My Life After Now - By Jessica Verdi Page 0,73

to New York State law, you are forbidden from disclosing my HIV-positive status to anyone. Not the school nurse, not your wife, not anybody. My health is no one’s business but my own.” Just a little nugget I’d picked up from reading Roxie’s informational pamphlets. “Do you understand?”

“Of course, of course,” he said, unnerved at having lost control of the conversation.

“Good.” Then a terrible thought occurred to me. “You haven’t told someone already, have you?”

“No,” he assured me. “I wanted to speak with you first.”

I gave him a penetrating stare, letting him know I saw right through him. He meant he wanted to make sure I’d go along with his little plan first.

“I’m sorry, I’ve clearly upset you,” Mr. Fisher said quickly, waving his hands as if to wipe away the entire conversation. “I assure you that was not my intention—”

I stood to leave just as the first bell sounded.

“I have to get to class,” I said, and booked it out of there, the nervous layer of sweat on my forehead catching the breeze of the hallway.

• • •

I made a beeline to homeroom, not even bothering to drop my coat off at my locker first. I grabbed Evan, Max, and Courtney by the sleeves and yanked them, stunned, into the hall. My head was still spinning after my meeting with the principal.

“Are you okay?” Courtney said.

“No, I’m not okay,” I snapped. “Who did you tell?”

The three of them just stared back at me.

“One of you said something to someone, and I need to know who.”

Still no one said anything. Fine, I would grill them individually then.

I turned to my right. “Evan?”

He looked back at me, offended. “Jeez, Lucy, I thought I would have earned your trust by now.”

“That’s not an answer,” I pointed out.

He rolled his eyes. “Of course I didn’t tell anyone.”

I stared him down for a few more seconds, and then, satisfied with what I saw, moved on. “Max? Who did you tell?”

“No one, I swear!” he said.

“No one?”

“No one.”

“Swear on your Daniel Radcliffe–autographed Equus Playbill,” I commanded.

“Come on, Luce, are you serious with this?”

“Just do it.”

“Fine.” Max raised his right hand. “I swear on my Daniel Radcliffe–autographed Equus Playbill that I did not tell anyone. Jeez.”

That left Courtney. I turned to my left. “Who did you tell, Court?”

“Lucy, you know me. I would never tell anybody anything that you told me in confidence. You know that,” she said, her voice trembling slightly.

I heaved a frustrated sigh. “Well somebody told somebody, and I know it wasn’t my dads. You three are the only other people in Eleanor Falls who know.”

“Can you please just tell us what’s going on?” Max asked.

I lowered my voice. “Mr. Fisher just asked me to do a freaking safe-sex assembly for the entire school.”

“What?” Evan said. “Who told him?”

I gave him an annoyed look. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

• • •

I spent the entire day wracking my brain. Max, Courtney, and Evan swore up and down that they hadn’t said a word, and I believed them. So who could have told? It didn’t make any sense—no one else even knew.

I called Roxie during lunch.

“I know this is going to sound paranoid,” I said, “but you don’t know anyone in Eleanor Falls, do you?”

“What’s Eleanor Falls?” she said.

“It’s the town where I live.”

“Nope. Never heard of it. Why, what’s up?”

“Somebody told the principal of my school about me being positive. And I can’t for the life of me figure out who the hell it would have been.”

Roxie’s voice suddenly got serious. “Lucy, that’s not good. You need to find out who did it, and soon. If they told your principal, they’ll tell the whole school. And you do not want that.”

“I know, I know. I’m working on it.” I sighed. “I’ll see you Thursday.” I hung up the phone and rubbed my temples in frustration.

No one knew. And if no one knew, no one could have told Mr. Fisher. But Mr. Fisher had obviously been told. So what was I missing?

Obviously someone had found out somehow. I didn’t know how, but that wasn’t the point anymore. I had to stop focusing solely on the limited pool of people who I thought knew and start thinking about who would actually do a thing like that. I mean, really, going and tattling to the principal? That was low.

And then, suddenly, halfway through Honors English, it hit me. Of course. There was only one person who hated me that much.

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Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat

Elyse