Chapter XX

The table was silent as Jay finished explaining what had happened. Not a single one of them spoke, each most likely fled into their own thoughts as they took the information in. Damien could hardly believe what he was hearing yet at the same time, part of him was unsurprised. After all, he knew as a fact that this incident didn’t happen so soon after Alice started dating Vinny by coincidence and he knew the others were well aware of that as well. It was obvious that they were the cause of this sudden act of harassment against Alice Mendez.

He could hear the sounds of students chatting and laughing at other tables in the courtyard, but their upbeat and happy tones almost seemed to mock them as they went about their normal, benign lives. The courtyard was covered in a thin layer of snow from Saturday night that, under normal circumstances, he would’ve thought was pretty. But on that morning, it was almost eerie.

Beside him, he felt Liz grab his arm though neither turned to look at each other. Her presence was enough to calm him down for the moment and allow him to think straight. Instead, he turned and looked across the table at Vinny. The blonde boy’s features were still, displaying no emotion in the slightest. It was rare for his charming and borderline obnoxious grin to not be showing so his expression was all it took for Damien to know that Vinny was furious.

And why would he not be? Damien asked himself bitterly. Vinny has more reason than the rest of us to be utterly pissed, even putting aside the fact that Alice is his girlfriend.

Damien clenched his teeth, praying that Vinny would be able to keep his emotions in check and refrain from doing anything rash.

He then turned to gauge the reactions of the others at the table. Jay looked as if he were fighting back tears though he seemed to be trying desperately not to let anybody notice. Lilly and Liz both looked unsettled, their brows furrowed while they tried to make sense of it all. As for Eric, he was merely gazing down at his gloved hands folded atop the table’s surface, his eyes narrowed. Alice wasn’t present since, according to Jay, Ellie Kaylyn had taken her to the office to get a teacher or the principal.

Part of Damien wanted to break the painfully long silence but he didn’t know what to say. They all knew why this had happened and they knew it likely wasn’t a one time thing. As far as he knew, there was nobody with any motivation to go after Alice specifically and Jay had agreed. For all they knew, Alice wasn’t the only target. If it was done out of a hatred for the Magic Club as a whole then they could all be in danger of getting their lockers smashed. Damien considered himself lucky that he didn’t have anything particularly valuable in his own but he didn’t know for certain if that applied to everybody.

Just as Damien was considering warning the others about his fears, Vinny suddenly pushed himself to his feet, grabbed his backpack, and turned to leave.

“Vinny?” Damien immediately called out. “Where are you going?”

The boy stopped for a moment and glanced back at him with a stern expression. “Class. Where else? We’re not gonna get anywhere just sitting here and school’s gonna start soon.”

“Are you…are you okay?” he stuttered, but instantly regretted it when Vinny narrowed his eyes and scoffed.

“Okay? Like hell I am,” he hissed. “Let’s not pretend like we don’t know why this happened. Some scumfuck got wind that Alice and I were dating and, since I’m such a fucking loser to everyone in this damn school, they went after her. Knowing that, how the hell could I be okay?”

Damien saw out of the corner of his eye that Lilly and Jay were staring at Vinny in shock, most likely at his uncharacteristically furious tone. But Damien and the other club members weren’t surprised at all. Anybody who knew anything about Vinny’s past would have expected a reaction like this.

“We don’t know that for sure,” Damien responded calmly, despite having made the exact same guess.

“Then why do that?” Vinny snapped, raising his voice enough that those at the nearby tables glanced over at him. He lowered his tone before continuing. “Why else would somebody do that to her? They called her a damn slut and told her to kill herself. I…”

He trailed off and seemed to fall back into thought, as if he were trying to think of some other reason somebody would attack Alice the way they did. Damien didn’t say anything more, knowing that it would be best to let Vinny cool off for a bit. Then, after a moment, the boy turned and began walking toward the direction of the main school building.

“I’ll go with him,” Eric said softly, getting to his own feet and collecting his own things. “You coming, Lilly?”

The girl looked up at her name before silently nodding. She grabbed her own pack and joined Eric before heading after Vinny. Damien watched them go, wishing he had first period with Vinny so he could keep a better eye on him but he trusted Lilly and Eric to take care of him.

“I…think I should go, too,” Jay grumbled.

He uttered a soft “see ya” and followed in the same direction as the others, leaving Damien and Liz the only ones left sitting at the table. He groaned and put his face in his gloved hands.

“Do you…really think there could be another reason?” Liz asked softly. “Like, honestly.”

Damien sighed and reluctantly shook his head. “No. I don’t. I was just… I guess, I was just hoping I could comfort him or something. But…I mean, we all know that the other students at this school think we’re a bunch of clinically insane maniacs and whether I like it or not, the only thing keeping people from going after us all this time is my damned reputation.”

Liz shook her head and grimaced. “But wouldn’t that apply to Alice? I mean…if people think she’s associated with you then…”

Damien narrowed his eyes in thought. He could think of a few people, mainly the sporty types, that he knew wanted to go after them. However, Vinny took that to a different level. Unlike Damien and Liz, Vinny often intentionally antagonized people, going out of his way to piss them off because he knew they wouldn’t retaliate. Eric did the same but not to the same extent. So the level of hatred for Vinny was higher and more extreme than the way the others were seen. In fact, he wouldn’t even say the rest of the club was “hated” as much as disliked and thought lesser of. So, with Vinny now dating a girl that didn’t have that big of a social circle while also having a weak connection to Damien, he wouldn’t be surprised if, to get to Vinny and not rouse Damien’s fury, they went after Alice instead.

“I think…if whoever did this is going after Vinny, then they’re gonna make it look like this has nothing to do with the club. After all, if it isn’t perceived as an attack against the club then they probably hope I won’t bat an eye at it.”

Liz smirked sadly. “And yet, if it is the case, you sniffed them out pretty quickly.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he whispered. “Because I’m not the monster they think I am. Not anymore. They could’ve gone after Vinny directly and I never would have retaliated in the way they think I would.”

Liz nodded as she tightened her grip around his arm. “So? What do we do?”

“I honestly don’t know,” he admitted. “Even if we knew who did it, it’s not like we could do anything to them except tell a teacher…but that doesn’t always solve anything. For the time being, we should keep Vinny reigned in. Don’t want him getting himself in trouble. That won’t help Alice at all.”

“Agreed,” Liz replied. “I just…wish we could do more. This isn’t going to go well with him. Vinny despises bullying…probably more than most. If he does find out who’s behind this…who knows what he would do.”

Damien looked down at his hands and clenched them together, fearing what could happen if Vinny lost his temper.

What am I supposed to do?

***

It had been a long time since he felt as much fury as he did that morning. When he was younger, Vinny often imagined himself standing up against those who would do harm to innocent people like he was some super hero. But the problem was that, in his fantasies, he never acted like an actual hero. Whenever he would imagine himself confronting a bully, it would always end with him beating them so bad that they died. He wanted nothing more than to kill people like that and he never had a problem with that feeling. He believed that those who would bully and hurt others would deserve what they got in the end. People like that didn’t deserve to exist. However, he had never been the strong type. Even when he was young, Vinny was smaller than other guys in his grade and he wasn’t one who had much muscle. In fact, his arms were like a scarecrow’s with how thin they were. So, no matter how badly he wanted to hurt them, he never had the strength to do so. He spent much of his younger years so angry and he could never do anything about it.

Meeting Eric Reiner saved him in many ways. Eric offered him a place to belong and served as somebody to vent his anger to. The boy never judged him, but would always insist that he shouldn’t stoop to the level of a bully. He acted as a source of reason for him and as time went on, Vinny found that he didn’t like being angry. He enjoyed laughing and messing around with Eric and Damien, and eventually with Liz, too, when Eric befriended her. Eric helped him put his feelings behind him and so, he told himself that he would just live life cheerful. It would be better for him just to smile and joke and not take the words of assholes seriously. However, that didn’t mean he didn’t still despise people like those that used to pick on him. Whenever he would see somebody getting made fun of or harassed, he would feel parts of his old fury rising up within him and he always struggled to ignore it. Usually, he was successful.

But this time, he knew he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.

Alice Mendez was now his girlfriend and he genuinely cared for her. They had bonded in a special way since the night she learned about The Switch and that bond had only continued to grow. So to learn about what happened to her locker and what was written on it, he felt his anger returning with such power that he felt almost sick. He wasn’t an idiot, after all. He knew he wasn’t well regarded among the student body and that normally didn’t bother him, but now, he was almost certain that what happened to Alice was less a shot at her than one at him. Somebody had probably seen them at the Christmas tree lighting and realized they were dating so they got the bright idea to go after her. He was certain that was what happened.

It can’t be a coincidence. What other reason would somebody do something so drastic to her out of nowhere if not because of me? He clenched his fists at his side. God damn it! Why? Am I really hated so much that they would take it out on somebody who’s never done anything wrong?! I swear to god...I won’t stand for something like this!

He could feel some students glancing his way and then quickly turning away almost out of fright. He knew he probably looked furious and unhinged but there was nothing he could do about that.

He knew Eric and Lilly were following close behind him but neither made any move to walk with him. Lilly was probably unsettled by how he was acting and he truly regretted that she had to see the side of him he thought was kept at bay. Eric, however, almost certainly understood why he was feeling and acting the way he was.

Vinny glanced up to realize he had already made it to the second floor with Kentz’s classroom just ahead. He sighed, not feeling up to dealing with school and wishing he could just run to the office to check on Alice, but he prayed she would already be in class. He took a deep breath, muttered a “good morning” to Kentz, and walked into the classroom. He immediately gritted his teeth as he heard the voices Brad’s gang off to his left but, instead of antagonizing them like he usually did, he instead turned to look in the direction of Alice’s desk.

Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be seen.

“Why the long face, Mickelson?”

At the sound of Evan Wright’s voice, Vinny couldn’t help but to tense up. Ever since Lilly had helped Brad out with the test, the group had been less confrontational with them. In fact, Vinny had been the one to start most of their squabbles in the recent days. So he had hoped Evan would have just let him go on his way in peace. However, when he realized that Brad wasn’t among them, he realized that was most likely why Evan decided to call out to him on that day in particular.

Vinny glanced over at the football player with his slightly curled up hair and his ever-present sneer just as Eric and Lilly walked in behind him. Barely able to refrain from saying anything back, Vinny turned and walked toward his desk at the front of the classroom before dropping his bag under his desk and plopping down in his chair.

“What? Got nothing to say to us today, jackass?” Evan continued. “You finally learn to keep your dumbshit mouth shut?”

Just ignore him, Vinny urged himself, feeling his hands shaking on his desk. If I get into it with him today, I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself. It’s better to just stay calm.

He saw Eric take a seat beside him while Lilly crossed the room to where she usually sat behind Alice. Vinny merely reached down and unzipped his backpack so he could remove his English textbook when he suddenly heard Lilly gasp. He frowned, raising his head to glance back at her where she was standing beside Alice’s desk, her eyes wide and her hands over her mouth. A sudden feeling of dread washed over him but before he could ask what was wrong, Evan spoke again.

“Oh yeah, that’s right,” he sneered. “Seems someone has it out for poor Mendez. First her locker and now her desk. I wonder what the bitch did to deserve it.”

Vinny jumped to his feet, ignoring Evan’s laughter as he maneuvered around the mostly empty desks to where Alice usually sat. When he saw what had horrified Lilly, he felt somehow sicker. Alice’s desk was covered in horrible profanity written in permanent marker.

Fucking slut

Go kill yourself

Worthless bitch

As he read through the various curses written about Alice across the desk, Vinny felt as if he could pass out. He could hardly process what he was looking at and for a moment, he wanted to think that he was hallucinating. He just couldn’t understand why this had to be happening. Alice was a genuine and nice girl who just kept to herself and never did anything that would warrant graffitiing her desk with such horrible words. There was no reason to do something like that to her and the thought that it could very well be because of him made him want to smash the desk as hard as he could. He was barely able to constrain his rage.

“Why?” Lilly uttered beside him. “I don’t get it.”

Vinny slowly backed away from the desk. I swear to god...whoever is doing this is going to fucking get it. I’m going to make them pay!”

He was about to head toward the whiteboard to grab a rag so he could try to wipe it off when he stopped and stared straight ahead. Evan had gotten to his feet and was standing a few desks away, his head raised so that he was looking down his nose at Vinny. Two of his buddies were behind him and all three looked as if they were both ready and willing to fight him if Vinny did anything they deemed disrespectful.

“Move, Wright,” he whispered. “Get out of my way.”

Evan snorted, glancing over Vinny’s shoulder and toward the defiled desk. “Honestly, you almost have to feel bad for the girl. Though, it’s not like she didn’t bring it on herself.”

Vinny clenched his fists, knowing that Evan was only saying that to get a reaction out of him. He could see Eric rising from his desk, his expression one of warning him not to take the bait. Yet, even knowing what Evan was doing, he still couldn’t bring himself to stand by and let the boy say such things about his Alice.

“How do you figure?” he hissed.

Evan smirked. “How do I figure? Well, it’s almost like you aren’t part of the reason. The girl is a total slut, after all. First she spends her time fucking that little shit, Brooks, and now she’s moved on to you. Clearly the bitch just gets off on the biggest dumbasses in the school. Though, I guess that’ll make Reiner happy. Maybe he’ll be able to get some of her pussy. I’m sure he’s tired of just riding pretty boys.”

Vinny could feel his body shaking and he could see Evan and the other boys tense up, as if ready for him to lunge at them. He wanted so badly to reach out and throttle Evan then and there—make him regret ever saying anything like that again. Judging by the cocky look on his face, he wouldn’t have even been surprised if Evan was the one who drew on the desk in the first place. If he could have gotten away with it, Vinny would have broken his nose right then and there and it took every ounce of his self-control not to do so. He knew if he fought Evan, he would only get his ass kicked and then wind up suspended from school, something that wouldn’t benefit anybody. So, instead he merely scoffed and went around the desk to his right so he could get to the whiteboard.

“Wow. Won’t even stick up for his supposed girlfriend,” Evan called after him. “Clearly she really is only a whore to him. How sad.”

I want to kill him! I want to kill him so badly!

“Evan!”

At the sound of a voice from the door, they all turned to see Brad standing in the doorway, looking between him and Vinny with a furrowed brow.

“What the hell’s going on here?” the big boy demanded.

Vinny ignored him, wanting nothing to do with Brad Fischer at that moment and continued toward the white board.

“Oh, nothing much,” Evan replied casually. “It just looks like somebody drew all over Mendez’s desk. And after what happened to her locker…”

Brad’s eyes went wide as he stared directly at his friend. “Drew on her…?”

Without saying another word, he stalked into the classroom and walked to where Lilly still stood beside the desk so he could get a better look at it. Brad immediately exhaled sharply as he took the whole thing in.

“What the hell? What is this?” he uttered.

Evan scoffed, annoyed that Brad didn’t immediately join in on his teasing. It seemed he had expected his larger friend to be as spiteful as him and, for a moment, Vinny found he had a small amount of respect for Brad despite their past relationship with each other.

When Vinny reached the whiteboard, he reached out and grabbed a dirty green rag hanging on the wall beside it. Then, without looking at anybody else in the room, he grabbed the spray bottle from the teacher’s desk and walked back toward the desk to start cleaning it off. But the permanent marker wasn’t going to be removed so easily and, after trying for nearly ten minutes, the bell rang, with very little of the graffiti removed.

What was both lucky and unlucky was that Alice Mendez never came to class that day, so she never had to see it, but at the same time, Vinny never got his chance to talk to her.

***

Alice had gone home before school even started on recommendation of her counselor, something Jay found out from Ellie in their third period. Apparently, they were going to try and figure out who was behind what happened to her locker and her desk and deal with them, but Jay knew the school wasn’t actually going to be able to do anything. Bullies were never just “dealt with”. If the school tried to get involved, Jay feared that it might only piss off whoever was behind it more, leading to the harassment getting increasingly worse. It only put into perspective how little could be done. How was he supposed to help Alice when he neither knew who was doing it or even had the ability to do anything if he did. He lived to take care of her, his best friend, and he was now utterly failing to do so. He was so furious at himself that he could hardly focus in any of his classes. The day just droned on for what felt like forever before the bell announcing sixth period’s end finally rang out.

Jay said nothing to any of his classmates, which wasn’t unusual for him, but he could tell that they had been shooting him looks all throughout the day. What happened to Alice seemed to spread like wildfire and he had a feeling that it wasn't an accident. Everybody in their grade seemed to know what happened to her and, since he was well known for being her best friend, and was even suspected of being her boyfriend, that naturally drew attention to him, too.

Jay sighed, walking down the corridor until he came to his own locker. He didn’t even spare a glance at Alice’s, knowing that it had been emptied out and left open since the door was busted. The school’s janitor had already wiped off the writing, which Jay was grateful for. However, seeing it open and empty gave him an almost foreboding feeling that unsettled his stomach.

I need to do something, he told himself. But what? How does somebody like me fix this?

He recalled what Vinny had said that morning in the courtyard and how certain he seemed to be that Alice was targeted because she was dating him. He couldn’t help but agree, knowing that it was almost too coincidental to not have something to do with each other. He knew he should feel furious if it was, in fact, Vinny’s fault that it was happening to her, but he found he couldn’t. He still lived so that he could make sure Alice was happy. She was his life and so, how could he be furious at a boy who had seemed to make her happier than she had been in years. In fact, he considered himself to be in Vinny’s debt. He and Lilly were there for her now and it was becoming clear that she might not need him anymore. It was both a happy and saddening thought.

Jay slowly reached out and opened his locker so he could collect what books he needed for homework that day. He was running almost on autopilot, barely processing what he was doing and, before he realized it, he was zipping up his backpack and closing his locker door. He wasn’t sure where he was going to go after school. Cross country was over and Alice most likely wasn’t working. Part of him considered going over to Alice’s house to check on her but, at the same time, he wasn’t sure what he would say. He had no means of comforting her and he didn’t want her to know how worried he was. At the same time, he really didn’t want to go home. His dad was working from home that day and so, he knew he would only go home once it was too late to stay out in town.

However, just as he was about to turn around and start making his way from the school, he heard somebody call out to him.

“Hey, Brooks!”

He stopped in his tracks and glanced over his shoulder to see Matt Briggs, one of the stars of the cross country team, making his way toward him. Jay instantly cringed, having never particularly liked the boy. His cocky attitude always put Jay off and he tended to tease him to the point that it sometimes made him want to avoid the boy all together. Yet, when he noticed the almost worried expression on the boy’s handsome features, Jay decided to stop and listen to him.

“Yeah? What is it?” he called back.

When Matt finally drew up alongside him, he glanced around, as if to make sure none of the other students at their lockers or loitering in the hall were paying them any attention. When he finally spoke, his voice was lowered to a whisper.

“Look, man, I’m gonna tell you something, but I need you to keep it between us. Don’t tell a soul I told you this,” he said.

Jay cocked an eyebrow at his almost comical request but, curious to know what had Matt so worked up, Jay simply nodded.

“Alright, sure,” he muttered. “What is it? Is this about Alice?”

When Matt instantly nodded, Jay felt his stomach tighten. He would take any information he could get that might help him protect his best friend, even from somebody he didn’t really like. He then motioned for the boy to explain himself.

“Look,” Matt began softly, “This morning at basketball practice, I was talking with Evan Wright and Steven McCormick. You know them?”

Jay nodded. Of course he knew them. Evan Wright was well known around the school for being somebody who often enjoyed fighting and had even been suspended for it a few times. He was put on academic probation in their freshmen year for decking one of the senior boys on the football team. Jay hated him and had spent much of high school trying to avoid him.

“Well, Wright was talking about how Mickelson started dating Alice. Apparently, somebody saw them holding hands at the tree lighting the other night and snapped a picture to send to Evan and the guys. Wright was going on about how they could get at Mickelson or whatever and…” Matt seemed to hesitate as he reached up and scratched the back of his head. “Well, the way they were talking made it seem like they planned to do something to Alice. It’s just...I think Evan might be the one behind this.”

Jay exhaled softly. The minute Matt brought the boy up, Jay couldn’t help but fear that’s where the conversion was headed. If Evan was really the one who broke into Alice’s locker and defiled her desk then there truly wasn’t anything he could do. If he even looked at the football player the wrong way then he knew he could get his ass beat.

Jay took a deep breath. “Do you...know who saw them? I mean, like, the one who took the picture in the first place?”

Matt grimaced before nodding. “Yeah...you know Rina Davens, right? That really cute girl who’s friends with Charlotte Banks?”

What?!

Jay’s body instantly went cold.

R-Rina’s…

…the one who started this?