Building on Lies (29 page)

“ Yeah. I got permission from the nurse”, I said.

There was silence.

“ I already spoke to the principal. He wants all our parents to get together tomorrow”, he said.

“ My mom said she’d speak with him”. My voice was flat. My head hurt so bad I really just wanted to hang up, and go to sleep.

“ You don’t think I was the one who did this, Nellie? You can’t possibly think that”, Chan said, his voice low and hurt.

“Ana said she saw you and Samantha at the Ardsley Mall yesterday. In the food court”, I said.

He cursed, then I heard him take a deep breath. “ Yeah. I saw her. But only because she kept calling Nate’s house. She was hysterical.”

“ I thought you told me you were through with her!”

“ I am through with her!” he shouted. “ But she was babbling, and screaming out her usual threats. She kept calling my cell, and calling Nate’s house. I thought if I spoke with her she’d get a grip”.

“ What happened when you saw her?” I asked.

“ The same thing that always happens with Sam. She started begging me to get back with her. She said she was going to kill herself. That she couldn’t stand being without me.” Chan sounded tired, and resigned. “ But I told her I was in love with you. I told her I’d never get back with her because I have you”.

“ I think she’s the one did this, Chan. Who else could it have been?” I said.

“ I think so too”, he said, his voice quiet, and disgusted. “ You know, I thought I’d thrown out all my workshop registration papers. I didn’t want my parents to go through my room and find them. But Ty told me Samantha came by the house while I was up in the mountains. She said she had some stuff she needed to get from my room. My mom let her into my bedroom. Ty said he tried to rush her out, but my mom told him to leave her alone. I’m thinking maybe she found something…something that tipped her off to where I was”.

“ I told you I felt strange, like someone was watching us”, I reminded him.

“ Yeah. And I just brushed you off”, he said, guiltily.

“ It’s pretty sick, Chan. If she was the one who did this. It meant she was sneaking around in the cold. Spying on us”. I shuddered. It was so invasive and intrusive, and just
wrong
.

“ I know”, Chan murmured. “ But Sam’s pretty sick, Nellie. It’s why I stayed with her for so long. I’m just sorry you had to get dragged into it”.

“ Oh, Chan”, I sighed. “ I thought I was going to die when I saw those pictures. Those horrible words. It made it all seem so nasty and cheap. When it wasn’t like at all, was it?”

“ No, it wasn’t. It was perfect”, he said, huskily. “ Me, my brother and Joaquim pulled down every single one we saw. I mean, they even hung them up in the library and the lunchroom. Bastards.”

“ So you think it was more than one person?”

“ Definitely. One person alone couldn’t have hung up all those papers in practically the entire school campus. They must have sneaked in, and spent the entire night hanging them up. But when I find out who did it, they’re going to regret it. I swear it, Nellie.” Chan sounded fierce.

“ We should just let the school authorities handle it, Chan. Whoever did this is probably going to be expelled”, I said. I didn’t want him to do anything that would get him in trouble. More trouble than we already were.

“ Listen, I’ve got to get to class. Keep your phone on, baby. I want to keep in touch with you”, he said, sounding so sweet and tender, I wished he were right beside me. “ I love you”.

It was the first time he’d ever said it to me. I hated he’d had to say it under such awful circumstances. But I’ve always had awful luck.

I slept fitfully, that anxious troubled sleep you get when you’re deeply worried. I kept dreaming about the pictures, and how naked I was in them. I could hear the voices of the students, whispering, commenting, judging. I kept seeing the big black type floating across my eyes…
Nellie Depaola is a dirty slut.

Chapter 10

I woke up to hear my cell ringing.
It was dancing along my night stand with each ring. I grabbed it, wanting to hear a normal human voice, and not the eery voices from my dreams.

“ Hello?”, I said, my voice cracking.

“ Nellie.” It was only my name, but it gave me chills. I recognized the airy, almost ethereal quality of voice.

Samantha St. John.

“ Who is this?”, I asked, shakily, even though I knew.

“ I think you know who this is”, she said, and she gave a strange little laugh. “Nellie, I really need to talk to you”.

“We don’t have anything to talk about”, I said, so nervous the cell phone almost fell from my sweat soaked hands.

“ Oh, I think we do”, she said, casually. “ Why don’t you meet me at the docks off Main Street in like a half hour?”

“ I don’t have a car. My friends dropped me home”, I said quickly.
“ Fine. I’ll pick you up then. Wait for me around the corner of your house”.

“ I can’t do that. I really shouldn’t be talking to you, Samantha”, I said.

“ Oh that’s funny. You can’t talk to me. But it’s OK for you to sleep with my boyfriend?”

I couldn’t get used to the tone of her voice. It sounded so babyish, like a kindergartner’s. And like a kindergartner, all of her sentences seemed to end as if she were asking a question. It was unnerving.

“ Samantha, I’m going to hang up now”, I said, feeling my headache returning.

“ I wouldn’t if I were you”, she warned, but again, it sounded more like a question, not a threat. “ If you thought today was bad, trust me. It’ll get worse. I have pictures of you and Chan that would make a porn star blush. Unless you want them splattered all around town…and not just school…I’d advise you to wait for me around the corner of your house”.

“ So it was you”, I breathed. “ You’re the one who did it”.

“ Yes, you dumb bitch”, she said, sweetly. “ It was me. Now, I’m on my way to pick you up. I should be there in about fifteen minutes. If you dare tell anyone…your mommy, your friends, Chan…I will make you regret it. You’re going to wish you were never born, Nellie”.

She hung up. I was shaking so bad the cell phone crashed to the floor. I didn’t know what to do. I’d never been so afraid. Spiders made me panic, but this was just plain old fear.

I bent down to pick up my phone, wanting to call Chan, Ro, anyone. Tell them what had just happened. But I was too scared. I already knew what Samantha was capable of. Lurking, hiding, taking pictures. Printing out hundreds of copies and breaking into the school to tack them up.

Chan had spent years at her side, afraid to leave her. He knew how dangerous she was.

I dialed Ro’s number, but disconnected the call before she picked up. I had to face Samantha alone. I didn’t want her to do anything worse.

I got out of bed, and wrote a note for Ro. It was already one in the afternoon, and school would be out soon. Hopefully, I’d be back before my mother got home. I went to the bathroom, and splashed water on my face. I wiped my palms on my jeans. I grabbed my bomber jacket, my phone, and went outside.

There’s a grocery store around the corner of my house, and I decided to wait for Samantha there. I had no idea what kind of car she drove. I stood in front of the store, smiling at people as they walked in and out. It was bitter cold, a salty wind blowing in from the shore. But my hands were sweating as if it were ninety degrees.

Samantha pulled up in a sleek forest green BMW. She rolled the front passenger window down, and leaned over.

“ Hey you!”, she said, smiling at me as if we were old friends. “Get in out of the cold”.

I smiled hesitantly, and got into her car. I don’t know if anyone noticed. Even if they did, they would probably be think it was just two friends meeting up with each other.

“ Put you seat belt on, Nellie”, she said, pulling away. “ I’ve already got a gazillion tickets. The cops in Egg Cove suck”.

I put my seatbelt on, my hands trembling so bad I had some trouble getting it to click.

“ Aw honey”, she said, patting my hand reassuringly. “ Don’t be so nervous. I know you must feel bad talking to me. It can’t be easy talking to the girl whose boyfriend you were fucking behind her back”.

“ Please don’t use that kind of language”, I said. “ I don’t like it”.

“ You know what I don’t like?”, she asked, turning to look at me with her sleepy blue eyes. “ I don’t like stupid Portuguese girls who think its okay to steal a girl’s boyfriend. Couldn’t you find your own little Egg Cove loser?”

“ I’m sorry we sneaked around behind your back. I know it was wrong”, I told her, wishing my voice would stop trembling. “ But Chan and I are in love”.

“ You’re in love?”, Samantha mocked. “ Really?”

“ Yes, really”, I said, a little more boldly. “ I know it must hurt you, and trust me, Samantha, I’m really sorry for that. But it’s not right to spy on us. To do such an awful thing to us!”

“ Nellie, the picture I used in school was actually one of the least revealing. I could have used one of the ones I have in the glove compartment. Take a look”. She pointed to it, the peculiar smile never leaving her face.

I opened the glove compartment. There was a red folder, and I opened it slowly. I gasped at what I saw.

She was right, she had chosen a pretty tame picture to tack up. There rest of them were so intimate it was difficult for me to look at them, and that’s they were pictures of me. She must have been snapping pictures every time Channing and I got together.

“ I think those are too raunchy even for Playboy”, she said, with a wink.

I couldn’t look at them anymore. “ This was so wrong, Samantha. And probably illegal. I want you to get rid of these! You don’t have any right to do this to me and Chan”.

“ I’ll do whatever the hell I want”, she snapped. “ You’re the last person to talk about doing something wrong. You don’t think its wrong to steal my boyfriend? To sleep with him?”

“ You and Chan were broken up when you took these. I never slept with him while you two were together”, I said, softly.

“ Oh, whatever!”, she snapped. “ You expect me to believe that? I know you’ve been to Chan’s house. In his room. It was your hair I found on his bed! I know it was because that day in the bathroom…when I thought it was Ava…I took a strand of your hair. And I compared it to the one I found! It was exactly the same!”

“ I can’t talk to you anymore”, I said, afraid of the hysteria creeping into her voice.

“Oh, you’re going to talk to me, you slut”, she spat out. “ You’re going to beg me for forgiveness.”

“ OK, I’m sorry”, I said, quickly. “ I really truly am. What Chan and I did was wrong”.

“ No, what
you
did was wrong”, she sputtered, and the car swerved slightly. “ You stole Chan from me!”

Then she took a deep breath, as if to steady herself, as well as the car. “ I spoke to Bettina Grant, you know. She told me everything. I bet you didn’t know Chan considers her one of his best friends. He tells her everything”.

I didn’t respond, not wanting to betray Bettina.

Samantha looked at me, and nodded. “ He does. He doesn’t trust a lot of people. Just Bettina and Ty really. Of course, I could never get Ty to tell me anything. But Bettina spilled her guts like a fucking rat”.

“ I want you to pull over and let me out”, I said. We were driving out of Egg Cove, further away from my mom, my friends… from
safety
.

“ She told me all about Chan’s little workshop up in the mountains. She told me how Ty was taking you up there. That’s how I knew to find you guys there”, she continued.

“ You know, I was really furious with Chan when I saw you two. I couldn’t believe he’d stoop so low. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so mad if he’d cheated on me with one of our own crowd, but a Cove girl?” she shuddered in disgust.

“ That’s why you threatened to shave off all of Ava’s hair right? One of your own crowd? Because you’re so much better than a Cove girl!” I snapped.

“ Shut up”, she said, shortly. “ But I talked to him, you know. I called him and he agreed to see me. Just yesterday in fact. He gave me these.” She moved her red hair away to reveal her ears and throat. She was wearing the pearl set.

She smiled when she saw the look of shock on my face. “ Yeah, sweetie. He said he was so sorry for what he did. He promised it would never happen again. I felt so bad for him. I told him it was fine”.

“ You’re not his type, Nellie. You’re just an Egg Cove slut. He got carried away by your good looks. Because I’ll be honest. You are very pretty. But he told me he was going to end it with you”.

“ That’s not true!”, I shouted. “ He loves me. He can’t stand you! He told me he doesn’t want anything more to do with you’.

“ OK, then why he didn’t try and stop me and Bettina and Abby from hanging up the pictures all over the place, right? He knew I was going to do it,” she said, a smirk on her pretty, freckled face.

“ That’s not true”, I whispered.

“ Yes, it is true”, Samantha said. “Chan wanted to shame you into breaking up with him. He knew was the only way to get rid of you. I mean, it’s kind of obvious you’re the clingy type”.