Hi, everyone! I'm so sorry that I've missed so many weeks, but this chapter is long to make up for that. I'll post again this Wednesday, but for now, I hope everyone stays healthy and well!
In the previous chapter: Before I could get my last few sentences out, I heard the sound of heels quickly clicking over to where I was sitting. No, I thought to myself. No, no, no, no, no. Please don’t do what I think you will. “Boys,” I heard Mrs. Cruise call out. Shockingly, the entire class’s eyes turned themselves to Delcan and I. “Is there an issue?”
Fifteen minutes later, Delcan and I were sitting in the principal’s office, waiting for both of our parents to walk into the room. Principal Greene tapped his fingers on his desk, his grey eyes staring at Delcan intensely. “Do either of you have an explanation?” Greene asked, his stern look on Delcan.
“Can we wait until our parents arrive?” Delcan asked, crossing his arms. I continued to look at images of football and basketball players over the years, recognizing several people I knew. There couldn’t possibly be anything worse than my parents and the Heslops walking into the same rooms together.
I can’t imagine what Dad is going to say.
Still shaking, I watched the lines on my hand for a long time before there was a loud knocking on the door. Dad, I thought to myself. My insides twisted horribly, and I scooted my chair away from Delcan. As long as I pretended none of this was my fault, I think I’ll get off the hook. Delcan rolled his shoulders back, turning his head away from the door.
“Ezra, what on Earth happened to you?” I heard, turning to the sound of my own name. My parents walked into the large office together, both of them keeping their eyes of similar confusion on me. My dad scowled in disgust when he noticed Delcan sitting next to me. Looking at Principal Greene with his back straightened, my Dad laughed coldly. “Tell me what’s happening, Charles.”
Principal Greene shrugged. “Rosa just brought both of these young men into my classroom in the middle of their testing period. I’m not exactly sure what the case is, but Rosa mentioned...cheating?”
Yes, Dad calls everyone at this school by their first names, and Principal Greene does the same.
“You were cheating from my son’s test?” Dad growled, pointing to Delcan. I kept my eyes straight ahead, ignoring every urge in my body to grab Delcan and kiss him, shutting up my parents' lousy glares. Mom placed a hand out in front of herself.
“Please don’t, love,” she whispered.
Dad curled his hand into a fist and glared at my mother, a look I refused to acknowledge she was giving her. Out of my peripheral vision, I watched Delcan shift uncomfortably in his chair. “Charles,” my dad informed, clasping his hands together. “I thought I made it clear I didn’t want this child ruining my son’s reputation.”
Ruining my son’s reputation. So he had some agreement with our principal to make sure Delcan and I didn’t even communicate with each other? Why? Whatever my father is imagining as the worst thing possible between Delcan, I’ve probably already done it. He can set all the restrictions he wants in my life, but when it comes to school relationships, I never thought it mattered.
Biting the insides of my cheeks, I shook my head quickly. Why would any of that matter? It’s not like Dad is trying to make business deals with Mr. Heslop. It’s not like me being kind to someone I’m keeping in the dark is such a sin. Asking favors from the school principal to keep me away from Delcan will only make me want things more, and one day, Dad will see that.
Just not today.
Or any time soon.
“Woah, isn’t that kind of illegal?” Delcan spoke up, looking at my dad straight in the eyes. “You know, to...bribe a principal in order to keep two people away.” Raising up his hands as if he was caught by the police, Delcan twisted his wrists. “I’m not dangerous at all to your son, and I can only assume why you would think that.”
Before Dad could get another word out of his mouth, the office door opened to show Mr. and Mrs. Heslop, both of them walking in the same steps. It’s not fair, to be honest with you. It isn’t fair that my boyfriend’s doing something as simple as walking looks better than Mom and Dad’s wedding day.
Even angrier, I turned my head to look at Mom. But she was at a loss for words, her eyes followed Mrs. Heslop in surprise as she followed her husband to stand beside Delcan’s chair. “Theresa,” she gasped.
That name almost fits her. With her wavy brown hair falling perfectly around her, Mrs. Heslop met my mother’s eyes. Not a word was said between them, but I could feel this longing between the two of them. A longing that felt like a cord intertwining two sisters together, one that has snapped, and both sisters are grasping for the memories. With a pinched mouth, Mrs. Heslop turned her head away from Mom.
“What is this about?” Mrs. Heslop asked, holding onto his wife’s arm in comfort as he looked at me. Not a look of anger was on his face, just simple bewilderment that his son and I were in the principal’s office.
Principal Greene stacked his papers, clearing his throat and moving away from a golden watch that was close to where Mr. Heslop sat. “Yes, um...your son, Declan...he cheated off of one of our smartest students, Ezra.”
“Delcan,” the Heslop family said in unison.
I glanced over to Mom again, who was playing with the pearl necklace Dad had bought her last Christmas. Her eyes were glued to the floor as if she was watching the most interesting thing in the world take place. Pressing my lips together, I watched Principal Greene continue to pull things away from Mr. Heslop’s grasp. “Yes, my apologies. But Delcan was caught looking off of Ezra’s paper during their history exam, and we just need to have an appropriate approach to this situation.”
Mrs. Heslop rested her hand on Delcan’s shoulder, causing him to look up at her. “Did you do that?”
Delcan shook his head, and I didn’t feel any reason to be mad. “No,” he said sternly. “I would never do that.”
Mrs. Heslop shrugged. “Then I believe you have your answer, sir.”
Dad raised a hand into the air. “That’s not proof!” he complained. I looked over to Delcan, who was biting his lip like he was trying not to laugh. “There’s no evidence that...that he didn’t try taking away my son’s smarts.”
“Dad,” I said, looking at him. “It’s not a big deal.”
Mom’s eyes were wide as she looked at my principal, who was gazing at Mrs. Heslop. “Charles, I don’t think a suspension is necessary. Just allow them…” her voice faded out when Dad looked at her, and she twisted her hands together.
This is so embarrassing.
“Suspension seems needed for this,” Dad told our principal.
“No, it isn’t,” Mr. Heslop said, holding up a hand when my dad glared at him. “From what Mrs. Gatley was trying to say before you interrupted her, I think both of them should retake the tests in a different room. After that, look at how far they had gotten before they were pulled out of class and see if my son really is a fraud.”
Dad stepped back, grabbing Mom’s wrist. “Don’t speak for my wife.”
“How can she?” Mrs. Heslop asked, patting her son’s shoulder. “You never let her speak in the first place.”
Before Dad could erupt in protests, Principal Greene silenced the room. “Please, please,” he said, exhausted. “If the parents cannot handle this normally, then please allow these two young men to speak for themselves.”
Yeah, if that would’ve happened from the beginning, all of this would be over soon.
“But how do you know if the boy is lying?” Dad asked, pointing to Delcan. I watched Mrs. Heslop’s face twist in disgust as she kept her mouth closed. I’ve never truly seen her get angry unless you recall her glaring at Delcan when he reveals information people really don’t need to know anything about.
Principal Greene shrugged. “I don’t,” he muttered.
“That’s hardly fair-” Mr. Heslop only got in a few words before Principal Greene snapped at him quickly.
“Over the last few years, we’ve been trying to undo some of the things EastLand has done. As principal, John, I’m making the decisions right now. Ezra and Declan can speak for themselves without the three-four of you interrupting them.”
Delcan, I thought to myself, watching the ground. His name is Delcan.
“I have nothing to say, really,” Delcan started. He looked at me for a split second before his eyes changed to the principal. “Ezra was telling me about-”
“I was helping him,” I blurted out. Dad and Mom looked at me in surprise, like this was one of the worst things they had ever heard me do. “He was lost on a section in a test and I was finished, so I wanted to help him.”
“Why, Ezra?” Principal Greene asked.
“His plain stupidity isn’t your concern, son,” Dad announced, turning his head away from Mr. Heslop, who was clenching his fists.
Mrs. Heslop looked at him. “Seriously?” she asked. Principal Greene watched her with an unreadable face, and I stared at the picture of his wife and children on the desk. “Does it make you feel better to make fun of a sixteen-year-old? Is that really going to help any of this, Johnathan?”
Johnathan. No one ever called him that.
“I don’t think it’s so wrong to help somebody,” I said, trying to keep Delcan from saying something he won’t regret soon. He was already tapping his fingers on the chair, his eyes ice blue. “I’ve tutored others before in junior high, and I’ve helped a girl after a test before last year. Why is this such a huge deal?”
“Because, Ezra,” Dad said. “I’ve already told you how I feel about this family, and you decide going behind my back will make this better? I-”
“He’s a human, Dad,” I responded, raising my voice. Next to me, I heard Delcan cough out of a laugh. “And I don’t see anything wrong with helping another Cuban or someone who has different...different pleasures than I do. It’s ⟴ stupid to criticize Delcan because of things he can’t change. I mean the drugs, yeah, I guess that’s a reason to ignore somebody, but he’s clean. Have you ever been addicted before, Dad? Really addicted. Because other than shutting out Mom and blaming Evelyn for everything, you have no ⟴ life.”
The room went silent. His face red and the veins popping out of his neck, my father crossed his arms and shook his head. “This isn’t you,” he snarled, and then he dragged Mom out of the office and slammed the door behind him.
Another moment of unease filled the room. Principal Greene looked as if he was about to lose his breakfast, while Delcan was sitting back in his chair, watching me with his eyebrows raised. His eyes weren’t blue anymore, but a green color. Somehow, the knowledge that I was about to get grounded pleasured him.
Mr. and Mrs. Heslop kept their mouths closed, both of them giving each other strange looks. We all sat in silence as I tried not to imagine what would happen when I got home. Of course, we had been sitting in the office for two hours now, so it was pretty close to twelve.
“You may leave,” Greene said, standing up from his chair and turning around. He had gained weight from when I last saw him. A beer belly jiggled under his cleaned suit as he scratched a side of his scruffy face. I stood as well, opening the door and holding it for the Heslops until all of them had gotten out. Surprisingly, Mr. Heslop patted me on the back, as if I had just saved his son’s life.
“Buen trabajo,” he said, soon following his wife out of the school after placing a kiss on her forehead. Arm in arm, Delcan watched his parents leave as he turned to me.
“I always thought meeting the boyfriend’s parents would be fun,” he said, shrugging. “And it seems like they already hate me. Why, Ez, why?”
Regardless of how angry I was, my muscles relaxed and I smiled. “It must be the way you sit, Delcan,” I told him.
He rolled his eyes, looking away from me. This isn’t you, I thought to myself. I wonder if it is me. Lying behind my parent’s back, yelling at my father for whatever reason, dating somebody even though I know back flash is bound to happen...maybe that is who I am. And if it is, how on Earth do I have a boyfriend?
The minute I got home, my phone was taken out of my hands and my computer was locked in my parent’s bedroom.
That’s fine, I’ll bribe my siblings and use their phones.
After dinner, Dad set me down in the backyard and told me about the workouts I would do at the gym this weekend, and then he asked if Delcan and I were friends, or if I was just feeling like “feeling guilty for a Cuban.”
To that, I smiled and shook my head. “No,” I told him. “We’re nowhere close to friends.”
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