become suspicious, Maggie knew how certain things would scare or irritate Aaron. One time they were on their way out of school, walking together as far as they could before he broke off for the teachers’ lot, when she lightly smacked him on the leg because he was being silly. He reacted as though he had been electrically shocked. He looked around and nobody was there. He turned to her and said, You can’t touch me, because people might get suspicious. His tone was stern yet understanding. He knew that she wasn’t being flirtatious but also that, considering what was going on, they couldn’t afford any speculation.
So for Chris, this half friend, to say that she flirted with Aaron is simply preposterous. It doesn’t get more lonely than this, she thinks, to be thrown to the wolves by people you barely remember.
Maggie almost cries when she hears about Candace Paczkowski. Even though she had a reputation for being one of the toughest teachers, Ms. Paczkowski had a fondness for Maggie. She is stocky, with short red hair, and today wears a black-and-white jacket. Maggie remembers that when they were learning about transcendentalism, she was one of the only students who raised a hand in genuine interest. Ms. Paczkowski kept her after class to tell her how much she appreciated Maggie’s participation and point of view, which made Maggie feel smart. She was beaming the whole way home.
Today Ms. Paczkowski is testifying not for Maggie but for Aaron.
Ms. Paczkowski taught in a classroom across the hall from Aaron’s and says every day at noon she would pop her head in to check on him, to say hello, and never once did she see Maggie in there. Plus, she intimates that the teachers were all too busy for fingering.
Lora is one of the blonds in the picture of blonds taken the night Maggie picked Aaron up from TGI Friday’s. She didn’t post the picture on Facebook until late March, so the defense says it is not consistent with Maggie’s timeline.
Toward the end of the parade comes the unkindest cut of all. Maggie had known she was coming. When Maggie saw her name on the list of witnesses for the defense, she ran to the toilet and vomited.
Heather S. takes the stand and says they were best friends at the time of the alleged relationship. She says she would have known if something happened. Basically, she calls Maggie a liar. Maggie, who once took a fall for her in the principal’s office. Maggie, who always had her back. When Maggie later hears what Heather said on the stand, she can’t help remembering that in school, Heather had given Aaron, for Christmas, a coffee mug with a Bible verse about love on it. At the time, Aaron told Maggie that his wife thought it was weird, that she said Heather gave him that mug because she wanted to fuck him. And every time he used the mug, Marie would say, Are you using the “fuck me” mug again? Of course, Maggie can’t know if that talk between Aaron and Marie was real. Back when they were together Aaron told Maggie he thought Sammy had a crush on him, which made Maggie feel irrationally angry toward Sammy for some time, and she couldn’t even tell her why. Maggie believes now that either Aaron wanted her to be jealous, or he wanted her to push her friends away so she’d have no one to tell their secret to. He’d succeeded in doing both.
In the State’s cross-examinations, all the teachers are asked if they ever had phone conversations with students after ten P.M. Candace Paczkowski and Amy Jacobson, Aaron’s paraprofessional in Maggie’s English class, talk a lot about how Aaron would help his students and testify that they would have done the same thing for a troubled student. Ms. Paczkowski and the other witnesses don’t have to look at Maggie as they defend Aaron. Maggie does not watch them live, but later, on the evening news, in the chair where her father used to sit. She cries and pukes and doesn’t know who she has left anymore.
Finally, Byers asks Ms. Paczkowski, “How about the timing of those calls? Any calls you took or made to students around midnight?”
“No,” she says.
Sloane
In the early days of the restaurant, Richard and Sloane threw a party for New Year’s Eve. One of the chefs who worked that evening was Wes, Richard’s right-hand man. Wes was very attractive, with the kind of