one hit Cally right in her ribs, and her eyes started to water with the severe pain. But she didn’t want to show weakness, so she just held it in. The blonde started laughing and looked to her friends. “That should teach her to keep her mouth shut.”
A teacher noticed the crowd and came over. “Break it up! Get to where you have to go!”
She was thankful for her interruption, and as she started to her car, one of the guys yelled, “Next time, you won’t get off so easy!”
She made it in the car before she let out a long moan. Her ribs were killing her, and she couldn’t hide the pain. She was thankful Hannah was staying after for the dance so the girl wouldn’t see this and run back to her brother. She didn’t need Dakota getting involved in this any more than he had been already. It was starting to become clear he wasn’t sure she could take care of herself, and with this, he would end up forcing her to stay with his parents so they could “watch” her and make sure she was okay.
Pain or not, there was no way she could let this get out. She went to work and bought the largest ace wrap she could find and a bottle of pain meds. When Baca checked her out, she asked, “What happened?”
She had already seen Dakota’s little “check-ins” with Baca, so she said, “I twisted my ankle during gym. It’ll be fine after I wrap it up.”
“My son, Tom, was always twisting his ankles in gym and basketball. It’ll be fine in a few days, just don’t walk on it too much,” Baca offered reassuringly.
She gave her coworker a weak smile. “I’m just a big baby when it comes to pain,” she joked.
Baca handed her a receipt, and she took her wrap to the bathroom and carefully wrapped her ribs. Who says T.V. isn’t educational? she thought as she mimicked what she had seen them do on the doctor shows she watched. She laughed as she remembered an episode of House and downed two pills. She put her vest on and went into the office to hear Sara say, “Baca told me what happened. Do you need to go home?”
She shook her head, not needing anyone else to worry over her. “No, I’ll be fine.”
“Why don’t you get a drawer, and I’ll find a stool for you?” she offered.
Cally fake limped a little to play up her lie. If Baca found out that she gotten into another fight at school, she would tell Dakota, and Cally would never hear the end of it. “Thanks.”
The night was rather busy, but the stool helped to keep her still enough to deal with the pain without wincing too much.
The next few weeks went by with more threats, and Dakota came back the second week of October; thankfully, her ribs were doing better. She only winced a few times when she moved wrong, but he didn’t seem to notice too much. She closed her eyes and wished for this housing thing to hurry up, because she really, really wanted to move right now. She wasn’t sure how much more she could take.
Cally was in the bathroom changing for work when he walked in and saw the fading yellowish green bruises around her ribs. She had still been wrapping her ribs, but she had made sure not to let him know. “What happened?” he asked in surprise as he lightly rubbed his fingers over the marks.
She slammed her shirt on. “I was trying to take stock out when a box fell and hit me. It’s just a bruise, I’m fine.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he insisted.
Cally just shrugged it off. “It wasn’t a big deal. I get hurt at work all the time. What do you want me to tell you every time I get a little boo-boo?” She pulled up her pant leg to show him the ten bruises she had actually gotten at work.
He pulled her into a gentle hug. “I just worry about you.”
It felt good to know someone actually cared about her, but it wasn’t easy trying to show him he didn’t need to worry so much. She pulled back enough to look in his eyes. “I love you so much.” Then she kissed him.
“Sweetheart, I would take you back with me today if I could.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “And then I would have you with me every day, forever.”
“I know, but for now, we have to deal with this.” She opened the bathroom door. “And I have to go to work.”
He laughed. “I’ll see you next weekend. I have off Sunday and Monday, so I’ll drive down Saturday night.”
Guilt filled her knowing how much it took for him to come down so often. “You don’t have to. I’ll be fine.”
He studied her for a while. “It will be the last time I see you before Thanksgiving.”
“What do we do?” she asked playfully.
“Enjoy it.” He laughed.
The next week seemed to bring more and more rumors. Someone had heard what was happening to her, and they thought it would be fun to get her in more trouble. She had done her best to avoid and dodge and hide behind the friends she did have, but she couldn’t do it forever. Things were getting worse, and it was getting harder and harder to keep out of sight.
Monday morning, she had woken up to Dakota kissing her. When she left for school, she had forgotten everything about them.
Out of habit, she picked Hannah up. “What has you in such a good mood?”
She looked to her. “Dakota is home.”
Hannah laughed. “And I can imagine what you two were doing.”
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” she teased.
Hannah shook her head. “Oh, no, nothing at all.”
“Hey, we’re married and it’s expected.” She wasn’t sure where it came from. “Why is it okay to do it when you’re dating someone but not when you’re married?”
Hannah started blushing. “Because it’s gross and it’s my brother.”
They pulled in the parking lot and they headed into the cafeteria. Hannah went in, and Cally was getting a water bottle from the machines when she heard a voice she was coming to dread. “You just don’t know when to quit, do you?”
Cally side stepped and cringed when she realized she was under the steps again. She turned to face them for the third time and said, “I didn’t start this. I’ve been trying to find out who is starting all these rumors. It’s bull. If you want, you can call Dakota right now, and he’ll tell you the truth.”
There were nine of them this time, each one as big as the next. The three chicks were just as impressive as the guys, and only the blond that cracked her ribs was familiar to her. But each one of them had the same dark blue shirt on with the firehouse logo. Yeah, rednecks and their firehouses; they were all strong and powerful and they were aiming that firepower at her. She backed up and dropped her bag on the floor and put her back to the wall.
“You just don’t know when to stop, do you?” This time, the tall one grabbed her right forearm and twisted it up.
The blond girl hit her dead in the stomach, causing her to double over with the intense pain. She turned into the wall, forcing her arm to hurt worse but also pulling him into her, giving her a little advantage. Cally slammed her boot down on his, and he let go just in time for the blond chick to slap her hard across the face, sending her head into the wall with a deafening crack.
Now furious and fueled with pain, she turned and kicked the girl in the stomach, sending her flying into the guys and knocking them back a step. Another came at her, slamming their foot across the side of her calf, causing a loud crack of tear-splintering pain to run up her entire leg. She couldn’t help but fall to the ground with a near ear-piercing scream that filled the air.
Once she hit the floor, someone kicked her leg, and she did the only thing she could—she pulled her knees to her chest and held her face down with her arms around her legs as she braced her right side on the wall. The tears came fast and hard with each relentless kick. She felt her healing ribs