but you like an audience

[self_composed]

Bella arrives early to her next gym class, too. Delaney's not there yet, which is annoying, because he knows how to solve a puzzle.

Charlie knows a few things about Delaney and his family. The most interesting thing is this: Delaney appeared in the hospital with broken ribs, once. He did not do this crowing about how much fun it was to be stomped on/thrown down the stairs/whatever. He did this with no explanation at all. Charlie doesn't need victim cooperation to press charges for battery - but he does need someone to press charges against.

And no one at school saw a thing.

Audiences, indeed.

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

He arrives very shortly after she does, pauses by the supply of basketballs for a moment, and then wanders over her way instead.

[self_composed]

"Good afternoon," she says. "How did you break your ribs?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Well hi to you too," he says, amused, and plops onto the floor next to her mat. "What do you care?"

[self_composed]

"Because I don't know the answer," Bella says, working a cramp out of her hand acquired via notetaking. "And it doesn't fit what else I know, oddly enough."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Annnnd what if I say I promised I wouldn't tell?"

[self_composed]

Bella moves into a butterfly stretch. "I'd start wondering who you'd promise that to - and why."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Maybe they asked reeeally nicely," he suggests, distorting the word to at least three times its normal length and adding a wink to make his intended meaning more clear.

[self_composed]

"That's one hypothesis I could consider," Bella agrees brightly. "And keep or discard, according to evidence."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Knock yourself out," he says, amused. "You sure do like knowing stuff, don'tcha."

[self_composed]

"It compares exceedingly favorably to the alternative. Would you like to hear my speculations so far?" says Bella, still smiling.

[edgeofyourseat]

He shrugs. "Sure, why not."

[self_composed]

Bella's smile turns into a thinner smirk. "When you get beat up at school, that's not a secret. If Dave Farber had broken your ribs and my father decided this was a crime he needed to prosecute, he could have gotten twenty people to tell him exactly who did it without any help from you at all. So it wasn't a student. Probably not a teacher either, especially since teachers beating up students isn't commonly a thing. You didn't arrive at the hospital in an ambulance, but as a passenger in a car your family owns. So you were not in the middle of nowhere when injured, and you were not unescorted - or you had access to a phone and you could get at it while you had your ribs broken, which is less likely. It's possible the driver did it, but you've had the same one since that time, and I'd expect an incident like that to cause staff turnover, wouldn't you? And you know what, I doubt your family makes a lot of family trips to places where you can get into fights. And your driver wouldn't say where you came from even when a cop demanded the information. Did someone ask the driver reaaaally nicely too? But I think it happened at home."

She pauses, and tilts her head, stretching her arms, looking more severe. "You know what sort of beating-up relationship is commonly a thing?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Is it the kind you can buy and have delivered?" he asks, innocently.

[self_composed]

"Nope. Typically acquired as an inheritance."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Oooh, now that's kinky." He laughs. "Nope. Nice try, though." Generously, "I didn't pay anybody for it, either."

[self_composed]

"I do think you are clever enough to avoid the problem of conspicuously saying 'no, no, no, plead the fifth, no'," Bella says. "If you aren't going to produce a competing explanation, your denials are the whistling of the wind."

[edgeofyourseat]

He shakes his head. "Sorry, babe," he says, "you're not gettin' the story out of me that easy." Brightly, "But cheer up! Now if I piss you off you've got a great way to make my life hell for a while!"

[self_composed]

"Not that easily, hm? I suppose I could always try asking nicely, if no other information presents itself; I got this far in about a day." She smiles. "Are you likely to piss me off?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Not on purpose," he assures her.

[self_composed]

"Oh? You do both kinds of pissing people off, then? I suppose there'd be no point to deliberately annoying someone who demonstrably," she gestures at the mat, "cannot beat you up."

[edgeofyourseat]

"If you could beat me up, I'd ask," he says. "Nicely, even."

[self_composed]

"Even if all you did was lie there I would wind up kicking myself in the nose or something embarrassing like that, and that would be if I wished to beat you up. Not all aversion to violence is self-preservation or concern for the wishes of the..." She mulls over word choice, decides there isn't a better term ready to hand. "Victim."

[edgeofyourseat]

He shrugs. "And look at me, not asking."

[self_composed]

"Mm." She changes the subject. "My dad knows your housekeeper. Hilary. They're friends."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Huh," he says. "Didn't know that."