“When did he grow up? And why didn’t I recognize him?” She glanced in the mirror, noting the crow’s feet and laugh lines, and groaned. “Damn, I feel old.”
Her gaze was drawn to Justine again as a group of girls dressed in cheerleader uniforms descended on the table she sat at. A different sort of noise erupted from her that time, more of a mama bear growl.
She made herself stay in her vehicle as the line of cars snaked forward and watched as one girl in particular, with long blonde hair, leaned forward and stuck her finger in Justine’s face and spoke threateningly, judging by her body language. It’d been a while but Charity recognized Maggie Olson, who’d given Justine a hard time since they were little. The other girls were lookouts, evidently shielding Maggie from the view of the monitors as she actually poked Justine in the breast bone hard enough to make her flinch. A hand flashed out and shoved the large textbook Justine had been reading hard into her chest.
Justine caught the book before it could fall on the ground and stood so she was eye-to-eye with Maggie. Firming her jaw, Justine made a biting reply, then glared at the girl, not backing down. Maggie finally bobbled her head and sashayed her bony ass away with her friends in her wake, their ponytails swinging in the breeze.
She thought she’d heard Justine say a while back that Noah had been dating Maggie. That answered who had paid a visit to their house several weeks before. It also answered why they’d papered and egged the house. Noah Cassidy, evidently the hottest boy in school, must be interested in Justine.
Charity clucked maternally as she watched Justine gather her things together to come stand at the sidewalk. High color filled her cheeks and her lips were pressed together in a firm line. She dumped her backpack in the trunk and slid into the passenger seat. A huge sigh of relief burst from her as she buckled up, directed her gaze at the car stereo, and gave a slight smile. She turned up the stereo volume as Charity drove forward.
Charity chuckled as the windows vibrated with each beat of the music and, because there was no way Justine could hear her at the moment, said to herself, “Good thing I’m a Shinedown fan.”
When they reached the Dairy Queen on Crockett Street, she and Justine decided to split a brownie sundae with extra hot fudge and marshmallow cream. Justine groaned as she slid a bite of the hot fudge into her mouth.
Pride filled Charity as she considered Justine’s measured reaction to Maggie earlier. Charity knew her daughter could hold her own in a physical confrontation. Grace and Charity had coerced her into taking self-defense classes with them that Hank had been teaching. “I admire your self-discipline, sweetie. I watched Maggie poke you in the chest and had to fight the urge to take my earrings off and kick some skank ass.”
Justine snorted and looked at her with a mixture of amusement and gratitude in her eyes. “Thanks, Mom. She’s so not worth it.”
“What did she tell you?” Charity asked, already able to guess.
“That Noah Cassidy is her property and I’d better stay the hell away from him.” She took another bite of the ice cream and rolled her eyes. “They knew Beau and Noah came and sat with me at the picnic tables. I didn’t seek them out to sit with them. But that didn’t matter. In the animal world I think that was the equivalent of a cat pissing on a tire.”
Charity choked on her bite of brownie and ice cream and Justine gave her a wry laugh. After swallowing, she said “Are they the ones who papered and egged the house?”
“I’m sure they are. That’s the second time she’s approached me at school like that. I’ve been avoiding Noah, but I can’t do anything about it if he and Beau sit with me. But neither am I going to walk away from them. That would be rude to the guys and I’m not her little bitch. It’s not Noah’s fault Maggie Olson is a crazy-ass mean girl. They aren’t even together anymore.”
Charity was proud of the strong young woman Justine was becoming and knew the struggles she’d had with Maggie and other girls over the last several years. Being bookish and ultra-smart had meant she spent most of her time on the social periphery at school, labeled a nerd or a freak. The fact that she was beautiful and had been noticed by other guys just made the girls that much more jealous.
The saddest part for Charity was that Justine no longer complained that it wasn’t fair. Fair wasn’t even a part of the equation. It was all about pecking order. Justine seemed more resigned than actually upset and didn’t rage against the stupidity of one person thinking they could own another. She just curled her lip and rolled her eyes. “I’m so ready to be done with all that childish bullshit. I keep reminding myself that I graduate next May.”