Ashley Cooper's Arc

Chapter 13 of 37

The rumor was dead, but the question Ashley carried was not. She'd humiliated Susie and Lucie in front of the whole school. Mike had watched every second. She needed to know if the boy who chose her still liked what he saw. She found him the next morning at his locker, spinning a basketball on one finger. "Can we talk?" she asked. Mike caught the ball. "Sure." She pulled him into the school library, past the shelves, where it was quiet. Too quiet. Mrs. Poo-Poo, the strict librarian who'd once filed a report against Ashley, sat at her desk in her white blouse and pencil skirt. She looked up over her glasses. "Two minutes," Mrs. Poo-Poo said. "This is a library, not a lounge." Then her face pinched. A long, wet sound broke the silence. A smell rolled out behind it. Mrs. Poo-Poo cleared her throat and looked back at her papers as if nothing had happened. Ashley almost laughed. It cracked her nerves open. She turned to Mike. "You saw what I did to the twins." "I did," Mike said. "I made the whole hall laugh at them. I turned two girls into a joke." Her voice shook. "I need to know if you still respect me. Because if you don't, then none of this means anything." Mike set the basketball on a shelf. He didn't answer fast, and that scared her more than anything. "You want the truth?" he said. "When you did it, I felt sick. That's not the girl who kissed me in the cafeteria." The words landed hard. Ashley gripped the shelf with her bone hand. "But then I watched your face after," Mike said. "You didn't smile. You didn't brag. You looked like you hated it too." He stepped closer. "A person who feels bad about being cruel is still someone I respect. It's the ones who enjoy it you have to worry about." Air came back into Ashley's chest. "So we're okay?" "We're okay," Mike said. "But do me a favor. Next time somebody comes at you, beat them by being better. Not by being meaner. That's the girl I wrote that letter to." Mrs. Poo-Poo shot them a glare. Another quiet rumble escaped her chair. "Time's up," she snapped, waving them toward the door. Ashley took Mike's hand and pulled him out into the hall. She felt lighter than she had in days. The one relationship she'd chosen was solid. Mike still saw her, all of her, and stayed. Then she spotted the twins near the water fountain, watching her hold Mike's hand. Susie whispered to Lucie. Both heads smiled the same cold smile. They weren't done. And Mike had just told her exactly how she wasn't allowed to fight them anymore.