by Hollye Davis
Kim shrugged, “Can I borrow your phone?”
“It’s on the coffee table,” Chloe instructed as she put the frozen chicken in the microwave to thaw.
The next thing Chloe knew, Kim was standing in the kitchen, her cell phone clutched in her hand, “Where in the hell did you get this? Wait don’t tell me. It’s from your boyfriend!”
“Yeah, Jody told me it was something that hadn’t been released yet but, whatever.”
“You are so friggen weird, Chloe. I just don’t know what to make of you.” Kim shook her head and dialed her home number to make arrangements to stay over.
Chloe was overwhelmingly relieved that Kim was staying the night. She hadn’t slept well since Edwin left. With Kim here, the cottage wasn’t so empty.
I am ashamed to admit that I almost prefer the soreness from the “incident” than the ache I feel without Edwin. At least bruises are tangible, whereas fear, sorrow, and grief are bruises of the soul no one sees and pretends they don’t exist. –Chloe’s diary
Chapter 5
Bodyguards?
After the weekend, her soreness from Friday still made the morning difficult. Her muscles were stiff and her lip swollen. She was thankful for Kim, who had stayed the entire weekend, as she helped Chloe get out of bed and into her clothes. Saturday, Chloe had been unable to move, so Kim’s help was necessary, and Sunday was only a slight improvement. Monday, she was at least able to get dressed on her own.
Kim touched each outfit in her closet with such feeling that Chloe was compelled to offer Kim something out of her closet to borrow. She was rewarded with a jubilant hug that was kind of painful but worthwhile. Kim worshipped her clothes almost as bad as she when Chloe first got them. Finally Chloe had to drag her from the mirror that Kim stared at herself dressed in a pretty powder blue form-fitting t-shirt and tight designer jeans that hugged Kim’s hips quite nicely. Pulling Kim into the bathroom, Chloe showed her how to apply her make-up in a subtle manner, which improved her looks remarkably.
They walked in the living room to find Aunt drinking her coffee.
“Good morning,” Chloe said as she leaned to give her aunt a kiss on the cheek.
Aunt smiled up at her, “You don’t have to go to school today, you know.”
It was incredibly tempting but she knew it would not be healthy, plus the cheerleaders might take it as defeat. This was so not defeat.
Chloe shook her head, “I better not, I have my GPA to worry about.”
Her aunt watched her worriedly as Chloe tenderly moved to fix them breakfast.
After they were finished, they grabbed their backpacks and walked out to a beautiful sunny day. She was determining how best to handle the long steps when she spotted Cole waiting in her driveway.
Her heart galloped with fear when she realized he could only be here for one thing, Bear.
Working around the fear building in her throat, she was about to ask but Cole spoke first, “Hey, sweetheart, need a ride to school?”
Kim shot her a look, mouthing, “Edwin?”
Chloe shook her head, not sure what was going on. Kim, however, had no problems speaking or agreeing to Cole’s offer. She ran down the stairs and said, “Uhhhh yeah!” as Kim crawled into the single cab pick-up. Cole, who was holding the door, gestured her to follow. It took her a bit longer to get down the steps, in fact Cole had to help her down half of them.
He tenderly lifted her in the truck and closed the door. Kim whispered, “Oh my God, how do you know him? He isn‘t Edwin is he?”
“No, he isn’t Edwin. He works at the stables where my horse is.”
Kim slugged her shoulder. “No way! You’ve totally been holding back on me!” Kim exclaimed. What had gotten into Kim? Had the clothes changed the squinted–eyed death chick into a girly-girl?
Cole slid into the driver’s seat. He shot her a concerned look then started the engine.
Kim flirted outrageously, all smiles and teasing. Chloe watched them, slightly nauseated, hoping she and Edwin didn’t behave in such an obvious and sickening manner. After another playful swat at Cole, Chloe had enough.
“Okay,” she said, “Cole, why are you all of sudden taking me to school and don’t give some cockamamie bull answer.”
He laughed, “Well I wasn’t going to give you one of those ‘cockamamie’ bull answers. It’s quite simple. I got an interesting call from your boyfriend who was irate about kids harassing you at school.” He looked at her closely then, “and now that I see you, I can understand it. Nice lip, Chloe.” She touched it tentatively. It was still swollen.
He shook his head, “Man I’m so glad he’s not here. He would certainly freak.” Why everyone thought Edwin would go crazy over a split-lip was beyond her, but it seemed to be the consensus.
Kim asked, “Is Chloe’s boyfriend really that protective?”
Cole blew out a breath, “You’ve no idea.”
“Isn’t this taking you away from your job Cole?” Chloe asked, uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was heading.
“Naah, I run that place, it’s fine. Besides Edwin is compensating me quite well. Although now seeing you, I’m not sure I can take the money.”
His statement prompted her to look at her scraped palms. Cole saw the gesture and suddenly pulled his truck over. He reached over Kim and took Chloe’s small hands into his. “Damn, those asses, I hope Edwin has someone at the school to watch after you too, I can only do so much.” Releasing her hands, Cole pulled back out into traffic.
After arriving at school, and they got out of the truck, Kim hesitated, smiling flirtatiously at Cole and asked, “Are you going to pick us up later?”
He smiled a crooked smile, “Sure, darling, for two beautiful women like you, I’ll drive to the moon.”
Chloe rolled her eyes AGAIN, “Good Grief, let’s go, Kim, before he makes the whole school sick.” Kim, however, didn’t look sick at all. She looked like she was half in love with the cowboy.
They walked up the front steps, each step harder than the one before. At the final step, right before the door, all her bravado went out the window and she hesitated. Her breathing became erratic and her palms sweated. Trying to catch her breath, she feared she was going to have a panic attack. She couldn’t face those people, she couldn’t go in there. Kim seemed to understand and stopped next to her, watching her closely.
When someone touched her from behind she nearly came unglued. Letting out a yelp she flung her body around. Kim immediately stepped in front of her. Kim’s fists were clinched, as if she was going fight every single person who touched her.
When they both stared at a barrel of a chest, even though the guy was on a step lower, they both comically and simultaneously looked up and kept looking up to the biggest boy she had ever seen in her life. He had to weigh over three hundred pounds and was several inches over six feet tall. Kim dropped her hands to her side.
“You Chloe?” He said in a deep voice.
Kim must have regained her senses because she snapped at him, “What’s it to you?”
Chloe turned her gaping expression to Kim. She must be joking snapping at a guy who could pick them up and toss them without any problem!
He swung his massive head, “It matters a lot. I’m a friend of Edwin, he says I’m to always walk with Chloe.”
Kim swung around to her and said, “Damn, your boyfriend IS connected!”
So that was it, her very own personal bodyguard, and she had no idea how Edwin pulled it off, but she was thankful. She knew she wouldn’t have been able to go back into that school without some protection.
Her new “friend’s” name was Jeff and although he was actually on the football team, he didn’t condone the way the players or cheerleaders had been treating her.
Jeff explained, “Just because one plays on the team doesn’t mean that we have to do everything together,” he peered down to Chloe, “or agree that beating up someone is fun.”
“You’re a linebacker?” Kim sudd
enly asked.
“No,” He grinned.
“Front linesmen?” Kim bantered.
“No,” Jeff had a big smile.
Chloe interrupted, “Oh good grief Kim, who cares?”
They both looked at her as if they very much cared. She mumbled, “Obviously y’all do.”
“Center,” Jeff answered.
“Oh, very cool position!” Kim said enthusiastically. Chloe started walking and they kept talking about football. She hadn’t been to a football game since Texas. She used to go to the 1A high school games when she wasn’t busy at the farm. That had to be at least five years ago. She never had a great understanding of it either, so she couldn’t understand half of what Kim and Jeff talked about. For a Texan, that was pretty sacrilegious to not live and breath good ole’ football, so she kept her mouth carefully sealed.
When they met up with Jody the girl kept looking at Jeff as if he was going to eat her. But after a few minutes, Jody and Jeff hit it off. When Jody started flirting with Jeff, Chloe watched in disbelief. Oh good grief, Edwin was quite the matchmaker for her friends who were growing in numbers by the minute.
Her growing eclectic group of friends brightened her mood, even when she received snickers from the cheerleaders. It only took one stern look from Jeff to silence them.
It would be great if she could avoid that little click altogether but they were everywhere ready for a moment to heckle.
Whereas ,all the other people in her classes avoided her as if a beating was contagious. She tried to imagine herself in their shoes, would she befriend a kid who seemed to always be destined for trouble? But even if the situation was reversed she knew she would, because she couldn’t or wouldn’t turn a blind eye against any human being who was suffering. Maybe that is because she knew what it is like to suffer.
When she got to art class she was expecting the same kind of reactions. Ignore the girl who looked like she had an accident with a can opener. But to her surprise, when her classmates saw her face they all expressed their outrage.
Tom said, “I heard a rumor, but I didn’t think it was true.” He put his hand on her shoulder and continued, “That’s just so not cool, Chloe. Not that anything they have done’s been cool, but this isn’t okay.”
Tears started to leak again. She was touched that she wasn’t alone anymore. She felt her heart grow when her friends surrounded her as she went to lunch, protecting her. It was a nice feeling to have people care enough about you to protect you from the evil plaguing the school.
Having friends didn’t stop the verbal assaults or the nasty notes that were placed in her locker. She didn’t think twenty guys the size of Jeff would be able to stop that but at least she felt safer. She could survive this.
Of course that was right before she got called in the Vice Principal’s office again. In all her illustrious years in High School, she had never been sent to the office so many times. The Vice Principal and apparently a guidance counselor she didn’t know existed were waiting for her when she arrived. What now?
Initially they both seemed incredulous to the reports of any beating until they saw the evidence blatant on her face. They both turned white and began talking amongst themselves again. She folded herself in the chair and waited. She would rather be at the dentist having her teeth drilled than be in this office again.
Finally after their deliberation, the Vice Principal started with, “I don’t know what you have done to make these people so angry at you.” That was all it took for her to turn the ignorant man out of her mind. What she had done! She had spent her life blaming herself for what other people had done to her. Edwin was right, she didn’t deserve this. She clinched her fist but she was too conditioned to say anything back to him. Let the little man believe she deserved this so he can sleep better at night.
She nodded in all the right places as the Vice Principal went on with tripe about not causing waves in the school, and she wouldn’t be picked on. Good grief this guy is a supreme ass and the sooner she was out of there the better.
Her stomach hurt even more than before, she was that angry. When they dismissed her, she made her way to her locker. She yanked it open and stuffed her papers, then immediately slammed it shut. The sound echoed all the way down the hall making her feel better. She didn’t want to go back to her final class but she really didn’t have anywhere else she could go, so she slid down to the ground staring at the institutional colored walls wondering how idiots such as the Vice Principal made it into their positions. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket wanting to call Edwin so badly, but she never called him, she always waited for him to call her. She just couldn’t get past some of the issues she had, and putting herself up front was one of them.
When the final bell rung she stood up and waited for Kim to join her. Unfortunately Britney saw her standing by herself and decided to seize this opportunity to harass her. God she was so obvious. Her perfect blonde hair, with her perfectly done make-up with a determined expression came waltzing her way. How can someone so beautiful on the outside be so ugly on the inside?
The girl had a purposeful stride determined to make it to Chloe before anyone else did. At the moment she didn’t care. The bitch could pull out a gun and begin shooting and she didn’t think she would flinch.
Well, no, that isn’t true. One thing in her life that Chloe knew was that she was not suicidal. She had hopes and aspirations. It was just plain stupid to think anything in this life was bad enough to where she couldn’t rectify it. If anyone knew that, it was her.
When Britney finally arrived at her locker all the usual poison spewed forth from her mouth. Chloe analyzed her not hearing a word she said and began to feel a little sorry for her. It occurred to her Britney must have some sort of insecurities, otherwise why would she waste her time with someone like her? Chloe didn’t pose a threat in her popularity nor did she care about this school or anything that happened within it. So why should Britney care about her?
The question bugged her so much that when Britney paused to take a breath, she decided she would ask her exactly that.
“Why do you care?” Chloe asked in an emotionless tone. Britney gaped dumbly, which Chloe perversely thought made her ugly. After a strained moment of silence Britney gathered her wits and answered stupidly, “I don’t care about you loser.”
“Well if you don’t care then why don’t you just leave me alone?” Chloe asked as calmly and sensibly as she could muster.
“Because you need to know where your place is,” Britney shot back. Her eyes were vivid, as if harassment was the drug of power for her.
“And saying this garbage will notify me of my place? Well let me save you some time and effort, Britney. My place is getting out of this place as fast as I can. I don’t have a choice to go anywhere else, and I really don’t care about anything that happens within these four walls. So do us all a favor and put your energies toward something else. Maybe like cheerleading or screwing the football team one player at a time, unless you like to gang bang. Whatever it is you like, just leave me alone.” In hindsight she really shouldn’t have said that last bit about screwing the football players but she really didn’t regret it, nor did she want to take it back.
Britney was so angry she was turned a blotchy red. It was rather unattractive. Britney put up her hands to push Chloe when Jeff stepped in front of Britney.
“Hi Britney, can I help you?” Jeff gave her a placating smile.
Britney looked ready to explode but turned and stomped off.
Kim finally showed up out of breath, “I heard you and Britney were about to slug it out or some such nonsense.”
Chloe patted Kim on the back, “Jeff saved the day again, no worries.”
After that they made their way to the parking lot where Cole was leaning in the typical lax Texan way on his truck. The only unfortunate thing was that they had to walk by Britney to get to him.
“Oh I see you get around,” Britney taunted pointing at Cole, “such a wh
ore and he drives such nice wheels too!” Britney and her group laughed.
“So very original Britney. Isn’t that what I just called you not five minutes ago?” Not waiting for a response, Chloe kept walking to Cole’s truck.
It wasn’t more than five steps when someone pushed her from behind, Chloe turned around bored.
“What a nice face you have there Chloe. It is such an improvement to your normal looks,” Britney smirked.
Kim stepped up in Britney’s face with her fist clenched, but Cole had stepped forward and moved Kim behind him.
“Step back,” he said to Britney in a low dangerous voice then turned to grab Chloe’s elbow escorting her to the truck. Kim flanked her other side. Chloe couldn’t help when Kim gave Britney her favorite squinty-eyed-death-glare.
“Get in,” Cole ordered them. He then got in, started the truck and drove off. When they got on the road Cole turned a concerned face to Chloe, “Are you okay?” She nodded with her head down. She was a little ashamed that Britney had goaded her into such bad behavior.
They didn’t say much until Cole asked where Kim lived. Chloe immediately asked, “You don’t want to stay the night?”
Kim looked sadly at her and said, “I can’t tonight, I’m sorry. I have to babysit.”
“Oh, okay.” Damn, she was not looking forward to going to an empty cottage. Edwin always said she ruined him, but she was beginning to think she was ruined for life. She used to live to be alone, now she lived to have company.
Cole was deep in thought when he dropped her off. His departing words were, “When you get a chance stop by the stables and take Bear out. He has missed you since you started school”
“I will, I’m still sore though and I don’t think it would be a good idea today.” His eyes flashed with anger, then he nodded. She added, “I do miss him terribly,” as she got out of the truck. She was not sure if Cole knew if she was talking about Bear or Edwin. She wasn’t sure either.
She walked into a depressingly empty cottage and plopped on her bed. Gosh, she wanted to cry, but pushed it aside. Her stomach was hurting far more than usual, so for the first time in a very long time she rolled into a ball and tried not to think.