You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone (10 page)

“Oh, Tanya, give me a break. I borrowed this dress from my mother. And I'm a size six, which doesn't exactly make me bulimic or anorexic.”

“Hey, you know,” Spencer interjected, trying to break the tension. “We were just wondering who that guy is.” He nodded toward the surly stranger by the buffet table.

“That's Troy Slattery,” Tanya said. “He's an actor. I saw him a couple of times when I went over to Damon's. For a while, he and Mrs. Shuler had a thing. And you're right. I'd be surprised if he was on the invite list.”

Tanya turned and sneered at Bonnie. “The same goes for you. I don't know where you got the nerve to show up here—especially after all the crap you and your friends put Damon through. Aren't you the one who poured a whole container of pencil shavings on the back of Damon's neck while he was dozing in the library? Or was that somebody else?”

Bonnie rolled her eyes. “It was a stupid joke, and when I saw how upset he was about it, I apologized. Plus that was over a year ago.”

“Yeah, well, you thought it was pretty funny then,” Tanya hissed. “Do you still think it's funny—now that Damon's dead?”

Spencer noticed a few people staring. “Hey, you guys . . .”

“You're not welcome here,” Tanya told her, folding her arms. “I'd like you to leave—right now.”

“Oh, I'm sorry, Tanya.” Putting a hand over her heart, Bonnie gaped at Tanya in mock surprise. “I didn't realize you were hosting this memorial service. If you don't mind, I'm going to say hello to Damon's father before I slip away. Is that all right with you?” She didn't wait for an answer. She turned and started across the room toward Luke.

“Skanky bitch,” Tanya muttered. She locked her arm around Spencer's and led him to the bar. It made Spencer uncomfortable. He didn't like it when she hung on him like she was his girlfriend.

“So what were you two talking about?” Tanya asked. “What did she say about me?”

“We really didn't talk much about you, Tanya,” he whispered. They passed Troy Slattery. Mrs. Shuler's ex-boyfriend wrapped a couple of appetizers in a napkin and stuffed them into the pocket of his suit jacket. Then he wandered over toward the table full of framed photos.

“God, I hate her,” Tanya muttered. “She's, like, the worst one in the bunch.”

They got in line for their drinks, and Spencer glanced back at Bonnie. She looked a bit embarrassed as she shook Luke's hand.

“So all she did to Damon was dump some pencil shavings on the back of his head while he was napping in the school library? That was the extent of it?”

“When practically everyone in school is shitting on you, then something like that can be the last straw. Plus she's Ron Jarvis's girlfriend, which is about as low as you can go. Order me a Diet Coke, will you?”

Spencer asked the bartender for a Coke and a Diet Coke. By the time they got their drinks and stepped away from the bar, it looked like Bonnie had finished talking with Luke. She shook his hand again. The smile he gave her seemed reassuring. As Bonnie turned away from him, she pulled a Kleenex from her handbag and wiped her eyes. Then she came toward them.

“How did it go?” Spencer asked.

She still had tears in her eyes, but she smiled. “He was very sweet—and he really didn't have to be. Anyway, listen, Tanya, I didn't mean for things to get all snippy between us. You lost a dear friend, and I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, I feel horrible.”

“Well, you should,” Tanya replied, sipping her Diet Coke.

Bonnie sighed and turned to Spencer. “It was nice talking with you. I guess I'll see you at school. Take care, Spencer.”

Before he could say anything, she brushed past him and headed for the exit.

Spencer watched her hurry out to the hallway.

“Gag me,” Tanya said under her breath.

“I think she's kind of nice,” Spencer admitted. He took a swig of his Coke.

“It's an act. Watch out for her. If she's being
nice
, she's probably setting you up for something.”

Spencer looked over at the table displaying the photos of Damon and his mother. Mrs. Shuler's ex-boyfriend wasn't there anymore. Spencer didn't see him anywhere in the room.

He glanced at the collection of photographs on the table. Something was wrong.

Troy Slattery had disappeared.

And so had the portrait of Evelyn Shuler—in Andrea's silver frame.

CHAPTER TEN

 

S
pencer was actually looking forward to chemistry class. He was terrible at it. He figured he'd be lucky if he ended up with a C minus by the end of the term. Plus Reed Logan was in the class, and Spencer wanted to avoid the guy as much as possible.

But Bonnie Middleton was also in that class.

Now that he'd spoken with her at the memorial service, he had an excuse to say hello and talk with her again. She'd broken up with Ron, so there was nothing to prevent him from approaching her. Despite all of Tanya's trash talk about her, Spencer still liked Bonnie. In fact, he hadn't stopped thinking about her since Saturday. He'd hoped to talk to her earlier in the day, but apart from glimpsing her from afar in the lunchroom, that had been a bust. She'd been sitting at the cool table—with the usual crowd, including Ron and Reed. It had been a little disheartening, but then, those people were still her friends. It didn't mean she and Ron were back together.

Heading down the corridor to Ms. Donahue's chemistry class, Spencer kept looking for Bonnie. He didn't notice Reed, leaning against the wall by the classroom doorway, until they were nearly face-to-face. Even then, it was Reed's trademark backward Dodgers cap that caught Spencer's eye first. Then he noticed the smug grin.

“Hey, Spence,” Reed said with a strange lisp. “How's it fagging?”

Spencer squinted at him. “That doesn't even make any sense. That's the best you can do?”

He brushed past him into the classroom. He wasn't going to let Reed bother him. He was thinking about how he'd casually wave at Bonnie when he saw her in her chair in the second row.

But she wasn't there. Had she gone home sick? There was still a minute or two before class officially began. She could still show up.

Spencer took his seat and kept his eyes on the door.

Whispering into his phone, Reed strolled in, smirked at him, and subtly flipped him the bird. Spencer wondered if he was talking to his buddy Ron. Maybe they were planning to ambush him between classes somewhere in the hallway or outside after school.
Swell.

Making matters worse, it looked like Bonnie wasn't coming to class.

The bell rang. Ms. Donahue walked over to the door and closed it. “Put your phone away, Mr. Logan, and lose the cap.”

“Later!” Reed said into the phone. Then he slipped it inside his pocket and made a big deal out of taking off his precious blue cap. He set it on the edge of his desk and then stroked it. For some inexplicable reason, a few people in the class thought this was pretty damn funny. Reed kept up this stupid routine to milk a few more chuckles.

Spencer's hatred for this clown started to boil. He'd read parts of Damon's journal, and knew the extent of Reed and Ron's cruelty toward him. Damon had condemned them both—just minutes before blowing up that BMW with his mother and himself in it. Did Reed have any remorse at all about that? Did he have anything resembling a conscience?

Obviously not.

Spencer slouched lower in his chair. He knew it was mostly his disappointment over Bonnie's absence, but he suddenly couldn't help feeling angry and frustrated about everything.

It had been a shitty weekend when he stopped to analyze it. His aunt was so upset about the disappearance of the silver frame. It wasn't really the expensive frame. It was the photo inside, which had been temporarily covered up by Mrs. Shuler's portrait. Andrea loved that picture of her mother, and it was her only copy.

“God, what was I thinking?” she'd cried, finally breaking down for the first time since Damon's suicide. Up until then, she'd been pretty stoic. But late Saturday afternoon, she sat at the kitchen breakfast bar at the Ballard apartment and cried. Luke wasn't around to see it.

“I should have removed Mom's picture,” Andrea said, weeping into a paper towel. “It would have taken two seconds. Who would be so awful that they'd steal something from a memorial service?”

Spencer told her he was pretty sure—but not certain—the culprit was Mrs. Shuler's ex-boyfriend, Troy Slattery. His aunt was in a horrible mood for the rest of the evening. When Luke called, wanting to get together, she told him she had an awful headache.

On Sunday, Spencer went with Luke to the house on Garfield. The police had already been through it, confiscating Damon's computer—among other items. Mrs. Shuler's lawyers had given the okay for Luke to collect whatever he wanted, since he was her only beneficiary. He was going to pick up some photo albums, books, and a few other items. Luke had invited Andrea and him along and told them to help themselves to whatever they wanted. Andrea had made it pretty clear she wasn't interested in anything that had belonged to Evelyn, and she stayed at home.

But Spencer was curious. The police had given Luke a list of everything they'd bagged and collected as evidence in the case. Spencer saw the list, and Damon's journal wasn't on it. He figured the diary had to be hidden somewhere in Damon's bedroom. He wanted to know what Luke's son had been thinking those last few days before he went on that rampage.

The police had left Damon's bedroom in a shambles. The bed had been stripped, furniture had been pulled out from against the walls, corners of the carpeting had been peeled up, desk drawers were open, books and videos had been removed from the bookshelves. This was Spencer's first look at Damon's sanctum sanctorum. He'd had no idea Damon was such a movie nut. He had about four hundred DVDs, which the police had left in stacks by the bookcase. Damon must have been a classics snob, because only a handful of the movies were from after 1990. Spencer wished he'd known. That would have been something they could have talked about.

Damon had a huge, framed film poster of Orson Welles's
Touch of Evil
above his bed. Spencer had seen the movie a while back. He wondered if the cops knew that a car got blown up in the beginning of that film.

He took some Hitchcock movies and a few other titles. But mostly, he wanted to find that journal. Spencer searched the bedroom for about a half hour—until Luke was ready to leave. He figured Damon must have destroyed the journal before killing himself. Maybe it had been in the BMW—along with his mother and him.

He'd said some pretty harsh things about Tanya in the journal. Perhaps he didn't want it getting around how he really felt about her. But it was a pity, because that diary carried the only firsthand account of the cruelties Reed, Ron, and their friends had inflicted on him. It was too bad no one would know just how awful they'd been to him.

If people knew, maybe then Reed, Ron, and their cronies would actually feel ashamed.

He watched Reed goofing off during chemistry class, soliciting giggles from his misguided admirers. Every time Ms. Donahue turned her back to the class, he grabbed his hat and put it on again—backward, of course. Then he'd have the hat off his head and on the desk by the time she turned around once more. He was actually pretty good at it—and very, very happy with himself.

Spencer wanted to punch his lights out.

At the bell, he collected his books, got to his feet, and headed for the doorway.

“Hey, Spence, wait up!” Reed called—with that same weird lisp. It must have been his attempt to sound effeminate. “Hey, Spence!”

Stepping out the door, Spencer turned to glance back at him.

“Hey, I was thinking,” Reed said, catching up with him in the hallway. He'd dropped the lisp. “You and the Freakazoid were kind of like stepbrothers. Am I right? I mean, isn't your aunt spreading her legs for the dad?” He raised an eyebrow and grinned.

Spencer suddenly lost it. He couldn't hold back. He grabbed Reed by the front of his shirt and slammed him into the lockers. The loud bang got everybody's attention in the corridor.

“What the fuck is your problem?” Spencer growled.

Dumbfounded, Reed gaped at him. He looked terrified.

“Damon Shuler's dead because of you, but you don't really give a shit, do you?” He reached up, grabbed Reed's baseball cap, and hurled it down the corridor. A few people laughed.

“Now, you go crying to Ron about this,” Spencer said, tightening his grip on Reed's shirt. He pulled him close, almost raising him off his feet. “I'll take on the two of you. I'll kill you both. The world would be better off without you worthless scumbags . . .”

Spencer shoved him against the lockers again. Reed let out a sharp cry.

A couple of people in the hallway gasped.

“Hey, that's enough, you guys!” Ms. Donahue said, tapping Spencer's shoulder. “Break it up—or finish it in Mr. Dunmore's office.”

Spencer realized what he was doing and suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He let go of Reed and hurried down the corridor. Other students got out of his way—except for Tanya, who came up alongside him.

“I saw that,” she said, out of breath. He couldn't tell if she gasping to keep up with him—or if she was overly excited. She wore another one of her thrift shop specials, a chartreuse dress with short sleeves. She hugged her books to her chest. “I heard what you said, too. Bravo! You're right, you know. This school—the world—would be better off without them. Reed and Ron—and don't forget that bitch Bonnie Middleton . . .”

Spencer's heart was racing. He really wished Tanya would go away. He wanted everyone to leave him alone. Though he'd be late for his next class, he needed to step outside and get some air.

But before he could slip out a side door, Tanya grabbed his arm. “I think that's an excellent idea, Spencer,” she whispered. “They need to pay for what they did to Damon.”

Spencer yanked his arm away. “Would you leave me alone? Go on, you'll be late for your next class.”

He ducked outside. She didn't follow him, thank God.

He took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down.

But then he remembered telling Bonnie at the memorial service about Luke and his aunt. Had she passed that on to Reed, Ron, and the others? Was that how Reed knew?
Isn't your aunt spreading her legs for the dad?

He hated to think that maybe Tanya was right about her.

After what they'd done to Damon Shuler, maybe Tanya was right about everything she'd just said.