Chapter Thirty-Four: Sandusky Penn State Bad:

Like I said before, I heard the rumors. Now, it’s normal for students to have crushes on the teacher. It falls on the teacher to draw the line. Or at least that’s what’s supposed to happen. You see the results of when that fails on the news. You think that it could never happen to your school. Well, it’s happening for me.

“Wow,” I said.

“Yeah,” Kate said.

“Is it who I think it is?” I asked.

“It’s not just him,” she said. My jaw dropped.

“What?!” I asked. I turned towards the door. Why did I do that? I wasn’t that loud, was I? I pushed the thought from my head.

“Who was it?” I asked in a whisper. “Does it have to do anything to do with why I was fired?”

“Yeah,” Kate said.

“I knew it!” I said. I had my own questions to fire off. Whoever did this was the reason why my life was all screwed up. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I cleared my throat.

“So who was it?” I asked. “How many of them are guilty?”

“Frank,” Kate said. I frowned to myself. Figures. He can’t stop himself from talking to anything in a skirt. I rolled my eyes.

“Was it a student?” I asked.

“Not with him,” she said. “The student’s mother, actually.” Somehow, that made sense. He didn’t strike me as the time to go for jailbait.

“Who else are we talking?” I asked.

“Jillian,” Kate said. “Margot, Jason, and Robbie.” Two of those shocked me.

“Jillian… Robbie?” I asked. “What the hell? You can’t be serious!”

“They are denying it, of course,” she said.

“Do you believe them?”

“I do.”

I narrowed my eyes. “How much do you know?” I could feel a knock against my back.

“Nathan?” mom asked. “Are you okay in there?”

“Yes!” I shouted. “Did you want something?” Mom paused for a moment.

“No, you’ve been in your room on the phone for a few minutes now,” she said. “I was just wondering if you were okay.” I sighed.

“I’m fine, mom,” I said. “I’m on an important phone call right now.”

“Okay,” mom said. I waited until she was gone to talk again.

“Sorry about that,” I said over the phone.

“Is this a bad time?” Kate asked. “I could call back later…”

“No, it’s fine,” I said. “It’s fine.” I walked over to my bed and laid down. I was ready to dive back into the ugly side of things.

“Let me guess,” I said. “Jason was the one who got me fired.” Kate nervously laughed. I clicked my tongue.

“I knew it!” I said. She didn’t have to say a thing for me to know the truth. My former boss never liked me anyway. That alone made me want to talk to Mandy again. But first, there was one more thing that I needed to know.

“Kate, tell me everything that you know,” I said. “Don’t skip the details.”

“Okay…” she said. I listened and took mental notes the whole time. I had a case on my hands. So it was true. I was fired to cover Jason’s ass. But why me? I didn’t know anything that could get him fired or arrested. I barely even interacted with the guy. Was I that much of as easy target? I was getting mad just thinking about it. I might not have my apartment back, but I was at least going to have a job back.

“Thank you,” I said at last.

“For what?” Kate asked.

“I just need to make one more call before I explain everything,” I said. “I will talk to you then.” I hung up before she could say another word. I gave myself a few seconds before I made another call.

“Hello?” Mandy asked.

“Hey, how are you coming with that apartment case?” I asked.

“I’m still working on it,” she said. “Why do you ask?” I sat up on my bed.

“I have another case for you that I think you are going to find interesting,” I said.

“Oh?” Mandy asked. “What would that be?”

“How long do you have before you go to lunch?” I asked.

“Where do you want to meet up?” she asked. For once, I was smiling for real.

“I know just the place,” I said.