“Mama, no. Virgil isn’t like that. He was only trying to keep you from getting chewed up by the prosecutor.”
“Well, that’s not how it felt.”
Nick blinked his own tears away. “If you don’t hate me, why am I on restriction and why wouldn’t you let me close my door?”
“You have a B in chemistry. Remember? I told you at the school that you were on restriction for that.”
Oh yeah, he’d totally forgotten. “And the door?”
“It gets really hot in this room when I have the TV on and you close it. What did you think?”
“I thought you thought I was a creep.”
She glared at him. “Dang it all, Nick. I know you’re not a creep. I’ve seen the way you are around Kody and other girls, too. You’re bashful as you can be, and every time Kody touches your hand, you light up like a Christmas tree. Most of the time, you’re scared to even touch her. It’s like you’re terrified of her.”
He cringed. “It’s that obvious?”
“Yes.”
Would the humiliations never stop?
She wiped at her tears. “I can’t believe you misunderstood me so.”
“Same here,” he said. “Have I ever said or done anything that makes you think I hold anything against you?”
“No, not really. But I hold it against me.”
He scowled at her. “Then keep it on you. Don’t let it run over here to me.”
She placed her hand on his cheek. “I love you, baby. And I’m sorry you have to go through this.”
Not as much as he was.
Then, to his shock, she handed him the remote. “I think you’ve been punished enough for one day. Sit here and watch TV with me.”
Grateful beyond belief that he’d been wrong about her actions, Nick flipped channels until she snatched the remote back.
“You drive me crazy the way you watch TV. Pick something and stay with it.”
“I have teenage ADD powered by male testosterone, Mom. What do you expect?”
She growled at him as she returned to her girl show. Nick tried not to grimace.
But that ended a few minutes later when a call came in. Since they were watching TV, his mom didn’t get up to take it. Instead, she let it go to the answering machine.
“This is Principal Head from St. Richard’s. I’m calling to let you know that Nicholas is being expelled from school immediately. If you will mail any textbooks he might have back to us, we would appreciate it. Likewise, we will box up his personal items and have them shipped to your residence on file. Thank you.”
His mother’s face turned bright red. “How dare he!”
Nick didn’t respond. He was too busy feeling a crotch-kick for that. But then, what had he expected? Head thought he was a rapist and a thief. He was just protecting his students from a monster.…
Well, at least I don’t have to face Head or anyone else in school again. “Can I call Kody and Caleb to let them know?”
She hesitated before she nodded. “But this isn’t over. I’m going to talk to your lawyer tomorrow to see if there’s anything we can do.”
“Uh, he’s not really a day person. He works night court for a reason, so if you want to talk to him, call him before dawn.”
She hesitated, then nodded. “Interesting. I’ll do that right now. Don’t worry, baby. We’ll get you back in school.”
Don’t do me any favors. The thought of going back to school right now didn’t appeal to him at all.
My life is falling apart.
He felt like crap, until he looked at his mother as she spoke on the phone, and tried to imagine the horror of what she’d been through by the time she was his age.
Yeah, getting thrown out of school sucked. Getting thrown out of your home was so much worse. Even now, her parents insulted her.
“Hey, Ma?”
She returned after leaving a message for Virgil to sit next to him. “What, Boo?”
“I am so proud of you. Thank you for not giving me away.”
She scowled at him. “Oh baby, why do you obsess over that so much? It’s like part of you keeps waiting for me to throw you out.”
Because part of him was waiting for that. It was his worst fear. “I know what it cost you to keep me. I do. And as I get older, it’s a lot clearer. By the time you were my age, I was walking.”
She smiled. “Oh, I remember how beautiful you were. You didn’t have any hair. You were such a bald little booger, I thought I was going to have to save up to buy you a toupee.” She ruffled his hair playfully.
He laughed.
She leaned against him. “Don’t worry, Boo. Everything will work out. It always does. Somehow, even if it’s at the very last second, God always comes through for us.”
And her faith never wavered. His was a little more bipolar. But his mother had constant and unflappable belief. He envied her that. And it was amazing given everything she’d been through.
Closing his eyes, Nick listened to the TV as he tried to relax.
And as he tuned the physical world out, he began to hear the ether voices.
Be careful. Be careful. Be careful. Be careful. It sounded like a reptilian voice that echoed around him.
Be careful of what?
My friend’s enemy is my enemy.
Yeah, okay, so what did that mean? But there was no answer for his question.
Weird. Typical, but weird.
As he started drifting to sleep, he had an unmistakable feeling. Something was searching. Clawing. Slithering.
And it was here.
CHAPTER 16
Nick couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being stalked. But other than his gut, nothing corroborated it. Neither Kody nor Caleb sensed it, which meant they thought he was out of his gourd.
Not the first time anyone ever accused him of being loco. Still …
“Would you focus, Nick?”
He blinked at the sound of Ash’s voice. “Sorry. I just have a creepy, edgy feeling.”
“Believe it or not, it could be the electromagnetic waves put off by your anklet.”
Great. That was all he needed. Probably give him leg or foot cancer one day, too. Just for good measure.
“Nick…”
All of a sudden the car slammed on its brakes. “Hey!” he snapped at Ash. “I was going to stop, you know.”
“When? After you ran the light?”
“Maybe.”
Ash shook his head. When the light turned green, Nick eased onto the gas and took the right that would lead him to Kyrian’s house. For the last two weeks while his mother fought the principal and Nick waited for trial, Ash, in an effort to cheer him up, was allowing him to drive to and from work. Especially since it was the only time Nick could leave the house.
At this point, Nick was going stir crazy. He couldn’t imagine being stuck in jail given how miserable his life had been while confined to his apartment.
He pulled into Kyrian’s driveway and waited for the gates to open. The only upside to everything that had happened was that his mother, since finding out he was a virgin, was relaxing her strict rules for dating. She was even allowing Kody to come over and keep him company while she was at work.
“Ash?” he asked as he pulled up to the front of Kyrian’s house. “Have you seen the video the cops have of me?”
“Yeah.”
Virgil had shown it to Nick two days ago. “It looks just like me.”
“I know.”
Nick turned the car off. “I don’t know if it’s doctored or what. But you can’t imagine how terrifying it is to think that there’s someone out there who looks just like you. That if he does something, you’re going to get blamed for it.”