White Liar (18 page)

 
 
 
“No Chloe, you look,” she interrupted her in that bitchy voice of hers.
 
She continued to rant and for a second there Chloe thought back to all of those late night phone calls that she received from her cousin before she moved in with her.
 
All of the tears that she shed, the helplessness in her voice and wondered where in the heck that Erica went.
 
“You better be here in an hour.”
 

 
 
 
Chloe caught the tail end of what she was saying and shook her head.
 
This was not the same Erica that she had grown up with and right now.  She was the least of her mounting problems.

 
 
 
“No,” Chloe told her calmly, “I won’t.”
 
After saying that, she promptly hung up the phone and threw it in the seat beside of her.
 
She was just pulling into the hospital parking lot when it started to go off again.
 
 
Ignoring it, Chloe parked the car and took a deep, steadying breath.
 

 
 
 
She was finally here.
 
It was now or never Chloe realized, and for once in her life, she was prepared to do what it was that she had to do.
 
Stepping out of the car, she heard the phone that she had left in the passenger seat buzz, yet again.
 
She glanced back at it, held up her hand to her aching temples and slammed the door closed on the sound.
 
Life was all about decisions and the consequences of said decisions.
 
Everyone had a right to make their own decisions, and now Chloe was finally making hers.

Chapter 14

 
 
 
Justin kept his arm around Alana’s shoulder, holding her close to his side as they followed Mr. Able to his office.
 
He was still flummoxed over what had just happened.
 
One minute he was walking down the hall, determined
 
to just survive the day and the next, he heard a noise, turned around and saw the little sprite raining down blow after blow on top of Chloe.
 

 
 
 
The sight before him left him frozen. He was shocked to see sweet little Alana fighting like that. Not just fighting, but fighting like a possessed wildcat.
 
He was even more surprised to see Chloe just laying there. She wasn’t even trying to fight back. She didn’t lift a finger to protect herself or even try to block one of the blows from Alana, and that just didn’t seem right.
 

 
 
 
And this was supposed to be the same bad ass Chloe that exuded mountains of strength, loads of confidence and carried that f-you attitude everywhere she went. Even when she walked down the halls of the school she seemed to let off an aura that radiated that she was untouchable.

 
 
 
But something about all of this wasn’t right. She seemed subdued now, worried and maybe even a little concerned.
 
This wasn’t the same Chloe that he had come to know over the last few weeks.

 
 
 
“This way,” Mr. Able said curtly, holding the door open to the main office and waving both Justin and Alana through.
 
His eyes were stony and the set of his mouth was grim.
 
 
Oh yeah
, Justin silently mused, just by the expression on his face he could see that Mr. Able was not in a good mood and that did not bode well for Alana.

 
 
 
“Mr. Pinnix, you can sit out here and Alana, you’ll follow me.”

 
 
 
Alana meekly glanced up back up him and Justin nodded, encouraging her to go ahead.
 
Mr. Able would not be denied.
 
Taking a step back, he released his hold on her and watched her follow Mr. Able into his private office until the door closed and she was completely out of his sight.
 
All he could do now was sit and wait. It was out of his hands and no matter how he felt, he knew there was nothing more that he could do.

 
 
 
Once again, Justin found himself waiting. Waiting to see what was going to happen.
 
While all the waiting really sucked, it was the not knowing what was going on that really sucked the most.
 

 
 
 
They were in high school and this time was supposed to be the prime of their youth.
 
They were supposed to be having fun, laughing and making memories to last a life time.
 
Not worrying if best friends were going to live, breaking up cat fights involving little sisters, or questioning every decision that they had ever made.
 
They were just kids for Pete’s sake.
 
None of them were ready to face these types of issues.
 
Justin shook his head as he reflected, damned if they weren’t all being forced to face them anyway.

 
 
 
Feeling the weight of his frustrations bear down on his own conscious, Justin pulled his bag up into his lap and started to rifle through it, looking for something that might possibly take his mind off of reality, even if it was just for a few minutes.
 

 
 
 
Pulling out his notebook, he stared blindly at his planner.
 
As he started going through it, Justin realized that he had yet to come up with an idea for his senior project and the proposals were due this Friday.
 
“Great,” he mumbled to himself.
 
This was something else to add to his exceedingly long list of problems.
 

 
 
 
He let out an irritated sigh and snapped the planner closed before shoving it roughly back into his book bag.
 
 
Who am I kidding?
 
There wasn't anything that could take his mind off of everything that was going on right now.
 
It was just too much.
 
Jerkily, he zipped the book bag closed and dropped it back down on the floor beside his feet.
 
 

 
 
 
Right now, Justin thought life sucked.
 
And the worse part about it, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

 
 
 
His best friend was lying in the hospital fighting for his life.  John's sister, the same little girl that Justin treated like his own little sister, was sitting in the principal’s office for fighting, probably about to get suspended.  And then there was Chloe.
 

 
 
 
 
Chloe.....

 
 
 
He wasn’t sure what to think about her. She seemed to be really worried about John. Not as in a,
 
I-hope-I-don’t-get-in-trouble
 
type of worried--- but a full blown
 
I-hope-he-is-going-to-be-alright
 
worried. She even seemed sincere in her grievances too.
 
It just confused the hell out of Justin and the more he thought about it, the more that he tried to make some kind of sense of it, the more and more confused Justin seemed to get.

 
 
 
 
That’s it!
 
It seemed so perfect- almost too perfect.
 
Justin now had an idea for his senior project.
 
It could be about life- the choices that people make and the consequences that people have to live with.
 
Consequences could be good or bad.
 
In Chloe’s case they were bad of course but he figured that there has to be some good consequences too, right?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Justin? …
 
Mr. Pinnix, are you listening to me?”

 
 
 
 
Snapping himself back to the here and now, Justin finally realized Mr. Able was calling him. He jumped to attention and answered, “Sir, yes sir.”

 
 
 
Justin noticed that Mr. Able's face was stoic as he stared back at him but there was something else in his eyes, a tenderness maybe that countered that stern expression.
 
“I would like for you take Alana home please or to the hospital, wherever it is that she needs to go.”
 
 
 
 

 
Turning to Alana, Justin could tell by the look on her face that things didn’t go very well.
 
The tear stained cheeks and swollen eyes told him that she had been crying.
 
He wondered what it was exactly that she had told him.
 

 
 
 
“Of course,” he nodded his head back at the principal.
 
That was what he had already planned to do anyways.
 
Justin wanted to go by the hospital this afternoon and check on John, what better reason to go than to take Alana to meet her parents?

 
 
 
Ready to blow this place, Justin strode towards the door and held it open for Alana.
 
Slowly, she started to move her feet and head in his direction.
 
She kept her face down and hugged her books to her chest, making Justin's chest tighten.
 
She didn‘t need this, not now anyways.
 
The poor girl had too much on her as it was, worrying about her brother and all.

 
 
 
She started down the hall and he followed her, letting the office door close behind him.
 
Neither of the two of them spoke.
 
All you could hear was the sound of shuffling steps against the white tiled floor as they walked down the empty corridor.
 

 
 
 
“So,” Justin finally said, unable to take this prolonged silence anymore.
 
“Do
 
you want to talk about it?”
 
After he asked her the question, he shoved his hands in his pockets and turned his head so that he could see her.
 

 
 
 
Alana didn't spare Justin even a cursory glance, she only seemed to pick up her pace.
 
“Not really,” she said curtly, surging right past him.
 
"There is nothing to tell, I'm suspended for the next week and Mr. Able was kind enough to tell me that I was lucky to not have assault charges pressed against me."
 
She was now ten feet ahead of him, her voice fading and showing no signs of slowing down.

 
 
 
Justin stopped in the middle of the parking lot and called out to her.
 
“Alana … wait!”
 
He could see that they needed to talk about this before they got to the hospital.
 
At first he didn’t think that she was going to listen to him but suddenly she stopped.
 
She didn’t bother to turn around and face him though.
 
Instead, she kept her back to him and it was ram-rod straight.
 

 
 
 
“Look,” Justin started, jogging to catch up with her.
 
“It’s not what you think.”
 
When he caught up with her, Justin placed a hand on her shoulder and she flinched back from him.
 
“Dammit Alana!” he snapped, “It was a mistake.
 
Chloe didn’t know that he would have that type of reaction.
 
If she did, I’m sure that she would have never done it to begin with.
 
It was supposed to be a prank.”

 
 
 
Alana whirled around on him, her swollen eyes filled with unrestrained fury.
 
“A prank?!
 
My brother is fighting for his life all because of a stupid prank?!
 
Are you serious?”