by Summer Rose
“Listen to me, Glenn. I’m not Hannah.”
“Liar,” he yelled again.
“Look at me, please, Glenn, look at me,” I begged, hoping he could comprehend what I was saying, and for a moment, his eyes focused on me until they turned glazed again. Just when I thought things were about to get worse, he fell limply on top of me and dragged out a long snore.
Forcing myself not to cry, I struggled to push him off me, grunting as I did, and watched him tumble onto the floor with a loud sound yet no movement from him. He was out cold.
Just then, I heard a key in the lock, and the door came open with the boys appearing behind it.
“Kat!” Mason ran up to me, and I finally let myself burst into tears.
Despite their numerous questions wanting to know what happened, I found myself unwilling to speak and continued staring at nothing, even after I was done crying. I don’t know how long I sat on Mason’s bed, but I was grateful that the boys had dragged out the unconscious Glenn.
“Hey,” Noelle poked her head in. “Are you okay?” she asked and came to sit beside me, placing an arm around my shoulder. I shook my head in reply. “Did you tell them it was Carrie?” she asked, causing my head to snap up immediately.
“You knew? You knew and didn’t help me?” I asked with disbelief.
She shook her head with her eyes widened as she waved her hands in front of me. “I swear I didn’t. I saw her lock the door, but I had no idea there was anyone in here. For a moment, I thought it was strange that she had been in Mason’s room, but I thought maybe one of the guys sent her to get them something. Please, you have to believe me.”
“I do,” I assured her.
“So?”
I shook my head at her unfinished question, “I don’t want to worry Aaron. I’m sure Carrie didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“Bullshit!” Noelle yelled just as the guys entered, and her glare proved that she would spill the beans if I didn’t say anything.
I was met with silence initially before an angry Aaron stormed out of the room and came back, dragging a stunned Carrie with him. “What the hell did you do?” he asked her, my surprise at Aaron swearing deflating when she spoke after my side of the story was repeated.
“Oh my God,” she raised her hands to cover her mouth as her eyes became a little bit teary. “I swear I had no idea Glenn was in the room. I only saw Kat enter, and I admit I locked her in… but it was only because I was desperate to talk to her about Aaron. I didn’t want her to go anywhere. I only went to the kitchen to get us drinks, but I got distracted by my friends downstairs, and I forgot you were in here. I’m sorry, I’m truly sorry,” she pleaded, seemingly genuinely, and I could see it in everyone’s eyes, including Noelle’s, that they believed her.
So, with a broad smile, I accepted her apology and told her it was fine even though every instinct in me fought against it.
I should have known better. When has my instinct ever being wrong? Especially since something about Carrie rubbed me the wrong way.
CHAPTER NINE
D ue to past – and recent – experiences, I wasn’t one to keep quiet when something was bothering me. Hence, the next day I told the boys how suspicious I was of Carrie and how I was sure she didn’t like me. However, the opposite of what I expected was what I got.
Rather than ask for my reason, both Aaron and Mason had gotten so angry at me, we had fought but eventually made up. Aaron had accused me of giving him mixed signals and not wanting him to move on, especially since I had been the one who urged him to ask Carrie out in the first place. His words about me craving his attention at his own expense still hurt me, but I decided to bury it.
On the other hand, Mason had insisted I was jealous of Aaron’s relationship with Carrie because I still had feelings for him. Seeing his insecurity rear up because of something I had said broke my heart. Since I never wanted him to doubt my love for him, I had vowed to stay out of anything that involved Aaron and Carrie.
However, it seemed even that was proving itself impossible.
For some reason, Carrie tried her hardest to be around me wherever I went. She probably thought the incident at Mason’s house must have suddenly made us closer or even friends. With the boys watching closely, I pretended to like her, even though everything about her caused my senses to stay on guard, and it had nothing to do with Aaron.
Somehow, she had gotten Noelle to be on her side too and, by so doing, decided to join us in our preparation for prom.
“I can’t believe in a few days, we’re going to be graduating high school,” Noelle said with a sigh.
The three of us were seated in Carrie’s bedroom, who had begged and begged for us to get ready at her house and have the boys pick us up from there.
“Me neither,” I whispered, thinking back to everything I had been through since I started my senior year at Redwood High. “It truly has been a journey,” I said, a little more loudly.
“I hear it’s been a rough year for you, Kat. Aaron told me everything,” Carrie said with pity shining brightly in her eyes, a false pity no less.
I faked a smile, “I’m sure he has.”
I was strangling Aaron in my thoughts, even though I knew he must have meant well. He was probably trying to clear some ridiculous rumor about me.
“So, what are your plans for college?” She bounced excitedly on the bed, and even Noelle raised a brow.
Hesitating, I said, “Um… nothing yet. The boys and I applied to the same college, but we haven’t heard anything yet.” A subtle spark of jealousy in her eyes ignited, causing me to regret what I said immediately. It left me wondering if I had just imagined it.
“Well, I think I’m going to take a year off and travel,” Noelle cut in quickly, sensing the sudden tension in the room.
Carrie’s gaze swiveled to meet hers. “What about Jake? What would that mean for you two?” she asked with concern, but Noelle did not show that she was worried.
She simply shrugged and said, “Jake and I are soulmates. A little distance can do nothing to tear us apart.”
She radiated so much confidence that I felt myself swell with pride, marveling at how far we all had come.
“Must be nice,” Carrie muttered, her eyes dropping with a tinge of sadness, before plastering a broad smile on her face and clapping her hands together. “Enough of all the seriousness,” she said. “Let’s get dressed and have the boys’ mouths dropping in utter awe and shock.”
It took us hours to fully get ready, and I was glad we had told the boys to take their time in coming to pick us up.
By the time we were ready, I had to admit that all three of us looked absolutely gorgeous, with Noelle in her white dress, Carrie in black, and I in a short blue gown that flared out in ruffles at the waist.
“Oh, no!” Carrie exclaimed.
“What now?” I muttered under my breath while Noelle – who heard me since she was standing close to me – asked more genuinely with a look of warning directed at me.
“The charm bracelet Aaron got me is missing. I must have lost it while tending to my dad’s garden a few hours ago,” she said, and they turned to me with a pout and pleading look. “Please, please, help me find it. I promised Aaron I’d wear it tonight.”
“Me? Why can’t Noelle go?” I asked outrageously, not caring how it sounded.
“Come on, please. You are better at these things; Noelle wouldn’t want to break a nail digging in the dirt. No offense, Noelle.”
“No worries,” a beaming Noelle replied.
“Come on,” Carrie said and walked out of the room for me to follow.
I stood still for a moment until Noelle nudged me forward, “Go on, Kat. You never know, maybe this would bring you two even closer.”
I sent her a ‘never in a million years’ look, and she simply rolled her eyes and pushed me forward. “Fine,” I grumbled and went after Carrie.
Minutes passed, and we ventured further away from her dad’s garden and t
oward the woods, which, unlike the one close to Aaron’s house, was on the thicker side.
“I don’t think we are going to find your bracelet here, Carrie. We’ve been searching for quite a while,” I said as she continued to walk forward, leaving me to trudge grudgingly behind her.
“Just a little further,” she said. “We’re almost there! I can feel it.”
We went on and halted when she screamed with joy and pointed toward something in front of her.
Curiously, I ran forward to see what she was pointing to, and behold, it was a… “Aahh,” I screamed.
The bitch had pushed me into a ditch.
CHAPTER TEN
“D o you know how long I spent digging this hole, Kat?” asked the girl crouching at the edge of the opening to the ditch where I was trying desperately to claw myself out. “Take a guess,” she said with a smile that I ached so badly to tear off her face. “From the very moment you stepped foot into Redwood High,” she continued when I remained defiantly silent.
“You are sick,” I spat at her, determined not to give her the satisfaction of looking weak even though I was many feet beneath the ground.
She nodded as if agreeing with my words.
“I guess you could say so since you don’t know what true love is. For years, I’ve tried desperately for Aaron to notice me, but you just come along, and bam… he can’t take his eyes or mind off you. I’ve watched you these past few months, Kat. I’ve seen how you string these boys along for your own amusement and games.”
“Trust me,” she continued. “I’m doing them a favor by putting you where you belong: In the fucking ground.” Her eyes glowed with malice and pure hatred.
“Aaron and I are nothing. Fe’s with you now,” I spoke softly, hoping she’d come to reason with me.
Instead, she threw her head back and laughed before glaring at me. “That may be what you tell the others, but I’m not a fool. I’ve seen the way you two look at each other even though you claim otherwise. He’s with me, yes, but his heart still longs for you, and the only way to shift his affection to me would be to get rid of you. Aaron is mine, mine alone, and I won’t have it any other way.”
“So, then what? You’re just going to leave me here? They’ll look for me and then…”
“Won’t find you, I’ll make sure of it,” she finished and stood.
Quickly I called to her in an attempt to delay her so the others could have more time to find us if they suspected anything. “Wait… even if you do this, it doesn’t mean Aaron will love you. He’s going to see right through you eventually, Carrie. He’ll know what kind of monster you are.”
She crouched back with a smirk.
“What makes you think so? Hmm? Even your friends don’t believe I locked you in that room with Glenn intentionally because sweet, red-headed Carrie could never harm a fly,” she said, making a gesture of mock fear before her laughter echoed through the woods again. “You are the real monster here, Kat, don’t you see? Ever since you came into their lives, they have been constantly put in harm’s way, even your own mother.”
I clutched Mason’s locket tightly, words that would have filled me with guilt once upon a time drifting past me. “No.”
“What?”
“No, I haven’t put them in harm’s way. Instead, they have protected me every single time because they love me, and that is something you will never know or feel. You think this is love? You are obsessed, Carrie and obsession never does anybody any good. I don’t care if I rot in here, but as I do, I’ll revel in the fact that you would never feel the love you so badly crave,” I said with blunt confidence.
My words must have hit their target because she screamed in anger and pointed a shaky finger at me. “Every day, I will come and watch you fade away due to hunger and thirst. I will watch you waste away as the world slowly forgets you, and when you are gone, I’ll delight over your corpse.”
“Seriously,” I thought. “Did this girl think she was in an eighteenth-century horror movie?”
“No, you won’t,” a deep male voice I immediately recognized as Aaron’s filed my ears.
Shocked, Carrie turned around, her back to me, hindering me from seeing what exactly was going on, but I could hear their voices correctly. “How did you…?” she trailed off.
“The boys came to pick us up, and when you were taking too long, I told Aaron you went looking for the charm bracelet he gifted you because you promised to wear it tonight. But Aaron says he never gave you a charm bracelet,” Noelle said.
“Oops,” Carrie snickered, covering her mouth with her hand. The girl was a true psychopath. “It still doesn’t explain how you found us.”
“Kat’s locket has a tracking device in it. I activated it as soon as I sensed things didn’t add up, especially with you,” I heard Mason say.
“Hey,” I yelled, a little bit offended that he had put a tracking device in his gift for me.
“Sorry, babe, but you do have a knack for getting into trouble,” he said, and I could feel his grin. Well, he was right. “We had a conversation with Glenn, and he said you were the one who asked him to go into Mason’s room, yet you said you didn’t know anyone was there. I knew then that we should have believed Katrina.”
“Well then, since the cat is out of the bag, what are you going to do with me?” Carrie whispered, still smirking.
“This,” I whispered back in her ear and pushed her into the same ditch I was in moments ago. Little did she know that Mason and Aaron had kept her distracted, while Noelle and Jake helped me out of it. “Now, ladies and gentlemen, let’s go finish high school in style. We’ll let the cops deal with her.”
“Or we can give them a call after prom,” Noelle said with a sly smile, and I grinned back at her.
“I have a feeling we’re going to be BFFs after all,” I said to her and sighed. “I can’t say I’m going to miss high school.”
“Definitely not,” Aaron grumbled, and we all laughed as I walked hand in hand out of the woods with my boys and Noelle, leaving the horrors behind.
THE END
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