she didn’t think anything was broken. Her hands searched her face and head but there was no blood. Above her, Beverly watched, chest heaving, a strange look on her face. Triumph? Pleasure?
“What is your problem?” Josie shouted. “You could have killed me!”
Beverly descended the stairs slowly, almost regally, like a queen looking down on a royal subject. When she reached the landing, she brushed against Josie and gave her a withering look. “Too bad I didn’t. Ray deserves better.”
Josie’s fist shot out, making contact with Beverly’s left eye socket. Beverly let out a shriek, hands flying to her face. That was going to leave a mark, Josie thought. Instantly, she regretted it. She was already in hot water with the principal and with her gram. “You need to learn to control these impulses,” they both said to her every time she was forced into a meeting with the two of them. The only thing that kept the principal from suspending her was Lisette’s constant reminders to him of the abuse Josie had suffered at her mother’s hands before Lisette took custody of her. Josie hated that Lisette had to bring that up all the time, but it did keep her in school. Besides, Josie didn’t normally have behavioral problems. The meetings were almost always as a result of altercations involving Beverly. Although before today, Beverly had never been so overtly violent toward Josie, and while Josie had wanted to on many occasions, she hadn’t ever punched Beverly before now.
Beverly’s hands came away from her face. To Josie’s shock, tears streamed down her cheeks. “How could you?” she gasped. “You—you hit me. You could have—I—”
The sentence was swallowed up by a sob. The reaction was so out of character for Beverly, Josie was rendered speechless. Beverly was the queen of taunts, known school-wide for her cruelty. She had never once cried, not in front of anyone. While she wept, Josie stared at her, dumbfounded. Pain from her fall down the steps began to course through various body parts. She was suddenly aware of the sweat pouring down her face.
The door at the top of the steps swung open, and Mr. Rand appeared above them. “You girls,” he said, shaking his head. “To the principal’s office. Now.”
An hour later, Josie sat on a bench outside the main office. Her clothes stuck to her, glued to her skin from hours of sweat. Her left knee throbbed. Inside, her grandmother was still trying to convince the principal not to suspend her.
“Jo, there you are.” Ray appeared before her. She smiled weakly.
He knelt in front of her and touched her face. “Don’t,” she said. “I’m so sweaty. I know I smell.”
He smiled. “The whole school smells. I heard what happened. Are you okay?”
Josie looked away from him. “You’re not worried whether or not your girlfriend is okay?”
“I just asked you if you were.”
She met his eyes, glaring. “You know what I mean. The whole school thinks you’re sleeping with Beverly behind my back. That you’re taking her to the prom. The first couple of times these rumors started, it was funny. But now I’m starting to wonder, Ray. You know that saying? Where there’s smoke, there’s fire?”
He rolled his eyes. Sitting beside her, he put an arm around her and pulled her close to him. The shirt of his baseball uniform was scratchy against her cheek. In spite of herself, she leaned into him, feeling a rush of relief.
“There’s no fire. You don’t believe those rumors, Jo. Tell me you don’t,” he said.
“I don’t know what to believe.”
Using a finger, he tipped her chin up toward his face. “Believe me,” he told her. “Believe us. I’ve never even had a conversation with Beverly Urban in my life. I don’t care about her. I don’t care about anyone but you. I love you, Jo. You know that.”
Josie stared into his eyes. He brushed a droplet of sweat from her forehead. “It’s you and me, Jo. No one else matters. You know what’s between us. I know you feel it too. What you and I went through with your mom and my dad… no one else could ever fill your shoes, Jo. Those are just rumors. This is real.”
She thought about Ray and Beverly, tried to picture them meeting, kissing, embracing. She couldn’t. Besides that, she and Ray spent so much of their free time together. When would he even have time to carry on with Beverly? He wouldn’t, especially not with baseball. Beverly’s goal in life