Chapter 29

I gripped the flowers tightly in my hand, feeling the stems break and bend. I would have dropped them, if I had the ability to move from where I stood. Unfortunately, my feet remained firmly on the ground, unwilling to lift up and carry me somewhere else. I stood there, staring down a boy who stared me down right back.

“Brent,” I said softly.

“Clover,” he returned. “Nice to see you. Have you been having fun with Poe? You’ve clearly done a number on him.”

Brent shook, but I doubted he knew how badly. It looked like his body almost vibrated, and his eyes stayed open so wide. He couldn’t quite keep his mouth closed, and his hands fidgeted in his pockets.

I should have called out for help, but I had my reasons not to. One, I thought it might have sent Brent off, and he would attack in an effort to shut me the hell up. Two, if Poe came out here to save me, then it put him in danger too. If I could keep this situation calm and relaxed, then maybe I could have convinced Brent that he needed to leave and never come back. Or at least leave for another few months. In that time, Poe might have figured out a better way to handle things.

“I didn’t say anything,” I lied. “Poe doesn’t really talk to me about you.”

Brent took a shaky step forward, and my instincts told me to make a break for it down the street. I didn’t know what drug Brent took, or if it would have made him inhumanly fast. Shit, I didn’t know how drugs worked. Weren’t there ones that made people crazy strong? What if I tried to run, and then Brent got me? Then, he might have tried to drag me off somewhere, and Poe wouldn’t have had the time to save me. Stall! I had to stall. If Poe came out here calmly, not knowing what waited for him. He’d have a chance if he didn’t come out in a panic.

“I know you’re lying to me,” Brent said. “Poe didn’t have anyone to tell him what to do. He’d help me sometimes. He cared and was nice. I got food and clothes. Then you showed up.” The boy jabbed a finger in my direction, moving another step to me. “I know him. I know how he is. Alone. Then you. You decided to mess it all up.”

Getting closer to the edge, I said, “Maybe you messed it up when you decided to start stealing from people you love so that you could pump drugs into your body. You were selfish and didn’t care what it would do to the people who loved you. You’re selfish now too, because you won’t leave Poe alone.”

Brent got in my face, so close that I felt his breath on me when he shoved at my shoulders. The flowers fell from my hand, and to the ground. Brent crushed them with a step. “Shut the hell up! You don’t know shit about me.”

“I know enough. You make Poe miserable.”

“Shut up,” he repeated.

“You need to get out of here before he sees you. You’re only going to make things worse.”

Brent shoved me again, and I almost fell back. He yelled at me to shut up again, but it only sounded like an echo in my head. Brent pushed me one more time, and my heel hit an uneven patch of sidewalk. I went down hard, falling onto my ass, and then back. My head hit the pavement, and blackness spotted my vision.

While I couldn’t see, I did feel pressure on my body. Brent got on top of me, and he gripped me by the hair. I couldn’t move my head, because he had me pinned so perfectly to the ground.

“You should have left,” he told me. “Left Poe alone, the way he likes to be. He doesn’t need you. I’m his friend. I know him better than you do, and I know what he needs.”

I didn’t say anything as my body trembled under him. Brent felt scrawny, but I wasn’t much better. If I wiggled, then he pressed harder to me. He had me there, and I couldn’t do a thing about it.

Brent stuck his hand in my pocket, terrifying me further. I never thought I would have been grateful for someone taking my wallet from me, but this could have gone worse. He tucked it into his own pocket but didn’t release me.

“He shouldn’t be around you,” Brent said through heavy breaths. He coughed, his eyes bulging again. “You’ll poison him. He should help me. He always helps me.” Everything came out frantic, and all calm from him had vanished. I didn’t know my chances for escape.

“Please,” I said. “You can have my money. I don’t care. Just…please get off me. Please!”

Brent’s hand wrapped around my throat, while the other still held my hair down. He bent to my ear. “I should save him from you. You all…you all ruin everything. His parents. His sister. He hates me because all of you.”

I tried shaking my head, but he squeezed his fingers around me. I gasped, and then no more air could get into my lungs. He held me so tightly, and the black spots got bigger. I needed… I needed to do something. I had to fight, but the world got heavy.

I wanted to break through the fog, thinking up a way to get out of this. Under…trapped under. Couldn’t see. My brain hurt, and I couldn’t feel the glass around me. I couldn’t call it for help. Couldn’t fight, couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe.

I’m going to die on the ground.

My fingers scratched at Brent’s hands as I choked on the word, “Stop.” He didn’t listen to me, and I had to hear his ramblings that I couldn’t make out. He wanted me to shut up and stop moving. If I gave up, then what hope did I have?

The black spots started getting bigger, and I couldn’t hold on for much longer. My grip loosened, and my hand fell to the ground.

Brent screamed, but not like he had before. He didn’t scream words but let out an unintelligible sound. Then Brent didn’t have his hands on me anymore, and I could breathe. It came painfully, burning my throat. I didn’t care, because I was grateful for the pain.

When the blackness started to fade, I saw a blurry figure in front of me. While Brent gasped and cried out in pain, he vanished from on top of me. Poe had him by the back of the shirt, and he tossed the skinny boy onto the driveway. The way Brent clutched his middle told me what happened, even in my foggy state. Poe hurt him, damaging the muscle in his torso. Attacking the boy who used to be his best friend, all to keep me safe.

I tried to sit up, and my palm further crushed the flowers I had gathered for Poe. I couldn’t stand yet, but I could see the boy I loved as he advanced on Brent.

“Please!” he screamed, clutching his body. “I wasn’t going to hurt her! I promise, I wasn’t gonna hurt her!” Brent yelled.

Poe didn’t say anything, and it took the breath right out of me when I saw him kick Brent in the face. His foot went right to his nose, and blood gushed onto Brent’s clothes. He sputtered, trying and failing to speak clearly. I thought Poe would have stopped then, but he didn’t. He dropped to his knees and took Brent by the shirt. While Brent looked up at him, eyes bloodshot and wide, Poe’s fist crashed into his jaw. And again. And again.

“Poe!” I yelled with a scratchy voice. He didn’t hear me, and I scrambled to get to my feet. If I could do that, then I could also stop Poe from doing something that would eat away at him. He might not care about Brent now, but a version of him used to, and I needed to spare him that.

I swayed when I pushed to my feet, but I caught myself on Poe’s car. The sun had dipped into oblivion, and the nearest streetlight didn’t do much for me in the moment. The glow touched Poe, but only barely. I saw him hit Brent again as the boy started to cry.

“Please!” Brent said. “Please you’re my best friend I love you please.”

I couldn’t quite make it all the way to Poe, and I dropped to the cold ground. I reached out for him, tugging on the bit of his shirt I could reach. Ignoring how my knees scraped on the concrete, I pulled myself forward.

“Stop!” I yelled. “Poe, stop!”

I yanked him by the shirt again, and he stopped. His chest pumped as he panted, and we both looked at his blood coated hand. It shook, and I pulled him off of Brent.

“Poe,” I said, gentle this time. “Are you okay?”

He nodded but didn’t look all there. His hands went to my throat, but so, so softly. It hurt, and I kept that to myself. “Are you okay?” Poe echoed me. “I saw…and he…”

“I’m fine,” I promised. “It doesn’t hurt.”

Poe put his arms around me, and his voice whispered in my ear, “I’m sorry,” over and over again. A hundred times, he said it. Breathless and broken. I held him, knowing that my saying I was fine, wouldn’t have done a thing. I could hug him, and it would say all the things words didn’t exist for.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I’ll keep you safe. I promise. I’ll always keep you safe.”

I hushed him and nodded when he could see me. “I know. It’s okay. I love you. It’s okay.”

“I’m sorry…”

I pulled him back to me, running my fingers through his hair as I repeated my words. If I said them enough, he would hear me. His hands held my waist, and I felt the fear in them.

“I love you. I’m sorry,” he told me.

I didn’t want to hear the word anymore, and I didn’t want him in pain. We had a boy on the driveway, bleeding and still. His chest moved, so I knew Poe hadn’t gone too far. Brent might have even been awake, but unable to move. Good. That was a shitty thought, but good if he couldn’t move. That prick tried to kill me. Like, really tried to kill me. He’d done that to Malon. That sweet little girl…he’d crushed her body too, cutting her while she screamed. All sympathy I had for him, left my body.

“We should call the police,” I told Poe. “How bad did you hurt him?”

Poe looked over his shoulder, staring at Brent. “I cut him on the inside. He’s bleeding internally.”

“Then we really need to call someone.”

“I’d prefer you didn’t,” I heard someone else say.

I had no time. Before Poe could turn around and see the girl speaking, he flew backward and away from me. He soared through the air and smashed into the garage. I screamed for Poe, but it did no good. The gust of wind that whipped my hair in my face, told me what happened.

Tammy stood right in front of me, smiling at the bleeding boy on the driveway. “Damn, I missed a party. I should have joined in instead of watching. To be fair, it was lots of fun watching you choke. Let’s do it again.”

Her hand came out in front of her, and the wind came back at me. It tossed me, making me roll on the driveway until I landed on the lawn. I hurried, needing to get up and make sure Poe hadn’t been hurt. I didn’t get the chance.

Tammy approached slowly, not needing to be any quicker. She used the wind to hold me down, locking me in place against the ground. I tried to move my arm, but it might as well have been glued to the grass. My chest could barely move to allow air in.

“You have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to this,” she told me. “I knew if I waited, it would be better. It was supposed to be a little later but couldn’t help it.” Tammy giggled, her nose wrinkling. “Don’t worry. Your boyfriend isn’t dead. I wouldn’t kill you guys. I’m not crazy.”

Sure she wasn’t. She felt really sane from where I laid. On the grass. Trapped.

She got onto her knees, perched on top of me, and she tickled my shoulders. “You look so afraid. It’s lovely. Hold still.” Tammy pulled something out of her pocket, and I saw that it was a little camera. Not her phone, but something that printed small pictures from the device. “I like pictures,” she told me, aiming the camera at me and snapping one. “You made me feel bad about that. Weird… I’m not weird. I like the eyes. So much can be said in the eyes. Like right now.” She took another picture. “You look afraid. But I can make it so much better. I can make you beg for oblivion, all without saying a word. Wanna see?”

My pinned body refused to move, and I couldn’t do a thing as Tammy took my picture. Then I felt it. Air, crawling into my body slowly. It slipped through my lips, my nose, my ears. Pressure built, and my chest filled with air that did nothing to help me breathe. It felt like my ribs wanted to pop, and all I could think about was thrashing, getting free. I couldn’t lift past the invisible weight over me. How did I let this happen again? Why did I have to be so damn small?

Tammy kept taking pictures while I gasped uselessly. I couldn’t hear Poe past the wind in my ears, so I had no way of knowing where he might have been. Tammy said he wasn’t dead but trusting her would be a dumb choice.

I had to have been approaching death, for all the choking the air caused me. My brain burned and wanted to fight her off. I couldn’t think straight and couldn’t move. I had to let her do what she wanted.

“Beautiful,” Tammy breathed, getting one more picture. She bent to me and laid her lips on my forehead for two seconds. “Thank you.”

When she popped up to her feet, I didn’t know what to think. She should have killed me. She looked like she wanted to kill me. Yet I laid there, heart beating and lungs trying so hard to inhale.

“Guess what I found out,” Tammy asked me, walking away from my body. “There are lots of ways to ruin a person. I could hurt your body, but it feels so boring. Then I thought it would be more fun to hurt someone you love, and then let you live with it forever!”

She crossed the driveway, hopping over Brent’s limp body. I could sit up, but not much else. I still gasped, not quite getting enough air to leave me with rational thought. Poe sat against the garage door, also unmoving. His eyes had opened though, and he looked around at me, and Tammy. I tried to say his name, but I couldn’t.

Tammy focused her attention on Poe. “You think your dirty little secret could stay buried? Nope! Not at all. Your parents should be smarter. Hide away the little girl you let almost die. I saw her face. Tell me what you think when you look at her.”

Poe didn’t speak, but the look in his eyes said everything. Tammy must have enjoyed the rage, because she started taking pictures. “Cut up and down. You let that happen. He said you did. Let him hurt her. You see her, and you think of him. You think of what you could have done but didn’t. The thought makes my tongue tickle. You know that feeling?” She took another picture. “I thought it would make for another pretty thought, doing that to Clover. Couldn’t hurt her with the other one, but I can do it with you. I can slice up your pretty face, so that she sees me when she looks at you. She’ll see my teeth in every inch of scar tissue.”

She pulled something from her pocket, and it glinted in the moonlight. When Tammy snapped another picture, the flash showed me a blade. She had a blade in her hand, and Poe couldn’t move. I couldn’t move. His eyes landed on me, and I couldn’t save him.

“Does she blame you?” Tammy asked as she twirled the knife. “Does your sister look at you like the hero that never picked up his sword? I wonder things like that. I wonder what breaks a person. Like shattering glass. One second, it’s perfect and smooth. One little hit, and webs start to crawl. Don’t you think it’s pretty?”

I panted, begging my body to be stronger than the wind keeping me down. I couldn’t break the hold, and neither could Poe. We stared at each other, and I wanted to say I was sorry. I love you, and I’m sorry.

I should have done better.