Straight To You

thirty-eight

I take a seat in one of the old and uncomfortable leather chairs in the front office, Lana by my side. Elena's here too, as she works in the front office, staring at me from behind her desk, dark brown eyes full of pity. As soon as I entered the office, Elena had wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into an almost insufferably tight hug, which had been oddly comforting. Closing my eyes for a moment, it almost felt like I was hugging my mother again. Elena had held me close the same way my mother used to, running a hand soothingly down my hair just like Mom did.

"I didn't want to have to tell you, after . . . everything." Lana averts her gaze from mine as she speaks, picking at a loose string on her shirt. For a moment, I'm afraid that she's going to tell me she had a part in Lucas's and Lacey's revenge plan against me yesterday, but I refuse to believe that could be true. Lana would never do something like to me. I don't know where the thought even comes from.

"You're really not going to like this, Morgan, but it's only fair for you to know. And I thought you should hear the news from me." Sighing, Lana glances up and shares a somber look with Elena. Elena nods her head slightly, gesturing for Lana to go on. "There was a school board meeting yesterday afternoon," Lana informs me. "It was about what Lucas and Lacey did to you and how the school should choose to punish them for their actions."

Lana falters for a brief moment, unintentionally adding to the suspense I'm feeling as I wait for her to continue. Gaze meeting mine, Lana winces as she admits, "Morgan, Lacey and Lucas aren't going to get into any trouble for what they did."

At Lana's words, I feel my heart stop beating in my chest. The blood in my veins turns to ice, stopping the flow of circulation in my body. My head pounds as if my temples are being hit repeatedly with a hammer, and the pain is so unbearable I have to close my eyes. I'm unsure of if I even heard Lana correctly, hardly able to hear anything over the throbbing in my head. While my state of shock persists, Lana draws on.

"The Hanson's are a really influential family in Aster Pines, and they donate a lot of money to the school annually. So when Lacey's parents heard she could get suspended for what happened, they threatened to withdraw their funding. And Lucas, well . . . he's a Crawford. You know how important the Crawford's are in this town. That's a lot of power when you combine the two families, and the school can't handle a lawsuit right now. The Hanson's threatened to take this to court, and apparently there isn't enough proof to suspend Lacey or Lucas, anyway. No teachers were in the auditorium when everything went down, so no faculty members can vouch for you. It's basically your word against the Hanson's and Crawford's, and the school isn't willing to be potentially sued or lose funding from either party over this. So they both got off with a warning."

With that, I burst into tears. I'm hardly aware that I'm even crying until I feel the tears staining my cheeks, wet and warm as they leave jagged trails behind on my skin. It's just too much to hear that Lucas and Lacey aren't going to have to face any consequences for their actions, especially considering everything else that's happened recently. Those two mortified me in front of the entire student body and ruined my relationship with Jack, and now everyone at this God-forsaken school thinks I'm some sort of lunatic, just as they think my mother was. And the school isn't going to do anything about it.