"Sure. You got cuffs ready?" I say, holding my arms out in front of me.
Damon gets in my face, real close. "Listen, punk, I have no problem slapping cuffs on you and hauling your ass back to prison. But I don't think you realize your eighteenth birthday is just around the corner. And you know what kind of eighteenth birthday present you get from the State of Illinois? You get transferred to the big boy jail. That's right, the adult place where the inmates rule, and not one day will go by that you won't be threatened or forced to do shit you've only heard about. I don't want you in there, Caleb, because you'll go in a confused smartass boy and come out a hardened bastard. They'll eat you alive there and nobody can save your ass. You hear me? Now tell me why the hell you've been getting into fights."
I'm so used to pleading guilty, I forget sometimes to tell the truth. I look Damon straight on, no playing around this time. "I was protecting Maggie. Drew insulted her."
Damon takes my desk chair and sits in it. He puts his hand on his forehead and starts rubbing it, kind of like Meyer did this afternoon. "Caleb, what're you doing? She's your victim. You hit her with your car."
"I didn't do it."
"What?" he snaps.
"I said I didn't mean to do it."
Damon takes his hand off his forehead and leans forward. "I don't know what you're trying to pull here, but it's not good. If you can't pretend Maggie doesn't exist, then leave town. She called my boss this morning expressing concern about her safety. She said you've been sexual with her, and now that it's over you've harassed her."
"What?"
Damon looks straight at me. "Maggie Armstrong says she's filing a complaint. Oh, don't look so shocked, Caleb. What did you expect? When you don't follow the rules you pay the consequences. It's simple."
Nothing is that simple. I swallow. My throat feels constricted. Maggie hates me enough to send me back to the DOC?
"I need to know," Damon continues. "Did you have a sexual encounter with her?"
I sit on my bed and rest my head in my hands. Jeez, this cannot be happening. "That depends on what you mean by a sexual encounter."
"Don't f**k with me, Becker."
"I didn't have sex with her."
"Did you harass her?"
I shake my head. "We had a relationship, a mutual relationship. It was no big deal. It's over. Done."
"How did it end?"
"Abruptly."
Damon blows out a breath in frustration, then pulls out a stack of papers from his briefcase. "I got your release papers signed. You finished your community service."
I stare at the papers as if they have angels' wings on them, but my head is still reeling. I thought what Maggie and I shared was ... well, it was a hell of a lot more than I ever had with Kendra. If Maggie hooked up with me just for revenge ... oh, hell.
"You're released, but we have a bit of a problem. You can't go back to school. Caleb?"
"Yeah."
"Everybody isn't against you, you know."
I nod. Right now, I can't agree. I was so pumped to fix everything when I returned home. But all I've been doing is fighting instead of fixing. I'm at a loss here.
After Damon leaves, I head to the kitchen. Mom is leaning against the sink. She's shaking as she takes a bunch of pills and swallows them with a gulp of water.
"Mom, what are you doing?"
"Taking medication for tension and stress."
I snatch the bottle of pills off the counter.
"Give me that back," she orders.
Taking a closer look at the drug's name on the bottle. Diazepam. Valium. "How long have you been taking these?"
"Give them back," she says, pulling the bottle from my hand and clutching them as if they hold her sanity.
"You can overdose on that shit, Mom. It's dangerous."
My mom laughs, a throaty laugh so strong it makes her cough.
"Is that why you've been avoiding getting close to me. You've become a closet pill popper?" Damn, why didn't I see this before?
"It's not in the closet anymore, is it?"
"Does Dad know?"
"What do you think? It's the only way I can keep a smile on my face all day. He doesn't like to think about the bad stuff. He's too busy. I've been a failure, haven't I? A terrible wife, a terrible mother ... it's no wonder I was kicked out of the Ladies' Auxiliary."
"Stop caring what everyone thinks!" I yell. "You're killing the entire family."
"Did you think about the entire family when you hit Maggie?" she whispers, then huffs out a disgusted breath.
"This isn't about me, Mom." I don't tell her it never was about me.
She shakes her head. "You don't get it, Caleb, do you? There's four people living in this house and we're all strangers. It is about you. It's about all of us."
I don't even know who I am anymore. I thought I did, but with Maggie's betrayal I'm back where I started.
My mom turns to face the sink, her body shaking and wrought with despair. As I walk over and put my arms around her, I want to tell her I'll help her. I need help, too. But she stiffens as soon as I make contact. "Don't touch me."
I take my hands off her and back away. Everything around me is crashing into a million pieces. There's no way I can mend them no matter how hard I try. "Don't wait up," I grind out before leaving the kitchen and taking the stairs two steps at a time. I bang on Leah's bedroom door. "Open up."