Chapter Twenty Five

In my driveway, twenty minutes later, I was crying, and Kane was hugging me. I wanted to tell him to stay, to forget about Kyler, but I knew he wouldn't. He had to finish this. When he got something in his head, there was usually no talking him out of it.

   "Don't do anything stupid," I said, wiping my eyes.

   "I will only do what I have to do," he told me.

   "Kane, please."

   "I will see you soon, okay?"

   I nodded and got out of his car, closing the door gently behind me.

   The day seemed to drag on, slower than ever. I watched a movie, played on my phone, waited, waited, waited. Andy and my Mom got home, same time as usual, so I distracted myself by asking about his day. He told me a ten minute story about a picture he drew, while I half listened. I just wanted Kane to text me; I just needed to know that he was okay. I didn't even notice when the doorbell rang a little while later. I was in my room, the door open, when I heard Andy calling me.

   "Marley! Kane is here!"

   I jumped off my bed and hurried down the stairs, feeling relieved and trying to act normal. He was standing in the front hallway, looking nervous.

   "Hey," Kane began, when he saw me. He gave Andy a high five before he wandered away. "So, I didn't do anything stupid."

   "Good," I said plainly, standing a few feet away from him.

   "But," He turned slightly, revealed his right cheek and eye, which were red and puffy. "Kyler did."

   "Oh my god, Kane," I said, hugging him. "What happened?"

   "I went back to school, wandered around a bit until I found Kyler at his locker, alone. The bell was about to ring, so I just told him to back off, to leave us alone." Kane was talking quiet.

   "And?"

   "Well, he told me not to tell him what to do, or I'd regret it. And he called me some names. I really wanted to punch him in the face, but I didn't. I just started walking away. He grabbed my arm, stopping me, and then swung at me, And, well, this." He motioned at his face.

   "Does it hurt? Let me get you ice," I said.

   He shook his head. "Mar, there was a teacher in the hall, he saw Kyler hit me. He took him down to the office with me, I stated what happened, the teacher agreed. Kyler is expelled. He's gone."

   Relief flooded over me again, and I wrapped my arms around him as tight as I could.

   An impromtu middle-of-the-week dinner at my house with Kane, Carla and Bruce, to celebrate Bruce breaking out of the hospital, happened a couple of days later. Bruce seemed okay and was definitely happy to be out of there, but he was not happy to find out that Kane had been in another fight at school.

   We were sitting around the kitchen table, eating pizza and drinking lemonade, when the conversation began. I immediately wanted to hide under the table.

   "So, your face?" Bruce asked Kane, chewing a bite of pizza that was for sure better than the hospital food he'd had for the past two weeks.

   Kane instinctively touched his cheek. "Dad..."

   "What happened? You've only been back to school three days." Bruce looked annoyed.

   Kane glanced at me. "The guy that... we had a problem with, with Marley..." he was trying to choose his words carefully, as Andy was listening. "He decided to cause more trouble."

   "Why? I thought that was over?" Carla spoke, confused. My mom looked confused, too.

   Kane looked at me again. I didn't know what to say. "I don't know," he answered.

   "Did you get in trouble?" Bruce went on.

   "No, he punched me in the face. A teacher witnessed it. He got expelled, actually."

   "Oh, thank God," my mom said quickly.

   My dad looked skeptical. "He just punched you in the face, out of the blue?"

   "Uh, well, I think he got angry... when he saw Marley and I..." Kane trailed off, obviously not wanting to say the words.

   "We're dating," I spat out, too loud. My heart was racing. "Me and Kane."

   "I knew it," Carla said, slapping the table.

   Bruce looked shocked, and my mom tried to look surprised, but she wasn't. Andy seemed to be ignoring all of this. I was just looking at Kane. This was it. The cat was out of the bag.

   "You two are dating?" my dad asked, his expression unreadable.

   I nodded slowly, Kane just looked down at his plate. Maybe this was not the best time for this, but we didn't have a choice now. Part of me did expect my Dad to be happy about this. But I was wrong.

   "Since when?" his voice got lower.

   "Just... really... a couple of weeks...." I said slowly, still trying to figure out what he was thinking.

   "No," my Dad sad, shaking his head. He pushed his plate away. Kane looked up. "This is not okay."

   "Dad," I said, annoyed.

   Kane blinked hard. I wasn't sure he was ready to stand up to my Dad. I wasn't even sure I was ready.

   "I won't allow it. Marley, you need to stay out of trouble-"

   "I haven't been in any trouble since I started hanging out with Kane and-"

   "You were both drunk, really drunk, the night of Bruce's accident. Right?"

   "Enough," my Mom said, louder.

   My dad shook his head, angry, and then stood up and stormed out of the kitchen. The rest of us tried to continue our dinner, but Kane was quiet and I was just angry.

~~~

"What do we do now?" I asked Kane, an hour later, both of us still at the table. Carla and Bruce had gone home; Mom had gone to get Andy ready for bed. We hadn't seen my Dad since he had left, and I was not in the mood for another conversation with him.

   Kane shrugged, but squeezed my hand. "I don't know, but we will do it together."

   "You're not scared of standing up to my Dad?" I asked, half joking.

   "Nope. I'll tell him I love you and I'm not going anywhere-"

   "You are, though," my dad said, suddenly in the doorway of the kitchen.

   He had been listening, obviously, and he actually looking like he was more disappointed in me than anything else. His tall frame was standing even taller, and his dark eyes were just staring us down.

   "I'm not," Kane said, trying to sound sure of this.

   "What about college? In six months you'll be off somewhere, living your life, leaving Marley behind," my Dad told him.

   I swallowed hard, knowing this could very well be true, and I hadn't thought about it at all. Why would I want to think about that? Kane only looked at me for a second, then back to my dad.

   "I'm not leaving her behind," Kane said again, but his voice was shaky. Maybe he hadn't thought this far ahead.

   "We'll see," my dad finished, and then he was gone again.