Free Splintered by Kelly Miller Page B

Still, he refused his dad the satisfaction of even a single tear—no matter how many blows the old man landed.

(15)
MADDY EASTIN
    Unable to talk her mom into letting her miss another day of school, Maddy kept her head down and shuffled through her morning classes until lunchtime—her most dreaded hour. The cafeteria was always a crapshoot between trying to find an open seat and looking for someone to sit by who wasn’t too far down on the social ladder.
    Before the whole ex-boyfriend fiasco started, Maddy used to sit with Sabrina and her friends. Today she didn’t bother surveying the room for her best option. She wasn’t in the mood to keep up fake chitchat anyway. She chose the closest empty seat and concentrated on trying to swallow the cardboard lunch. Even the pizza, her favorite item on the menu, tasted sour. She had to fight the bile rising in her throat.
    “Lookie who we have here.”
    Just what I need.
    Maddy looked up, expecting another insult to follow. Malik Jordan stood with his arm around Sabrina and a lunch tray in his hand. Their crew stood close behind.
    “What do you want, Malik?”
    “Why the long face, Eastin? You should be smiling ear to ear. Fought off a pervert, I heard. You got some real cajones .”
    Maddy had to remind herself to close her mouth. Luckily, Sabrina chose that moment to sit down at the table. She began talking a mile a minute so Maddy didn’t have to come up with a response. Malik shot the kid sitting nearby a look, and the boy quickly found another place to eat. The two others at the table followed suit when more kids from Sabrina’s group started piling around.
    “That’s right,” Sabrina said. “My girl Maddy here beat the shit out of some meth head trying to snatch her right off the street. Ain’t that right, Maddy?”
    “Well—”
    “Tell us what happened!” “Give us the details.” “How’d you get away?” Questions were hurled at Maddy. She did her best to answer them all, forgetting about the pizza growing cold on her tray. She slowly parceled out the details, vaguely worried this all might be some kind of trick, but the more she talked, the more interested everyone became. Soon the story took on a life of its own.
    Maddy couldn’t help it. It was so nice to hear the concern she’d longed for spoken in words like, “How awful.” “You could have been killed!” “You’re so brave for fighting back.” “We’re glad you got away.”
    Maddy knew she should have been angry at Sabrina for breaking her confidence. The things she’d unloaded at Sabrina’s house were personal, and she hadn’t wanted them to get around. But the kids who rode Maddy’s bus already knew she’d been part of something anyway. It wouldn’t have taken them long to put two and two together. In the end, it seemed like things had worked out for the best. By the time the bell rang, Maddy had left her bad mood behind with the uneaten lunch.
    “Some of the girls are heading over to University Mall after school,” Sabrina said. “Wanna come?”
    Maddy couldn’t believe the fabricated story about the ex-boyfriend had been forgotten so easily. “Sure. Can I catch a ride with you?”
    “No problem. Julianna’s driving. Meet us in the back lot after the last bell.”
    All day, Maddy basked in the warmth of newfound attention. Girls stopped her at her locker to tell her how glad they were she broke free from the kidnappers. Boys offered high-fives and pats on the back. Maddy soaked it all in. The attention seeped down into the darkest recesses inside her until it finally reached the empty hole left by her dad walking out.

(16)
DETECTIVE TERRANCE WALLACE
    Detective Wallace picked up the newspaper and reread the short, three-paragraph article about Maddy Eastin’s attempted abduction.
    “Have we gotten any leads from the public?” Corporal Rhodes asked as he leaned against Wallace’s cubicle.
    “Besides a couple of women turning in their no-good baby daddies? No. But there