Forever Friends

Chapter 12

"I am so tired," Savannah said, "Is that coffee?" She reached over and snagged the cup out of Georgia's hand, drinking away the rest of the white chocolate mocha.

"Savannah," Georgia looked at her, "I didn't' expect to see you today." Georgia put down her book and took a long look at the state of her cousin. She looked perfect, as usual. Savannah's hair was straight down her back, glittering on an emerald green shirt as she drew her fingers through it to fix it in place. She wore a black skirt and chick black heels, her makeup was perfect and Georgia was acutely aware that her cousin's appearance went against everything that it was supposed to be like.

"Why not?" Savannah looked at Georgia and then to the grass. She lifted her shoulders in a shrug and laughed, "Whatever. I'm not going to dwell on it." She cut her hand across the air in dismissal.

"You don't think you should like, talk to a counselor or something? Or maybe tell your parents."

"If I tell my parents, they will tell your parents that we snuck out to go to Kaleb's party. You don't want to get grounded do you?" Savannah put a hand on Georgia's leg, rubbing her finger over the tear in the denim on Georgia's knee. Georgia bit off a sigh,

"Okay," She said, "Then tell them. I don't mind being grounded if it means you're going to be okay."

"You don't mind being grounded because you're boring, Gigi, and you are always looking for reasons to stay inside with your books."

Georgia just stared at Savannah, nothing ever seemed to bring her down, to touch her, not even this. It was both amazing and scary to Georgia.

"Lets talk about something else," Savannah was done with the subject. She was having a good day and she didn't want to think about having to act like the lie she told. "How about Max Hunnington? He's looking pretty hot today isn't it?"

Georgia picked her book back up, losing interest quickly.

"I don't think you getting into another guy so fast is such a great idea right now."

Savannah scoffed,

"Georgia," She emphasized, "You can't expect me to sit in my room and cry forever. Max is Sara's ex, but I am going to rock his world and he is never going to think about her again."

Rock his world?

"Uh-huh." She kept looking at Savannah over the top of her book.

"Stop looking at me like that." Savannah snapped, crossing her arms over her chest and huffing. Georgia didn't fall for it though,

"Like what?"

"Like I was assaulted or something."

"But you were." Georgia added.

"Georgia, I said I didn't want to talk about it anymore." Savannah flipped her hair over her shoulder as the warning bell rang, "Look, I'm going to go. I got to get a good seat, I want to be near Max today."

"Savannah…"

"Just. Stop it, Georgia." She narrowed her eyes, "I meant what I said. I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Georgia got to her feet, closed her book and leaned down to pick up her bag, slinging the satchel over her shoulder.

"Okay," Georgia relented, "I'm going to go to chemistry. I'll see you at lunch." She stared at Savannah again before she walked away from her, going the other direction up the hill towards the science building. No one could ever tell Savannah how to act and Georgia should have known that wasn't going to make a difference now.

She just hoped she was going to be okay in the long run.

****

There was a pretty good chance that Kaleb was going to get suspended today. His mother wouldn't be happy with him but he was seeing red and swore he was spewing lava out of his ears and mouth. He stomped down the hall towards the locker room and threw the door open with his shoulder. Everyone turned to look. Good, they were supposed to. Kaleb was the star of this world and there was nothing that would distract him from it, except for hunting down Max Hunnington and peeling his skin off his bones.

"Where's Max?" Kaleb asked one of the other players who pointed back towards the lockers and Kaleb stalked down between the two isles of lockers.

"It was f*****g amazing," Max was saying, "She just took her shirt off and man…" Max's filthy recount of whatever story he was telling was bit off when his back swung around and hit the metal lockers.

"Jesus, Kaideen, back off!" Max gave a shove, but Kaleb didn't back down. He held Max by the shirt and pressed him against the lockers, discomfort passing Max's face as the locks started to dig. "What's your problem man?"

"Did you sleep with her?" Kaleb demanded to know.

"What?" Max twisted in the arms, but he couldn't get loose, "Who the hell are you talking about? Sara?" Max glared at his non-friend, his rival, and he said the first dumb thing that came out of his mouth. "Hell yes I did." Max popped off, "What's the matter, you jealous?"

Kaleb punched him so fast that he would spend the next three hours trying to decide how his brain came to the decision that was the right course of action to take. Wait, of course it was, this was Sara that Max was talking about. The second Kaleb threw the first punch it was on. Max recovered from the punch and jumped at Kaleb, tackling him around the waist and taking him down to the ground.

A crowd quickly formed around the two, as it often did in male circles, with no one jumping in to intervene, but instead cheering and chanting the two on. They fired back cruel words to each other, until Kaleb got around to Max's chest. He was seeing red. He grabbed him by the neck and let out a feral sound.

"You ass." Kaleb took another punch to the neck and was pushed back off Max. That made him jump forward, but he was jerked back against a body that held him around the waist, trapping his arms at his sides but he still fired off his mouth.

"Don't you freaking touch her again, you got it?" It was then that he had the thought to turn around and see who was holding him.

"Calm the hell down Kaleb," It was Randy. He'd come into the locker room in time to hear the guys in the front talk about Kaleb taking down Max. Randy pushed through the crowd in time to wrap his arms around Kaleb and pull him off before Kaleb could get himself into more trouble. He was already grounded until the end of time from the party that the cops broke up, and now he was going to get himself suspended.

"Get off me," Kaleb shoved himself away, jacking Randy far enough that he bounced off the lockers, "You have no right to get all high and mighty with me." He turned his head, done with Max, but gave him a threatening stare as the little punk started to peel himself off the floor. If he couldn't make her keep her skirt on, he'd make everyone so afraid of him that they would walk the other way across the school. How many guys was it now, he couldn't help but wonder. Everyone called her a slut behind her back, but he never really thought that about Sara. Apparently, everyone was right and she'd been lying to him about it for the longest time.

"I'm not trying to get high and mighty with you, Kaleb, I'm trying to keep you from getting suspended."

"I don't want your help."

"What's your problem?"

"Don't play stupid."

Randy was a little lost. He realized now that none of the guys in the locker room were talking to him and now he was more than confused.

"I swear to God, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Whatever." Kaleb was still hot and he needed to blow off some steam, he was going to go to run some laps. As he started to change, he looked over at Randy, tossing his shirt into the bottom of the locker, "You want me to spell it out, fine. You got a girl drunk, in my house, and you took her up to one of the bedrooms and you assaulted her. So get away from me."

Randy blinked. He was trying to think about what Kaleb could mean by that. "Are you talking about Savannah?"

"Don't play stupid with me, of course I'm talking about Savannah."

"Dude I didn't touch her."

Kaleb slammed his locker door, "Stay the hell away from me, rapist."

Kaleb walked away and even though the bell was ringing, Randy was walking out of the gym to camp out in front of Savannah's class so that they could have a little talk when she got out.