Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 97337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
This is what she was afraid of, her biggest fear. And nothing hurt me more than having to turn and leave that room, leaving her sitting there all alone. I couldn’t put my thoughts in order as I made my way back to my first class.
For the rest of the day I ignored the stares and whispers and outright questions, but I did tell my boys the same lie. That I’d gone to her house to cut the grass. It was during lunch break that I had time to look into the post and do some digging of my own.
I never once suspected that it was one of my friends who’d done that shit, but I couldn’t for the life of me think of who it could possibly be. All it took was a run on the IP address and some backtracking to find the culprit. I can’t say that I was surprised to find the source, but I was pissed at myself for not seeing it sooner and heading it off.
Now I was looking at my flat tire and the drive-by the other night in a whole new light. I wanted to call her and ask her if she knew who was behind it, if she’d figured it out yet, but she had her phone turned off as she usually does during school hours.
I wanted to hunt the fucker down and break his legs, but that was too easy. That had been my first plan the night he attacked her. I was going to have my boys run a chain on his ass to teach him a lesson. But he’d upped the ante with this shit.
Drake
By midafternoon I had a solid plan in place and since my boys were already in my shit, it was easy to play it off like it had just come to me. I started with Carter, since he’s the one I’m closest to, and it wasn’t long before he spread the word.
Unbeknownst to me, I guess because I’d been so preoccupied with her, the guys had grown fond of her. She has that effect on people with her shy self. So once I told Carter the story of having to save her in the parking lot and my suspicions that it was the same asshole that’d spread the rumor on the school forum, shit took off from there.
By the time practice rolled around that evening they were out for blood. “Where does this fucker live?”
“I have no idea Drew, I never met him. The first time I saw him was that night. She’s lucky I had to run to the pharmacy or who knows what would’ve happened to her if I hadn’t come along.”
It was an easy enough lie to believe and no one asked me what the fuck I was doing at the pharmacy in the first place. By the time the story took flight it was all I could do to keep them from causing mayhem. Plus I now have the added headache of them wanting to show their appreciation by cutting her grass as well. I’m gonna have to come up with some way to cut that shit off at the pass.
But my work was done. I’d got them to change the whole tone of the scandal before it became a problem for her. Now I find myself in a dilemma. How can I go to her? And how can I not now that I know this guy was hell-bent on causing her problems?
Of course she didn’t show up to the field and I felt the loss, but understood. I knew she would tuck tail and hide which is understandable given the circumstances, but that didn’t stop me from being pissed. Not at her, but at the situation.
I called her as soon as practice was over and I was heading to my truck. I’d missed her all damn day, was worried about her until my gut hurt, and hated that I might have to leave her alone again tonight. “Are you okay?”
She took her sweet time answering and once she did it was obvious that she’d been crying. I closed my eyes and counted to ten as I sat back in the driver’s seat. “Can you trust me for a little while longer? I’ll make everything okay I promise.”
“How?” Her voice was small, like a kitten’s.
“I can’t tell you right now, I have some things to take care of first, but I promise you that everything is going to turn out okay. Lock up for me and I’ll call you when I get to the house.”
I didn’t tell her that it was Robert that had made the post, no sense in scaring her any more than she already was, but I knew I couldn’t keep it a secret forever. I didn’t plan to, but first I had some stuff I had to take care of.