Chapter 3: After the Cut
I stared at Rocky.
"What do you mean, after the cut?"
He didn't answer right away.
He looked down the hallway toward Claire's room, then back at me.
"The video didn't end there," he said.
"Someone stopped the recording before the worst part.
But the original file — the one on Danny's phone — it kept going."
"Who is Danny?"
"The one who shoved her." Rocky's jaw tightened.
"He's in there right now.
Sitting by her bed.
Eating her cupcakes."
My stomach dropped.
I looked through the small window in the door.
A boy near the window — broad-shouldered, laughing at something on his phone — I had seen him every day for a week.
He had signed her get-well card.
He had brought her a balloon shaped like a star.
"Rocky." I kept my voice low.
"Show me the rest."
He hesitated.
"Mrs.
Evans said if it got out, the school could face—"
"Rocky.
Show me."
He pressed play again and skipped forward four seconds past the cut.
The hallway.
Claire still standing in front of Rocky.
Danny stepping closer, his face no longer laughing.
He leaned down until he was level with her ear.
The phone microphone barely caught it, but it was there.
"You think this makes you brave?" he said.
"You're nothing.
You've always been nothing.
Keep this up and I'll make sure everyone knows exactly what your mother does for money."
Claire didn't flinch.
She didn't cry.
She just looked at him and said, "I know."
Then she picked up Rocky's lunch tray from the floor, set it on the nearest table, and walked away.
I couldn't speak.
"She never told anyone," Rocky said.
"Not a teacher.
Not you.
She just kept coming back the next day and doing it again."
"What did he mean," I said slowly, "about me?"
Rocky's face changed.
He looked like he wished he hadn't played the second half.
"There were rumors," he said.
"About your job.
Someone started them last year.
We all heard them." He paused.
"Claire heard them too.
She never said a word about it.
She just — she kept showing up."
The hallway felt very long and very quiet.
"Did she ever tell you the rumors were hurting her?" I asked.
"No," Rocky said.
"That's the thing.
She never talked about herself at all.
It was always about whoever Danny was going after that day."
I looked back through the window.
Claire had her head tilted back, laughing at something.
The balloon Rocky had brought was tied to the corner of her bed frame.
The stuffed bear sat on the nightstand.
Danny was still there.
Still smiling.
"Does he know she's sick?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Does he feel anything?"
Rocky was quiet for a moment.
"He told us on the way here today that this was good for his reputation.
That colleges like community service."
I put my hand flat against the wall to steady myself.
"I need to speak with Mrs.
Evans," I said.
Rocky nodded slowly.
Then he said something I wasn't expecting.
"She already knows you're going to call.
May you like
She said — she said to tell you that the school made a mistake.
And that she's sorry."
