SETH
"I will," Emily answered.
Rosenstein looked at Emily with sympathy-filled eyes, "You're the last person I expected to see in my office, Miss. Vázquez."
"I agree, sir. I didn't think I'd be here too."
"What happened?"
"Heinrich attacked me." I blurted out.
Rosenstein regarded me with a stoic expression. "Let Emily-Mae speak, Seth."
I had a bad feeling about this.
"I was going home and Carson was just walking me to my car and we ended up arguing about something. He had my hand in a tight grip so I asked him to let go." Emily pulled at the loose threads on her ripped jeans nervously. "Seth saw what was happening and asked Carson to leave me alone."
"Who was the first to start the fight?"
Emily passed a look towards Carson. "It was Carson who hit Seth first."
"Kai? What did you see?"
The headboy pushed the glasses over the bridge of his nose. "I saw Heinrich hit Monroe as Emily-Mae has said."
I couldn't keep the smirk off my face.
"Mr. Rosenstien, sir...I hit him. I take full responsibility for that, but Monroe said some filthy things about Emily that made me mad."
"Is that right, Emily?"
Emily's face turned red. "I'd rather not speak about it."
"So you want to protect him?" Carson barked at Emily.
"I asked you to let me go! You were making me uncomfortable, Carson. It wasn't Seth's fault."
Carson scoffed, "You will regret this soon, Emily. He's not worth it."
"And you're somehow better?" I snapped.
"Well, I'm pretty darn sure I'm better than you."
"Yeah, right."
"Boys! That's enough!" The principal slammed his hand on the table hard, giving us both a death-glare that was sharp enough to melt ice glaziers. "Kai you can get back to class."
Kai seemed like he wanted to stay and witness more drama, but he reluctantly took his ass to the door.
After the office door closed behind him, Rosenstein addressed the three of us again. "I don't know what's going on between the three of you, but I will not tolerate violence in my school. This could have been resolved without punching someone in the face." He paused and then looked at Carson, "Do you have something to say to Seth?"
"I'm sorry." Carson apologized although I knew he didn't mean it. There was not an ounce of remorse in his tone.
"Seth?"
"I'm sorry too." Like hell I was.
"Both of you are suspended for one week."
"Mr. Rosenstien!"
"Sir!"
"That's my final decision. Say another word, and I'll make it two weeks. Seth, you're not allowed in classes but you can continue with hockey practice as usual."
"That's not fair!" Carson yelled.
"You let me decide what's fair, Mr. Heinrich. And your suspension is two weeks now. Anyone else got any problems?"
"No, sir." We said in unison.
"Good. You can go back to your class, Mr. Heinrich."
Carson picked up his bag and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. He really ought to polish his manners, his tantrums were like that of a three year old.
Emily froze in her seat. I would be kidding if I said I wasn't remotely intimidated by the man in front of me. Why weren't we dismissed yet? Did the principal know something?
"This might not be my business." He said, taking turns to look at us. "But, I have to ask, is something going on between you two?"
"No, sir," I said without hesitation.
Emily shrugged, "not really."
Rosenstein's eyes flicked to Emily. "You didn't say no. You said, "not really." What does that mean Emily?"
I felt guilty. I was a professional liar. I had a lot of experience lying to people to get away with anything, but Emily was not used to it.
"We're not dating, sir," Emily confirmed.
"I see." He said.
He was an I-don't-take-bullshit-from-anybody type of a guy and I respected him for that. He was straightforward and didn't beat around the bush.
"I hope you're being responsible." He said.
The two of us stared at him in silence until I realized what he'd just said.
"I know your parents are not around so..." he cleared his throat, "I was the same age as you once so I know what it's like being in your teens."
"We're not having sex, sir, if that's what you're implying." That wasn't a lie but it wasn't the full truth either.
Regardless of what I just said, Rosenstein wasn't buying it.
Blame it on Emily who was blushing profusely.
"Emily, there have been three pregnant teens last year during graduation. I hope you're very careful. Seth is a star player, it will affect his entire career plan as well as yours. Seth, you do not want to be a teen father."
I watched her sinking in her seat. Yeah, I felt that too. I wish there was a trap door so we could both just jump into it and pretend we didn't hear this.
Rosenstein used to be head of the psychology department of the college he previously worked for. I guess he sometimes just slipped into his old job without even realizing it.
"We're super careful, sir. You have nothing to worry about."
"That's good." He seemed relieved.
*~*
EMILY
As soon as we were out of the door, we were laughing until our lungs couldn't take it.
"What was that about?" Seth barked out a laugh.
"I know right? He just literally asked us if we were having sex."
"Your face is so red."
"Is it?" I pulled out a round mirror from my bag and inspected my face.
Seth looked around and suddenly he kissed my cheek.
I gaped at him. He wasn't one to show affection in public. A quick scan of the surroundings told me he'd done it because no one was around.
"What was that for?" I asked, laughing.
"You're looking cute today so wanted to kiss you." His eyes scanned heatedly over me.
My heart fluttered, thousands of butterflies taking flight.
"Your birthday is next week. Do you have any plans?"
"Dad called me and said he's going to be busy that day. I'm not sure Cale would remember it's my birthday so no...I'm completely free."
Seth gave me a mischievous grin. "Completely free the entire day, huh?"
I giggled, poking his sides. "You're such a perv."
"I want to take you out, but..." He dug his hands in his pockets, looking at me shyly.
"But what?"
"But I'll warn you it won't be anything fancy like the restaurants that you usually go to."
"Or you could cook my favorite lasagna and we can have the birthday dinner at home, and maybe we could go out later that night just for a long drive."
Seth's eyes lit up. "That sounds great too."
I knew he was running low on cash and I really didn't want him to spend his money on dinners in restaurants when we could have twice as much fun at home with better food and our makeshift table.
"I'm sorry for your suspension."
Seth shook his head, "don't worry about it."
"I'm going to miss seeing you at school every day."
"But you'll see me at home." He said quickly.
"Yeah. I think that's so much better."
*~*
SETH
"Dude, Heinrich's been staring at you." Joey, one of my Defenseman on the team said.
I followed his gaze towards the bleachers, and was shocked to see meaty-pawed Parson looking at me with every intention of eating me for dinner.
A week was almost over. I'd finished my period of suspension while Carson still had another week until he was allowed to start classes.
I didn't think he had any interest in hockey so why was he here at the rink?
“Think he got the hots for you too?” Lee asked, he was the Korean-American forward.
I flipped him the bird.
I ignored Parson and finished the third period of our practice game which wasn't great. We had a championship coming up with a rivalry school team and from what I had seen in the recorded clips of their practice game, they were from a major league and totally killing it. I wouldn't be surprised if they destroyed our team what with Roland getting benched for penalties. Our teamplay sucked ass.
I needed to focus on the game. As the coach said.
I still couldn't forget the look of disappointment on his face when he got to know about my week-long suspension.
"Put the past behind you, Monroe. I don't want you thinking of less important things when you're on the ice. The puck should be your only focus."
"I know coach, I'm sorry for what happened."
"I don't want your apology. I want you to win this game." And then he looked straight at me, and said, "Don't let what happened in your past define you. You have a chance to make a good life, kid. Don't screw this up."
At that moment I knew Coach was aware of the year I spent in juvie. He must have done some digging, maybe even spoken to my old coach at my previous high school but the fact that he wasn’t letting that part of my past come between my present was saying something.
I wouldn’t let Coach Bailey down. Most of my teammates were going to Hockey winter camps this year because they could afford it, I couldn’t. I barely had money to spend on myself like getting a new pair of skates. My team was wearing top-of-the-line thousand-dollar ones, I would be happy to save and buy myself an entry-level skates.
I only owned one pair for years now and they had little holes, but I made them work. I couldn’t trouble my mom with any of this, I knew she would buy me the best ones in a heartbeat, but she’d spent a lot of her money in my grandmother’s care for years, I couldn’t burden her with something like this.
Instead of going to hockey camp, I was going to practice in the school rink and keep Emily company.
I changed out of my gear, showered, and made my way out when I saw Carson standing there.
I didn’t know what this was about, or why he was watching me, maybe it was something like ‘What does Emily see in him that I don’t have?’. My guess was it could be some weird rival obsession, worst case scenario, he wanted to challenge me to a dual in his Karate club. The winner gets to pursue Emily; the loser remains Winner’s slave for a year.
He was a state champion so I was sure he was pretty good, but I could beat his ass at street fighting and send homeboy to a hospital bed.
I ignored him and went to my locker to retrieve my stuff. When I shut the locker, he was right there.
He didn’t say a word, just stood next to me.
Uh…this was awkward Level-Maximum.
What do you say to a guy you sat on top of and sucker-punched?
I shut the locker door and started walking away.
“Listen, man. I’m sorry.”
I stopped and turned around to face him. This time his expressions were sincere.
“I shouldn’t have punched you.”
I was a little shook. The last thing I expected was Carson coming forward to apologize. He didn’t give me that vibe.
“I’m sorry for saying what I said.” It was only fair that I apologized too.
More awkward fidgeting, he decided to break the silence. “How’s your eye?”
“It’s okay. The color’s almost back to normal now. Your jaw?”
“It’s fine.”
Now we were going to exchange notes about the damage we did to each other’s face? What dimension had I walked into? What’s next? The Freakin weather forecast?
“You’re great on the ice. I was watching.”
“I know.”
“Oh.”
“I mean…I know you were watching…not ‘I know I’m great’.” I couldn’t control myself any longer. “Listen, Carson, what is this about?”
“Emily’s not talking to me even though I’m the one who should be pissed she gave you the details about our time together, but I’m not because I know where she’s coming from.”
I stared at him silently.
“I wanted to thank you for being there for her.” He said softly.
“There’s no need for thanks.”
“You’re not playing her, are you?” he asked.
“I care about Emily. There are no games.”
He nodded. “She deserves someone who would treat her with respect. Why aren’t you two…I don’t know…like a couple at school?”
“My circumstances don’t allow me.”
Carson scratched the back of his head, his light brown eyes met mine, he swallowed “Also, I wanted to say…” more fidgeting, “I didn’t mean to hit you like that, but something ticked me off that day. I’m not a violent person, Monroe.”
“I hear you. I won’t tell anybody what happened.”
He gave out a sigh of relief.
“Nice hoodie, by the way. You’re a Dragon Ball-Z fan, I take it?” I decided to take pity on him and change the subject.
That golden-retriever look was back on his face, “Yeah. You’re a DBZ fan too?”
“Nah, man, but I watched some episodes. I’m a Hellsing and Berserk fan. I’m more into the violent stuff.”
He chuckled, “Is that some kind of a threat?”
“Nope. Just saying.” I smirked.
The last thing I expected was to be bonding with Meaty-Pawed Parson. I could see why Emily had such a hard time ignoring his texts. ‘Clingy’ ran in his blood.
“Can we hug it out?”
I gave him a look. “Hell No?”
“Come on, man. I resolve all my beefs with a hug.”
I rolled my eyes. “ugh…whatever.”
We settled with a sideways hug and then he smiled like he’d just gotten things off his chest. He appeared to be in a better mood, and surprisingly so was I.
“See you around, Seth.” He turned to leave.
He didn’t call me Monroe this time. Asshole even made up his mind that he was going to be my friend after that hug.
My phone buzzed. I pulled it out.
Emily: Can you get me some Stayfree pads?
Emily: Sorry, I wouldn’t have told you if this wasn’t an emergency. This is mortifying. It’s my third day and I’ve run out of stock. Currently stuck in my bathroom.
I laughed.
Me: I gotcha. Also, something funny happened and I’ll tell you that when I get home.
I had an errand to run and I also had preparations to make for Emily’s birthday which was the day after tomorrow. I’d already made a list of things that I wanted.
I had never been so excited for someone to turn eighteen. Guess there’s always a first.