Skipped Thanksgiving Because of My Family's Favoritism novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Dirty Water

At school a classmate smashes Elliot's camera and drenches him while Daphne watches. His friends tear through his room for Felix's keychain, and Daphne deletes his videos from his laptop.

At seven the next morning, I went back to school to pick up my last file.

I was halfway up the front steps when I heard someone laughing behind me.

"There's our valedictorian," a boy said, loud enough for the whole stairwell. "Heard he begged to stay in North City for Daphne, and now he's the only one shipped out to West."

"He chased her, got dumped in a day, and now he's running off," another boy said.

Five or six classmates stood on the landing above me.

The boy in front was one of Felix's new friends, a big guy in a letterman jacket.

He looked me up and down, and he grabbed the camera off my chest.

"Is this the camera you wouldn't lend Felix?"

I caught his wrist.

"Let go."

"Why so tough?" He raised his voice for the crowd. "Felix told us. You grew up with four girls and think you're a prince."

"And now all four picked Felix," someone added. "He told her he liked her and got turned down in a day. Pathetic."

More students stopped to watch.

I looked down the hall.

Daphne and the others stood at the far end.

Maxine carried Felix's paperwork, Ingrid was checking his forms, and Bridget held his breakfast.

Daphne saw me.

She frowned, and she stayed where she was.

Once, a boy had told the whole school I was nothing without my four friends.

Daphne had marched him to the broadcast room and made him apologize over the speakers.

Now I was cornered with my camera taken, and she looked away.

Felix ran over.

"Stop, please. Elliot's just in a bad mood."

The big guy snorted.

"You're too nice, Felix. He's jealous they're with you."

Tears rolled down Felix's face.

Daphne finally walked up, and she went to Felix's side first.

"Elliot, if you're upset, talk to us. You don't have to glare at him."

Before I could answer, somebody behind me yanked the camera strap off my neck.

The camera hit the stairs and broke apart.

Another boy dumped a mop bucket over my head.

The gray water ran down my shirt, and the whole landing laughed.

"My hand slipped," the boy said.

I wiped my face and crouched to pick up the pieces of my camera.

Daphne checked her watch.

"Go home and change," she said. "Don't make a scene."

So that was how it worked.

They could call it an accident when they hurt me in public, and if I wanted an answer, I was the unreasonable one.

I took my file and left without looking at any of them.

Half an hour later, I had barely changed my shirt when someone pounded on the front door.

All four of them came in, with Felix behind them.

"Where's the keychain?" Maxine said.

"Felix was wearing it, and now it's gone."

"So?" I said.

"You were the one who grabbed that guy at school," Maxine said. "Who else would take it?"

She walked straight into my bedroom and pulled open my drawers.

The others went through my closet and my desk.

In eighteen years, none of them had ever knocked on that door.

I used to think that meant we were close.

Now I understood they were sure everything in that room was theirs.

Maxine stopped at the closet.

"Why is your suitcase packed?"

My stomach dropped.

"He's doing it to scare us," Ingrid said, looking at the bag.

"You're not a kid, Elliot," Bridget said. "Quit threatening to leave."

They laughed.

Not one of them believed it.

Daphne found my acceptance letter on the desk, glanced at the envelope, and pushed it under a stack of books.

"College doesn't start until September," she said. "You're not going anywhere today."

Then Felix pulled the keychain out from behind the desk.

"Found it!"

He had dropped it there himself.

His cheeks went pink.

"I'm so sorry, Elliot. I misjudged you."

"Good thing it turned up," Daphne said, and patted his head. "Don't cry."

Nobody told him to apologize to me.

Then Felix saw my laptop, open on the bed.

It was full of our old videos: the capsule we buried at ten, the beach trip at fifteen, every birthday.

"Are those the full videos?" he asked. "Can I use them?"

"No."

I shut the laptop.

Felix's face fell.

"You already said you'd edit his video," Maxine said.

"I changed my mind."

"Do you think I'm not good enough to be your friend?" Felix said, and the tears started again.

Daphne opened the laptop and took the mouse.

"If you won't be in his video, then cut yourself out."

"Daphne, don't touch those."

She selected every file with my name on it, and Bridget locked my arms behind me.

"It's only videos," Bridget said. "It won't kill you."

Daphne pressed delete.

My first bike ride went, and my first medal, and the day she told me at sixteen that she'd marry me someday.

"There," she said, and let go of the mouse. "You won't be in any of our videos anymore."

She meant it as a punishment.

She had no idea how soon it would be true.

My phone buzzed with a text from the professor.

[The car will arrive in two hours.]

I zipped the suitcase.

Everything she'd deleted was already saved in my mother's cloud drive, in another country.

I had backed it up the week before exams, the way I did every year.

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