Chapter 3: The Witness in the Hallway
Lucas told me everything that evening, sitting at the kitchen table while I made dinner and pretended not to be hanging on every single word.
He said the boy's name was Derek.
Not Tyler — Derek.
A quieter one, someone Lucas had barely mentioned during freshman year.
Derek had been standing near the lockers when Tyler leaned in and said the thing under his breath.
"What did he say?" I asked.
Lucas looked at his hands.
"He said, 'Doesn't matter how you look now.
You're still nothing.'"
I set down the wooden spoon.
"And then what happened?"
"Derek turned around," Lucas said.
"He looked right at Tyler and said, 'Say that again.'"
I hadn't expected that.
"Derek stood up for you?"
"He didn't even know me that well," Lucas said.
"That's the part I keep thinking about."
Tyler had laughed it off at first, the way boys like Tyler always do when they're caught off guard.
He looked around for backup, but the hallway had gone quiet in that particular way where everyone is watching and nobody wants to be seen watching.
"Tyler said something like, 'Relax, I'm just joking around,'" Lucas continued.
"And Derek said, 'No you weren't.
And everyone here knows it.'"
I pulled out the chair across from Lucas and sat down.
"What did the others do?"
"Nothing." Lucas almost smiled.
"That was the thing.
They all just stood there.
And Kayla —" He stopped.
"Kayla," I said carefully.
That was the girl.
The one with the gift Lucas had spent an evening choosing.
"She looked at Tyler like she was embarrassed to be near him." Lucas shook his head slowly.
"A year ago she was laughing with him.
Yesterday she looked at him like he was the problem."
I didn't say anything.
I let him sit with that for a moment.
"How did it end?" I finally asked.
"Derek walked with me to first period," Lucas said.
"We talked the whole way.
He told me he'd seen what they did to me last year.
Said he should have said something sooner." Lucas paused.
"He apologized.
For not saying anything sooner."
My throat tightened.
"He apologized to you."
"Yeah." Lucas looked up.
"I didn't know what to do with that."
I reached across the table and put my hand over his.
We stayed like that for a minute.
The pasta was boiling over behind me and I didn't move.
Then Lucas said something I hadn't expected.
"Mom.
Kayla texted me."
I pulled my hand back slowly.
"When?"
"About an hour after school.
She got my number from someone." He set his phone on the table between us, face-up.
"She wants to talk."
I looked at the phone.
Then at my son.
"What do you want to do?" I asked.
Lucas didn't answer right away.
He stared at the phone like it was a question he hadn't finished reading yet.
May you like
"I don't know," he said.
"That's the problem."
