“You bitch,” Lily said. “We’ll get you for this.”
Afterward, Dean Becker had me write out what had occurred in the bathroom, not that he needed it. Mrs. Turman had seen and heard it all. I hurried home at the end of the day and put the money back into my great-grandmother’s teakettle. I looked after Andrea and Randall, helping them with their homework, and then set the table for dinner. My mother was very pleased when she came home.
I waited until after dinner, when Andrea and Randall were watching television, before I told my parents anything. Contrary to what I had been anticipating, my father did not look happy about it.
“I don’t like that you were involved with drugs again,” he said. “No matter what. It wasn’t your job to catch those girls.”
“They hurt me; they hurt all of us,” I said.
“I don’t like it.” He rose and went into the living room.
“I guess I can never make him happy now,” I told my mother.
She didn’t say anything. She looked confused and afraid. Twenty minutes after I went to my room to read, my phone rang. It was Jackson.
“Everyone’s talking about what you did!” he began.
“Did you tell your parents?”
“It won’t change things. They’ll think you turned state’s evidence or something.”
“What do you think?”
“I’m happy they got theirs.”
“But?”
“I don’t know if it really solves anything.”
“You mean, for us?”
“Some of the guys think I was in on it,” he revealed.
So that’s it, I thought.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure everyone knows you weren’t.”
“You get called things—narc, snitch—stuff like that.”
“Is that why you were so equivocal when you were first questioned about what happened to me?”
“What do you mean?”
“You told the dean you hadn’t seen them do it, but you knew they had.”
“I told him what I thought. That’s all I could tell him. It’s a sin to bear false witness.”
“Sins can become quite convenient sometimes.”
“I always believed you, Corliss.”
“I just decided what you should go to school to become.”
“What?”
“A politician.”
“Ha, ha. Look, I want you to know that deep down, no matter what, I’m proud of you,” he said. “And when I can . . .”