“Yes, Your Honor. Thank you.”
Caleb’s hearing was much easier. The judge let him go with a promise that he wouldn’t touch anymore police cars.
His stomach knotting, Nick headed for his mother. She wouldn’t even look at him.
Kyrian clapped Nick on the back. “I’ve already given the bail money to Virgil to post your bond.”
Nick nodded gratefully at Kyrian. “Thank you. For everything.”
“No problem.”
Acheron placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Nick. We’ll find out the truth.”
But it wouldn’t change the hurt in his mother’s eyes.
In fact, she refused to speak to him as she drove him home. He searched his mind for something to say, but nothing came.
He reached over to touch her hand. She pulled away before he could make contact. Anger and hurt pierced him straight through his heart. How could she doubt him?
Once they were home, he went to his room.
“Nick? I want you to leave your door open.”
He started to say “But Mom,” but he knew how that would play out. She’d shut him down like she always did. So he left his door ajar and went to sit on his bed. It was only then that he realized his mom had ransacked his room. “Mom? Where’s my—”
“You’re on restriction.” There was a note of hysteria in her voice. “Sit in there and think about … things.”
Bad idea, since the only thing on his mind right now was that he hated her for doing this to him when he was innocent.
And as he sat there, thinking, his fury mounted even higher until he couldn’t stand it anymore. He sprang to his feet and went to the living room where she sat watching TV.
“What do you want?” Still, she wouldn’t look at him.
Infuriated, he wiped his hand across his top lip. “I’m a virgin, Mom. I’ve never done anything more than kiss a girl, and Nekoda’s the only one I’ve done that with. I know you don’t believe me, but you can ask her. She’s not a liar.” And neither am I. But she’d never once believed him about anything.
Tears fell down her face. “I’m so sorry, Nicky. I know you’re innocent. I do. But it’s so hard for me to be in that courtroom with everyone judging me and you.” She started sobbing.
Nick went to her and pulled her into his arms while she cried against his shoulder.
“You don’t know what it’s like to be the most popular girl in school and then … they were so mean to me. Once people knew I was pregnant, I went to my best friend’s … We’d been friends since second grade, and her mother wouldn’t let me in the house. She told me Ashley wasn’t allowed to associate with trash.”
Guilt slashed at him. He’d never meant to hurt her.
“I’m sorry, Mama.”
“Don’t be, baby. You were worth it. You were. I’ve never once, ever, regretted having you with me. But it’s been so hard. I’m always questioning myself if I’m doing the right thing by you. When you were an infant, I used to sit and hold you and cry while I apologized for bringing you into a world that was so cruel and bone mean. For keeping you in poverty and not being able to give you a better life.”
“Don’t cry, Mama. Please. I don’t care that we had Christmases where the only gifts I got were clean socks and bubblegum. I don’t. The only thing that matters to me is that you don’t regret me. Please, don’t look at me like I’m dirt.”
She pulled back to cup his face in her hands. “I would never do that to you.”
“But you have. A lot. I’ve seen it.”
She shook her head. “No, Nick, that wasn’t what you saw.”
“Then why couldn’t you look at me in the courtroom? Why did you pull your hand back in the car?”
“Because I feel like I failed you and that you were blaming me for being arrested. If I hadn’t raised you the way I did, people wouldn’t be so quick to judge you like they do. I know that’s my fault. I offered to give testimony for you, and your lawyer told me it wouldn’t be a good idea. Do you know how that made me feel? He might as well have made me wear a shirt that said ‘trash’ on it.”
“Mama, no. Virgil isn’t like that. He was only trying to keep you from getting chewed up by the prosecutor.”
“Well, that’s not how it felt.”
Nick blinked his own tears away. “If you don’t hate me, why am I on restriction and why wouldn’t you let me close my door?”
“You have a B in chemistry. Remember? I told you at the school that you were on restriction for that.”
Oh yeah, he’d totally forgotten. “And the door?”
“It gets really hot in this room when I have the TV on and you close it. What did you think?”
“I thought you thought I was a creep.”
She glared at him. “Dang it all, Nick. I know you’re not a creep. I’ve seen the way you are around Kody and other girls, too. You’re bashful as you can be, and every time Kody touches your hand, you light up like a Christmas tree. Most of the time, you’re scared to even touch her. It’s like you’re terrified of her.”
He cringed. “It’s that obvious?”
“Yes.”
Would the humiliations never stop?
She wiped at her tears. “I can’t believe you misunderstood me so.”
“Same here,” he said. “Have I ever said or done anything that makes you think I hold anything against you?”
“No, not really. But I hold it against me.”
He scowled at her. “Then keep it on you. Don’t let it run over here to me.”
She placed her hand on his cheek. “I love you, baby. And I’m sorry you have to go through this.”
Not as much as he was.
Then, to his shock, she handed him the remote. “I think you’ve been punished enough for one day. Sit here and watch TV with me.”
Grateful beyond belief that he’d been wrong about her actions, Nick flipped channels until she snatched the remote back.
“You drive me crazy the way you watch TV. Pick something and stay with it.”
“I have teenage ADD powered by male testosterone, Mom. What do you expect?”
She growled at him as she returned to her girl show. Nick tried not to grimace.
But that ended a few minutes later when a call came in. Since they were watching TV, his mom didn’t get up to take it. Instead, she let it go to the answering machine.
“This is Principal Head from St. Richard’s. I’m calling to let you know that Nicholas is being expelled from school immediately. If you will mail any textbooks he might have back to us, we would appreciate it. Likewise, we will box up his personal items and have them shipped to your residence on file. Thank you.”
His mother’s face turned bright red. “How dare he!”
Nick didn’t respond. He was too busy feeling a crotch-kick for that. But then, what had he expected? Head thought he was a rapist and a thief. He was just protecting his students from a monster.…
Well, at least I don’t have to face Head or anyone else in school again. “Can I call Kody and Caleb to let them know?”
She hesitated before she nodded. “But this isn’t over. I’m going to talk to your lawyer tomorrow to see if there’s anything we can do.”
“Uh, he’s not really a day person. He works night court for a reason, so if you want to talk to him, call him before dawn.”
She hesitated, then nodded. “Interesting. I’ll do that right now. Don’t worry, baby. We’ll get you back in school.”
Don’t do me any favors. The thought of going back to school right now didn’t appeal to him at all.
My life is falling apart.
He felt like crap, until he looked at his mother as she spoke on the phone, and tried to imagine the horror of what she’d been through by the time she was his age.
Yeah, getting thrown out of school sucked. Getting thrown out of your home was so much worse. Even now, her parents insulted her.
“Hey, Ma?”
She returned after leaving a message for Virgil to sit next to him. “What, Boo?”
“I am so proud of you. Thank you for not giving me away.”
She scowled at him. “Oh baby, why do you obsess over that so much? It’s like part of you keeps waiting for me to throw you out.”
Because part of him was waiting for that. It was his worst fear. “I know what it cost you to keep me. I do. And as I get older, it’s a lot clearer. By the time you were my age, I was walking.”
She smiled. “Oh, I remember how beautiful you were. You didn’t have any hair. You were such a bald little booger, I thought I was going to have to save up to buy you a toupee.” She ruffled his hair playfully.
He laughed.
She leaned against him. “Don’t worry, Boo. Everything will work out. It always does. Somehow, even if it’s at the very last second, God always comes through for us.”
And her faith never wavered. His was a little more bipolar. But his mother had constant and unflappable belief. He envied her that. And it was amazing given everything she’d been through.
Closing his eyes, Nick listened to the TV as he tried to relax.
And as he tuned the physical world out, he began to hear the ether voices.
Be careful. Be careful. Be careful. Be careful. It sounded like a reptilian voice that echoed around him.
Be careful of what?
My friend’s enemy is my enemy.
Yeah, okay, so what did that mean? But there was no answer for his question.
Weird. Typical, but weird.
As he started drifting to sleep, he had an unmistakable feeling. Something was searching. Clawing. Slithering.
And it was here.
CHAPTER 16
Nick couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being stalked. But other than his gut, nothing corroborated it. Neither Kody nor Caleb sensed it, which meant they thought he was out of his gourd.
Not the first time anyone ever accused him of being loco. Still …
“Would you focus, Nick?”
He blinked at the sound of Ash’s voice. “Sorry. I just have a creepy, edgy feeling.”
“Believe it or not, it could be the electromagnetic waves put off by your anklet.”
Great. That was all he needed. Probably give him leg or foot cancer one day, too. Just for good measure.
“Nick…”
All of a sudden the car slammed on its brakes. “Hey!” he snapped at Ash. “I was going to stop, you know.”
“When? After you ran the light?”
“Maybe.”
Ash shook his head. When the light turned green, Nick eased onto the gas and took the right that would lead him to Kyrian’s house. For the last two weeks while his mother fought the principal and Nick waited for trial, Ash, in an effort to cheer him up, was allowing him to drive to and from work. Especially since it was the only time Nick could leave the house.
At this point, Nick was going stir crazy. He couldn’t imagine being stuck in jail given how miserable his life had been while confined to his apartment.
He pulled into Kyrian’s driveway and waited for the gates to open. The only upside to everything that had happened was that his mother, since finding out he was a virgin, was relaxing her strict rules for dating. She was even allowing Kody to come over and keep him company while she was at work.
“Ash?” he asked as he pulled up to the front of Kyrian’s house. “Have you seen the video the cops have of me?”
“Yeah.”
Virgil had shown it to Nick two days ago. “It looks just like me.”
“I know.”
Nick turned the car off. “I don’t know if it’s doctored or what. But you can’t imagine how terrifying it is to think that there’s someone out there who looks just like you. That if he does something, you’re going to get blamed for it.”
“Yeah, I have no idea.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.
“What was that?” Nick asked as Ash got out of the car.
Ash didn’t answer until Nick had come around to his side and handed him his keys. “Can you keep a secret?”
“Me and Tupperware, baby. We seal tight. Ain’t nothing going to get out. Why?”
Ash tucked his hands into the pockets of his motorcycle jacket that had a skull and crossbones painted in red across the back. “When I was human, I had a twin brother.”
Nick gaped. “No way. Are you serious?”
Ash gave a subtle nod.
“That must have been an awesome sight. The two of you, at your height, together? Wow.”
“It wasn’t the joy you’re thinking. I only mention it to let you know that I know exactly how it feels. And I hated it.”