Project Smile

Sixteen

Author's Note: Major trigger warning in Gabriel's part of the chapter. Please be careful.

"Suspension actually isn't all that bad," I say, watching as Erin and Pete both look up at me with shocked surprise.

"We can definitely add that to the list of things I never thought I'd hear Cass say," says Pete, grinning a little. It's not his usual one, though. Something's wrong.

"Are you okay?" I ask, looking at him with concern. He nods and keeps on walking, but I stop him. "Pete, what's wrong?" The tone in my voice changes and becomes a little more demanding than I meant for it to be.

"Nothing," he mutters, not looking me in the eye. Instead, he kicks at the cracked concrete. "I just didn't sleep well last night." Erin bites her lip slightly with a worried expression, meeting his eyes for a split second. She knows something that I don't. But instead of asking again, I just decide to drop it. Plus, we really don't need to make a scene in front of the mattress store. I'm sure that if the owner looks though the dirty glass of the darkened store, he can see us.

"So what did your mom say?" asks Erin, beginning to walk forward again, heading straight for the psychiatrist's office.

"She actually took it pretty well. After I explained the circumstances, that is," I say, falling into step beside her.

For all of my life, my mother has told me to stand up for myself. After my father died, she especially encouraged it. She knew it was what he would have wanted. I've always been told that if someone was to hit me, I was to hit them back even harder, no matter the consequence. I would get into major trouble if I didn't. I learned this when I was thirteen and my cousin, five years my junior, decided that it would be fun to punch me in the stomach, kick me in the face, and bust my lip just because he could. He also severed the bits of self-esteem that I had left while he was at it, but that's not important. Anyway, Mom was furious, both with him and with me. That was the day that I got grounded and it was made known to me that I was to protect myself at any cost, and I was to also protect anyone who couldn't protect themselves. So when I explained to her that Gabriel had left, that I had went to tell Audrey and Nathaniel off, and that things got physical, she said that she was proud of me for standing up for Gabriel and for hitting back.

The two reasons that I haven't been out in public until now are that Mom's been trying to lift my suspension with no luck, and because I don't want to be seen by hardly anyone right now. Ever since Wednesday, Mom has been trying to explain to the principal that the punches that were thrown were out of self-defense. Since the sources are all biased towards one way or another, none of us are allowed back yet. And as for the second reason, I don't want any unwanted attention. Our town is extremely small, meaning that there's always a huge chance of running into someone that we don't want to see. So I've stayed inside, using all of the extra time I've had to read, text people to get the day's notes, and figure out exactly how to mend things with Gabriel. That phone call was nowhere near enough.

But since it's Friday now, and since my suspension is basically over, I feel a little safer.

"Hey, is that Gabriel?" The sound of Erin's voice breaks my train of thought and I look around to see that we've walked up to the psychiatrist's office. And sure enough, Gabriel is standing inside, speaking with a young, tall blonde woman.

"Yeah. I remember that he told me the other day that he would be visiting his cousin today and that she worked somewhere around here. I guess that's her." The lie comes out easily, and the nonchalant shrug that I give them seems to sell it even more. They nod and say nothing more about it.

I sigh in relief when we walk past. I know that Gabriel probably wouldn't want anyone else knowing about his visits. He already seemed mortified enough when I found out.