This Girl: A Novel

accurate,” I say, “but unfortunately it is.”
    “Will,” Mr. Murphy says. “You did the right thing. Quit being so hard on yourself. Javier was completely out of line and if you weren’t there to stop him, there’s no telling what would have happened to that girl.”
    “Is he being expelled?” I ask, stopping to grip the back of the chair.
    Mr. Murphy stands and walks to the door where Officer Venturelli is outside speaking with Mr. Cruz. He closes the door and turns toward me. “We can’t expel him. He’s claiming it was a misunderstanding and he thought she wanted him to kiss her. We’ll suspend him for a few days for the fight, but that’s the extent of his punishment.”
    I nod, very aware that what I’m about to do is the only answer at this point. There’s no way I can ever be in the same room with Javier again and not have it end badly.
    “Then I’d like to resign,” I say evenly.

16.
    the honeymoon
    “YOU WILLINGLY RESIGNED?” Lake asks, dumbfounded. “I thought it was a mutual agreement. They would have let you keep your job, Will. Why the hell did you resign?”
    “Lake, there’s no way I could have continued teaching there. I’d reached my breaking point. I was going to get fired one of two ways if I hadn’t resigned that day.”
    “Why do you think that?”
    “Because it’s true. They would have fired me the first day Javier returned to school because I would have kicked his ass the moment I laid eyes on him. That, or they would have fired me because one more second in a room with you and I would have jumped you, but in a completely different way.”
    She laughs. “Yeah. The tension was intense. We would have lost control eventually.”
    “Eventually? We lost control that same day,” I say, reminding her of our incident in the laundry room.
    She frowns and closes her eyes, then sighs a deep sigh.
    “What’s wrong?” I ask her.
    She shakes her head. “Nothing. It’s just hard thinking about that night. It really hurt,” she whispers.
    I kiss her lightly on the forehead. “I know. I’m sorry.”

laundry room
    I SOMEHOW MADE it to the end of the workday without getting suspended, fired, or arrested. I’d say being transferred to Detroit to finish out my student teaching is one of the best outcomes I could have anticipated.
    I pull into the driveway and the boys are helping Lake and Julia with groceries. I haven’t even made it out of the car yet when Caulder meets me at the door, beaming with excitement.
    “Will!” he says, grabbing my hand. “Wait till you see this!”
    I walk across the street with him and grab the rest of the sacks and take them inside. When I set them down, I notice the contents aren’t groceries. It looks like sewing supplies.
    “Guess what we’re going to be for Halloween?” Caulder says.
    “Uh—”
    “Julia’s cancer!” he yells.
    Did I just hear him right?
    Julia walks into the room with her sewing machine and I give her a questioning look.
    “You only live once, right?” She smiles and places the sewing machine on the bar.
    “She’s letting us make the tumors for the lungs,” Kel says. “You want to make one? I’ll let you make the big one.”
    I don’t even know how to respond. “Uh—”
    “Kel,” Lake interrupts. “Will and Caulder can’t help, they’ll be out of town all weekend.”Seeing the excitement on Caulder’s face, there’s nowhere I’d rather be than right here. “Actually, that was before I found out we were making lung cancer,” I say. “I think we’ll have to reschedule our trip.”
    •••
    “WHERE’S YOUR MEASURING tape?” Lake asks Julia.
    “I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t know if I have one, actually.”
    I have measuring tape, so I try to think of a way to get Lake to come with me to get it. I know she’s dying to know what happened today and I owe her a huge apology for acting the way I did toward her last night. She had experienced what was more than likely a horrifying event alone with Javi, and I acted like a jerk the entire way home. I was trying to refrain from yelling at her last night, when I should have been consoling her.
    “Will has one. We can use his,” Lake says. “Will, do you mind getting it?”
    I play dumb. “I have measuring tape?”
    She rolls her eyes. “Yes, it’s in your sewing kit.”
    “I have a sewing kit?”
    “It’s in your laundry room.” She spreads the material out in front of her. “It’s next to the sewing machine on the