Free Hear Me Now by Melyssa Winchester

anyone, but I can tell she wants to believe the worst of Dillon. It’s not like her at all. Where’s the non-judgmental teacher I’ve been living with for the past sixteen years?
    “Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter who did it. If it happens again, I don’t want to hear about it secondhand from Eric or any other student. I want you to bring it to me, even if you think you can handle it on your own.”
    Okay. Are you done now?
    “Cadence, I’m aware that going to work with me is not something you’re happy about and you would like nothing more than to be back at your school with your friends, but this is the situation we’ve been dealt. I want you to promise me something.”
    I already agreed to tell her if something happened at school, what else can she possibly want me to promise?
    “I want you to promise that you will stay as far away from Dillon as possible. I know that he’s in the class and the two of you sit in close proximity to each other, but he is not a person you want to be getting involved with.”
    Nodding my head in agreement, I put my attention back on my cereal and tune her completely out. We haven’t said so much as hello to each other since Monday afternoon when I told him what I thought about him. If she wants me to stay away, that’s an easy promise to make since I didn’t have any plans on speaking to him again.
    “Good. You’re such a sweet girl, Caddy. The last thing I want to see happen is for someone like Dillon Murphy to come along and change that.”
     
    ~*~*~
     
    Focusing my attention back on the paper in front of me, a new one he ripped out of his notebook and taken to writing on, I see the question he has waiting for me and it just reminds me again of how true my mom’s words were this morning. Though with the back and forth so far this morning, I’m doing a bang up job of listening to them.
    So I gotta ask. Why are u in this class? You don’t seem retarded.
    I’m not letting him get away with this. It’s one thing to roll his eyes at my mom and for me to reach over and flick him repeatedly, but there’s no way I’m gonna let him refer to the kids in this class as retards. By all rights, with my disability, I’m one of the so called retards he’s talking about. I’ve never been a fan of that word and that’s not going to change now.
    I’m not in a retard class. There’s no such thing. I’m in this class. If you wanna know why I’m here, I’ll tell you as soon as you tell me what truck did that to your face.
    His response is immediate and as I read it over, I can easily see its bullshit. I saw Kayden this morning, I know he had nothing to do with what’s going on here. Even if Dillon had taken the brunt of an attack, there would still be some kind of marks on Kayden and there just wasn’t.
    Got into it with someone I used to be friends with. No biggie. So why are you here?
    I think you’re lying, but I’m here because my school got closed down for a couple weeks.
    His eyes raise at my admission or me calling him out on his lying. I can’t be sure which one he’s doing it to, but it’s obvious that he hadn’t been expecting that to be my response.
    Is this you thinking you know me again?
    I don’t think I know you; I do know you. I’ve met a lot of guys just like you and you’re all the same.
    He attempts to hide it but I catch the eye roll the minute it happens and it’s at that point I make up my mind. I’ve had enough of this back and forth with him. I’m done. When he’s ready to stop acting like a brat, I might think about responding again, but for now, I’m just done.
    Turning back to my book, I flip back to the page I left off on and go back to ignoring him. When no note comes, either with him reaching painfully across my desk to deliver it or holding it out for me to take, I know I’ve made the right decision.
     
    Dillon
     
    Jesus Christ; this girl just doesn’t let up.
    There’s a second there where she calls me out for being a liar