The Education of Hailey Kendrick - Eileen Cook [44]
I wondered what was going to happen when I went back to school. The top of Winston’s head was going to lift off when he found out what I’d done. Drew was right that there was no death penalty, but Dean Winston was going to come up with something. Something that might make me wish for death. Winston struck me as the kind of guy terrorists call when they’re looking for new ideas. I stared out the window. He might expel me, despite what Drew said about the school wanting the tuition money. My grandma would freak out if I got kicked out of school. No one in our family had ever been expelled. And I was pretty sure an expulsion would blow my chances with Yale. It wasn’t the kind of school that catered to the juvenile delinquent crowd. I wouldn’t be surprised if Winston was already contacting the admissions office, telling them that I was the type to spray paint my name on Yale’s Harkness Tower, or beat up the mascot bulldog.
Drew leaned back from the table. “All right. Now tell me everything.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m interested, and you want to talk about it.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Liar. You think I won’t know how to help you, but that’s where you’re wrong.” He raised his hand to cut me off before I could say anything. “Admit it. You were wrong about me before. I happen to be a keen problem solver. Sometime I’ll tell you about the time I had my wallet lifted in the Cairo market, and I followed the guy and won it back in a game of dice, along with an extra hundred bucks.”
“You traveled through Egypt?” I had pictured Drew as the kind of guy who didn’t travel out of the state, let alone the country. Maybe down South to some kind of barbecue championship event, but exotic travel had never occurred to me. “Did you see the pyramids?”
“That’s what you pay attention to? I tell you I managed to infiltrate a den of thieves and win, and you focus on the pyramids? If you don’t mind me being so blunt, that’s part of your problem. You focus on the wrong things.” He leaned back into the corner of the booth so that his crossed feet hung out into the aisle. “Telling someone who has no connection to a situation gives you a fresh view. You could use a fresh pair of eyes. Now, start at the beginning. You decided to attack the school mascot because . . .”
I looked into his eyes. I could use a new perspective. It wasn’t like I had any great ideas on my own.
“I’m going to need more coffee,” I said. “It’s a long story.”
Drew raised his finger, and the waitress headed in our direction. I took a deep breath and tried to figure out where to start.
19
When I stopped speaking, Drew leaned back and said nothing. I sipped my coffee to have something to do. I was practically humming with all the caffeine in my system. If anyone looked directly at me, I bet I would be a blur.
“So, as you can see, it’s pretty screwed up,” I said, wanting him to say something.
“You did a good thing.”
“Are you kidding? I haven’t done anything right since this whole thing started. It was like I took one wrong turn and now I can’t get my life back on track.”
“I don’t know. Seems like you’ve done some good things. You took the heat so your friend Joel doesn’t lose his scholarship. That shows character. Sad truth is that most people only do the right thing if it doesn’t cost them anything.”
I shrugged off his praise. “How much character does it show that I kissed my boyfriend’s best friend?” I left off the part that really scared me. Not only had I kissed him, but I’d liked it.
“Well, I’ll divide my answer to that question into two parts. How much character is Tristan showing? He won’t even give you a chance to explain.”
“You don’t understand. Tristan has issues around trust.”
“We all have issues. If you want to worry about issues, worry less about his and focus on why you kissed this Joel