“What the hell is wrong with you?”
The kitchen door closed behind Christy as she met Mark by the table of food waiting to be served. But her hardworking baby brother, with his arms folded and his nostrils flaring, seemed to be taking a break. They could lose their jobs for this, but it didn’t seem to be the right time to yell at him. She leaned against the table and crossed her arms too. “You don’t know her, do you?”
He shook his head.
“If you did, you wouldn’t even be talking to her.”
“If she’s someone you hate, I think I would be.”
Mark was always annoying, but he never threw her shade for no reason. “Geez, calm down--”
“You just made her get an allergic reaction! How is that not fucked up to you? And we could get fired for that.”
“You gave it to her so it’s actually your fault.”
“Why’d you make me give it to her? Why do you hate her so much?”
Christy sighed. This was one of those times when her brother just couldn’t understand. He didn’t back then, so of course he wouldn’t now. They were only a year apart, yet they could go through days without talking to each other.
“When we lived here last time, you might’ve seen her around school. Or not, since you bailed every single day for that girl who was like five years older than you.”
He glared. “I thought you wouldn’t bring her up again.”
“Is it my fault you set yourself up to get butthurt so badly? This is why you should listen to me more.”
“Stop changing the conversation, Chris.”
She was going to remind him not to call her by the guy name, but she also knew he meant for her to get pissed. Besides her brother’s random tantrum, she was actually enjoying how tonight turned out. All she had to do was send the pictures to old friends around here who still kept in touch with her.
Mark kept staring at her and getting into her business with his questions. Sighing, she decided to start putting the puzzle pieces together for him. “She’s part of why I got thrown in juvie.”
“Paige?” He shook his head. “How?”
“She could’ve been a bigger part of the case, but it was all about that fucking pedophile playing the victim.”
“Mr. Moore? But you shot him in his girlfriend’s house! And all the evidence was against you.”
“Because he made it look that way! He ruined my life!”
A few of the cooks turned their heads, and one of them scolded, “Get to work!”
“Got it,” Mark called, then motioned her to stand near the walk-in fridge. “Hurry up. What does Paige have to do with this?”
She rolled her eyes. Did he have that bad of a memory? “She was the daughter of that scumbag’s girlfriend Hailey Connelly. Paige was in court for like five seconds.”
“Paige...Connelly?” He stared into space until the realization seemed to hit him. “Oh, her.”
“Yeah. She knew what really happened, but she acted like she didn’t even know me.”
But Mark was pinching the bridge of his nose. “Look, whatever happened was years ago. You did your time in juvie, so the worst part is over. Shouldn’t you be over it?”
“Ha! Wow.” She glanced up at the ceiling to figure out how he could be so stupid. “You clearly don’t get it. She could’ve stopped me from going to that hellhole, but I didn’t know she turned out to be the biggest backstabber I know. She was my only friend back then.”
“Last time I remember, it was you who got caught up in shit you shouldn’t have been in, then you tried to kill the vice principal in front of his girlfriend’s family. How the hell would Paige help you there?”
But Christy had to work hard to unclench her fists. She already tried explaining to him, but of course he was going to be the stubborn asshole he always was. And not to mention he was making such a big deal out of this when he wasn’t even involved in what happened.
Then it finally hit her, and she let out a laugh. “You like her, don't you?”
“We gotta get back to work, okay? We’ll talk later.” He started turning away as he checked his watch.
“How great would it be if you led her on…”
He whipped around to face her again. “No, Chris, I’m not gonna be a part of this bullshit you're pulling.”
“Fine, keep being an asshole since you're so good at that!”
As he brought some food to the tables outside, she took out her phone to review the pictures. The first was Paige weeping like the spineless little bitch she was, and the second showed her tongue ballooning out of her tiny mouth. It was true art Christy appreciated.
But it wasn’t even close to what Paige deserved.
“Christina, are you listening?” Mr. Kramer asked. “You need to be briefed before setting foot in that court.”
Christy continued to stare out the car window and make up strategies of how to escape the car without getting caught. She just knew the car was headed toward a dead-end, even after partly hearing her lawyer list all the possible charges Brandon’s lawyer would bring up against her. If Kramer had even the slightest chance to shut down Brandon the Moore-lester, her sentence was still set up to destroy the rest of her life.
“Look,” Kramer continued, “I know it’s hard to see anything positive ahead of you, with the possibility that you can get tried in adult court, but I’m hoping to get you at least probation.”
“Yeah, hoping.” Christy’s head lay against the window. “It’s not like telling the truth turns out good for me. No matter how much I try to get him busted, I get into deeper shit.”
“Don’t worry, we’re testifying your mom as a witness of how Mr. Moore molested you.”
“And then Brandon will mention the teacher who reported me for ‘sexual advances’ and the other one selling me weed. Oh, and don’t forget my military dad who’s always away from home and how my mom cheated on him with Brandon. I’m just the troubled daughter of his ex-girlfriend who tried to break into his current girlfriend’s house and kill him for leaving my family even more broken.”
Kramer seemed to figure out how to respond to that. “We also have Paige Connelly.”
Christy scoffed so loudly that Kramer looked nearly pissed. “Are you forgetting she doesn’t want to help me? It’s like she changed her mind right when I entered the house. You can’t fucking trust people anymore.”
The car came to a halt in front of the building whose court would be the first she ever set foot in. She got out of the car and slammed the car door as hard as possible, but she meant to do way, way more than that. The parking lot was fairly empty, and if she made a break for--
“Just remember that you’re pointing everything toward Brandon Moore, and our key witnesses will help us out as much as they can.”
“I guess my mom will finally do something useful in her life.”
They made their way inside and went through security, which thankfully wasn’t as tedious and uncomfortable as the last couple times she was searched in the county jail. Truth be told, all the official people in government were the real brutal ones taking advantage of their power, and it wasn’t just their sexual-assault-like body checks. It was the whole judicial system that still made innocent people suffer for the rest of their lives. Christy could only wish for a miracle to happen today.
It turned out that they had arrived early, so they waited in the hallway as Kramer, once again, tried to give support. He was getting too annoying that she excused herself to go to the bathroom, but right when she was going to open the door, she caught a glimpse of the Moore-lester exiting the men’s restroom. She froze in place and then glared at him as he seemed to spot her too.
“Today’s a good day, Christina,” Moore-lester sneered as he approached her. It was so easy for him to cover up all the scumbaggery with a bandage on his shoulder, a dress shirt, and black slacks. Just like it was easy for him to cover up his pedophilic side with the shiny nameplate in the Vice Principal’s office of her middle school.
“Stay away from me,” Christy spit. “It’s already obvious how much you hate me.”
He crossed his arms and made a show of looking innocent and shocked. “Try saying that when people see my injury, or when I bring up your delinquencies against those teachers.” He shook his head and started heading toward the courtroom doors that were opening. “I told you you’d lose, Christina.”
It took everything in her body to not charge and scream at him to stop spouting these lies about her. She used to think it was impossible for one person to be capable of doing so many horrible things, and doing enough to ruin the rest of a fourteen-year-old’s life. Even on Day One, she knew in her gut there was something off about him, and now he needed to be stopped.
But she also knew not to involve anyone else in her plans. She learned that the hardest way possible on the night of her arrest.
After an old friend tweeted the photos, followed by a mass of likes and retweets in just minutes, Christy laughed to herself and went on Paige’s profile, which she had already visited before to brainstorm ideas. The fact that Paige used to be a YouTube star--with thousands of strangers still following her--made it so easy to start the long string of paybacks.
Christy went back to the photos to check out the likes and found Paige’s date, so she scrolled down to read his past tweets. Then a picture of a group of what looked like his friends came up, and the first thing to catch her eye was a cute guy who looked racially mixed. Maybe part-Asian?
And then it hit her: James Miller. She was just shocked; he didn’t look this good in middle school, and he certainly didn’t hang out with these guys--except for Andrew Chen, his best friend forever--when she moved away. Puberty must have really changed him.
As she stalked him on Facebook and Instagram, she realized he wasn’t just impressive with his looks, but with the girls too. People really did go through a lot of changes from middle to high school.
He looked to be single, and she was single. She had a right to have a little fun this year, and James seemed to know Paige. The more connections she had, the better.
A chef snapped his fingers in front of her face, and she automatically turned off her phone to hide the evidence of her creeping on someone. But the chef didn’t seem to care as he stared her down.
“Get to work, or get fired.”
She rolled her eyes as she took a few plates of food. “Geez, calm down.”
It was hard to tell how everyone could be so salty tonight when it was the best night she ever had since leaving juvie.
