The Education of Hailey Kendrick - Eileen Cook [32]
“Dream on. It’s going to take a lot more than a movie and large popcorn to convince a girl to sleep with you,” Joel said, chucking a throw pillow at his head.
“Hey, I was going to spring for the real butter for the popcorn. I was willing to spare no expense. I wasn’t looking for a cheap lay, just an easy one.”
“You guys are pigs,” Kelsie said without looking up from her magazine.
“If you wanted an easy lay, you should have asked Hailey out,” Tristan said. “If she’ll do a townie, then I guess she’ll do anyone.”
My heart stopped beating. I couldn’t believe he had just said that. Everyone looked embarrassed, but no one spoke up to defend me.
“I don’t think it’s fair that we all have to be on restriction just because of what she did,” one of the sophomore girls said.
Kelsie whacked the girl on the back of the head with her magazine. “You should stay out of it. What do you care about restriction? You weren’t going anyplace.”
The sophomore blushed and looked down at her lap. I felt like pumping my fist in the air. You tell that stupid lip-glossed silver-eye-shadowed freak, Kels! That girl would have licked my shoes clean a week ago if I had asked her to. How dare she suddenly plop down in my group of friends and judge me.
“I still can’t believe . . .” Tristan’s voice trailed off. His jaw thrust forward, and I knew that meant he was fighting back tears. Suddenly I forgave him for what he’d said. He was hurt and was trying to lash out. I wanted to rush into the room and throw my arms around him and tell him that everything would be okay and that we could work through this.
Kelsie leaned over and gently laid her hand on the side of Tristan’s face. He pressed his hand to hers and closed his eyes. It felt like a knife sliding between my ribs to stab my heart. I knew she was just trying to comfort him, but it felt too intimate, too personal. Then I hated myself for thinking anything bad about Kelsie, when she was the only one who had stood up for me since everything had happened.
I didn’t want to be there anymore. There was no way I could sit down and act like things were going to be okay. I needed to get out of there. I took a step back and stepped into nothingness.
My arms spun around trying to regain my balance. I must have been closer to the top of the stairs than I’d thought. For a split second I thought I was going to be okay, but then my ankle rolled to the side and I fell.
I screamed as I bounced down the stairs. I rolled down like a tumbleweed, my feet slamming against the wall as I went. I saw flashes of red carpet runner as I spun, and I prayed that I wouldn’t break anything.
When I finally hit the bottom of the stairs, my head was throbbing and I had torn a hole in my yoga pants. I could hear people rushing to see what had happened. I tried to sit up, and winced when I put my hand on the floor to prop myself up. It felt like I must have sprained my wrist. In addition to the two nails I had broken cleaning classrooms today, now my pinky nail was sheared off and bleeding. I heard someone gasp, and I looked up. At the top of the stairs Tristan, Joel, and Kelsie were looking down at me.
“Ms. Kendrick,” a voice said. I spun around to see Mr. Harrington standing in the lobby. “How nice of you to drop by.”
15
Mr. Harrington helped me to my feet. I was shaking from the shot of adrenaline. Everything hurt. It felt like I had been run over by a truck, but I was pretty sure no permanent damage had been done. I looked over each of my limbs. The crowd of soccer players from the lobby was jockeying for position. They seemed disappointed that I didn’t appear to have broken anything, my brain wasn’t leaking out my ears, and my shirt hadn’t popped off. They would have been happy