trying to wrap up paperwork before going home and the janitors, who stuck around until nine.
It sucked being there, and I couldn’t help feeling this was Harrison trying to stick it to me somehow. He’d said he only took me on as a favor to my mother. I didn’t know what that meant, really, but what I did know was that no one else in town was jumping at the chance to take me on. People here gossiped; some of them knew what had happened between Kami’s family and mine, and since her mother was rich and influential, naturally people had taken her side. Whatever.Keep your head down and focus on your work,I told myself. So I turned to a clean sheet of paper on my clipboard and drew up potential plays. I’d been working on them for a long time, and I hoped they’d work when we had our next exhibition game against Falls Church. They’d been our rivals since before I left town, and last year, they’d knocked our team out ofsemifinals for the state championship. When I left, I tried to forget everything about Carsville, but I could never stop rooting for the home team. Next week’s game was away. I knew that would add to the pressure on my guys. We needed to be prepared—that was the only sure way to win. I didn’t have a lot motivating me in my life, but one thing that did matter to me was making it to number one. And with this team, I was pretty sure I could do it.
I heard footsteps and looked up to see her walking through the door. She met eyes with me briefly, then looked away. She took the last desk in the back to the right. She was still in her gym clothes—I guess she meant to shower when she got home? The thought of that excited me, and I tried to shove it away. When I saw her in her cheerleading skirt, that made it even worse. Those legs of hers, they were giving me headaches, especially when I imagined them wrapped around my waist…
Stop it!I told myself.
“You’re late,” I barked, trying to get a hold of myself.
Kam looked up from the notebook she’d just taken out, then over at the clock on the wall.
“It’s 6:01,” she murmured.
“If you’re late again, I’ll have to talk to the principal.”
I knew I was being a jerk, but I just didn’t care. Julian looked shocked. To hell with him, then. Kam pressed her lips together, clearly trying to stop herself from talking back. Smart move, I thought.
Eventually my brother strolled in, meeting eyes with no one. He dropped his gym bag and took out his phone. Kam crossed her arms and sat back, challenging me to say something to him too.
“Taylor, you’re late,” I said, tapping my pen on my paper.
My brother looked at the clock, just as Kam had, and said, “It’s only ten minutes.”
“Show up on time from now on,” I said, turning back to mywork. I could feel the bad vibes coming from the back of the class, and Kam couldn’t keep her frustration in for long before busting out, “So when it’s me, you threaten to go to the principal, and when it’s him, you just shrug it off?”
My brother turned in his seat.
“Are you serious? After what I did for you, you want him to tell on me to the principal because I was ten minutes late?” He was angry enough that I wondered whether he’d finally come to the same conclusion as me: that it was best to stay as far as possible from Kam.
“All I want is fairness. If I’m a minute late and he chews me out, then he should at least…”
“He’s my brother, do you get it?” I asked.
“So f-ing what?!” Her ears turned red with rage.
“So if I feel like giving him special treatment, I will.”
