Page 66 of The Last Love Song
Megan blinked. “What happened to you?” Bailey’s hands were covered in bruises.
“Nothing.” She shoved her fists in the pockets of her jean jacket. “And I couldn’t understand what J.D. was ranting about last night, but I’m scared of him, and I know he’s got anger problems or something. I don’t know what happened between you two, but if you need me to tell the cops he’s a raging maniac, I will. He’s just as whacked out as his father. They both creep me out.”
Some of the fury in Megan simmered down as she tried to focus on what Bailey was saying. What did J.D.’s dad have to do with anything?
“If you think he’s such a raging maniac, why did you go out with him while he and I were still dating?” It was a stupid point that shouldn’t matter since Megan now officially hated J.D.
But whereas J.D. was no longer important to her, there was the smallest chance Bailey still could be.
A very, very small chance.
“I never wanted to go out with him. My mom kept shoving me at him for reasons I still don’t understand, although I think it has something to do with a business deal she has going on with J.D.’s pervy dad who’s always looking at me.” Bailey shook her head, perfect blond hair swaying as she moved. “I don’t know. Mom says he’s harmless, but she’s always working an angle. She kept giving me messages to give to J.D. to give to his dad—appointment times for something he was helping her with for the opening of the new store. I told her to email him instead,but she kept insisting good business was built on personal relationships.”
Ewww.Megan debated telling Bailey that her mother had probably been trying to hook up with Mr. Covington back then. And she’d obviously succeeded, based on what she and Wade had seen at the ball field.
“So you were talking to J.D. behind my back to help out your mom?” She was not buying it.
But then Megan thought of the bruises on the girl’s hands. Bailey might be a liar and a backstabber, but she sure didn’t deserve to be frightened of the boy she dated.
Or his pervy father.
Bailey swiped at her eyes. “I didn’t mean to do it behind your back. I didn’t think much of it. But then J.D. kept flirting with me, and I knew he was trying to make it look like I liked him or something. I figured it was just some dumb act for his friends.”
“So why didn’t you tell me?” Megan hit the hand dryer, mostly for white noise in case anyone was out in the hallway.
“Because the next thing I knew, J.D. told everyone we were dating. You stopped speaking to me and hung up on me when I called you. My mother told my father I was dating J.D., and started using me as a cover to have an affair with J.D.’s slimeball father.” Bailey scraped her hair off her face in impatience, her voice cracking, making Megan realize she knew the score about her mom. “So I hit a point in this whole nightmare where I stopped thinking aboutyourfeelings. And it was right about the time J.D. started being a power-tripping son of a bitch to me. But I’m past caring what my mom says or what J.D. threatens. If there are cops here asking questions about J. D. Covington, then I want in. Or at the very least, I want to back you up, whether you want my help or not.”
Tears trickled down Bailey’s cheeks. Megan’s understanding of the last few months shifted, the pieces falling into new placesthat were—impossibly—even more horrible than she’d first thought. J.D. was a bully. Possibly a stalker.
His father was a cheater. And maybe worse, if Bailey’s slimeball radar was functioning properly.
Silently, Megan cranked the handle on the paper-towel dispenser until a long sheet emerged. She ripped it off and pointed to the sink.
“You’d better splash some water on your face, Bailey.” She thrust the crinkling brown paper at her. “Then we’ll go back in there together.”
“I never thought I’d be the kind of girl who would let a guy walk all over her.” Bailey didn’t move toward the sink. Tears slid down her cheeks faster. “But he got a picture of me. I don’t know how. And he said he’d tell everyone that?—”
Yeah. Megan knew where this was going.
“It’s probably not even you.” Unable to hold on to her old grudge anymore, she slid an arm around Bailey’s waist. “He Photoshops that stuff.”
“Did he do that to you?” Bailey sniffed and blew her nose on the paper towels. “I keep getting creepy notes from him online and then he pretends he didn’t send them.”
Kind of like his reaction when Megan accused him of posting the site. Something was off here. Really, really off.
“The photos are just the beginning.” Megan didn’t like seeing Bailey so upset. Another girl who’d been privately going through hell and not letting anyone know.
For some reason—standing outside of herself and being able to see someone else doing what Megan had been doing—made her appreciate how dumb it was to keep silent and let this asshat terrorize them.
And at least Megan’s father was going to go ballistic over the crap J.D. was trying to pull. It sounded like Bailey’s mother had thrown her to the wolves.
The girls’ room door shot open suddenly, startling both of them.
Linda Marquette, with her gray suit and shiny badge, stood in the doorway.
“Megan, we need you back in the guidance office so we can finish up.”
“Remember you said I could have a friend sit in the meeting with me?” Megan cleared her throat and gave Bailey a poke in the hip where she still held on to her. “I want Bailey with me.”
