White Liar (15 page)

 
 
 
“Fine,” Erica conceded and clicked her heels together, abruptly turning around.
 
She had just opened the door when she stopped and glanced back at Chloe with a haughty look over her shoulder.
 
“Don’t forget what we have planned for next week.
 
The supplies have already been ordered.”

 
 
 
Chloe had just sat down on her bed and was getting ready to pull the covers back over her body when Erica spoke again.
 
She looked up at her with wide owl eyes.
 
“Oh, Hell no,” she told her, feverishly shaking her head.
 
“You can’t seriously be considering still doing that after what just happened tonight.”

 
 
 
Erica shut the door and turned around so that she facing her.
 
“You’re not backing out on me now Chloe, not after all of the planning we put into this.”

 
 
 
“No!” Chloe said firmly.
 
There was no way in hell that she was going along with this plan.
 
As far as she was concerned, she was done with the prank wars. This last stunt broke her.
 
She never wanted to feel this way again.

 
 
 
“You have to or else," Erica insisted.

 
 
 
“No- I don’t.
 
I don’t have to do a damn thing that I don’t want to do.”

 
 
 
The two girls were locked in a stare down and Chloe could see the determination on her cousin’s face.  But it was Erica's next words that took her by complete surprise.
 
“Yes.
 
Yes, you will do this Chloe, because I would hate for the entire school to find out about your dirty little secret.”
 

 
 
 
Chloe jumped up off the bed again.
 
“You wouldn’t!” she gasped.

 
 
 
The sickeningly sweet smile she gave Chloe said it all.
 
“Oh yes ma’am, believe me, I would.
 
 
Do you want to try me?”

 
 
 
Chloe was stuck in a poleaxed position.
 
Erica should have just slapped her, it would have been better than this.
 
She continued with that all knowing grin of hers, confident of what Chloe's answer would be. Hell, there was only one answer Chloe felt she could give her.
 
What other choice did she have?
 
She couldn't let anyone find out about her past, it was entirely to damaging.
 

Erica patted her cousin on the shoulder and Chloe cringed at the gesture.
 
Seemingly satisfied with her reaction, Erica turned to leave her room singing over her shoulder.
 
“See you in the morning, cuz.”
 
 
 
 
Chapter 12

 
 
 
 
Justin forced himself to trudge through the school hallways on Monday morning.
 
He was most definitely not in the best of moods.
 
His head continued to throb with a persistent ache that started somewhere in the wee hours of Saturday morning and was still going strong.
 
His body felt like it was moving in serious slow motion; sort of like wading through a dense evening fog and to top it all off, even the conversations going on around him seemed to be a thousand miles away.
 
 

 
 
 
 
His day started with a phone call to the hospital and needless to say the news he received was discouraging.
 
There was still no change in John’s status.
 
It’s been over forty-eight hours now and he was still in a coma.
 
And what made it worse, there wasn’t a damned thing that he could do about it except wait and hope that he wakes up soon.
 
All of this waiting, unable to do anything, is what was slowly killing him.

 
 
 
 
The last place that he wanted to be was here, at school, but it wasn’t like Justin had much of a choice in the matter.
 
One of the conditions of his scholarship had been that he maintains a 3.0 GPA.
 
So here he was, going through the rigors of high school and for what?
 
A scholarship?
 
All so he could play football?

 
 
 
 
In the grand scheme of things it all seemed pretty frivolous with all things being considered.
 

 
 
 
 
“Hey man.”

 
 
 
 
 
Stopping at the sound of the familiar voice, Justin turned around to see several of the guys from the team hanging out by the door at the commons area.
 
He realized that Don was the one that had spoken to him.
 
He inclined his head in his direction and Justin slowly made his way over to him.
 
Standing in the middle of the group, he took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
 
By now, most of the school had heard about what happened with John.
 
They all knew it was an allergic reaction to something but what that something was remained a mystery to the public in general.

 
 
 
 
Both Justin and John had decided after the game to not say anything to anyone about the itching powder that Chloe so deviously filled their jock straps with.
 
The decision was made in order to avoid an epic embarrassment more than anything.
 
The guys all knew about the prank war that they had going back and forth with Chloe and Justin just couldn’t bring himself to tell them about how she pulled this one over on them.
 
Besides, John had been a bit miffed with the fact that she only agreed to go out with him on a date so that she could gain access to the locker room.
 
And Justin had been hard pressed then to not tell him '
I told you so.'

 
 
 
 
Looking uncomfortable, Don rocked back on the balls of his feet and played with the zipper on his hoody before finally speaking.
 
“How have you been hanging man?”
 

 
 
 
 
Justin shrugged.
 
“I’m hanging in there,” was about all that he could manage to say.
 
It was nothing short of the truth.
 
He
 
was
 
getting by- barely.

 
 
 
 
“Any news on John?”

 
 
 
 
Shaking his head, Justin told him. “Not really.”
 
His answers were intentionally cut short because there just wasn’t a whole lot to say about the situation.
 
Guys didn’t talk about their emotions like girls did.  They just got down to the heart of the matter.
 
 
Is he alive?
 
Are you okay?
 
 
And that was about the sum of it.
 
Anything that they typically felt, they kept bottled up inside.
 
That’s just the way that guys handled things.

 
 
 
 
For a long minute afterwards, no one said anything.
 
Everyone just sort of looked to the floor or across the way.  Anywhere but in Justin's direction.

 
 
 
 
Finally, Tyler broke the awkward silence by bringing up the big Duke and Carolina basketball game tonight.
 
With the guys pretty much split in half over which team was going to win, the somber mood of the group instantly transformed into more of a teasing rivalry.
 

 
 
 
 
It literally hurt to stand there and listen to the boys carry-on the way they were like nothing ever happened.
 
The laughing, the playful punching- it was all just a bit too much for Justin.
 
Without John here to give them that brilliant smile of his, playing the referee role between the guys, it just didn’t seem right.
 
It wasn’t normal.
 
Hell, Justin frowned, nothing about this was normal.

 
 
 
 
“Pinnix…. Justin… Hey dude…”
 

 
 
 
 
Justin shook his head from side to side and focused on the hand that Tyler was waving in his face.
 
“Yeah, um- sorry about spazzing out on you man.
 
I just have a lot on my mind right now.”

 
 
 
 
He gave his friend a sad smile. “I understand.”
 
Justin shoved his hands in his pockets and noticed Tyler's eyes narrow on something or more than likely someone behind him.
 
“Before you found out about what happened with John at the party, didn’t you and the new chick get into it over something?”

 
 
 
 
Justin grunted, barely recalling that conversation now.
 
He had been his usual cocky self because they had won the game despite her efforts and she was just being a first class bitch.
 
“Something like that,” he answered, scowling as he remembered the episode.

 
 
 
 
Tyler leaned in closer to him and lowered his voice. “Well don’t look now my friend, but Chicka with the bad attitude has her sights on you.
 
And man.” he smacked at Justin's shoulder and laughed. "I'm glad it's you and not me because she is one vindictive.... you get where I'm going, right?"

 
 
 
 
 
Justin closed his eyes.
 
 
Yup, I knew exactly where he was going alright
.
 
She wasn't typically known to be all sugar and spice, Chloe was more along the lines of salt and vinegar.
 

 
 
 
Right then, at that very moment, there was a small part of him that wanted to turn around and see her.  But then there was the rest of him, which was a much larger part, that wanted to stay right where he was and completely ignore the hell out of her.
 

 
 
 
What
 
had been so frustrating was that in the time since Friday, if Justin had not been thinking about John, his thoughts revolved around Chloe.
 
It was because of the way that she looked at him at the hospital.
 
She looked so torn up and upset.
 
When she walked away from him, he almost, the key word there being
 
almost,
 
went after her.
 
Luckily he thought better of it and got in his car and drove home. Justin knew that she felt remorse for what she had done but it was just too little, too late.