“No. It’s a fact. If you let young men like Henry get away with things like this now, the cruelty will only fester and grow. What happens when he doesn’t stop there? What happens when he rapes someone? Would you want that on your conscience?”
Invisible claws dug deep into my chest. Young men like Henry, if left unchecked, grew into the kinds of monsters that had taken Hallie.
I couldn’t keep from touching her now. I took her hand, lacing our fingers.
“Hallie’s right.” I tried to keep my voice even and not tell this piece of work how I truly felt about him. “That kind of behavior is incredibly concerning. If you don’t mandate counseling, I’ll be forced to go to the school board.”
Meader glared at me. “And what about Luke?”
My back teeth ground together. “He’ll have consequences at home.”
Luke muttered something I couldn’t make out under his breath.
“He needs to have them here, as well,” Meader snapped. “I can’t have students thinking they can punch whoever they want.”
“That’s fair,” Hallie said. “But nothing that goes on his permanent record.”
The redness was back on Meader’s face and neck. “You don’t get to decide—”
“No, she doesn’t,” I cut in. “But we’ll fight you on anything you do that would leave a permanent mark on Luke’s record. I’m not sure you want people taking a closer look atyourrecord.”
Meader’s face screwed up. “Suspension for the rest of the week. Not on his record.”
“That’s very fair,” I said as calmly as possible.
“Get out of my office,” Meader snarled.
“With pleasure,” Hallie mumbled under her breath.
We all stood, making our way out of the office. Debbie gave me a wide-eyed look as we passed but flashed a thumbs-up. I was sure she’d heard the majority of what had been said in the meeting. I stole glances at Hallie as we walked. I expected her to be shaky, maybe freaked, but she just looked mad.
“You okay?” I asked quietly.
“That man needs to be fired before he does real damage.”
“I don’t disagree with you there.” He’d always been a piece of work, grabbing hold of the little power he had and wielding it like a weapon. I held the door for Hallie and Luke.
We stepped into the chilly sunshine and headed for the parking lot. We came to a stop by our vehicles. I turned to Luke. “I expect you to get all your missed assignments and to stay on top of them. No phone, video games, or TV for the rest of the week.”
I held out my hand for his cell.
Luke stared at me for a long moment. “You know what I did was right.”
I let out a sigh. “I’m glad that you’re the kind of kid who wants to step in to protect those who need it. It makes me so proud of you. But I also know that you could’ve detained that kid until a teacher got there,withoutbreaking his nose.”
“He needed a message, or he would’ve kept doing it,” Luke argued.
I searched for calm. “Maybe that’s true. So, you made a choice. And there are ramifications for that choice you need to be willing to deal with.”
Anger flashed in Luke’s blue eyes, ones so similar to mine. “Mom warned me you’re like this. Said you have a stick so far up your ass you can’t even see when something isn’t a big deal. She said that’s why you keep us from her.”
And just like that, my entire world fell out from under me.
35
HALLIE
Silence swam around us,the kind of quiet that echoed in your ears. The kind that was so absent of sound it hurt.
