One and Done - S. Briones Lim Page 0,20

My mother was right. I did nothing but drag her with me in my downward spiral.

When the door finally opened, I immediately jumped to my feet. Though all three adults stared at me with daggers of disdain, I didn’t notice any of them. My attention was solely on Rocky and her puffy, tear-stained face.

I did that to her.

“You!” Mr. Rossi stomped over to me, beer belly jiggling. Despite being almost a foot shorter, somehow he towered over me. “You better be ashamed of yourself! My daughter has never gotten into this much trouble until you showed up in her life.”

I didn’t reply. What could I say? It was the truth.

“Dad, stop it!” Rocky gasped between sobs.

“Be quiet, Raquel,” her father snapped. “You’re lucky Mr. Elliott is kind enough to allow you to make up the time in detention.”

Though he glared at her with as much ferocity as I’d imagine a rampant bull would give a red blanket, I couldn’t help but feel a bit envious. At least Rocky had parents who cared. What did I have?

As if just remembering my presence, Mr. Elliott stepped around father and daughter and pointed a finger at me. “Mr. Tyler. We’ve tried your mother a few times and unfortunately could not reach her.”

“You mean she didn’t care?” My tone oozed with sarcastic charm.

“Stop making it worse,” Rocky muttered under her breath.

Mr. Elliott frowned. “No matter. Her attendance is not necessary for your punishment. We spoke about this before, remember?”

Crap. I knew what was coming. I nodded silently as Rocky looked on in confusion.

“This is another strike to a long list of strikes.”

“Permanent records are fake,” I mumbled.

Rocky shut her eyes and shook her head. “Idiot.”

Mr. Elliott let out an exasperated sigh. “It is with utter disappointment that I’ll have to suspend you.”

Wow. Thought expulsion was coming.

“Suspension?” Rocky gasped. “But suspension means—”

“Automatic banishment from every dance for the year, yes.” Mr. Elliott never took his eyes off of me. That’s why he didn’t expel me! He knew how much this dance meant to me and just ripped it out from under me. This was far, far worse than being kicked out of school.

“Rocky and I already made plans to go to homecoming together,” I replied solemnly.

“Over my dead body!” Mr. Rossi interjected. “You are never going near my daughter again.”

I remained frozen, watching as Mr. Rossi herded Rocky out of the office. I internally groaned and shut my eyes. I really fucked this one up.

“Just let her go, son.”

My eyes snapped open. “What?”

Mr. Elliott shook his head slightly. “Let her go.”

Chapter 7

Me: How was school?

Rocky: Boring without you.

One week. It’s been one week of me stuck in the hell hole I called my house, and one week away from my friends. I cringed hearing my mother hawk up a loogie in the room next door, wishing that I was just in the middle of a bad dream. Desperate to lose myself, I picked up the phone once more.

Me: Has anybody been bothering you?

Rocky: If you’re talking about Dwight, yes.

Okay, maybe that was a bad way of losing myself. My blood boiled as my fingers took on a mind of its own.

Me: Tell me exactly what he did and don’t lie.

A few seconds ticked by with no answer. “Come on, Rocky. Stop thinking of a lie.”

Finally, after a few minutes my phone buzzed, and to my disappointment it was definitely not the answer I wanted to see.

Rocky: He asked me to homecoming.

Me: Did you tell him you had a date already?

Rocky: You mean the date that ditched me?

I couldn’t tell if the pain in my stomach was caused by irritation, guilt, or the leftover pork chop I found in the back of the fridge that night. I stared at my screen, typing, retyping, and erasing over and over again. Racking my brain for a response that wouldn’t piss my best friend off, I was relieved to hear the PING of her response.

Rocky: I said no of course.

I let out a sigh of relief and deleted my string of gibberish. Deciding I didn’t want to talk about the meathead anymore, I abruptly changed the subject to happier thoughts.

Me: Seeing as we BOTH don’t have dates, you wanna continue our cheesy movie night tradition? I’ll supply the popcorn ;)

Damn, a winky face emoticon? What’s happening to you, Jesse? I frowned as I watched three dots bounce across my screen. She was definitely typing something and hesitating. Hmm…

Me: You have something against acid washed jeans and teased hair?

Rocky: Don’t