Read A Good Enough Reason for Free Online Page B

Ellis pushed it toward his locker.
    The last thing Ellis wanted was to touch the jockstraps, but he had to be quick if he didn’t want to miss his class. Giving one last glance around to make sure he was alone, he took a tissue out of the packet he kept in his bag and opened it. He used it as a barrier between his fingers and the dirty fabric and tried as hard as he could to avoid thinking about where the straps had recently been.
    The last football practice had taken place the day before, and almost every member of the team had obviously participated in the prank—not that Ellis was counting the straps. He wondered how they’d managed to get them in his locker, but he couldn’t come up with a solution that didn’t include Mark finding out his combination. He wouldn’t put it past him to spy on Ellis to find out. It wasn’t like Anna or Rick would have given it up, and nobody else was close enough to Ellis to know it.
    “Fuck!”
    There was someone else who might have been close enough to Ellis when he’d opened his locker recently. Dale was not a close friend like Anna, but he could’ve found out somehow.
    Ellis shook his head and threw another strap in the bin. Dale wouldn’t have done it. It wasn’t his style. They were growing closer only because Mr. Shea’s project had put them together and not because of some weird plan Dale had to humiliate Ellis.
    But what if Dale was just making the most of the situation Mr. Shea had put him in? Dale didn’t seem to spend a lot of time with Mark, but he obviously knew him well enough to know something was wrong in Mark’s life. Maybe Dale and Mark had planned it together. Maybe Dale was laughing along with Mark right now, wishing he could have been there to see Ellis’s face when he’d opened his locker.
    Ellis dropped another strap in the bin and resisted the urge to kick it away. He should’ve known Dale wasn’t serious. Ellis was a nerd, a geek. Someone with a lot of friends, someone who was on the soccer team, wouldn’t want to be his friend.
    Something crunched under Ellis’s fingers and jolted him out of his thoughts. He looked down and blanched when he saw it was a note. His mind went to the one Mark had sent him during French class. He knew it would be better for him to throw it away along with the rest and ignore it, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
    Ellis unfolded the small piece of paper with trembling fingers and bit his lower lip at the sight. It was exactly what he’d expected.
     
    I bet you love this, cock-breath.
     
    Ellis crumbled the note in his palm and threw it in the bin. He hurriedly grabbed what remained of the jockstraps on the floor, still making sure not to touch them. When the last one was finally in the bin, Ellis let himself lean against the locker next to his and slid down until he was sitting on the floor. He folded his legs against his chest and crossed arms on his knees, then pressed his forehead on them and closed his eyes, unable to stop the tear that escaped and rolled down his cheek.
     
     
    THE LAST thing Ellis wanted was to step out of his house—no, make that his room—that night. He’d had a very bad day, and he didn’t want to see anyone, be it from school or his family. He didn’t want to see the smirks and the laughter in the first case, or the worry in the second. At least both Connor and Damien had already graduated and wouldn’t find out about the jockstrap episode.
    Ellis knew he was being childish as he hid under his comforter and hoped it would be enough to keep the world away. He’d promised Anna he’d go out with her and Rick, and even if he’d left her a message to tell her he wasn’t feeling well, he wasn’t stupid enough to think she’d actually stay away. She was probably coming over to pick him up right now.
    Sure enough, Ellis’s bedroom door swung open about fifteen minutes later. “Ellis! What do you think you’re doing?”
    Ellis heard the door close and the soft thuds of