Scar (10 page)

“That’s not true.”

“It is, though. I wasted so many years trying to cut corners and get over on people. But that’s not going to happen anymore. From now on, I pay my debt to society, I do what needs to be done.”

“Well, that’s just stupid,”
Caelyn
said, furious. “You should be thinking of how we can be together.”

“We’ll be together eventually if we want it badly enough and you’re willing to wait for me.”

“If you wanted it badly enough, you’d get up out of bed, put on some clothes, and find a way to escape. That’s what you’d do. And we’d run away and be together.”

“What kind of life would it be, though?”

“As long as I’m with you, I don’t care.”

“You deserve better than that, Caelyn.” His eyes didn’t waver.

“Fine. If that’s how you feel.”

“It is. And I know you’re disappointed in me, but hopefully someday you’ll understand that I’m doing this for you too.”

“No, you’re not doing it for me,” she said, wanting to cry again but refusing. “Well, I guess I should go,” she told him. “My parents have been waiting for hours.”

He looked at her, his expression somehow unbearably saddened but also completely resolute, as if he’d fully accepted his fate. “I love you,” he said.

“I love you too,” she replied, but then it was too much. She couldn’t even stand to be in the room with him, knowing it was all coming to an end and he was through trying to fight for their relationship. She turned and ran out of the room.

***

The drive home was like something out of a bad dream.

Sitting in the back seat of the car with Deena next to her, so close that Caelyn could smell her perfume and hear her giggle and snicker as she texted on her phone.

In the front seat, her mother and father were visibly happier than she’d seen them in a long time, talking in low voices and laughing, clearly happy to have the family back together once more.

She couldn’t really blame them. They’d won, after all. Caelyn was finally back where she belonged, beaten down, having finally seen that she was no match for the adult world.

True love had not conquered all. In fact, true love had gotten its pesky little butt kicked good, and now Caelyn had gotten the message too.

She would go back to school.

She would get good grades and be the perfect student.

She would smile and say all the right things, pretend that her heart wasn’t broken and her soul wasn’t destroyed, shattered into a million pieces.

But inside, she would be dead and cold and empty.

As she stared out the car window and watched the scenery roll by, Caelyn was coming to terms with the rest of her life.

Until Elijah got out of prison, she would be living a lie. All she could hope was that, someday, when they had the chance to be together once more, the world would no longer be as interested in them anymore.

Maybe we’ll be able to settle down together and live a quiet life, she thought, but then she banished it to the back recesses of her mind. They wouldn’t be reunited again for years, perhaps as long as a decade if the judge decided to impose a harsh sentence on Elijah.

It was too painful to even consider being reunited. For now, she had to live in the moment, and accept that this was her new life.

Beside her, Deena let out a shriek of laughter and shook her head as she texted furiously.

Finally, Caelyn’s exhaustion took over and she managed to doze off for the rest of the ride home.

Sleep, even a little bit of it, was a blessed relief. In deep sleep, there was no separation from Elijah, no sorrow, no anything.

But when she dreamed, she saw his face again. She saw his little grin, and her heart ached and she screamed and cried and begged him to come for her one last time.

Caelyn startled awake as the car pulled up to her parents’ home.

As they got closer, Deena sat up straighter. “What the hell?” she said, leaning forward.

Caelyn followed her sister’s gaze and saw that there was a green jeep parked in front of their house.

“Who’s that?” Caelyn’s father asked.

“I have no idea.” Her mother turned and looked back at Caelyn accusingly. “Do you know who that is?”

Caelyn shrugged. “I don’t recognize that car at all.”

Deena’s lips were pinched tightly together. “Let me out. Stop the car.”

“Deena,” her father said. “Hold on a second.”

But Deena was jumping out of the car as it rolled to a stop.

“Excuse me young lady!”

Deena was already out of the car and walking toward the jeep. Caelyn was interested in what was going on for the first time since getting out of the hospital, and if it was upsetting Deena, then Caelyn decided she wanted to be a part of it.

She got out of the car too.

Deena was standing by the driver’s side door of the jeep and yelling into the car. “What are you doing here?” Deena shouted.

Caelyn heard a deep male voice saying something unintelligible in response.

Deena was livid. “You what?” she nearly shrieked. “How’s that possible? Where did you leave it?”

The voice said something else, and it sounded to Caelyn as if whoever it was, was trying to soothe and calm Deena.

Caelyn could imagine who was sitting in the jeep, based on what she’d found on Deena’s computer the other day.

Caelyn’s parents had parked their car in the driveway, but were now getting out with concerned looks on their faces. They were heading towards Deena and the jeep.

Deena looked at Caelyn. “I bet you’re going to enjoy this, aren’t you?” she asked. “Now that your life’s ruined, you want to see me go down the same road as you.”

Caelyn smiled. “I’m just wondering if there’ll be enough time for me to make popcorn.”

“You little bitch,” Deena said. She turned back to whoever was in the car. “I told you not to come to my house, not for any reason.” She started to walk away from the car.

The driver’s side door opened and a man got out of the car. He wasn’t a boy, not by a long shot. He was wearing slacks and a button-down shirt with a tie. He had a full beard, and his hair was starting to gray at the temples.

“Deena, wait a second,” he said, pleading. “We need to discuss this. We need to find out who took my phone.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Deena replied, still walking away from him. “It’s over. You only have yourself to blame.”

She brushed past Caelyn and her parents, who tried to talk to her, but she just went up the walkway and into the house.

The older man stood in the street, his face a mask of dejection and despair.

“Mister Marshall?” Caelyn’s mother asked. “What are you doing here?”

The man ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. “I…I don’t really know…I apologize for disturbing you.”

“Is something the matter?”

He looked at Caelyn and then her parents. He opened his mouth and then closed it again. Finally, he just turned, got back in his jeep and drove away.

Caelyn’s mother and father watched the car drive out of the neighborhood, their faces aghast with shock.

“I don’t get it,” her father said.

“Is the entire world going crazy?” her mother asked him. “Is it me or did Deena’s English teacher just show up at our home and have a fight with his student and then leave without so much as a word of explanation to her parents?”

“It’s not just you,” Caelyn’s father said. “And I intend to put in a call to the principle. Whatever’s going on here, I demand to get an answer.
From Deena, too.
Where did she go anyway?”

Caelyn’s mother put a hand to her forehead. “I don’t understand. I just…I don’t get it.”

“Come on, let’s go inside.”

Caelyn couldn’t help but smile a little bit as she followed them into the house. It wasn’t that she was happy that her parents were in pain, but more that she was glad to see Deena’s chickens finally coming home to roost.

Once everyone got inside, her father went upstairs and pounded on Deena’s door. “Excuse me young lady, but we’re going to have a word with you. Right now!”

Deena yelled back at him, but Caelyn couldn’t tell what she said.

“If you don’t come out here this instant, I’m taking your car keys,” he continued. “And not just for a week or two. I’ll take your car and sell it, Deena. You won’t drive again until you can buy yourself a car, which I have a feeling might take you a little while to accomplish.”

The door opened and Deena came out into the hallway. She looked over the railing at Caelyn and her mother. “Listen, you’re not going to believe me anyway, so I won’t bother telling you anything.”

“Why won’t we believe you? Why are you mad at us?” her mother yelled back.

“And that little bitch keeps laughing,” Deena screamed, pointing at Caelyn. “What’s so funny, you stupid whore?”

“Deena!” Her mother cried.

Now Caelyn really did laugh.

“What’s so funny?” her mother asked.

“I’m sorry, this is all too ridiculous. Look, I’m going to my room now,” Caelyn said. “I’m not really interested in what Deena’s teacher was doing here, although I have a few guesses. I’ll keep my opinions to myself.”

“It’s not my fault that I’m the victim of a predator!” Deena yelled, suddenly crying now, and she turned and fled to her room again. The door slammed violently.

Caelyn looked at her mother, who was wearing an expression of shock and horror. “Please tell me you’re not really going to buy that line,” Caelyn said. “I hope you’ve gotten smart enough to see what Deena really is.”

“And what is she?”

“If you don’t know yet, I feel sorry for you,” Caelyn replied simply, and then she walked upstairs, past her father with his slumped shoulders and crestfallen countenance.

She went into her room, closed the door and lied down on the bed. In Deena’s room, Caelyn could hear Taylor Swift playing through the wall. Taylor was saying something about how she was “never ever getting back together” with someone or other.

Caelyn stared up at the ceiling and the little swirls and contours of the white paint overhead. She heard her parents knocking at Deena’s door and softly begging her to tell them what had happened.

Finally, the volume of the Taylor Swift music came down and then the door opened. Through the wall, Caelyn heard low voices, muffled, talking back and forth.
Her parents, questioning, and then Deena, responding in a plaintive child’s voice.

Caelyn had seen the pictures and texts and evidence for herself, and she knew that whatever Deena was telling her parents would be based on lies.

Because there was no way, from what Caelyn had seen on Deena’s computer, that Deena could ever tell her parents the truth about what she’d really been doing with Mister Marshall.

That they’d been having sex was absolutely without question.

Caelyn had seen some of the emails and Facebook messages between Deena and Mister Marshall. Deena had threatened revealing their “secret” if he didn’t give her money, or
give
her a good grade, or be cruel to an enemy of hers in class. In one email, Deena had even demanded sex from him, telling him that she wanted him to give her oral sex more often. Many of her emails and messages were ridiculing and threatening him, when she wasn’t busy sending him nude pics of herself doing unmentionable activities.

The variety and depth of her maliciousness was beyond anything Caelyn could have imagined, but Deena wouldn’t let the truth stop her. She’d do anything to make herself look like the complete victim in this scenario, a poor young student taken advantage of by her older professor.

She would be telling her parents all the awful things that he’d forced her to do against her will.

Of course, Caelyn knew that Mister Marshall was a very sick man to have slept with a student, but that didn’t change the fact that Deena was very far from innocent in what had occurred between them. She was basically using the fact that his life would be over if the secret got out, to extort money and other favors from him.

What had happened for him to show up at the house the way he had? It sounded, from what Caelyn had overheard, like he’d somehow lost his cell phone. Maybe a student had stolen it. If his phone fell into the wrong hands, it would basically be game over for both of them.

Caelyn had to smile at how the world worked. Finally Deena was about to get her comeuppance. The only problem was, Caelyn didn’t really care anymore.

***

Later that night, Caelyn was awoken from a restless sleep by the sound of a horrified shriek.

She sat up in bed, confused and disoriented. Getting up, she walked to her bedroom door and opened it.

There was some kind of commotion in her parents’ room—voices were raised, and there was something very wrong. Caelyn hurried to their door, knocking. “Is everything all right?”

They didn’t answer, so Caelyn opened the door, expecting to see a burglar inside or her father on the floor, having been struck with a heart attack. Something awful.