Stuck Like Glue (Derek Hale Fanfiction Book #2)

Chapter Fifteen: Betrayal

“No, Chris, of course not, I just didn’t know what to say-“

“You didn’t know what to say? Derek, that was my dad! You killed my dad!”

“I know, I’m so sorry-“

“How could you?” I wailed in a trembling voice, my knees buckling as I crumpled to the ground. Derek’s betrayal was hitting me hard, and I let the pain wash over me relentlessly. Suddenly, it was as if the air was simply too heavy for me to push against, like gravity had just increased tenfold. The oxygen I was pulling into my lungs grew sparse, and I gasped through my sobs, clenching my hair in my hands tightly. The pain in my chest was like a ball of fire, slowly increasing with each passing moment, and I let out a scream of agony as it flared up. I knew Derek was trying to say something to me, but I could barely even listen to him over the pure torture I was feeling. I’d trusted Derek with my life, told him everything, and opened myself up to him completely; I would’ve died for Derek. And I’d thought he felt the same way, but the cold hard truth was that nobody is that perfect. I’d been a delusional idiot to think that Derek was my soul mate, that he was the one, and he’d just gone and proven me right. I was an idiot to trust him.

“GO! Just go, Derek,” I shrieked through my tears, not even bothering to look up as he exited the room.

“I’m sorry, Chris. I am so sorry” were the last words I heard him say.

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Three weeks later

            “That’s the last place we can think to look,” Loni told Damien as the nine of us gathered in yet another dingy hotel lobby, this time in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Our family had gone on one vacation there back when we were little, and it had been a last-ditch effort to look there. Since Derek and I had broken up and he’d gone back to Beacon Hills, Damien and our group had been all over the country looking for my brothers. We’d tried Denver, Colorado, where our grandparents lived. Then we’d gone to New York, where my mom’s mother used to live in case Michael and Kyle were feeling nostalgic. After hitting dead ends there, Loni and I had led the vampires to Atlanta, Deer Isle (Maine), and even to San Antonio, Texas, which was home to Michael’s favorite basketball team, the Spurs. But after no luck in any of those locations, Loni and I were just about ready to head home.

“And if I don’t make it back for finals, my grades will have dropped so low I’ll be forced to repeat sophomore year,” I added, shoving my hands in my pockets dejectedly. I’d been depressed for three weeks, after finding out my dad was dead. Not that I’d miss him, because I most certainly would not. But I’d had some good memories with my dad as well. And besides, he was still my dad. In a way, I would always love him no matter how badly he hurt me or how awful of a person he was. But now he was gone, forever. Somehow, I always thought in the future, when we were both older and my dad was on his death bed, he would apologize to me for all the abuse and crap he’d given me, and I’d be able to hug him and we’d both cry and then the machine would beep and flat line just as he told me he loved me in his croaky, old-man voice. A tear slipped down my cheek as I recalled my dumb fantasy, and I quickly wiped it away before anybody could see.

“But we can’t just give up!” Annie protested, her bottom lip quivering as though she were about to cry.

“You guys can continue looking without us. We’ll leave you a list of all possible other places to look, and if you find them we’ll fly out immediately of course but…we have to get back to our lives,” Loni said quietly, and together the two of us gave each vampire a tight hug and promised to call. Over the course of a month, we’d all become close, and I’d actually grown quite fond of some of them. Cate, Gisela, Marcus, Jake, Damien…I would really miss them the most.