Eleven Days
Lilith had decided long ago that Trumbull’s lunchroom was nothing short of a torture chamber, but the next morning Cam slipped a note in her locker asking her to meet him in the band room during lunch—so there was no way she was going there. And while Rattlesnake Creek was always calling her name, today she was actually hungry.
So the cafeteria it was. Just before noon, she entered the noisy labyrinth of sticky lunch tables. Conversations quieted and benches creaked the moment she stepped inside.
For a second, she saw herself through their eyes: A hostile scowl pinching her lips. The feral look in her blue eyes. Cheap black jeans so busted they were more hole than denim. The tangled bright red hair no brush could tame. Even Lilith wouldn’t want to eat lunch with Lilith.
“Did you find a dollar on the street? Or did you come to beg for scraps?” Chloe King said, appearing in Lilith’s path. Chloe held her tray casually with one hand. Her fingernails were lilac. Her mane of braids swished as she walked.
“Leave me alone.” Lilith pushed past, knocking the tray out of Chloe’s hands, spilling her burger and fries to the floor and a carton of milk onto Chloe’s tight white suede minidress.
“You’d better be glad this is white, or your broke-ass mom would be at the bank taking out a loan to buy me a new one.”
The girls from her band, the Slights, came to Chloe’s side, each one in a different-colored pastel minidress. Suddenly, as if a spotlight had found them, Lilith could visualize their band onstage. They probably couldn’t play their instruments, but Chloe’s band would win the battle because everyone would think they looked hot. It wasn’t like Lilith even had a band anyway, but the thought of Chloe winning made her furious.
“Are you listening?” Chloe said. “Hello?” She nudged her burger with the toe of her boot. “Maybe we should thank Lilith for reminding us not to eat the crap they serve here.”
Her friends laughed predictably.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lilith saw Cam enter the cafeteria, guitar case in hand. “I wouldn’t be caught dead at prom. I’m not entering the Battle of the Bands, so even someone who sings like you has a chance.”
“Your mom came by my house the other night looking for work,” Chloe said. “Daddy felt sorry for her. I offered to let her clean my toilet—”
“That’s a lie,” Lilith snarled.
“Someone’s gotta pay the medical bills for your sick runt brother.”
“Shut up,” Lilith said.
“Of course, Daddy didn’t give your mom a dime.” Chloe buffed her nails against her dress. “He knows a bad investment when he sees one, and anyone can tell that kid’s a goner.”
Lilith lunged forward, grabbed Chloe’s braids, and yanked them hard.
Chloe’s head snapped back and her eyes watered as she fell to her knees. “Stop,” she said. “Please stop.”
Lilith tightened her grip. People could say whatever they wanted about her, but no one put down her brother.
“Let go, you animal!” The blond one—Kara—wailed, bouncing on her toes like she’d been sprung.
“Should I be filming this for, like, evidence?” Chloe’s friend June asked, pulling out her phone.
“Lilith—” Cam rested his hand on the nape of her neck. At his touch, something rushed through her, immobilizing her.
Then her brain engaged. This was none of Cam’s business. She’d known from the moment she saw him that he was the kind of guy who hurt people. She took her fury out on Chloe’s head, tugging her braids harder. “Go away, Cam.”
He didn’t. You’re better than this, his hand seemed to be telling her.
Cam didn’t know the pain and stress and humiliation Lilith had to deal with on a daily basis. He didn’t know her at all.
“What?” she demanded, turning to look at him. “What do you want?”
He nodded toward Chloe. “Kick her ass.”
June dropped her cell phone and leaped at Lilith, but Cam slipped between them and held her back. June bit his arm like a piranha.
“Let her go!” Kara screamed at Cam. “Principal Tarkenton? Somebody? Help!”
Lilith didn’t know if Tarkenton was in the cafeteria. It was hard to see much beyond the tight circle of twenty or so students that had gathered around them.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” the crowd chanted.
And then—suddenly—it all just felt so stupid.
Fighting Chloe wasn’t going to change anything. It wouldn’t make Lilith’s life better. If anything, it would make it worse. She could be expelled, and they could find an even worse place to send her to school. Lilith loosened her fingers and let go of Chloe, who slumped to the ground, rubbing her scalp.
Kara, June, and Teresa rushed to help Chloe up.
“Honey, are you hurt?” Kara asked.