White Liar (16 page)

 
 
 
"Oh.... shit!
 
Dude, she's coming this way."
 
Tyler snickered behind Justin.
 
"What do you think she's up to now?
 
Isn't it her turn to get you?"

 
 
 
Slowly, he turned around and sure enough, there she was, heading in their direction.
 
"Uh... yeah," Justin replied distractedly.
 
Watching her come towards him, he couldn't help but to notice how tired she looked.
 
Dark circles rimmed her eyes, her hair was flat and half-heartedly pulled back, even the clothing that she wore was not 'Chloe' like.
 
Her choice of attire was more suited for a pajama party than a day at school with her sweats and baggy tee-shirt.

 
 
 
 
"Look, you're on your own man," Don said from behind him.
 
"You want to play with fire, that's your prerogative.
 
I, on the other hand, have a reputation to uphold.
 
So, with all that being said- I'll see you at lunch?" He raised an angled brow and asked.

 
 
 
Throwing up his hand, Justin jerked his head back and replied. "Yeah, I'll see you guys at lunch." His eyes though were still focused on the girl that was now standing in front of him.
 
She hugged her notebook to her chest and her gaze was downcast.
 
Justin heard the murmurs of the guys saying their good byes from behind him and the shuffling of their feet as they dispersed in different directions.
 

 
 
 
When they were finally alone, Justin let out a loud, exasperated sigh.
 
"What do you want Chloe?" He asked her in a deadpan voice.
 

 
 
 
He watched her blink her eyes and saw her visibly gulp as she brought her face up to meet his steely gaze.
 
"Have..." she started and stopped before clearing her throat and starting again.
 
"Have you heard anything about John?
 
I mean, is he going to be okay?"

 
 
 
Scratching at his stubbled chin, Justin considered her for a moment.
 
She was a slight thing, pretty.... but definitely understated.
 
Usually, she would dress up in clothes that would make a guy's mouth water, her face would be painted with make-up and her hair would look like she spent hours getting every last strand in place.
 

 
 
 
But today-
 
today she was different.
 
It's like he was seeing a new Chloe, maybe even the real Chloe for the first time.
 
It wasn't like before, where she hid herself behind her make-up, her clothing and even her outlandish attitude.
 
The real question though, was why?
 
Why hide who you really are? Why try and be the bad ass, making enemies of people that you don't even know?
 
Namely, why me?

 
 
 
"No," he finally told her, shaking his head.
 
"He is in the same condition as he was on Friday."
 

 
 
 
She dropped her gaze back to the floor.
 
For a long minute, neither of the two of them spoke a word.
 
Justin felt the need to say something, the words even sat there on the tip of his tongue, but nothing would come out.

 
 
 
"Look-" both of them started at the same time.
 
Justin gestured for her to go first.

 
 
 
He could see that she was nervous as she ran her petite hand through her hair.
 
Her fingers tangled in the messy bun that she had secured at the back of her head and she mumbled a soft curse, causing Justin's lips to curl up slightly at the corners.
 

 
 
 
She dropped her hands to her sides, looked up at him and for the briefest of seconds he saw that spark in her eyes that he had in such a short time come to know as an elemental part of her.
 
But then, just as quickly, it was gone.
 

 
 
 
"I wanted to ask you if you would take me to see his parents.
 
I wanted to apologize for what has happened and see if there was anything that I could maybe do for them."
 
The sadness in her eyes was almost his final undoing but Justin thought about how bad off John's parents were right now
 
and all the strain they were under.
 
Then there was Alana to think about.
 
Now was not the time for Chloe to confront them, not when they weren't even sure if he would pull through.
 

 
 
 
"No," he told her gently. "I can't do that to them."

 
 
 
Her eyes welled up and he could see the fine sheen of tears threatening to fall.
 
"Please," she begged.
 
"I have to do something.
 
I can't stand this waiting."

 
 
 
Something in him suddenly snapped.
 
"Waiting!" he said loud enough that it drew attention from several passers by to them. "
You
 
can't stand the waiting."
 
He slapped his hands against his legs in frustration and guffawed.
 
"Well how in the hell do you think they feel.... waiting to see if John is going to ever wake up again...huh?!"
 

 
 
 
He knew he should have stopped right then and turned to walk away, but everything over the last week had stewed inside of him and now he was on the verge of exploding.
 
So instead of doing the right thing, he stepped closer to Chloe and pointed his finger in her chest.
 
"How do you think they are gong to react when you waltz that pretty little butt of yours in the hospital and announce to them that you were the one that put that powder in his strap, all for a load of laughs?
 
Oh- and by the way, I'm sorry.
 
Do you think they are going to forgive you and pat you on the head?"

 
 
 
She started to step backwards but by now Justin was on a roll.
 
He wasn't going to let her go so easily this time.
 
He had to get this off of his chest.
 
"I don't know," she said to him, her voice barely audible.
 
"I just thought-"

 
 
 
"Don't think!" Justin snapped.
 
"Since the first day that you walked into this school, you have had a stick up your butt.
 
I don't know what your problem is and I rightly don't care.
 
All I know is that because of something that
 
you
 
did, my friend's future is now hanging in the balance.
 
Jokes aside, that's the truth of the matter.
 
So to answer your question, no, I will not take you to see them.
 
The best thing you can do is to stay away from them and stay away from me.
 
Comprende?"
 

 
 
 
His chest was heaving with the exertion he just spent, his face was hot.
 
Tears rolled down her cheeks but like Justin had just told her, he just didn't care anymore
.
 
 

"
Fine," she whispered and sniffled.
 
"I won't bother you anymore."

 
Justin watched her as she turned; shoulders slumped down, and walked away.
 
Standing there, he now felt like scum. The more she tried to help or make amends, the more he pushed her away and the hell of it was- he didn't know if he was pushing her away from himself or if he was pushing her away because of what happened to John.

 
Finally turning around, he started to head towards his Chemistry class.
 
He had taken no more than three steps when he heard a feminine screech and a loud bang.
 
Whirling around to see what in the world was going on, Justin's eyes bugged out of his head.
 

 
"Damn it!" He swore and dropped his book bag, hitting the ground running.
 
If it wasn't one thing, then it was another.
 
"Alana," he screamed out, pulling her thrashing body off of a very still Chloe.
 
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly against his chest. "Stop!
 
You have to stop this right now!"

Chapter 13

Chloe got it.
 
She heard all the words that came out of his mouth and she understood where he was coming from, but that didn’t mean that she had to like it.
 
All she wanted to do was tell someone that she was sorry, make them see that she didn‘t mean for something like this to happen.
 
She wanted the chance to be able to explain herself but as Justin had mentioned, what she wanted really didn’t matter anymore.
 

Feeling dejected, Chloe turned around and started to head off in the other direction.
 
There was no reason for her to stay here any longer and she refused to look back at him.  She refused to beg.
 
She wasn’t stupid enough to not realize that the blame for this particular incident was all on her.
 
She was the one that actually went through with the act, so she knew that it was her fault.
 
Knowing that though and accepting it, well, that was just something that she would have to learn how to live with on her own.
 

 
 
 
Between worrying about John and dealing with Erica, Chloe's nerves were frayed…shot all to hell really.
 
She hadn't even begun to think about how she was going to deal with her cousin yet.
 
She sure as hell wasn’t about to go along with her newest plan but she didn’t want her running her mouth about her secret past either.
 
That was her past and Erica had promised her a year ago that her secret would always be safe.
 

 
 
 
When she first moved here, Chloe had understood all too well what Erica was going through.  She'd been there herself, but enough was enough.
 
She thought they had made their point, more than once.
 
Now John, a totally innocent person was needlessly suffering because he got caught up in the middle, all because of who he hung around.

 
 
 
“You stupid bitch!”

 
 
 
Chloe heard the words from behind her and before she could turn around, her body was being thrown sideways.
 
Her head snapped backwards, banging hard up against the metal lockers and it was all she could do to keep her eyes open while she sagged to the floor.
 
Pain exploded in the back of her head and while her vision blurred, she struggled to make sense out of what was happening to her.

 
 
 
It all happened
 
too fast.
 
One moment she was walking along the hall, the next moment she found herself on the floor with a blond haired avenging angel straddling her body, using Chloe as her own personal punching bag.