Bitter

thirty-three - cal

"I apologize for the inconvenience, Principal Norris," Haley confessed in the chair beside me. He was doing a great job at pretending to be genuine. We were both sitting down in Norris's office, facing her as she analyzed us behind her desk and lowered her glasses. Pale light filtered in from a window nearby and I desperately wanted to be outside right then.

   "That's very nice of you, West, but I want to know what happened between you two. Can you tell me that?" Norris questioned, leaning forward. When neither of us spoke, she looked at me. "Cal, do you care to explain why you decided to do that to West?" She gestured to him. He had washed his face so all of the blood was gone, but he still had red marks on his skin from where I'd punched him.

   I was slouched in my seat and I tapped my foot a bit. "Yeah, he was saying things to me and I guess I beat him up," I answered plainly. That was what happened and there wasn't much more to it than that. I didn't really want to tell her what he was saying or the fact that I'd already been in a bad mood before he bothered me. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. What's done is done.

   Norris shifted her attention to Haley then, brown eyes constantly surveying through her glasses. "And West? Is this what happened? Were you provoking Cal?" she asked.

   Haley sat back in his seat and crossed his arms, smirking. "I wouldn't call it provoking..." he said, "more like giving him advice. But if that's what you want to call it then..." he trailed off, shrugging. "I'm just letting you know though, I truly apologize for Cal's actions."

   "Alright," Norris sighed, ignoring Haley's fake sincerity. "I want to let you know that both of you will be spending some time in detention after school and I do not want any complaints, understood? I've already called both of your parents," she explained, then looked back at me. "And Cal, if this continues to happen, expect discussion of expulsion."

   I looked out the window. Great. Mom was going to have a field day with this one.

We were released a minute later, an administrator walking Haley to his current class and another one walking me to mine. I was a regular in Norris's office. I'd been in there for several things, from talking back to Ms. Hunter when I had her sophomore year to writing on the door of one of the bathroom stalls. To be fair, someone else had already written on it and I was just making a joke about what they said. Anyway, beating up Haley today was definitely the worst thing I'd been in there for.

   No one talked to me the rest of the day and I was relieved. If anyone had brought up what had happened I probably would've beat them up too. I hadn't cooled down just yet, so maybe detention was exactly what I needed. Yeah, it sucked that Ms. Hunter still had my phone (not that I'd be able to use it now anyway), but being in a quiet, dull classroom was better than being home. West was ordered to sit on the other side of the room and some teacher I'd never seen in my life monitored us, all while simultaneously typing on a computer.

We weren't allowed to speak. I spent around fifteen minutes attempting my homework for my other classes before I gave up and started drawing in the corners of my paper. I wasn't sure what Haley did the entire time, but I knew it probably wasn't anything interesting. The hands on the clock just kept ticking until finally, our hour was up and the teacher told us we were excused.

Immediately rising to my feet, I picked my bag off the floor and was seconds from leaving the room when none other than Stephen Haley walked through the door. I almost ran right into him and I swiftly backed up to let him pass. But he didn't. Instead, he stood there in the doorway, looking over me. "Cal Warrick?" his smooth voice said. It was strange how he sounded nothing like his son.

I nodded once. I could see the resemblance now when he stood before me. West's dad had the same silver eyes and shared the same towering height. I was only a couple inches shorter than him, but his presence was like a long shadow hovering over you. The only thing Stephen Haley didn't seem to have in common with his son was the way he dressed. Stephen Haley was wearing a black suit and tie (he must've come from work) with his hair combed back, while his son wore ripped jeans and a T-shirt and looked like he'd just woken up.

"I haven't seen you in a while. How are you? How's your father?" Stephen Haley asked seriously, little emotion showing on his face.

"I'm good. He's good," I replied.

"That's good," he said with a small smile. We stared at each other, nodding, and then he gestured to West still sitting in his chair but listening intently to our conversation. "I've come to have a talk with West, see what Principal Norris's phone call was all about," he explained.

I raised my eyebrows for a second. "Oh," was all I managed to say. There was no way he didn't know I had punched his son, many times. "Sorry," I heard myself mumble. Was I really, though?

Stephen Haley held up a hand. "No, you don't have to apologize, Cal. I am aware of the details of the...altercation that took place today and this is between me and West." Then, with that, he passed by me, over to his son, and I didn't waste any more time. I didn't glance back as I heard the shouting. Instead, I pressed on, towards Ms. Hunter's room to retrieve my phone.

That was weird, I thought. I was trying to make sense of the whole situation that happened, but couldn't. I knew Haley's dad was a natural liar and that he faked sympathy, so he probably wasn't actually worried about how me and Dad were doing. But I didn't know he would completely brush away my apology like dust, like what happened in the past concerning him and Dad was forgotten. And he had even shown up to see his son. To yell at him yes, but still.

I hated them both, Haley and his dad. But the fact that Stephen Haley had cared enough that his son was in detention irritated me. Dad couldn't even get up out of his chair, let alone scream at me in a school classroom when I did something stupid. Stephen Haley was supposed to be the one I was mad at, after all he'd done and currently did. Except I wasn't. That was the weirdest thing of all.