Chapter Seventeen
Valerie
About halfway through the school day, I saw Dalilah coming up to me. I was surprised to see her in school. Most days, she cut class and urged Shawn to do the same; yet another reason why I simply couldn’t stand her.
However, after the last time we had talked, the fact that she was heading straight toward me made me wish that she wasn’t in school anymore. After all, I would not want to be the source of her anger, at least to the capacity that she would try anything. She had been in plenty of fights before and I had seen her be pretty rough on Shawn as well. And while I wasn’t afraid of her, I also didn’t want to get suspended over the likes of Dalilah.
The really sad thing was though, part of me was afraid of what I might find out about Shawn if she ever did start anything with me. Would Shawn come to my aid, or would he side with his girlfriend? I really didn’t want to find out.
Therefore, seeing her barreling toward me like a bull, practically mowing down students as she walked, I wanted to run. In fact, I almost did turn around and bolt down another hallway, knowing that no interaction with this woman was ever going to be a pleasant one.
But before I could do that, I heard her call my name, loud enough that if I did turn around and run, it would be far too obvious. I sighed, trying not to let her see me roll my eyes. “Hi Dalilah.”
“Hey…” She answered, almost as though we were old friends. I knew that couldn’t be good. When she got a little closer to me, she lowered her voice. “I just wanted to let you know that we’re cool.”
“Oh…okay. Great,” I answered, even though in the back of my mind all I could think of was, No, we most certainly are not. Until you stop brainwashing my friend into being with you, we are certainly not cool… Although, I figured that a ceasefire between me and Dalilah could only help the odd relationship that I was trying to have with Shawn, so I just smiled.
“I…um…I heard about your mother,” Dalilah answered, as though she was truly concerned.
I was thoroughly confused. “Well, I didn’t…” I said before I could stop myself, “What about her?”
Dalilah looked confused right back for a moment before she answered, “It’s okay. Shawn told me what happened. He told me that your mother is sick and that you were talking to him about it the other night.” She smiled. “You’re a good friend; keeping him in the loop, even though you aren’t talking to him.”
At this, I wasn’t sure if I was more outraged at her for bringing it up, or furious with Shawn for telling her that. “My mom is fine,” I answered, far ruder than even I intended. After all, if there was any truth to it, at least she was trying to be nice.
I had no doubt there was an ulterior motive, but still, until I knew what it was, I couldn’t fault her for asking about something like that; if there actually was something like that going on, which there wasn’t.
“It’s okay,” she answered carefully, “I completely understand. It’s really hard to have something like this happen. I totally get it and Shawn told me that you wanted it to be kept a secret…I will respect that. I promise.”
I narrowed my eyes and sputtered through my growing sense of rage. “Shawn told you that?”
“Yes.” She nodded carefully, as though she wasn’t quite sure whether she was able to get an accurate reading on my reaction. “But in all fairness, I kind of forced it out of him. We’re not going to focus on the details, but long story short, I saw you two meeting secretly in the park the other day and so, obviously, I had some questions.”
I shook my head in an effort to clear it before I glowered at her angrily. “Dalilah, I swear to you, there is nothing wrong with my mother.”
Still, she didn’t seem to understand. She narrowed her eyes at me and peered intently into my gaze. I decided to spell it out. “He lied to you.”
At this, she reared her head back and instantly grew nasty. “I was just trying to be nice. You don’t have to go on the offensive.”
“I’m telling you the truth,” I insisted, now too frustrated to stand here and argue with her when my blood was boiling over Shawn’s horrendous indiscretion.
She rolled her eyes at me and hissed, “Okay…Whatever…” before she turned quickly and stomped away from me.
However, now I didn’t care that she was gone. In fact, I was glad. After all, the only person I wanted to talk to at the moment was Shawn.
I quickly pulled out my phone, not wanting to completely freak out on him in public and sent him a text message. We need to talk. ASAP.
Before my next class, I received a text back. Okay. What’s wrong?
You are a deplorable human being, I answered. And you have a lot of explaining to do.
After class, I received his next message. What did Dalilah tell you?
Can you meet me after school?
Sure…
The rest of the day I was in a red-sighted haze. I couldn’t believe how angry I actually was at him. There was no reason for him to be acting like this. She’s your girlfriend for God’s sake. The very least you could do was make up a better lie.
Now, I understood why he would feel the need to lie to her. I really did understand. I saw firsthand how manipulative and crazy she could be, so I could see telling her almost anything to get her off of his case; but the opportune word there was almost.
After school, I stomped to the park, where we had met last time and thankfully, we were alone. The last thing I wanted to do was have some neighbor overhear me and get the wrong idea about my family. After all, the she-devil herself already had the same idea stuck in her head and apparently refused to yank it out and therefore, I didn’t want the same thing to start circulating between the neighbors.
The last thing I needed was for Shawn’s stupid lie to get back to my mother. It might not bother her, what was being said, but I knew who was saying it would probably bother her quite a bit.