Next To Never by Penelope Douglas

Author:Penelope Douglas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-11-18T15:04:16+00:00

Chapter 8

Kat . . .

Charging through the school, my heels dug into the floors, their clacking echoing down the hallway as I made my way to the main office. This was the fourth time this year I’d been summoned to Jared’s school either to take him home or to meet with the principal about his behavior.

Everything was fine before last summer. Or somewhat fine. I should never have let Thomas take him. Jared had been off the rails ever since, and I knew why, but he refused to let me help, and I was at my wits’ end. Thank goodness that bastard was in jail now.

But even so, the damage was done, and my son was different. He was more like his father than ever now.

I barged through the heavy wooden door and entered the office, stopping and immediately scanning for Jared.

Seeing him and another boy sitting in the chairs along the wall, I couldn’t help but lash out.

“Bullying?” I burst out. “I’m absolutely disgusted. What were you thinking?”

Jared stared ahead, looking bored and ignoring me.

“It wasn’t bullying,” someone grumbled, and I looked to the kid a couple of chairs down from him. “Josh Rutgers is such a baby.”

I’d never seen the kid before, but I gathered he and Jared were in this together.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

He smiled, holding out a hand. “Madoc Caruthers. You’re my brother’s mother, huh?”

Brother’s mother. Caruthers. “What?”

I took in the blond hair, the demanding blue eyes, the expensive shoes and brown leather jacket, the stylish roll to his jeans . . . Oh, Christ.

“Like, how old are you?” he asked, giving me a nice, long once-over that was completely inappropriate. “Were you ten when you had Jared?”

“Caruthers,” I repeated, ignoring his flirting as I walked over to the boys. “Is your father Jase Caruthers?”

“Yeah. You know him?”

“No,” I snapped and turned away, looking to Jared. “Get up.”

He rolled his eyes and stood up, following me up to the receptionist’s counter.

Shit. They were friends. How did I not know that?

Mrs. Bauer, the principal’s assistant, saw us and stopped what she was doing to approach. “The principal had to leave for a meeting,” she informed me. “But Jared’s suspended for three days. He’s responsible for staying caught up on his work while he’s gone. You need to sign this.”

She pulled out a paper and pushed it in front of me with a pen.

I picked up the pen and started scanning the document. “What happened exactly?”

“A guy was messing with Tatum Brandt,” Madoc answered, coming up to the counter to stand next to us. “So Jared and I sent him on his way.”

“The boy was merely asking her to the school carnival,” Mrs. Bauer clarified. “And these two proceeded to steal his clothes while he was in the shower and hang them on Miss Brandt’s locker with a very vulgar message written on the underpants.”

She said the last part in a horrified whisper, and I heard Madoc snort next to us, doubling over and laughing as I felt Jared smile next to me.

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