An accident my ass. His father hit him again!
I can’t wait for Tyler to sit down. “Ty, what—”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? You can’t just—”
“That’s what you need to do,” he says, staring straight ahead.
“Great. You’re going to act as if I’m just some kind of stupid girl—”
"That's what you need to do, or else you'll end up like Georgie. What were you thinking? Decking Liam again?"
“He asked me to prom. Wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“Did he touch you?”
“He was forcing me to walk with him.”
“So you—”
“That’s not why.”
“Then why?”
I hesitate.
“Why, Erika? Damnit!”
“Mr. Tremaine—”
“Here,” Tyler says, as smug as can be, and everyone laughs, which diverts Mr. Winter’s attention away as he tries to regain order in the classroom.
“He made a comment about Shane’s mom,” I mumble.
“What kind of comment?”
“Insinuated she was a whore.” I pause, not about to ask if that’s true or not. Not my business, but… “He also said I whore myself around to all of you Mutineers.”
Tyler snorts.
I hang my head. I don’t want to be a whore. I don’t want to be with all of the Mutineers.
But I do want to try to help them. I want to try to fix them and their broken lives.
Because my life is broken, and I’m trying to fix my own life too. Maybe if I can fix theirs, I’ll be able to fix mine.
But that’s a lost cause already. I can’t save someone from cancer. If Caroline dies, all I can do is be there for Corey, and I doubt that I’ll be enough.
But maybe me and the Mutineers…
And Tyler. If I get a place, I am asking him to move in with me. No, screw that. I am not going to take no for an answer.
Thinking that reminds me of Liam, and I hang my head.
“I don’t want anyone thinking you’re a whore,” Tyler murmurs. “You’re not a whore.”
“Tyler, you don’t know the first thing about me.”