“Callie and Lucas were practically dating before, years ago,” Tamara said.
I shot her a filthy glare. I’d been hoping she wouldn’t say anything about that situation. Aileen hadn’t joined us until our high school years at Sands, long after the Lucas situation was forgotten, so there was no reason for her to know. “It was in primary school, it was just one stupid school dance, and we never even wen
t to the dance together, in the end. So none of that is really relevant.”
“Wooo,” said Aileen, “someone’s still sensitive.”
“I—”
Before I could say anything more Fiona, who was also in our class that morning, came right up to me and asked if that pink car I’d come to school in was mine. If Lucas had bought it for me.
At first, I thought that was a really clever, sneaky way of asking me if the two of us were together, but then I realised that of course that was what people would naturally think. It certainly didn’t look like me getting a ride in Lucas’s car, and it was just a bit of an upgrade from the last car they’d all seen me driving.
“It’s his sister’s car,” I said.
“Oh,” said Fiona, “how is Lucy going these days?”
“Fine, I think.” I didn’t want to admit I was riding in her car but couldn’t remember if I’d ever actually spoken to her. I hadn’t even been able to remember her name.
“That’s great to hear,” Fiona said. “Let her know I said hi, okay?”
It had been a weird conversation, but at least Fiona hadn’t pressed me for details on Lucas in the end. I didn’t have any time to think about Lucas’s sister, either. I had to focus on how I was going to manage the whole rest of this day until I probably had to deal with Lucas again.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket without thinking, to check the time, and Tamara squeaked. “Callie, what happened to your phone?”
I scowled at the ruined corner. “Dropped the fucking thing out of Lucas’s sister’s stupid car, didn’t I?”
“Clearly not a convertible fan,” Aileen muttered. I was grateful to both of them for dropping it then in favour of other topics as we moved on to class.
Even though I actually felt nervous going into the bathroom all by myself after everything that had happened, as if Lucas might follow me in there and harass me further, I couldn’t help myself. I excused myself from first period social science, pretending I didn’t see my friends’ curious looks as I hurried out, and locked myself in a stall in the toilet block with my phone and earbuds to try to listen to that recording I’d gotten.
The damn thing was too low-quality to hear much of anything, and what I could hear was making me sound like the psychopath all right, Lucas trying everything he could to reason with me after I started screaming about not wanting to get in a car with him. Maybe if I took it to the police they’d be able to have their experts get some more details out of it… but no, that was the sort of made-up stuff you saw on TV crime dramas, wasn’t it? And even if they did get more out of it there was no guarantee it would make me look any better. The mere fact of that scene was as likely to make me seem even crazier as anything.
It was not really likely I would be able to defeat Lucas with that sort of tactic anyway. It was too much like the sort of thing he would do: twisting the facts to their best advantage, trying to get people in the surrounding area on side. I didn’t really want anyone else involved in our standoff, I wanted to have the freedom to deal with Lucas in my own way and have the issue drop. The last thing I wanted was to get into another mess like the one when we were ten, and have people bringing this up whenever they pleased for the rest of my life.
So I was going to have to find a way of dealing with this situation that was more authentically Callie. And Lucas might not realise it because he’d never paid attention to me most of the time, but I was more than up to the challenge.
I didn’t have to wait out in the front carpark for as long as I had worried I might, but two people I barely even recognised still had their opportunities to approach me and ask what the deal was with me and Lucas and the car.
I was more than a little tense by the time Lucas strolled out and started heading for me, hands stuffed in his pockets, thankfully alone at least. “Job today?” he said.
I shook my head. “I cashed in on a bit of leave for the next few days.” I hadn’t wanted to be in the office and jumping at every car that pulled in right next to the window I worked at. And I definitely hadn’t wanted Lucas hanging around.
“Great,” Lucas said. “I’m going to take you shopping for a new phone.”
“What?” I said. “No, I can’t afford—”
“You don’t need to afford anything,” said Lucas. He stepped into the car and gestured for me to join him. “Just come pick something out you think suits, and it’s covered.”
“No,” I said, “I can keep using the one I’ve already got for the moment.”
“You are not going to keep using some old broken piece of shit out of some sense of pride,” Lucas said, but I had already stopped talking because I’d just concluded the same thing myself.
Why should I go on using a phone he had broken, that could stop working at any time now, and have him get away without any sort of recourse? The only reason I’d said those words was because of some stupid sense of pride. A dumb old-fashioned thing where a girl couldn’t accept anything from a boy and still be considered virtuous.
Well, there was nothing virtuous about the situation between the two of us, and Lucas was not going to leave me alone just because I played by those old rules of virtue. That was the game I’d started out with, appealing to authority and the rules, and he was far more skilled than me at playing that game in a way that made the world work how he wanted.
Maybe I should be a little more shameless.