Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown Page A

meant to hurt me with that photo, but I meant to hurt you with it, and that was wrong.”
    I didn’t say anything. When he finally looked up, I sat there woodenly, even though I could feel Mom’s and Mr. Frank’s heads turn toward me. Hearing Kaleb speak made me feel numb and heavy, and I wasn’t big enough to thank him for the apology, or worse, to tell him it was okay.
    “I hope you can forgive me,” he said with finality, and then he set the paper down on the table and placed his hands back in his lap.
    We all sat there in uncomfortable silence for a few long minutes. I knew everyone was expecting me to say something, but I couldn’t do it.
That was it?
I wanted to shout.
You said nothing! You apologized for nothing! A bunch of vague words that your attorney probably wrote for you!
    I wanted out. I wanted to leave. To get away from this sunken boy and stop hearing him talk about it. I wanted to be done with the whole mess. To have things go back to normal. To go back to a place where I could walk down a hall without people whispering about me. To go back towhen my parents trusted me and we were close. To go back to knowing exactly who my friends were, and who would betray me. I needed that more than I needed apologies. How could I ever have thought that Kaleb’s apology would be enough? Even if it had been a sincere one?
    “Okay,” Tina finally said. “Thank you.”
    She and Mr. Frank talked about Kaleb’s upcoming court date, but I didn’t hear what they were saying. The emotions and thoughts and feelings of injustice that had been building up inside me since this whole thing began crashed together. I felt like I was being swept away, moved by them, swayed by them. Every time I looked down, there were my hands, resting comfortably on the table in front of me. There were my legs, stretched across the burgundy leather of the conference room chair. There was my mom, looking subtly angry and disappointed and sad. How could we all look so calm and in control?
    “We appreciate you coming,” Mr. Frank said, pushing his chair away from the table and starting to stand up, checking his watch as if this meeting was just another line in his schedule book. He probably had to move on to bigger and better clients, bigger and better cases. This was our lives, but it was another to-do for him. And all the while my thoughts and emotions consumed me, needed to be let out.
    “I didn’t do anything to hurt you,” I blurted out, and Mr. Frank lowered himself back into his seat. He looked atKaleb. “After we broke up, I left you alone. I let you go. Why did you do it, Kaleb?”
    Kaleb looked down into his lap, shaking his head slowly. “I don’t know.” He looked up at me, and I could see pain in his eyes. “But just so you know, I didn’t think it would all get so out of hand. I had no idea it would turn into all this. I thought it would just stay with a few people.”
    “So your goal was only to completely humiliate me a little bit? Gosh, thanks, I feel so much better now.”
    “No, my goal was to… I don’t know.” He rubbed his hands over his hair. “I was pissed off, and it wasn’t smart or right. It just happened. And I’m sorry that I did it.”
    “Sorry that you did it or sorry that you got in trouble for it?” Because I was willing to bet he wouldn’t have been sorry at all if he’d never gotten caught. “What exactly are you sorry about, Kaleb?”
    “Ms. Culver,” Mr. Frank said to Tina, “our intention was not to give your client a platform to attack Mr. Coats. We’re here for an apology.”
    Tina’s giant mouth flopped open. “N-no, of course not,” she stammered. “But, understandably, my client has some thoughts she wants to express—”
    “I think the least he can do is answer some questions for my daughter, don’t you?” Mom said, interrupting Tina. She placed her hand on the back of my chair.
    Mr. Frank held out his hand to Mom but spoke to Tina. “Now, I understand that Miss