It Happened Last Year

Instead of talking about my moment with Daniel last night, Jana and I talk about James, her latest endeavor. Apparently she spoke with him at Watts’ last night after I left, and apparently, she likes him a lot.

“I like him a lot,” Jana gushes, “he’s too perfect, it’s a little scary. The only down part is that he doesn’t live here, he’s Watts’ cousin visiting from California. I should’ve known. Of course someone so beautiful is from California.”

“Well, how long is he staying?”

We reach my locker, and I obliviously open it and grab my books listening to Jana talk. It is just before I close it, that I notice the small, white, folded piece of paper as it flutters to the floor, knocked off the shelf by my rearranging. I bend down and snatch it up, opening it as Jana rambles on.

I have proof. If you want to talk, meet me in room 1244 during lunch.

My eyes widen and my hands grip the paper tightly. “Jana,” I interrupt, but she continues on, “Jana.”

This time she stops. “What?” I hand her the paper and watch as her face suddenly drops. “Holy mother of God. You don’t think-”

“That this person is telling the truth? I don’t know.” I take the paper back and read it over and over again. “What if it was meant for someone else? Or if they’re not talking about what we think they’re talking about?”

“Or if it’s all a practical joke?” Jana suggests and I crumple up the paper and toss it back into my locker, swinging the door shut. “Sorry. The kids here are cruel.”

“No, it’s my fault. For some reason, I got excited about it as if there could actually be proof. No one could have seen anything.”

We walk together into the cafeteria. I can’t help but glance over at Harrison’s table, and thankfully he’s not there, yet. Oddly enough, Daniel is already at our table with Jordan and Taylor. I assumed he would be at the track instead since that’s been his frequent spot lately. We approach and sit down, and I feel his eyes on me. To my benefit, the spot next to him is open.

When I look up, Taylor is glancing between us, clearly excited by something. Jordan seems to be normal, though. “You missed a fun party. Jana and this guy James were chatting it up,” she says.

“Oh, I’ve heard,” I smile.

“Where did you go? Last I saw was you two driving off somewhere.”

I hold back my blush. “I just went home. I wasn’t feeling well.”

“You’re better now?”

I nod. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

As she continues to study me, I give Taylor a look, telling her to stop. It’s obvious that she knows now, it wasn’t difficult to figure out, but I’m more curious about who else knows. Not Jordan, Jana knows, of course, so does Taylor, Watts might know along with everyone else who witnessed our dramatic scene at the party. That’s more people than I would like.

What do they know exactly? That something is going on between Daniel and I. Honestly, I am not even sure what we are. It’s not like we put a label on it or anything.

Suddenly, a presence draws my attention up to someone behind me. He looks to be a freshman or sophomore on the junior-varsity football team, as I can tell from his shirt. Everyone at the table glances at him, and he looks uncomfortable. “Harrison asks me to get you,” he says to me, and I look over to Harrison, who is now at his table.

He is sitting beside Daphne, staring at me while she chats with some girl beside her. His eyes are intense, hard, expecting me to stand up and walk over. Before I can answer the kid, Daniel bluntly and firmly says, “No. Now walk away.”

I look at Daniel and then to the kid, and he doesn’t wait another second before returning to his leader. I watch as he updates Harrison, and Harrison dismisses him while continuing to stare at me. This must be about his offer to help me, the one where I tell everyone that I lied and he stops the hate.

Pulling my eyes away, I bring them to Daniel whose jaw is clenched at whose fists are balled up, ready to be thrown around.

“What was that about?” Jana asks, looking confused. “What would Harrison want?”

Daniel looks to me, joining everyone else. I know he is being good, not charging over to Harrison and punching his face in. It is clear that he is upset by his presence, angry and struggling to keep cool. I want to thank him.

“I don’t know,” I mumble, “maybe the kid went to the wrong person.”

No one seems quite convinced by this, but they return to whatever they were doing before, except for Daniel. Of course Daniel wouldn’t fall for it. His eyes stay fixated on me, waiting for an actual response. As conversation starts up, I whisper to him casually, “it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

Daniel is not satisfied. “What did he want?” He asks quietly.

“It’s hard to explain, I-”

“What are you two whispering about?” Jana interrupts.

“We hit a cat on the way home and now we’re scared my neighbor knows it was us,” I improvise, not getting any better, “don’t tell anyone.”

Jana’s face falls. “You killed a cat? Oh my God, Daniel, how did you hit a cat? Poor thing. You just left it there?”

Daniel gives me a look. “You know what, let’s go call your neighbor now and come clean.” He stands up and I give Jana an apologetic smile before following him. Harrison’s and Daphne’s eyes follow us as we leave the cafeteria, I glance back at him and quickly look away when I notice.

Once away from the crowd, Daniel turns to me with the same look on his face. “I didn’t know what else to tell her, sorry,” I say.

“That’s the only excuse you could-you know what, never mind. Just tell me what he wanted.”

I sigh and fall back against a row of lockers in the empty hallway. “Harrison just wanted me to tell everyone that I lied about what happened.”

Daniels jaw clenches again.

“If I did, he would make all the staring and whispering stop. Making living here a little more bearable.”

“You’re not actually thinking about it, right?” Daniel asks, assuming I am going to totally agree.

I shrug. “I was, but now I know that I’m not going to do it. The whispering and whatever isn’t so bad anymore.”

“Is that why you wanted to leave that day? Because he asked you to do that?”

I nod. Before he can rant on about Harrison, I say, “Thank you for not causing a scene in there.”

Daniel runs his hand through his hair and leans beside me. “It wasn’t easy. He makes me want to-hurt him,” he stops himself from giving the violent details.

“Well, thanks anyway.” My eyes wander down the hall and I notice that room 1244 is across the way. Without saying anything, I walk over and peek through the window on the door, seeing nothing but a black room.

“What are you doing?” Daniel asks, joining me across the hall.

“Nothing,” I say, turning around, “I thought I saw someone I know in there.”

“The lights are off?”

“Let’s go back. I don’t want too many questions about what we’re doing. We already have to come up with my neighbor’s response to their dead cat.”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.