Did You Get What You Deserve?

The jury returned a Not Guilty verdict. Of course. As if it could have been anything else. Dad sued Mr Dean for invasion of privacy, and got a hefty sum of compensation money. And as we were leaving the courthouse afterwards, I heard Keith talking to his dad.

“Well, this is what you get for pushing your nose in where it doesn’t belong. Stay the hell out of my relationships. What I do and who I date are my business.”

“But Keith, I’m just trying to keep you safe. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I’m trying to make you happy.”

Keith rounded on his dad.

“Oh yeah? And how are you planning to do that? By hurting the people I care about? You don’t know me at all! I don’t hold grudges, Dad, and I cared about all those girls from the moment I met them to the moment you destroyed their lives. In fact, I still care about them now.”

“Keith, you don’t understand. I’m only trying to keep you from making the same mistakes I did.”

Keith laughed.

“Oh, that’s rich, coming from you. By trying to keep me from making your mistakes, you’ve made an even bigger one yourself! No wonder Mum left.”

Mr Dean’s face flushed an angry red.

“Don’t you dare try to make that my fault. The evil bitch left because she hated you.”

Keith glared at his father for a moment. Then he said evenly,

“And I’m leaving because I hate you.”

He turned away from his father and walked out the door. Mr Dean stood there sputtering for a moment, then hurriedly followed his son. Alec whistled.

“Methinks the boy doth finally protest enough.”

I laughed and threw my arms around Alec’s neck. He kissed the top of my head and took my hand.

“Let’s go home, little bear.”

The next morning, as Alec walked into the classroom, his arrival was greeted with cheers and screams. Jeremy, the class clown, threw a flowerpot out the window by way of celebration. Alana could do nothing but run to Alec and throw herself at him, clinging to his waist and declaring he nearly gave her a heart attack. And for once, I didn’t mind.

From that day onwards, no-one in the class ever called him Mr Marshall. From that day, he was known to the students of 11A as simply Alec.