Ten minutes later, Cade Ryder walks in with a scowl on his face. He looks straight at Nate, not knowing what the hell is going on but naturally, assuming the worst. “Don’t move,” he tells him before walking straight past and into Watkins’ office before closing the door behind him.
Chapter 21
I walk through the door behind Cade with Nate beside me and Jesse behind. We walk in silence until we get to the kitchen when Cade turns around and looks at each of us. “Right,” he starts, focusing on Nate. “You’re home tonight. No parties. No get-togethers. No hanging out with the boys. All night, it’s either the den, the dining room, or your bedroom. Got it?”
Nate nods his head as his father turns to Jesse. “That goes for you, too.”
“What?” Jesse grunt. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You could have pulled him away, instead you let him beat the shit out of that kid.”
“But he-”
“I don’t want to hear how he deserved it. I know he deserved it, and quite frankly, I think he deserved more,” Cade argues. “But, if this were the real world, Nate would have been arrested on assault and you and your friends would have been taken along with him as accessories. I refuse to allow you idiots to end up in prison, so until you learn that, you’re spending your Friday nights and weekends with me.”
“But-”
Cade ignores his son as he turns to me. “Tora, I’m really sorry this happened to you and you’ve become a victim in all this, but I don’t want you going out tonight either. I don’t want to risk that dickhead going out to finish what he started, especially without Nate and Jesse there to look out for you.”
“That’s fine,” I tell him. “I wasn’t planning on going out tonight anyway.”
“Alright, then,” he says as he squeezes my shoulder and walks out of the kitchen. “I’ll be in my study if you need me,” he calls over his shoulder before disappearing into the house.
“Come on,” Nate says a moment later as he drags me into the den with Jesse following behind. We drop down into the couch and Jesse flicks on a movie.
As we sit in silence, I can’t help but ignore the screen as my mind takes me back to my afternoon. I mean, I haven’t had such a shitty day in so long. The three of us got sent home once Nate’s dad was finished with Principal Watkins, which actually took quite a while as the police were called and charges were filed.
Cade took complete charge of the situation and all that did was prove to me how often he’s had to do stuff like that for the boys. He was absolutely great and managed to get Nate off with only a week suspension, as after all, he did beat the shit out of a student before knocking him out based solely on my word.
Everything was going good until Josh woke up and entered the office. Then it was both Cade and Nate being held back by the staff and Jesse, showing me once and for all where Nate gets his temper from. Though, as promised, an investigation was launched and Josh has been placed on suspension until the investigation is complete. He’s also been dropped from the football team until further notice, though, once a thorough investigation is done, I’m sure he’ll be out of the school altogether.
My parents were called and since then have been blowing up my phone but I haven’t really had a chance to call them back until now, and I find myself putting it off. I don’t want to talk about it again but I know I need to put them out of their misery.
The memories of being inside that broom closet with Josh haven’t stopped circling my mind and all it does is make me feel sick and dirty.
I push myself up to my feet and Nate grabs my hand. “Where are you going?” he grunts as he tugs on my hand, stopping me.
“I want to shower. I feel kind of dirty after having him all over me.”
“Oh,” he says, looking broken that I feel that way.
He lets go of my hand and I walk out of the room but when I see both Nate and Jesse following behind, I turn and watch them over my shoulder. “You guys know that I’m capable of showering by myself, right?”
“Mhmm,” Jesse says as Nate silently continues following. I mean, surely, they aren’t planning on helping me shower, right?
I get up the stairs and push through the door of my room only to have both the boys follow me in. Jesse stops and drops down onto my bed while Nate follows me into the bathroom. He doesn’t shut the door but he doesn’t need to, Jesse won’t be able to see anything, as long as he stays on my bed.