Later, I was told what happened.
Within our school area, there is a secret place (secret, which means that everyone knew about it), where some people go to smoke. Usually, they are older kids, but as I mentioned before, Jason doesn't have the best reputation. He smokes a lot, but never in front of me. On that day, after chemistry classes, he went there with his friends, hungry for some nicotine.
"My rents won't be home till tomorrow, so we could have some fun at my place, what you think?" one of them offered. Most of the rest reacted enthusiastically, apart from Jason himself.
"Yeah, I'm already set up after school... I may come later."
"Maaan, you became such a boring ass!"
"What happened to you?"
"I know what happened... Hailie Monet happened..."
"Fuck off," Jason mumbled, but it didn't stop his friends from loud mocking. They didn't even notice that a group of older guys standing close to them got quiet. Only when Dylan came up to Jason and grabbed his T-shirt's collar, so he could face him, they understood that they get him into trouble.
Jason can have a bad boy reputation, but compared to my brothers, he is still just a kid. Dylan is way taller than him and stronger, that's for sure. And now he was glaring at him, truly annoyed.
"What did your friend mean mentioning Hailie?" he asked calmly, only apparently.
Jason had a lump in his throat and couldn't say a word, so his buddy rushed to help him.
"W-we were just joking..."
Dylan moved his eyes at him.
"About my sister?"
"In general..."
"About them studying after school together..."
"They really study..."
"And that's why we were fooling around..."
"Because Jason's an idiot.."
"But with her, he actually studies..."
His colleagues' explanations were no rhyme or reason and they didn't even know they'd just made it all worse. Dylan fixed his glare back at Jason and this time there were Tony and Shane lurking from behind his back.
"You're seeing my sister after school?" Dylan growled out, coming even closer to Jason, who raised his hands in defense.
"We r-really just s-study." he stuttered.
"So why did she tell me she goes to the library alone?" Shane asked and then he added to his brothers and himself. "Fuck, she lied to us."
"Screw him!" snapped Tony and passed by Dylan, jerking Jason's T-shirt. He raised his fist, preparing to punch him, when Dylan stopped him.
"Wait, wait. Let's do it another way," he said, fixing at Jason his beady look. "Today's Thursday, right? Another meeting?
Jason looked like he was about to cry. He nodded his head, looking away.
"Splendid," Dylan said with a wry smile, and inside of his head, a plan has been created. Plan, how to catch me red-handed.
As it's already known, it worked.
I was standing, pushed away from Jason, with Dylan behind my back. I looked at Jason for a moment and then I turned away, facing Dylan and Tony. Yeah, Tony was there too. They stood casually, but their faces were dark. I shivered and didn't know how to respond.
"You were about to go to the library or you already were there?" Dylan asked icily.
"I-I..." I started, but couldn't stutter a word.
"What, fucking, what?" Tony barked, making me drop my head.
They didn't waste time. Dylan came to me and caught my arm tightly. He started to drag me away to the parking lot and Tony headed towards Jason. I tried to escape a grip, but I absolutely stood no chance.
"Tony, stop!" I yelled terrified, imagining the worst scenario. But Tony just came to Jason, grabbed the front of his T-shirt, whispered something to his ear and let him go, shovelling him onto the ground. Then he followed us, lightening his cigarette on his way. Dylan ignored my poor tries to release myself. He almost threw me to the car, on the backseat, and I immediately looked around if anyone saw it.
I was more and more scared. I have never seen them that angry before. Not at me, at least. For the whole way back home I kept quiet as I didn't want to add fuel to the fire. Tony talked with someone on the phone, but that was completely irrelevant with me and Jason, so my mind wandered off. I focused on wondering if they are going to inform Vince about the whole thing. I shivered at this thought. Who am I lying to, of course, they are going to inform him.
Dylan sent me to the kitchen to have some dinner and disappeared somewhere, so I was left alone at the table, waiting for my faith. After about 10 minutes I stopped, because Vince entered the room. He looked perfectly, as always and threateningly, as always. I shivered again and stared at my plate, not daring to look at his face. I knew he knew. That was the moment when I realized that I actually broke two of his rules. I lied to my brothers about going to the library and I met with a boy. Additionally, Dylan and Tony surely saw me touching Jason and how I tried to kiss him....
Vince sat in front of me. His movements were slowly, graceful and elegant. God, can't he just yell at me?
"What do you want to tell me, Hailie?" he asked finally in a low voice which made me shiver. Again.
I kept silent, not being able to say a word. I just played with my food. After a moment, Vince got irritated and pushed my plate away, right from under my nose. I dropped the fork with a loud clank and raised my scared eyes at him.
"When I ask you a question, you answer it," he growled out. The most disturbing thing about Vince was that he could control his anger so well. He wasn't spontaneous, always calculating everything with a cold distance.
"You already know..." I squealed and felt my eyes water. Please, don't let the tears fall down, please... I didn't want to cry in front of him.
Vince shook his head slowly.
"I want to hear it from you"
At this moment, Will came to the kitchen followed by Dylan. They didn't have a chance to talk apparently, not with the details at least, because Will seemed to be surprised with a thick atmosphere around. However, one quick glance at Vince and me and he already knew that something's up. He sighed heavily and leaned across the fridge, folding his arms on his chest. Dylan put some food on his plate and sat at the table. I wasn't exactly happy with their presence.
I took a shaky breath.
"Some time ago Jason, my classmate, he asked me to help him with French. In the beginning, I said no, but he insisted... He could fail, I had to help him! - I put the emphasis on the last sentence as if it was explaining everything.
"Oh sure, Tony and I saw how you study." Dylan murmured.
"You taught him French... kiss," Tony added derisively. He appeared out of nowhere, also getting some food and also sitting at the table.
I didn't have the courage to look at Vince nor Will.
"It wasn't like that..."
"Let's explain it. You've been meeting secretly with some Jason..." Will started.
"I often see this shithead while smoking. He doesn't seem all right." Tony broke in as if he enjoyed getting me into trouble.
"That's not true, he's actually really all right!" I argued, sending him a reproachful look.
"Save it, Hailie" spat Dylan.
"You save it yourself, Dylan!" I sassed loudly, putting a pressure on his name. I lose my temper easily. Too easily. While those words were leaving my mouth, I already regretted them. There was no way I could defend myself giving my brothers an attitude. I could only make everything worse. And I made, because they got quiet. Dylan bored into me, Tony was smirking, Will pursed his lips with a disapproval and Vince... Vince got up and slowly moved towards me.
I gulped and dropped my head, freezing in my spot. Inside my head there was only one thought.
I'm stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.