Chapter 33 Scared

Chapter 33 Scared
Maya's POV

Chloe's face twisted.

The fear was still there, I could see it flickering behind her eyes. But something else was taking over, something harder.

"Get out of my house."

Her voice was low and shaking but sharp.

"Chloe…"

"I said get out."

She shoved the door and tried to close it. Justin caught it with his shoulder and pushed back.

"We're not leaving until you talk to us."

"Talk?" She laughed. It was ugly and broken. "You want me to talk? You're insane. You know that? Completely insane."

"Chloe…"

"Sarah told me you'd do this." Her eyes were wild now. "She said you'd come here and you'd try to drag everyone down with you. She said you'd lie and manipulate and play the victim and you'd ruin anyone who tried to leave you behind.”

Sarah told her. Of course Sarah told her.

Sarah is always ten steps ahead.

"I'm not lying," I said. "You were there. You saw what she put in my drink, you saw…"

"I saw nothing."

"You're lying."

"I'm surviving." The word cracked out of her like a whip. "There's a difference."

Surviving. That's what I've been doing too.
Just that Sarah destroys people differently, some loudly and some quietly.

Justin stepped forward, slowly. His hands where she could see them.

"Chloe, we're not here to hurt you, we just want the truth. Nobody's asking you to lie."

She turned on him. Her face was red and her eyes were wet.

"You don't know anything. You're just…you're just some coach who thinks he can fix everything by showing up and looking pretty."

Justin didn't flinch. "Then help me understand."

"I don't have to help you with anything."

"Chloe…"

"Get out."

Her voice cracked on the last word and in that crack… I heard it.

Fear.

She's terrified of Sarah, of what happens if she talks.

"You know something," I said. "You know something and you're not saying it."

Chloe's eyes darted to me, then she looked away.

"I don't know anything."

"You were at the sleepover, you saw her put something in my drink, you watched me pass out and you watched her…"

"You don't know what I watched."

The words came out too fast and she froze.

The room went silent.

You don't know what I watched.

Not "I didn't watch anything." Or "You're imagining things."

"You don't know what I watched."

She was there, she saw everything.

"Chloe." My voice was softer now. "Please."

She looked at me. Her face was pale and her hands were shaking.

"You don't understand," she whispered. "You don't understand what Sarah is capable of."

There it is. The thing I've been trying to ignore.

Sarah isn't just a bully or just a jealous friend. Sarah is dangerous.

"Then tell me," I said. "Help me stop her."

Chloe shook her head. Tears were falling now. Silent.

"I can't."

You can," I whispered. "You're just too scared to do it.”

"I can't."

She backed away from the door and wrapped her arms around herself. She looked smaller than I'd ever seen her.

She's not the enemy here. She's just another victim, another girl Sarah crushed.

Another girl who couldn't fight back.

"Chloe…"

"Please." Her voice broke. "Please just go, before she finds out you were here. Before she…"

"Before she what?"

Chloe didn't answer.

She just stood there shaking. Her arms were wrapped so tightly around herself that her sleeves had ridden up.

And I saw them; bruises.

On her wrist, like someone had grabbed her hard.

What the hell happened to her? Who did that?

Sarah?

What is going on?

Justin saw them too. I could tell by the way his jaw tightened but he didn't say anything.

He just looked at me and nodded toward the door.

We need to go, we're not going to get more tonight. And especially not like this.

I stepped back.

Chloe didn't move.

"We'll go," I said. "But this isn't over."

Chloe didn't answer. She just stood there frozen.

I walked out of the room and Justin followed. The door clicked shut behind us.

The hallway was cold.

I didn't remember walking through the apartment, past Chloe's grandmother, out the front door and into the gray afternoon. But suddenly we were outside and I couldn't breathe.

Justin stopped walking and turned to face me.

"Did you see the bruises?"

I nodded. My throat was too tight to speak.

"Fingerprints," he said. "Someone grabbed her too hard."

"Sarah?"

"Maybe, or someone Sarah knows." His jaw tightened. "Either way, it means Chloe isn't just scared of losing her reputation. She's scared of getting hurt."

"What do we do?" I whispered.

Justin didn't answer. He just stared at the apartment building.

"We find out who did that to her," he said finally. "And we make sure they can't do it to anyone else."

My phone buzzed just then in my bag. God please, let it not be the hospital with bad news.

I looked at it and it was an unknown number.

I opened the message and my blood turned to ice.

"Stop digging before your father loses more than his job."

The world tilted.

More than his job. What does that mean?

His health? His life? Mine?

"Justin." My voice was barely a whisper.

He looked at the screen and his face went pale.

Then another message appeared beneath the first. It was a photo.

My father's hospital room.

No, no, no.

Papa was asleep in the photo, the IV still in his arm. Meaning whoever took the picture was standing close enough to touch him.

"We need to go. Now."

He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the car. I didn't look back but I felt it, eyes on my neck, watching and waiting.