Forbidden Desire

I reached over beneath the table and covered Tyler’s clenched fist with mine to keep him from jumping up from his seat. I just looked over and across the room at Sherry, having no doubt that she’d done this. Then I heard what else Paul was saying and dragged my eyes away, ending our stare-off. “What? What did you say? When did that happen?”

I looked between the two of them for answers. The rest of the table up until this point had been doing their own thing having their own discussions, but all turned at the sharp rise in my voice. “Oh yeah, you should’ve seen your brother, he went full nuclear on homeboy’s ass. They were gonna try to kick him out, but we were like nah.”

Someone else piped in when the first jock was done. “Yeah, now that wannabe rapist asshole is the one who’s going to be investigated.”

“Tyler, what did you do?” Now they were all falling all over themselves to fill me in while I sat there in disbelief.

Apparently, in the space of one morning, Tyler had beaten up both Kevin and the kid who’d passed him the spiked drink the night of the party had almost been expelled but had instead turned things around to his advantage. Something I didn’t even know he’d done until now was to gather signatures of all the witnesses from the party with written statements that had been sent to an email folder, which he forwarded to the principal.

All of this he’d done while we were at home together or out shopping these last two days without a word of it to me. I could only stare at him in wonder while he tried forcing a broken-off piece of pita past my lips. “Are you insane? Your dad is going to kill you when he finds out.”

“No, he won’t, now eat. The rest of you shut the fuck up.” He glowered around the table while I wondered how the heck I’d missed all of this in-between classes. No wonder people were looking at me strange. Between the rumor and Tyler’s actions, they were no doubt blaming me.

Kevin may not have been part of Tyler’s group, but he was still very popular, and I’m sure anyone hearing the rumors would find it hard to believe that a rich, relatively nice looking guy would have to go to those lengths. Add the fact that I’m an outsider, and there’s no real competition.

I tried not to let the unfairness of it all get to me, but what was worst was fighting my own feelings of guilt. After all, the rumor mill hadn’t gotten it all wrong. I had been flirting with Kevin and a few others that night truth be told. And even though I was only doing it to get a rise out of Tyler, the reality is that I used those guys for my own selfish gains. Does that mean I think I deserve what he tried to do to me? No, but I can see how I’ve put myself in a messed up situation.

Nevertheless, I’m not about to let Sherry or anyone else taint my name and character out of jealousy. What’s her deal anyway? It’s like she’s escalating. First warning me away from Tyler, then telling our parents about what happened that night and now spreading shit about me.

I wasn’t surprised when our eyes connected when I looked back in her direction. She wasn’t even trying to be subtle, and I felt a chill run down my arms at the look of venom in her eyes. “Eat your salad babe, don’t worry about her.” I had no idea that Tyler had been watching that whole exchange. He sounded so blasé, but I couldn’t help but feel that something was about to go down.

Lora

That had been weeks ago already, and so much has happened since then. For one, things at school got hectic there for a while after Kevin got expelled, and his college prospects were terminated once they’d been made aware in a very public way about Kevin’s dirty little secret.

Ty didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was the one who’d contacted the universities where the two boys were most likely to be accepted if only because of their familial wealth and connections. If that wasn’t bad enough, he’d gotten them kicked out of every club and sport they were part of at school.

When all was said and done, Kevin, along with his partner in crime, had been ostracized and had pretty much disappeared. Word is that they were both finishing out the school year with homeschooling. Once the real truth came to light, those girls who hadn’t been at the party but who’d decided to judge me based on what Sherry had told them started to come around, not that I cared.