Page 153 of Darling Venom
I couldn’t even leave that untainted.
“After Kellan died, I confronted St. Paul’s principal,” she admitted.
“You did?”
She was just a baby at the time. But something told me Charlie did a lot of grownup things for the people she loved.
“Yeah.”
“What did you say?”
“I blamed her for not protecting Kellan better. He was getting bullied on a regular basis. I’m talking physically, too, Tate.”
I shook my head, trying to recall if I’d ever seen bruises on Kel. “How bad?”
“Bad. So bad.” She gave me time to digest her words. “The teachers knew. The whole school did. But these kids pay an enormous annual fee. Their parents are all in powerful positions in the city. Country, even. Nobody wanted to touch that explosive situation with a ten-foot pole. No amount of fuss a scholarship kid with dead parents and a broke sister could kick up worked.”
The last sentence sounded like it was meant for her. Like she was trying to reassure herself that she’d tried.
It served to remind me how much more I could’ve done.
“The principal did nothing.” A hard edge entered her voice. “Kellan did nothing. I tried to talk to him during lunch once. It didn’t go well. So, I dropped off a letter in Principal Brooks’ office. Kellan found out and got mad at me for narcing. In the end, nothing happened. The bullying didn’t stop. For a while, I searched for someone to blame, and she was the easiest target.”
“What did she say when you came to her?”
“She told me not to spread rumors. I think she was covering her ass.”
“Definitely covering her ass. At Kel’s funeral, she told me she had no clue what was going on. As if 1) I believed her and 2) not knowing absolved her of any responsibility regarding what went on within her campus.”
She hummed her agreement.
It might’ve been the first time I let myself release my rage over what happened to Kellan to someone who felt the same way.
“She also sent me to the student counselor after I confronted her.”
“What did the counselor do?”
“He gave me a pamphlet on grief. It was the same one he gave me after my parents died, but I don’t think he remembered that. I read the thing again. It told me to find someone to make me feel better.” She snorted, getting more worked up. “How idiotic. It’s like the dude who made the pamphlet never lost anyone. It’s grief! The only person who can make you feel better is gone. That’s why it hurts so damn much.”
She grew silent.
I didn’t say anything.
I didn’t want her to stop talking.
In fact, I clung to her words, hungry for anything she could tell me about my brother. It felt like I was meeting Kel for the first time through Charlie.
“I turned to books after that,” she said on the fortieth minute of our call.
On the dot.
Almost as if she’d been staring at the timer counting up.
I wondered if she’d decided ahead of time how long she’d let this conversation go on. After all, it was dangerous.
> I wanted her.
She, in a fucked-up way, wanted me, too. We were grieving Kellan and betraying him at the same time.
