Page 83 of Find Me

“First off, are you alright?” he asked.

“Yeah. I'm a little shaken up.”

“I know, baby girl,” he said. “I’m going to come and get you, but until then, I want you to wait in the school’s office or go watch Colt and Creed practice. I don’t want you to be alone.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll be there soon.”

We hung up and I headed back in the direction I’d come. Just past the gym was the building that housed the school’s pool. When I got inside, I noticed there were more students than normal watching the swim team practice. To my dismay, Cassy, Amber, and a bunch of their friends, including Gabe, Cassy’s cousin and the guy who’d pushed me during a game of volleyball, were all sitting in the bleachers.

They snickered amongst themselves when they saw me walk in. I spotted Colt and Creed sitting on the bottom bench of the bleachers with some other swimmers, while the rest of the team was taking their turn practicing in the pool. I beelined for them, with the intent to sit close by.

They spotted me as I got closer and jumped to their feet. I tried to appear calm. Just by looking at them and the concerned look in their eyes, I was failing.

Before I could reach them, someone grabbed me from behind, squeezing my breast as they did, and then I was thrown toward the pool. I let out a scream as I hurtled toward the water. Plunging into the cold water, my dress rose up, reminding me that I had nothing underneath. I quickly pushed it down and tried to swim to the surface. My backpack weighed me down and it was hard to kick my feet in my sandals.

Colt speared into the water next to me. He grabbed the straps of my bag and yanked them down my arms. The bag sank to the bottom of the pool as he wrapped an arm around me and helped me swim up. Once I made it to the surface, I could hear yelling. By the side of the pool, where I’d been thrown, one of the swim coaches was pulling Creed off of Gabe.

Cassy ran to Gabe’s side and helped him sit up. Blood leaked from Gabe’s nose and busted lip. There was a cut along his cheekbone and one of his eyes was already swelling.

Creed was being pushed further and further away by the coach, but when Creed glanced in our direction and saw that we were swimming to the pool's edge, he jerked out of the coach’s hold and ran toward us.

Creed grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the water. “Are you alright?” he asked, cupping my cheeks.

I nodded.

Gabe chuckled, drawing everyone’s attention. “Nice tits, Shiloh.”

I glanced down and saw that my dress was completely transparent now that it was wet. I had everything on display. I quickly covered myself with my arms, but dropped them to grab Creed, stopping him from going after Gabe again. “Don’t. You’ll just get into more trouble.”

He listened and pulled me into his arms, shielding my body as much as he could. “Someone get me a towel, now!” he yelled.

“I got one,” Colt said, appearing next to us with a towel in his hands. His face was hardened with rage as he covered me from the back. I wrapped the towel around me so that my front was covered as well.

“Creed and Gabe! Principal’s office, now!” Coach Reed, the head swim coach, yelled.

“Here’s her bag, Colt,” one of the twins’ teammates said from where he’d popped up in the water. He held my bag out to Colt.

“Thanks, man.” Colt took it from him and the bag leaked water all over the pool deck.

“Call Knox and Keelan,” Creed said as he walked away with Coach Reed.

“Keelan’s already on his way,” I told Colt and then went on to tell him what had happened, starting with the girls’ locker room.

27

Keelan and Knoxshowed up right before Gabe’s parents did. Mr. Morgan took Gabe and his parents into his office first. We could hear Gabe’s mother yelling from behind the closed door. Colt was quietly explaining to Knox and Keelan what had happened while I paced, unable to sit still. This was all my fault. I should have gone to the office instead. I needed to find a way to fix this somehow.

I still had a towel wrapped around my drenched dress. Colt and Creed had been provided swim team shirts from their coach to wear with their swim trunks.

“Shi, it’s going to be alright. Just sit down, please,” Creed pleaded.

I paused my pacing to argue, but Mr. Morgan's office door swung open and Gabe’s mother came storming out with Gabe and his father right behind her.

She stopped in front of where the guys were sitting and sneered down at them. “We’ll be pressing charges.”

When she went to leave, I stepped in front of her. “If you’re going to be pressing charges, then so am I,” I threatened, channeling Shayla. “Your son grabbed me and threw me in the pool. That’s battery. I don’t know what his motive was, but this isn’t the first time he’s tried to hurt me. He shoved me in the gym a month ago and there were many witnesses. I wonder what a judge will make of that. He also groped my breast when he grabbed me today. So I’ll be going after him for sexual assault as well.” I looked at Gabe. “Good luck getting into a decent college with that on your record.”