Page 51 of Tell Me When It's Over

“There was a guy,” I blurt suddenly, cringing when the people in the office all turn to me with inquisitive eyes. In a quieter voice, one matching a whisper, I say, “There was a guy outside earlier taking pictures of me.”

Kyler’s nostrils flare. “What?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner! I came inside once I realized what was happening, but I shouldn’t have let you come when—”

“You think I’m upset with you?” He scoffs in disbelief, shaking his head. “Lenny, I don’t care if some a-hole is taking pictures of me. There is no good reason for him to be doing that to you. What did he look like?”

Uh…

“Do you think he was a pap?” he rephrases, brows drawn up.

“I don’t know. Maybe?” Why else would he be taking pictures of me? “I don’t know why though. There hasn’t been anybody around me before and nobody here—” Stopping myself from the unintentional lie, I sigh. Nobody here would willingly sell me out. The Dean promised Harry as much when the paperwork was signed.

“He could have been,” I admit, defeated.

“Did he say anything to you?”

“No.”

“Nothing?”

“No.” I frown. “He just stood behind the bushes at the driveway and started taking pictures. He wasn’t even trying to hide, Ky.”

Ky grips the back of his neck. “Most of them don’t, Leighton.”

Oh. I guess I didn’t know that. Nobody talks to me about that sort of stuff, just that I need to be careful when I’m out, not that it’s often I’m lingering. Sometimes, Mom will take me in

to the city to the mall or something, but I prefer staying in because she likes drawing attention to us. She makes that easy since she leaves me alone so often to go out on her own.

He walks over to Betty-not-White and starts talking about setting up a meeting with the dean and whoever oversees security. I want to tell him that isn’t necessary, but I can’t. Ky knows way more about this than I do, and I know he won’t let anything happen to me.

We don’t leave the school for another hour because Betty says Dean Torres has time to see him now. I’m not sure if he really did or if it’s because it was Kyler Bishop who demanded a meeting, but we’re walking out the front doors long after I expected to be.

Still no Mom.

I start to worry. “Do you think my mom is okay? What if—”

“She’s fine,” he tells me, loosening a breath before giving me a sympathetic look. “I asked Harry and he said she forgot. Told me it was good I was taking care of it.”

I focus on two words. She forgot.

She’s done it before. The first time that I can remember was during the Mother’s Day lunch my old school held. Mom promised she’d come, even signed the form saying she’d be there with the other moms. When she didn’t show, my second-grade teacher had to console me after a very public breakdown.

There have been other times too. Thankfully, ones that didn’t leave me in tears that my peers picked on me about for months following. Though, I know they’d feel the same if their mothers forgot about them. It’s natural. Who wants their parents to forget they exist when they’re looking forward to having them around?

“Oh,” is all I can say.

We walk to his car in silence, and something catches my eye. The soccer field is emptying of the boys’ team. I lock eyes on Beckham again, whose clearly not listening to whatever Striker is saying to him.

He’s staring right at Kyler.

I pale.

But…he doesn’t say anything to the guys running their mouths beside him. It’s too far away for me to know for sure, but I think he tips his head. No words. Nothing else.

“Friend of yours?” Ky’s voice sounds similar to when Mia talks about Dylan, her boyfriend of five months.

“Not really. I don’t know Beckham that well.”

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