Bad Teacher

“What? The part where you’re fat or stupid?”

A fist suddenly lands on my face.

I stagger, grabbing my face as I hold onto the car for support.

He actually fucking hit me.

Great.

Exactly as planned.

“Hmrr …” I groan, getting back up again.

“There’s more where that came from, so unless you want to brawl, I’d suggest you get your ugly ass outta here.”

I shrug and rub my jawline. “Yeah, well, see, I’d love to but … I have something to do.”

“What?”

“Well, I have this thing for a girl. You wouldn’t believe it if I told you, but just know that I’m not doing this because I’m an asshole. Well, okay, I am an asshole, but that’s beside the point.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he says, squinting.

“The point is … I don’t like fighting, but since you hit me first, that gives me the freedom to defend myself. So thanks …”

I immediately follow up that statement with a punch to his gut.

I don’t know why he didn’t see it coming because I saw his punch coming from a mile away. I wanted him to hit me, so I let him. It gave me an excuse to pound him.

Another punch to the face and a kick in the gut has him lying on the asphalt, blood dripping from his nose.

“What the fuck, man?” he yells.

“That’s for hitting a woman,” I spit, and then I kick him in the balls. “And that’s for hurting my girl.”

“Your girl?”

I lean over him and grab him by the collar, “Hailey,” I growl. “Remember that girl you punished for just being alive? Yeah, I know how you treated her like shit. It’s going to end today. Because you know what’s going to happen? You’re going to disappear from their lives forever. You’re never going to speak to them, and you’re not ever going to try to come close to them again. You hear me?”

He nods profusely as I threaten him with another fist. “I promise.”

“Really?” I raise a brow.

He growls and his eyes narrow again. “Fuck, no.”

And then we start rolling over the ground, fists flying everywhere.

Chapter 26

Hailey

A few hours later

“All set!” the nurse says as I help my mom out of bed.

“Thank you,” I say. “I’m so glad I can take her home in one piece.”

“No problem. Make sure to be more careful next time.” The nurse smiles and winks as she leaves us alone.

Lesley’s here too now to support my mom and me as I help her get to the door. Her broken rib must hurt a lot, but the medicine should dampen it a bit. Lesley grabs my mom’s purse, while the nurse and I help my mom into a wheelchair.

“Tell me if you need me to help,” Lesley says.

“I’m good,” I say, as I glance at her over my shoulder. “But thank you for helping. I really couldn’t have gotten through this without you.”

“You two seem like very good friends,” my mom says. “I’m really glad you’re taking such good care of my daughter while you’re both in college.”

“Of course,” Lesley says. “That’s what friends are for.”

As the nurse pushes my mom to the door, someone knocks and enters. It’s a police officer. “Hi, hope I’m not disturbing. I’m detective Fargo. I just wanted to ask some questions if that’s okay.”

“Um … sure?” I say, looking at my mom. She nods. “All right. Where?”

“Come with me, please.” We walk after him into a small office down the hall. The nurse puts my mom’s wheelchair next to me as I sit down, while Lesley fetches a glass of water.

“Well, I’ll be right back then,” the nurse says, scurrying off.

The police officer sits down and pulls out a notepad and a pencil. “So you’re in the hospital. How did you end up here?”

My mom looks at me, and I nod at her before she turns her head back to him. “I … was pushed down the stairs.”

“By her boyfriend,” I interject because she’s starting to shake.

Lesley suddenly comes back, and when she notices the tension in the room, she quickly places the glass of water on the table and says, “I’ll wait down the hall.”

I nod and mouth a thank you to her.

“Does this happen often?”

“Yes, he’s done it many times before,” I reply. “Mostly just attacking us out of the blue.”

“How often did he hit you? Did he hit both of you?” the officer asks when Lesley’s gone.

“Yes. He hit my mom more than once, on several occasions. I usually managed to get away in time … but not always.”

“Okay …” He pens all of it down.

“Why are you asking this?” my mom asks.

“Well, we have your boyfriend in a cell at the station.”

My jaw drops. “What? How?”

The officer purses his lips. “I can’t go into too much detail, but he was found fighting outside in the parking lot, so we took him in for questioning. He kept asking for you.” He points at my mom. “Told us you were here, but when we called, the nurse also told us he’d been violent toward you, so that was a red flag for us.”