White Liar (17 page)

 
 
 
It only took Chloe about two seconds to catch up with her.
 
Reaching out, she grabbed a hold of the furious blonds wrists, determined to restrain her.
 
“What in the world?” she hollered at her, the words suddenly getting caught up in Chloe's throat when she noticed the stream of tears trailing down the girl’s cheeks.
 
The longer that she stared at her, something in her memory began to click and the more familiar this blond girl became.
 

 
 
 
It was the eyes.
 
Those sparkling blue eyes that clued Chloe into who she really was.
 
Even through the tears and the rage, it was John’s eyes that she saw staring so hard back at her.
 
With the sudden realization, Chloe released the girl's wrists and all she could do was lay there while the girl continued to rain down blow after blow after blow.
 

 
 
 
Chloe could see the pain etched so deeply in the girls face.
 
She was there, but yet she wasn’t.
 
It was like she was watching the entire scene from inside a fish bowl.
 
Her curses, her flying fists, her anger.
 
Chloe was seeing it all but she felt nothing, she was just numb.
 
Maybe, she thought, it was what she had deserved, maybe she just froze up, either way, she couldn't move.
 

 
 
 
Chloe wasn't exactly sure what all happened in those few seconds of maddening fury.
 
She could hear the small voice in the back of her head demanding that she move, fight back or just do something, but she couldn’t.
 
She couldn’t force herself to move a single muscle.

 
 
 
And then just as fast as the storm started, it suddenly came to a grinding halt.
 
The blond girl was gone and Chloe just lay there, staring up into nothingness.
 

 
 
 
“Chloe?
 
Chloe? Are you okay?”

 
 
 
Chloe moved her head to the left.
 
Ms. Hanson was there, kneeling down beside of her.
 
She held up two fingers with one hand and grabbed a hold of her chin with the other.
 
“How many fingers am I holding up Chloe?”
 

 
 
 
She stared at the older woman's fingers, blinked at then looked back up at her face.
 
The back of her head was pulsing with pain. She tried to bring her hand up to her face but the teacher pulled it away.
 
“No,” she warned, “Don’t touch until we can have the nurse look at you.” She held up three fingers this time with her free hand and lowered her head so that her eyes were level with a dazed Chloe's.
 
“Come now Chloe, this is important.
 
I need you to speak to me.
 
Can you tell me how many fingers I’m holding up?”

 
 
 
It felt like spikes were being drilled into the back of Chloe's head and now her eye was practically swelling shut.
 
Knowing how many fingers she was holding up really didn’t seem to be all that high on her priority list at the moment.

 
 
 
“Chloe?” She barked out again.
 
She was being stubbornly insistent about this and Chloe had a bad feeling that she wouldn’t leave her alone until she answered her question.
 
Drawing in a ragged breath, she hoarsely mumbled, “Three, three fingers.”

 
 
 
Ms. Hanson nodded and then yelled for someone to get Mr. Able, the Principal.
 
When she yelled, the sound echoed in Chloe's head, tripling the agony that she was already in.
 
Chloe tried to cover up her ears, but the teacher held tight to her hands.
 
“Chloe, just sit still for a minute,” she instructed, her voice gentling anxious.
 

 
 
 
Chloe glanced up with her one good eye, and spotted Justin across the hall.
 
He was holding the blond girl that had just attacked her but it was the expression on his face that took her by surprise.
 
 
Was that concern?
 
Was he concerned about me?
 

 
 
 
Chloe didn’t get a chance to think about it too much because Mr. Able finally made an appearance.
 
Her head was still throbbing and because of the awkward position that she was in on the floor, her back was now starting to ache.
 
Mr. Able bent down and spoke with Ms. Hanson, looked briefly in Chloe's direction and frowned.
 
His exaggerated expel of breath was loud enough for even her to hear.
 
“Take her down to the nurse’s office, I’ll deal with Alana.”

 
 
 
“Yes sir,” Ms. Hanson replied.
 
Chloe watched Mr. Able stand and motion towards Justin. “Let’s go,” he clipped.

 
 
 
Ms. Hanson stood and was already trying to help Chloe to her feet.
 
She felt a little off balance and when she stood she had to use the locker for balance.
 
The pain in the back of her head continued to beat in time with every thud of her heart.
 
Wincing, she watched as Justin walked the other girl, that she had now deduced to be John’s sister, down the hall.
 

 
 
 
At that very moment, he glanced back over his shoulder and their eyes met.
 
Something indescribable passed between them.
 
Chloe couldn’t put what she was feeling into words but it was like an understanding of sorts, a meeting of the minds.
 
Before she could read anything into it, Ms. Hanson was pulling on her arm and leading her off in the opposite direction.

 
 
 
“Come on Chloe,” she urged with an astounding gentleness.
 
Justin turned back around and all Chloe could see was his retreating back as he and the girl followed Mr. Able.
 
She was left feeling confused and was so tired of warring with herself.
 
For just a little while, Chloe didn‘t want to think anymore.
 
All she wanted was for all of her damn problems to disappear.
 

 
 
 
When Chloe's feet wouldn’t move, Ms. Hanson continued to tug at her arm.
 
“Chloe?“
 

 
 
 
 
Chloe lifted her head, and looked up, reading the worry in Ms. Hanson's face too.
 
She was too weakened to fight her, so she just gave in for now and let the teacher lead her away to the nurse’s office.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
**************************************

 
 
 
 
Three hours.
 
It was three hours later when they finally let Chloe out of that damn nurse’s office.
 
For a while there, she thought that they were going to send her to the hospital.  But with some fast talking she was able to convince them to let her stay there as long as she promised to stay in the nurse’s office so they could watch over her and make sure that she didn’t have a concussion.

 
 
 
Her head still hurt like a bitch, but with three hours to just sit there and think, Chloe had at least been able to get a better hold of her out of control emotions.
 
She now knew what she had to do,
No
 
what she was going to do,
 
she told herself and decided that the second they let her out of this place, she was going to do it.

 
 
 
She needed talk to John's parents.
 
If they wanted to press charges against her, so be it.
 
Chloe felt that It was time for her to take some responsibility for her own actions.
 
What Erica did, what Justin did…
 
was their choice.
 
But what she did, that was her choice and she chose to stand up for herself.
 
This time, she was doing what was right for Chloe.

 
 
 
Chloe didn’t do that a year ago and look what happened.
 
Her life, her reputation, was ruined all because she thought that she was in love.
 
 
Ha!
 
she snorted to herself, love was such a ridiculous notion.
 
Real people don’t fall in love.
 
They pretend to get what they want and once they have it, to hell with everyone else.
 
Love was nothing more than a fairy tale for those that live in a fantasy world.
 
In the real world, love was virtually non-existent.

 
 
 
Getting into her car, Chloe slammed the door behind her and cringed as the loud sound jarred her head.
 
It hurt, man did it hurt but she wasn’t about to let that deter her from what she wanted to do.
 
Determined, she slowly strapped the seat belt over her shoulders and started the car.
 
Most of the swelling had thankfully gone down around her eye and her vision had returned to normal but her face didn’t look all that pretty.
 
She glanced up in the rear view mirror and winced.
 
There was no denying it.  Her face was effed-up.

 
 
 
Pulling out of the school parking lot, Chloe's thoughts stayed on the speech that she had been practicing to give John’s parents.
 
Her plan was to go in, tell them about what she had done before the game, apologize, and let the chips fall where they may.
 
She would then leave her fate up to them.

 
 
 
She had gotten no more than a mile away from the school, when her phone started to buzz.
 
Not thinking, Chloe kept her eyes on the road and reached into her pocket book, blindly pulling her phone out.
 

 
 
 
Keeping all of her focus on the road, Chloe drove with one hand and used her free thumb to press the screen.
 
Still watching the road, she pulled the phone up to her ear.
 
“Hello?”

 
 
 
“Where the hell have you been?!”
 

 
 
 
Chloe withdrew the phone back when Erica screamed at her.
 
“I’ve been busy,” was all she could manage at the moment.
 
Erica just so happened to be the last person that she wanted to speak to right now.

 
 
 
“I heard that you got your ass kicked by Alana.”

 
 
 
“Who?”

 
 
 
“Alana, John’s sister.”

 
 
 
It all started to click then.
 
By now, the whole school was probably talking about what happened this morning with her and Alana.
 
“Look, I’m busy-”