Never The Same

Chapter Ten

I couldn't help but think of the other girls left behind in that burning building. I couldn't help but think there was a way we could have saved them. Luke kept telling me that there was no way to help them, and that maybe it was a choice of their own. But the voice inside my head told me there is always a way, and that maybe it wasn't.

Luke dropped Katie and Caroline off at their aunts place just a few miles away from my house. He then took me home, but ran out of gas a couple blocks before my stop. We got out of the car and started to walk the rest of the way.

"I bought a tracking device," Luke says. "And I got your phone from Miss Kent."

"A tracking device," I responded. I was a little annoyed. "For what?"

"For..." He handed me over the phone along with the antibiotics I threw in the trash.

"I swear if you say 'you', we will never speak again."

"Well then stop asking why, because it seems a little obvious to me." He raised his voice, and made it clear this was the beginning of an argument. "I want to know where you are, I want you to be safe."

"So now you don't trust me."

"I do trust you Ellie."

"Obviously not enough."

"You are the one who left for no reason and told no one where you were going. You got kidnapped and who knows what would have happened to you if you didn't get out. And then you had the nerve to make someone else call me."

"I had them call you because I thought you would understand."

"No, I don't understand why you are putting yourself in danger. This is nonsense."

"I wasn't trying to put myself in danger. I was trying to escape it."

"Just goes to show that danger is everywhere."

"Why are we even arguing? You put yourself into this mess, now just take yourself out. I can handle Carter and Asher on my own, I don't need you."

"Fine. You don't need me. I see how it is. I'll just get out of your way and we won't have to talk. It's probably better this way, so I won't end up like Brooke, who died trying to save your life. If I stay away, you can't kill me too."

He turned around and walked back to his car. I watched him as he opened the door and got in. I waited for him to look at me, but he never did. My eyes were starting to water and a single tear ran down my cheek. And before I knew it, there were more. I stood in the middle of the sidewalk watching him drive by. I stood there crying and wiping away my tears as they fell.

That was my breaking point. I couldn't deal with anything else. I felt alone and betrayed, and worst of all, heartbroken. I always had this feeling inside of me that made me think I was the reason Brooke died. And my friends, and my parents, and friends of my parents kept telling me that I wasn't. For a while, I believed them and felt better the past couple years. But now Luke said that, and he is right, and it breaks my heart that he was right, because she was the best friend a person could ever have.

It was dark out, and probably really late. I checked my phone, and it said 9:57. I jogged the rest of the way home and slowly entered the front door. I didn't hear my parents arguing. But rather, I saw my mother sitting on the couch with a coffee cup in her hands. She took a sip and sniffled a little bit.

"Sorry mom," I say quietly. "I was out studying with Jenna."

"Don't be sorry sweetheart," she responds. She sounded sad, like she was recently crying. "It's okay, you should just go on up to bed, it's getting late."

I walked over and sat next to her on the couch, but she kept her head down and refused to look at me. I called to her a couple times, and she shyly raised her head to look at me. I could hear her sobbing. I pushed her hair back and saw bruises around her left eye.

"Mom, what happened? Please, tell me."

"He got angry, but it's my fault. I wouldn't listen to him."

"Mom, no. It's not your fault. Was it the same thing from earlier, with the child? It's okay to have an opinion. Where is he now?"

"At the bar with some friends."

"We need to get out of here now."

"No, Ella, I don't think you understand."

"I understand completely. If we don't leave now, he will keep hurting you. And even after that doesn't work, he might go after me. We need to leave him, can't you call the police?"

"If we leave, he'll just find us again. And I've tried the cops, but his cousin is the sheriff and won't do anything to help us. I'll be okay, and that's why I'm sending you to boarding school."

"No, you can't do that. I only have one year left. I can't leave you here with him."

"I have a plan," she pauses. A car pulls into the driveway and she checks to see who it is. "Look, you need to go upstairs right now."

"Mom, no, I can help you."

"If you go up there right now, I won't send you to border school. Those days you can help me, but he's drunk and I don't want you to say something both you and I will regret."

"Fine," I say and run up the stairs to my room.

I hide in the closet, because for some peculiar reason, I feel safer in there. Tom walks through the door and slams it. I hear him yelling, but I can't make out what he is saying. I hear a glass shatter and my mother screaming for Tom to stop, but he doesn't. I start to cry again as I hear loud sounds. I'm not sure what is happening, but I am sure it's not good.

Everything is falling apart. Luke wants nothing to do with me, my parents arguing has become way worse than it has before, and I haven't talked to Jenna in days. I also haven't told my parents about Asher, but I'm starting to think that being with Asher isn't the worst thing in my life. I mean, he loves me and he would never argue with me or hurt me.

I take out my phone and look at the recent callers. I press on the number and wait for an answer. I stop crying and breathe deeply.

"Hello," he says.

"Asher, I need your help."

"Emma? I thought you'd never call me."