by Rebel Hart
Everything is quiet and still, and I don’t even want to know how much of the school day I’ve missed thanks to whatever Lily and Vivian have done to me. I slip into my last classroom, ignoring the daggers from the teacher’s glare. The period I left during has passed and there’s a new set of faces looking at me like I’m crazy as I slip in to grab my bag.
I return to the halls, slamming the classroom door shut behind me, barely looking where I’m going as I pull my phone out and try to text Emmett. I still feel out of it and am struggling to type the right words when suddenly a pair of large sneakers appear in the path before me. Following them up a long pair of legs, I see Coach Granger towering over me.
“Coach Granger,” I mutter, swaying slightly as I speak. “I’m glad, I…I need to…”
“You okay, Lopez?” he asks sternly, looking extremely displeased.
I shake my head, unsure if I agreed or disagreed. Before I can say anything else, he wraps his hand around my arm and begins marching me down the hall.
“Come with me,” he orders. “We need to meet with the principal.”
“I can’t do that right now,” I reply lethargically, wishing I had the power to pull away or ask what this is about. “I can’t go in there with you and the principal. I don’t…I’m not…not well.”
He ignores me and continues shuffling me along as the swelling panic inside grows. I want to turn and run in the other direction, but my body feels too weak and lifeless to fight against his pull. Before I know it, I am dragged inside the principal’s office and plopped into a stiff, leather chair.
“You don’t look so well, Ophelia.” Principal Brown peers over his glasses at me, his big, gray bushy eyebrows furrowed together.
I consider telling them that Lily and Vivian have done something to me, but I don’t know if it’s any use. Sure, they may not be official Elite status anymore, but I imagine they still have more sway in this school than I do. My mom and stepdad are poor, and my bio dad is hated by the entire town. Trying to speak too much makes my stomach turn again, so I just slink down in my chair and hope the feeling continues dissipating fast enough for me to catch up in the conversation.
“Do you know why you’re here?” Principal Brown asks with his unrelenting stare. I look to Coach Granger, who is exchanging knowing nods with the principal. “It has been brought to our attention that you may have been using illegal substances.”
I brace myself against the chair and push forward, swallowing down another surge of vomit. “No,” I protest weakly, my voice cracking. “No, I’m not. Vivian and Lily. They…they…”
“They came to us and said they were worried about you,” he continues. “They’re good friends.”
I eye his trashcan and think I might have to lunge for it at the sound of the words. “No...” I continue trying to speak against it with everything I have, but my words won’t match the feeling in my chest. Nothing circling through my brain will come out. “I haven’t done anything. They did something to me.”
“We searched your locker, Ophelia,” Coach Granger chimes in, flicking away a piece of dandruff from his pants, not seeming to want to look me in the eye.
The principal pulls a plastic bag from behind his desk and sets it in front of me. I can make out several syringes and a rubber tie inside. I know exactly what it looks like and want to scream bullshit.
“That’s not mine,” I say gingerly, knowing how ridiculous that sounds.
The room closes in around me again, but I can make out enough of what they’re saying to know they believe I’ve been using heroin. Suspension. Kicked off the track team. The words fall from their lips and hang heavy all around me as I rock in my chair.
“I don’t use drugs,” I persist through a shaky, cracking voice. I continue trying to argue against the accusation to no avail. “You have to…I couldn’t…I’m telling you…Lily and Vivian…”
“You’re high right now, aren’t you?” he accuses, his voice hammering too loudly into my skull.
“No…I don’t know…I…I didn’t…They did this to me,” I babble on, knowing I’m only making it worse.
“If we were to drug test you right now, Ophelia…” Principal Brown suggests accusingly. “Do you honestly expect us to believe you’d pass?” His eyes move over my disheveled appearance with waves of judgment. I caught my reflection as I was leaving the bathroom. I know exactly how I look right now and it’s not good.
When I don’t bother trying to defend myself any further, he finally stands to approach my chair. He pushes back the sleeves of my sweater, confusing me at first. But as the marks left from Vivian and Lily’s attack are revealed, it all clicks into place.
It wouldn’t have been enough for them to leave track marks and plant needles in my locker. They needed the actual drug in my system, so I’d have no leg to stand on. No chance at passing a drug test to prove my innocence.
“We’re going to give you a chance to talk to your parents about this yourself,” Coach Granger tells me, as I sense the meeting coming to a close. “But I’m calling them tomorrow night, so you only have until then to tell them.” The two nod at each other with disappointed looks before Coach finally stands to escort me out of the room.
A rush of clarity finally starts to return as he walks me to my locker to gather my things before leading me out of the building. A few straggling students remain in the halls as I am marched out with his hand firmly gripped around my arm, just as last period is beginning. Judging by the way they’re gaping at me with snickers and whispers, I expect the entire school will know what’s happened by the end of the day. That’s if Lily and Vivian hadn’t started spreading the rumors before I even got pulled into the office. His long legs are moving so fast I almost trip, but I know he still has some heart for me. He’s only trying to move fast so more kids don’t see me being escorted from the building.
The moment the fresh outside air hits me, I feel almost back to normal. My hands are shaking, but my stomach has calmed down. My head feels groggy, but my thoughts are growing clearer. My brain finally feels connected to my mouth again.
“Please, Coach,” I start pleading more coherently. “You have to believe me. I would never use drugs. Track means too much to me. You know that!”
He scrunches his face in my direction, squinting from the sun and from anger. “Well then, how do you explain the things we found in your locker?” His voice booms with accusing fury and disappointment. “And the marks on your arm. The way you’re acting. Don’t bullshit me, Lopez. Is it Emmett Jameson? Did he get you started on this stuff?”
“You’ve seen me in practice!” I cry back. “You know I haven’t been messed up like this before today.” His face softens as he considers what I’m saying. “It was Vivian and Lily! They cornered me in the bathroom this afternoon and injected something into me. I was stuck in there feeling out of it until I finally came out and you dragged me into the office.”
I look to him with wide eyes, praying he can see the truth in my words. I know how it sounds. Every kid tries to plead innocent when they’re accused of something like this. My heart stings with the betrayal of Lily being involved in this. When the Elites turned on her, they planted drugs on her, too, and also got her suspended. I can’t believe that she’d pull something like this after going through it herself and knowing what it feels like.
I remember her sitting across from me at her parents’ restaurant, explaining their history with the Elites. She seemed hurt, but so nice and kind. So human. I am baffled that she could turn so quickly and so completely. Maybe that’s what this school does to people. Hits them over and over until all the corrupt ugliness finally starts seeping in through the cracks. After all, I had just begged Emmett to treat Vivian the same way I had once been treated. I guess we all cave under the brutality of Jameson. Eat or be eaten.
Coach Granger blows a big breath out from his cheeks and pushes his fists into his hips as he turns and looks aimlessly across the schoolyard. I want to think he’s st
ruggling to believe me, but that doesn’t seem right. Something more than that seems to be troubling him.
I know he’s thinking about whatever happened when he disappeared from school. His mysterious troubles at home. I don’t know what they have to do with this, but I can see that same gloomy look on his face now that he gets every time he’s looked at me since he came back to school. I wish he could just tell me everything, but for whatever reason, he is keeping it to himself for now.
“You believe me, don’t you?” I press desperately. I can deal with whatever else is going through his mind as long as I know he believes me.
He shakes his head and murmurs something I can’t make out. “Dammit, Lopez,” he finally blurts more clearly. “They cornered you this afternoon, you say?”
“Yes! You can ask my teacher,” I explain. “I left for the bathroom and never came back. I knew they’d drugged me, but you know how people are with them at this school. I was all messed up and didn’t think anyone would believe me if I’d told them what happened.” He studies my face in silence, taking everything in. “You told me I could always come to you about anything. You said that because you knew what the Elites were doing to me, didn’t you? You’re the only one who doesn’t bend to them! And I’m telling you this now: they’re not done with me, even after everything that’s happened. Vivian and Lily drugged me and set me up. Please tell me you believe me!”
His eyes grow dark with something unspoken before he finally straightens and speaks more calmly. “I believe you,” he states. My heart swells with relief and adrenaline all at once, forcing me to steady my still-shaky body against the brick wall. “I have to go,” he blurts suddenly. “I’ll work with you privately for practice until I can get you back onto the team.”
“Thank you,” I reply through trembling lips, feeling so grateful that he’s on my side that I almost forget how fucked up it is that I’m in this situation in the first place.
There’s something haunted in his expression, letting on that whatever is going on in his mind is much bigger than what’s happened today. There are a million things I want to say, but he quickly walks off, leaving me standing alone in front of the school I’m suspended from. I quickly pull out my phone and return to the draft of the message I’d begun to Emmett before running into Coach.
I know that as long as Coach Granger believes me, he’ll do everything in his power to make this right. And work with me on the side until then, like he promised. But I need to be in Emmett’s arms right now. Even though there have been times when he has been the cause of my torment, nothing compares to the comfort of being near him.
Chapter Nine
BOOK 2
I wait outside school for what feels like forever after texting Emmett, but my concept of time seems to still be off. I am still coming down from everything. Finally, I hear the side door swing open and shut before Emmett appears around the corner and comes running up to me.
I used to only feel safe when I was alone. But now I only feel safe when I’m with Emmett, even when he is the one I am afraid of. It’s the thing that makes me feel the most broken. My love for him makes me feel sick, but it heals me at the same time.
“What’s going on?” he cries as I collapse into his arms. “Your message had me worried. I came to meet you as fast as I could!”
“I’m suspended!” I sob against his shoulder. “Fucking Vivian and Lily did this. And don’t you dare try to defend them! I told you they wouldn’t stop coming after me until you stepped up and did something. Look!” I whip my sleeves up, revealing the forced track marks.
“What the fuck?” he growls, gently rubbing his thumb along the throbbing punctures. “What did they do?”
“They grabbed me in the bathroom and pumped me up with heroin,” I explain rapidly, my breath quickening as I relive it all. “What if they had given me too much, Emmett? They could have killed me!”
I watch the heaviness of the situation settle across his face, and I don’t know that I’d fully accepted the severity of it all until just now, with him standing before me.
“They suspended you?” he recaps with me as I feel the muscles in his arms tightening beneath my fingers.
“Yes, and kicked me off of the track team,” I seethe. “Those fucking bitches. Running is my life, Emmett. It’s the whole reason I’m here. I’ll lose my scholarship and I can forget about college or any sort of athletic career I expected to have after that.” My words quickly trail off into tears. “Coach Granger says he’ll try to fix it, but I don’t see how he can. He’s the only one that believes me. He’ll never convince Principal Brown.”
“I believe you,” he says, pulling me closer and stroking my hair. “So, Coach Granger offered to help? You told him what Vivian and Lily did?”
“Yes,” I sniffle into his arm then grow still. Coach Granger. I have never talked much to Emmett about him, and the mistrusting side of me still wonders if I should have even mentioned our alliance. But then a new slew of questions come over me. “I need to ask you something,” I announce, stepping back to look him in the eyes. “Do you know anything about why Coach Granger disappeared before you held me captive?” I ask lightly, almost afraid to know the answer. “Did you have anything to do with it?”
“No, Ophelia,” he answers sincerely. “I don’t know anything about that. I promise I would tell you if I did.”
The possibility of him lying is too overwhelming for me to even consider it. I lean back into his arms and decide I have to believe him for the sake of my own sanity.
“I’m going to fix this,” he assures me, as he straightens up and begins adjusting his hair and shirt.
“How? What are you going to do?”
“Just go home and get some rest,” he commands, already stepping back to rush off into action. “I’ll call you in a little bit.”
“But what about my dad?” I ask reluctantly, hoping this somehow means we don’t have to meet with him at all. But I know this doesn’t change anything about Bernadette. We still need to find out if he knows something.
“Don’t worry about that right now,” he tells me, scooping me back in for one final kiss. “We’ll go meet with him tomorrow. You’re right. I should have taken things with Vivian and Lily more seriously. I have to fix this for you. I owe it to you.”
My heart pounds with the same familiar, intense drum beat that strikes every time Emmett looks at me like that. Really, any time he is near. He still looks like the same boy who stalked me down at the track meet before I came here, but nothing about him seems the same. Not after everything that’s happened. He has shown me glimpses of redeeming qualities, just enough to keep me hooked, in hope of what could happen between us. Just enough to keep me entirely at his mercy—always.
Before I can say another word, he runs off and disappears back under the brick archway into the school. The day suddenly feels cold with him gone, so I pull my sleeves back down and quickly remember that I now have these awful marks to try and hide from everyone…including my mom. I’m hoping that Coach Granger won’t still make me talk to them, now that he knows the truth. I don’t think my parents could handle the idea of me using heroin right now. I can’t even handle the idea of it.
I start walking to my car before remembering that I rode to school with Emmett this morning. I start to turn to remind him, but he’s long out of sight by now. Pulling my zipper up the rest of the way and securing my hood firmly around my face, I resign to run home. It could do me some good. Maybe help sweat the rest of this shit out of my system so I can feel normal again.
My feet pound against the pavement, the muscles of my legs rippling with each step. A cold fire burns through my lungs, which would erupt in a cough if I wasn’t so rapidly running out of breath. I’m outrunning the cough or anything else that could possibly slow me down. Move. Just keep moving. One leg after another as fast as you can, as far as you can.
But my legs wobble less than a mile into my stride and I go into a coughing fit that makes me fee
l like I might start throwing up again. The sweat is freezing against my skin, which starts burning with an intense itching.
“Dammit.” I heave as I stop to buckle over my knees and catch my breath. “I hope this isn’t permanent.”
Slowing back down to a walk, I continue making my way home. I haven’t made it far when sprinkling raindrops begin to fall, renewing my shiver. It’s going to be a long, miserable walk home. Then I’ll have to face my parents when I arrive.
I tell my mom I was late because I stopped for food on the way home, which she has a hard time believing. She was upset that Emmett didn’t drive me, considering the rain, and she could see that I look like shit. I convince her that Emmett and I grabbed food together, and then I felt sick and asked to walk the rest of the way home. She still seems suspicious but lets me go to my room to lie down.
After a long hot bath, I climb into bed with my phone in hand and wait for Emmett’s call. I am starting to doze off by the time it rings.
“Ophelia, it’s me,” his voice comes in across the line. “I took care of everything, okay? You don’t have to worry.”
“What do you mean…everything?” I ask in disbelief.
“You can come back to school tomorrow and you’re back on the track team,” he continues, explaining confidently.
“You’re kidding me!” I exclaim in shock. “How did you fix it all so fast?”
“I run Jameson Automobiles now, which basically runs the town. All of which was founded by my father,” he reminds me. “All I had to do was talk to Principal Brown. I told him I knew for a fact you were framed and that I would personally take care of the people who did this to you, as long as he fixed everything on his end.”
“So…I don’t have to tell my parents?” I sob in relief.