Page 11 of Kingpin
“You think I’m dumb enough to touch you out here in front of everybody?” I begin, turning my head and making eye contact with them both. I make sure I whisper the rest, as I look into Maggie’s eyes. “You think I’d let people see it? Nah, I’ll wait until you’re walking down Thornton Street on your way home, like you do every single day after school. And when you walk past that alley, you know the one that looks dark even in the daytime, you’ll know you’re not alone. When you’re lying on your face in that alley with no one around to help you, you’ll know it’s because you started calling Alannah that stupid name. It’ll be your own fault, and nobody will see anything happen. So, how would you be able to tell Mr. Bishop then? How will you be able to tell anybody if I make it to where you can’t fucking talk anymore?”
The two of them look like their stuck in a block of ice together. They’re both frozen in time—barely blinking, barely breathing, unmoving.
I turn to the guy who was laughing earlier, because I’m sure he could hear what I was saying.
“What? You don’t think I’m funny? Or, do you only laugh when you know it’s hurting a defenseless person’s feelings?”
He doesn’t say anything, but I see him swallow hard. I don’t even know who he is, but I chuckle at him as I climb back up the jungle gym and take my place next to Alannah. She isn’t crying now, and that makes me feel better. The two of us watch Maggie and Lisa slowly step away from the jungle gym, and they keep walking until they’re on the other side of the playground, like they’re trying to get as far away from me as possible.
“Are you okay?” I ask Alannah.
She smiles. “I’m fine. What’d you say to them?”
“Just not to mess with you like that,” I reply. “I told them I’m not gonna put up with that crap anymore. You don’t deserve it.”
“Thank you, Dominic,” she says behind her beautiful smile. “You didn’t have to do that, though.”
“Yeah, I did,” I interrupt. “Look, I don’t like many people in this stupid school, but you’re the only one who has been nice to me. And you don’t do it because you’re scared, you do it because you want to. You’re a nice person, Alannah, and you don’t deserve to have people talking crap to you like that. Nobody’s gonna mess with you now—not while I’m around. Okay?”
She seems to take a second to think about it, then she smiles from ear to ear, and my heart does the same.
“Okay, Dominic.”
