Chapter Forty-Three: Enough is Enough:

“Hello?” I asked.

“Mr. Muir?” a girl’s voice asked. My brain tried to place the person.

“Um… who is this?” I asked.

“It’s me, Madison,” she said. I narrowed my eyes as I looked around the beach.

“I don’t know a Madison,” I said. I started walked back to the parking lot. I placed my fingers over my other ear.

“Can you hear me?” I asked.

“Yes!” this girl said. I paused when my feet touched the pavement.

“Now… who exactly are you? How did you get my number?” I asked. There was a pause on the other line.

“My name is Madison,” the girl said. “I wasn’t in your class. Angelique told me that I could talk to you.” My face dropped. Of course she would.

“What did she say?” I asked.

“She said that I could trust you,” Madison said. I rubbed my forehead from the sweat forming.

“Listen, can you give me a second,” I said.

“But…” she said.

“I just want to get to a place where I can hear you better, okay?” I said. There came a pause.

“Alright,” she said in a tiny voice. She sounded really desperate to talk to me. Were things really that bad in Boston? I didn’t want to know the answer to that.

I walked back to my car and got in.

“Yes?” I asked. “Talk to me. What’s on your mind?” I could hear fumbling on the other line.

“It’s okay. Take your time if you need to,” I said. She unleashed a truth bomb that made my job drop. I struggled to speak at first.

“Hello?” Madison asked. “Are you still there?”

“What?!” I shouted.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. I shook my head.

“No,” I said. “It’s not your fault. How many times has this happened?”

“Once,” the girl said in a small voice. She didn’t need to say anything else.

“Have you told anyone else?” I asked.

“My mom,” Madison said.

“What happened? Did she believe you?” I asked. There was a pause on the other line.

“I have to go,” she quickly said.

“Madison, wait!” I shouted. She already hung up. I stared at my phone. This wasn’t going to be the only allegation.

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I did some thinking as I drove home. Why was I the one getting dragged into this shit? Why was I the one who was targeted? I had nothing to do with any of this mess. Not the cheating. Not the sex scandals. I was just teaching literature. And they fired me before school was over too?

I gripped the steering wheel.

“Fuck!” I shouted.

I didn’t want this. I pulled up to a stop light. What the hell did I want? Suddenly, my phone rang. I clicked my tongue. What is it now?

“What?” I asked over the phone.

“Nate?” mom asked. She sounded so upset. Almost like she had been crying. My face looked so confused.

“Mom?” I asked. “Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Where are you now?” she asked.

“I’m coming home now, why?” I asked.

“Please get home faster,” she pleaded.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” I asked.

“Please just get home and watch the news!” mom pleaded. I pressed my lips together.

“Okay,” I said. I hung up when the light turned green. I drove home with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. This couldn’t go on anymore. I was driven out before the storm hit. My former students were there, sitting by as the shit kept building up. That wasn’t right. I was a teacher and I should at least be supportive of my students.

I frowned to myself.

It didn’t help that I didn’t have any place to go. Looked like I was going to have to figure that out what to do from there.

I pulled up into the driveway of my house. I pulled out my phone and looked at the news app. Yeah, it’s just as bad as I thought it was going to be. I could only imagine what mom and the rest of the family was going to say. I sighed to myself. Might as well get this over with. I put my phone in my pocket and sighed. I unlocked the door and climbed out of the car. It just kept piling up on me, doesn’t it?