started it.” Harlow mimicked my voice, and I smacked her shoulder. She pinched my thigh in response.
“Ouch!” I yanked her ponytail, and then we both burst into giggles.
“Seriously though”—she straightened her hair—“I’ve never seen you this worked up. He’s just an asshole with an ego. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you had the hots for him.”
“Oh, please.” I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes.
“Holy shit.” Amaya sat up. “Is that why you don’t want to call the dogs off? You’re worried the other girls will think it’s open season?”
“No.” My answer was immediate and firm. But now that she mentioned it, I didn’t like the idea of a sea of teal pleated skirts hanging off his every move. But that was only because I didn’t want him to have anyone to hang out with—as he’d insisted he didn’t want. That was all. It wasn’t because I secretly liked him.
“You’re bullying him.” Mena finally raised her gaze, making Amaya and Harlow pause in their taunting and poking at my sides.
I reeled back as if she’d slapped me. “No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. You all are. The entire school. He may be big enough to defend himself from most physical attacks, but what happens when people decide to gang up on him? What happens when they get a group together, drag him out to the football field, tie him to the goalpost . . .” She swallowed as I shared a wide-eyed look with the other two. “Because they decide they need to prove a point. Prove your point.”
She was describing the horrific things that had been done to her.
I reached across the table and took her hand. “I’d never let that happen, Philomena.”
“Not intentionally.” She slowly pulled her hand out from under mine. “But can’t you see that you’re doing to him what they did to me?”
I sat back and really thought about it. Was I instigating the mean, petty shit Fulton students were doing to Hendrix? No. But did I start the campaign against him to prove a point? Yes, I absolutely did. And did I get satisfaction from how thoroughly he was being punished for treating me with disrespect? I’d be lying if I said no. It was why I’d let it go on.
But the thought of being as bad as her bullies in Mena’s eyes broke my heart.
Tears stung the backs of my eyes, but I forced the emotion back. I refused to cry in front of other people.
“I think she’s right.” Harlow fiddled with her napkin. “We need to take Mena’s view on the situation seriously, considering.”
Amaya nodded. “D, we know you’re not intending to bully him, but I do think we need to be wary of this escalating. Fulton is a whole other ballgame. You know that if any of those shits pulled the kind of stunt Mena went through, they wouldn’t even see the inside of a police station before their parents’ money took care of the problem.”
“You’re right.” I nodded and licked my lips. “You’re all right. I refuse to let him talk to me like shit, but I don’t agree with how things have been escalating. I’ll do something about it on Monday.”
“We will.” Harlow smiled, reminding me I wasn’t alone in this . . . even though it sometimes felt like it.
“It’ll be fine.” Amaya flipped her long black hair over a delicate shoulder. “We just need to remind those idiots they have reputations to uphold. Nothing brings rich brats into line like the threat of embarrassing their parents.”
Mena smiled, already looking lighter. “I love you girls.”
“Love you,” the three of us chorused.
“Ugh!” Amaya slapped the table. “Enough heavy shit. Let’s go get Starbucks.”
We walked two blocks to the nearest one and got giant cups of sugar and caffeine.
Out on the sidewalk, Mena sucked on her straw while typing out a text. When Harlow and Amaya joined us, she put the phone away.
“Turner is about to go on his break. Mind if we swing by his work?” she asked.
“Not at all!” I looped my arm through hers, and we took off down the street. Her boyfriend still went to her last school—Devilbend North High School—and the two of them were adorable together. But Mena worked at a diner closer to where she lived, and Turner had just recently gotten a job at a gym downtown, so they had less and less time to spend with each other. I couldn’t blame them for seizing every opportunity.
As we rounded the