Seth had tried that only once, and all he’d gotten for his trouble was a black eye to go with the pantsing. After that, he’d decided it was better not to tell his father what Chad and Jared did to him and just do his best to avoid the two of them, especially when they were alone. Now, as he watched Chad toss the football to Jared, he wondered if he shouldn’t just go around the block and get to his house from the opposite direction.
He was just about to turn away when Chad called out to him. “Hey, Beth! Want to throw a few?”
The day they’d pantsed him for the first time.
“Come on, Beth,” Jared chimed in. “Don’t you want to come and play with us?” It was too late to turn away. It was better just to ignore them.
Steeling himself, Seth started down the sidewalk.
Chad Jackson began making sucking noises.
Jared Woods grabbed his crotch. “Come on, Beth — isn’t this what you want?” Seth felt his face begin to burn, but he kept on walking, moving steadily down the sidewalk.
The taunts grew louder, then Jared darted off his front lawn to stand directly in front of him, his hand still on his crotch, his lips twisted into a cruel sneer. “You want it, Beth? Huh?” Seth kept walking, staring straight ahead, and finally Jared Woods turned away, laughing loudly.
Then the football slammed into Seth’s back.
He’d been expecting it — even braced himself for it — but when it happened, it still almost knocked him off his feet.
“Jeez, Beth!” Chad Jackson yelled. “Can’t you catch anything?”
Seth clenched his jaw, resisted the almost overpowering urge to break into a run, and kept walking at exactly the pace he’d set when he decided to face Chad and Jared rather than go around the block.
Slowly, the taunts died away behind him.
Then, as he cut across the lawn toward his own house, he saw his father framed in the open front door, and the notion of safety — along with the feeling of victory that had swelled inside him — faded away.
“Where were you?” Blake Baker asked as his son stepped onto the porch.
For a moment Seth’s mind went blank, but then it came back to him.
This was the afternoon his father was going to pick him up after school so they could practice for the golf tournament.
He’d completely forgotten.
But he could tell from the look in his father’s eyes and the coldness in his voice that he wouldn’t forget what was going to happen next.
“Go upstairs and wait in your room,” his father said. “I’ll be up in a minute.” As he began climbing the stairs, Seth could almost feel the sting of his father’s belt.
Chapter 16
The word reverberated in Angel’s mind. When she first heard it, it had slashed into her like a knife, cutting so deep it penetrated her very soul.
She told herself that he was drunk, and tried to shut out his words as he pounded on her door, railing at her. After what seemed hours but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, his voice finally died away into an unintelligible mutter, and then she heard him go back downstairs.
She stayed in her room, kept her door locked, prayed for her mother to come home, and tried to silence the echoes of her father’s voice.
Her mother at last came home, but Angel didn’t unlock her door until she was upstairs and rapped sharply, asking if she was all right.
Only then did Angel finally twist the key in the lock and open the door, letting her mother in. By then she’d wiped off the last vestiges of the makeup.
Her mother knew in an instant that something was wrong, though Angel insisted that she was fine.
And the word echoed once more in her head.
Somehow she got through dinner. All through the meal she felt her father’s baleful glare boring into her as he washed down the spaghetti her mother had made with one beer after another. When he abruptly left the table while she was clearing off the dinner dishes and her mother was serving ice cream for dessert, Angel felt a few short moments of relief. Then her father returned, and there was a look in his eye — a dark gleam — that brought her fears flooding back.
After dinner she went back upstairs to do her homework, and it was only then that she fully understood the glimmer in her father’s eyes when he’d returned to the table.
The key was gone from the door of her room.
She had no idea how long she stared at the empty keyhole, willing the key to somehow magically reappear, until she finally turned away, pulled her books from her backpack, and started on her homework.
It was impossible to concentrate, though, with her father’s voice ringing in her head and the empty keyhole drawing her eyes away from the textbooks so often that she couldn’t follow the simplest paragraphs.
Her mother came in at ten. “What is it, Angel?” she asked. “What’s wrong? Did something happen before I got home?”
And finally Angel blurted it out, telling her mother everything. “He called me a whore, Mommy,” she finished, and began crying again.
Her mother held her stiffly for a moment, then eased her away and looked into her eyes. “Why did you have a boy in your room?” she asked.
“We weren’t doing anything,” Angel protested. “We were just goofing around with that old vampire stuff I had for Halloween last year.”
“You’re sure?” Myra pressed, searching deep in Angel’s eyes for the truth. “All you were doing with this Seth person was putting on makeup?”
Angel nodded. “I swear to God,” she said. “That’s all we were doing. Seth just wanted me to—”
Her mother put a finger over Angel’s lips to silence her. “We don’t swear to God,” Myra Sullivan said. “We pray to Him for guidance. And I’m sure your father didn’t mean what he said, at least not the way it sounded. He loves you, Angel. He loves you more than anything, and I’m sure he was just worried about you.”
“But—” Angel began, but once again her mother’s finger pressed against her lips.
“He loves you,” she repeated. “And he’d never do anything to hurt you. Never forget that. He’s not always the easiest man, but he’s my husband, and he’s your father, and we must respect him. Now it’s time to put away your books, say your prayers, and go to bed.”
Then her mother was gone and Angel went back to her books, but she still couldn’t concentrate. Finally giving up, she returned them to the backpack and went to bed.
The word still echoed in her mind. Why had he said it? She and Seth hadn’t been doing anything at all — she’d just put on some makeup, and that was only to see what she’d look like.
She tossed restlessly in her bed, turning first one way and then another, but no matter how she twisted around or pummeled the pillow or tugged at the covers, she couldn’t get comfortable. Finally she gave up, rolled over on her back, and gazed out through the window at the moon that hung just behind the treetops, its silvery light casting dark shadows on the wall of her room.
The wind came up, and the shadows on the wall began to dance, taking on a strange rhythm that at last calmed her, and finally she drifted into a fitful sleep.
