She kept her gaze on Tyler and Shawn as she answered. “Yes, I’m okay. No, I don’t need to sit down. No, I don’t want you to call anyone. Thank you for asking, though. The phone, Matt.”
He was silent. When she glanced again at him to confirm he’d stopped videoing the fight, Matt had lowered the phone and was staring at her like he expected her to be doing something other than what she was currently doing. The trouble was, Jay had no idea what that something might be.
“Sure you’re okay?” he finally asked. “You’re not gonna faint or anything, are you?”
“Yes, I’m sure. No, I’m not going to faint. Or anything.”
His frown smacked of disbelief. “Shit. I can actually see a handprint on your cheek. I’m guessing he didn’t hold back, huh?”
“He could have punched me, so I believe he did hold back to some degree. And the mark will fade soon.”
“You’re one tough chick.”
“Yes.”
“Better ice it when you get a chance,” he told her. “It’ll help with the bruising.”
“Thank you for the advice. Aren’t you going to Shawn’s aid?” If Matt chose that course of action, she would take steps to stop him. Two against one was patently unfair.
He shrugged and stuck his feet up on the dash. “Nah. Shawn and Tyler have some major history, so this was always gonna happen. And between you and me, I hope Tyler manages to get in a few good punches before he gets creamed. Shawn deserves to get the hurt put on him.”
“Why does Shawn deserve it?” she asked. “Isn’t he your friend?”
Matt’s lips compressed and the residual humor faded from his eyes. “Lately, that’s up for debate. And guys just don’t hit girls, okay?”
“Is it okay for girls to hit guys?”
He eyed her, his gaze speculative, gauging the seriousness of her question. “After what that asshole did to you? Duh. Abso-fricking-lutely.”
“Thank you. I wasn’t sure of the protocol in a situation like this.”
She heard Matt mutter, “This I gotta see,” as she turned her gaze back to Tyler and Shawn.
She observed the fight for a moment. Shawn’s heavier body mass was proving problematic for Tyler. He did manage to hook one of Shawn’s ankles with a sweep of his foot and topple him to the ground, but when he pounced on him, Shawn bucked him off and rolled, switching their positions. Shawn’s triumphant expression morphed into something dark and ugly. He drew back his elbow, fist clenched.
This would be a prudent time to intervene. Jay liked Tyler’s face just the way it was, and she would not appreciate Shawn rearranging it. She didn’t bother to check her speed. She leaped toward Shawn and grabbed his wrist. In one smooth, rapid movement, she rotated his arm to twist it up behind his back.
“Bitch,” he said, struggling ineffectually and hissing when she increased the pressure on his shoulder joint. “Get off me. You want another smack or something?”
“Please,” she said. “Do try.”
“Fine. I’ll get to you when I’ve finished with the freak.”
“In your dreams!” Tyler said, his face tight with determination as bucked his hips, trying to dislodge Shawn. “You lay a hand on her again and I’m gonna—”
“You’re gonna what?” Shawn said. “Sing me a song?”
Jay’s vision washed with a bloody red haze that she identified as adrenaline-fueled fury. Humans called this phenomenon bloodlust, or “seeing red”. And it was oh-so-very tempting to give in to it.
But at some level, she understood she was defective. There was something profoundly wrong with her. She’d been programmed to defend herself if threatened, but she was not in any danger whatsoever. As much as she might wish it otherwise at this particular instant, her programming did not extend to rendering Shawn limb from limb, or even smashing his face with a clenched fist and ruining the good looks he was so very proud of. This encounter should not be affecting her in such a way. This annoying, foul-mouthed,
boy
should not have the power to influence her actions. This desire she had to punish him, to exact revenge for his treatment of Tyler, was wrong. She was malfunctioning, and the consequences of giving in to her rage could be dire.
She caged her fury and smothered it with logic. And logic told her the most efficient way to be rid of Shawn’s attentions was to humiliate him enough that he avoided her in future.
She increased the upward pressure on his wrist and shoulder joint, ignoring his vile curses as the pain and the threatened dislocation of his shoulder forced him to abandon Tyler and rise to his feet.
After a brief scan of her surroundings, Jay discounted the trash cans placed beside the bus stop. There was no reason to damage public property.
The Dumpster out back of the Chinese takeout? Perfect. She marched Shawn toward it on his tiptoes.
“Hey, Matt!” he yelled, his voice squeaky with growing panic. “Dude, some help, here?”
“She’s only a girl,” Matt called back. “I’m sure she won’t hurt you too bad.”
Jay gripped Shawn by scruff of his neck and the waistband of his designer jeans, and tossed him into the Dumpster. He landed with a muffled squawk of disbelief and an immensely satisfying
squelch
, signaling to her that his landing had been cushioned by rubbish sacks full of discarded food scraps. She sniffed the air. Plastic rubbish sacks by the smell of them. Along with the garbage, they would have contained a higher than normal percentage of air, meaning Shawn would have enjoyed a far more comfortable landing than he deserved.
When she turned back to see how Tyler was faring, she found him staring at her, open-mouthed.
She cut her gaze to Matt.
He, too, gave her stunned eyes. “Uh, nice trick,” he said.
Oh. Apparently girls weren’t supposed to be able to toss boys into Dumpsters. “It’s all in the thighs,” she said. “Taking out the trash has always been one of my chores.”
Tyler’s lips twitched upward.
“Did Shawn hurt you?” Jay asked, noting his scraped skin and the bruises that were beginning to form.
“Nah. It’s nothing. What about you?”
“I’m fine.”
He shook off his shock and dusted down his clothes. “Then let’s go, before the trash gets its shit together and crawls out of that Dumpster.”
All Tyler could think about was Jay. She was doing his head in. He stared at the lyrics he’d scrawled on his sheet music pad.
Thoughts of you glowing in my heart,
Thoughts of you shining in my soul,
Thoughts of you blazing in my mind,
Thoughts of you, burning.
Thoughts of you,
Burn.
Sheesh. It read like a sappy romance novel. He crumpled the page and tossed it at the trash can. Then he stuck his guitar back in its case and dragged out his sketchbook. But instead of the graphics project he was supposed to be working on, he found himself sketching Jay’s face.
Crap. He had it bad. Real bad.
He closed the sketchbook and grabbed his Bio textbook. And he was still lounging on his bed, pretending to study, when he heard the front door slam.
There was the usual delay while Caro grabbed a snack from the refrigerator, before he heard her footsteps on the stairs. She was a stomach on legs but she never seemed to put on weight, and her freakish metabolism was the envy of her friends. He waited for her to explode through his bedroom door without so much as a knock, and stick him with some smartass comment. Like she always did.
Wait for it….
The door smacked into the wall with a sickening crunch. “Heard you puked all over the new girl in Bio. Way to go, bro!” Caro stuck her hand palm out, as if expecting to be high-fived.
“Yeah. Thanks.” He ignored the gesture and changed the subject to the raw scrape decorating his sister’s cheek. “Lemme guess, you tripped over your own two feet and fell on your face during practice?”
“Haha. Very funny. Ashlee clocked me in the face with her heel. She’s such a klutz. What’s your excuse?” She stared pointedly at his scrapes and bruises. When he didn’t rise to the bait she said, “So. Losing your breakfast in Bio. Bet that got her attention, huh?”
“Yeah. Riiight. Puking all over chicks works like a charm. They find it irresistible.” He rolled onto his stomach and pretended to be absorbed in the textbook.
She snickered, and in a sing-song voice said, “You’ve got it bad for her.”
“Don’t be daft.”
“The way I heard it, she’s got it bad for you, too. So bad—” big ole pause for effect “—she treated you to a strip-tease in the bathroom.”
Unease iced Tyler’s spine. He’d avoided the social minefield of the cafeteria by hiding out in the music room. Then he’d cut last period English and headed for the library. He’d hoped making himself scarce would dampen the gossip. Obviously not.
He leveled what he hoped was a nonchalant look at his sister. “Jeezus. I lent her my shirt so she had something clean to wear. What the hell’s wrong with that? And who’s doing the mouthing off?”
She gave him “Well, duh!” eyes. “The usual suspects. And you think
that’s
bad, you should hear what else the squad are saying about you two.”
He gave up on the text book and turned on his side to better observe his sister’s face. “What are they saying?”
She popped the top of her soda and chugged half the contents before slanting him a look which smacked of pity. “It’s bad. Word is, you and Jay also got— How shall I put this?
Intimate
.”
Tyler resisted the urge to dive under his comforter and cocoon himself from the world. He wasn’t into risky behaviors like getting wasted, or experimenting with casual sex, but because of what had gone down at Homecoming, loads of kids believed otherwise. They could believe what they liked. Nothing he could say would change their minds. But this? This was something else. Because this time, it wasn’t just his rep being dissed and he didn’t think he could protect Jay like he’d protected Vanessa.
“How intimate?” he asked.
“Her giving you a BJ intimate.”
“Riiight. Like
that
would ever happen. Like Jay would even want to seriously hook up with
me
.” He forced a laugh. Even to his own ears it sounded tragic, so he flopped back onto his stomach to cover a flush of fury that had him clenching his fists and wanting to hit something. Shit. Shit. Shit. “It didn’t go down like that at all,” he muttered.
“I know,” Caro said. “And I tried to put the lid on the gossip but it’s far too juicy for Nessa to let go.”
The mattress dipped as she plunked herself down beside him and reached over to rub the tight, aching spot between his shoulder blades. “I’m real sorry. I don’t know what’s up with Nessa, lately. She’s been acting like a real bitch. And she’s really got it in for Jay. Bettina’s not exactly pleased to have another contender for hottest girl in school, either. Wouldn’t surprise me if she had something heinous planned. Hey, d’you want me to clue Jay in, and tell her to steer clear of you for a bit?”
“God no! Just stay the hell out of it, Caro. You’ll only make it worse.” He shrugged off her hand to slither off the bed onto the floor. He propped himself against the mattress, elbows on bent knees, chin cupped in his hands. “I can handle the rumors,” he said, as much to convince himself as his sister. He hoped Jay could handle them, too.
“Sure you can.” Caro blew out a harsh sigh and joined him on the floor, sitting cross-legged in front of him. “Just like you handled them after Homecoming. Look, if you’d just tell me what really happened, maybe I could—”
“Drop it, sis.”
She scrubbed her hands through her hair. “Fine. What-freakin’-ever. But you sure can pick ’em, bro. I mean, first day at school and Jay’s already attracting the wrong kind of attention.”
“Shawn’s attention, you mean,” he said. And then wished he’d kept his mouth shut when he saw the pain flash across his sister’s eyes. Shawn was a dork. He wouldn’t know a good thing if it bit him on the ass. It wasn’t a matter of
if
he screwed things up with Caro, more like when.
He tried to make amends. “Look, sis, you don’t need to worry about Jay hooking up with your boyfriend. She can’t stand him. And after the way she dealt to him, I reckon he’ll go out of his way to avoid her.”
“Oh?” Caro’s eyes flashed danger. “And how
did
she deal to him, exactly?”
Tyler went hot-cold-hot with dismay. Ah, crap. When was he going to learn to keep his big mouth shut?
His sister took pity on him. “Chill. I was only yanking your chain. Jay already gave me the whole tragic story about how Shawn wouldn’t leave her alone. Some girls might reckon her reaction was OTT, but me? I’m thrilled she kicked his ass. It serves him right. Jerk. Least he could have done was dump me
before
he started hitting on someone else.”
He blinked at the bitterness in her voice. “Does this mean what I think it means?”
“That I’ve kicked Shawn into touch?” She smiled in such a nasty way that he shivered and rubbed his bare arms, grateful her huge case of the vengefuls wasn’t directed at him. “Not yet. First I’m going to make him grovel. And then, just when he thinks he’s got me right where he wants me, I’m dumping his ass. Publicly. With maximum humiliation. No one treats me like that and gets away with it.”