Everything Has Changed [LIAM DUNBAR] #2

As Good as Dead

"Is anyone going to answer me?" she asked after a moment of silence, her voice rising steadily. "Liam?"

It took Liam a second to realize everyone was staring at him. He swallowed.

Aspen's eyes caught the bag that Scott had brought, a bad of chains. Her eyes flicked from Liam, to Scott, and back to the navy colored bag.

She stomped over, reaching inside and pulling out a thick chain and letting it clank against the others, looking back accusingly at them.

"What were you going to do with these?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. There was a challenging look in her eyes, mixed with betrayal as she put the pieces together in her head.

Scott stepped forward. "Brought them just in case," he told her cautiously. "In case of what?" she questioned. Lydia answered, "In case.. In case we can catch one of them."

"One of the Dread Doctors," Liam continued. Scott nodded. "If we can't make the school a fortress for Hayden," he gestured her way, "Maybe we can make it a trap."

Aspen's eyes flared with what both Liam and Scott knew was fury, or anger, and she dropped the chains back into the bag, the metallic sound ricocheting off of the locker room walls.

"So what?" Aspen asked, taking a step forwards, "She's the bait?" There was a ghost of a smile on her face, a cruel smile, that made Liam want to laugh and throw up at the same time. It was almost as if she wanted to laugh through the obvious betrayal she felt.

Aspen glanced at Hayden, who had shifted to the side, away from Liam and Lydia. She set her jaw. "So what you're saying is that.." she paused, her cold glare sliding over Scott, "That you're risking the life of my best friend, just so you can catch a freaking guy who wears a mask and has to breath through tubes?"

"I-I'm the bait?" Hayden asked quietly, looking around for reassurance. No one replied to her.

"Aspen," Lydia said, softening her voice even more, "We're here to protect her."

"Really?" Aspen spat at her sister, fists clenching at her sides, "Was I the only one that didn't get the memo?"

No one answered.

"Liam?" she said, her voice dropping to a softer, less harsh tone, "Y-you would tell me this, right? Why didn't you tell me?"

The hurt in her voice made Liam's heart break. He should've told her. He should have told her.

But he didn't.

And now he messed everything up.

Liam reached out to put a hand on her cheek, hoping for a comforting gesture, saying, "I didn't want you to get involve-"

She had backed up quickly before he had even gotten to brush her skin. "Don't," she whispered, threateningly calm, and swallowed, "Don't touch me."

He noticed she was on the brink of tears now, the tiny droplets bunching at her lash line. She looked at the ground, seemingly trying not to cry, and he knew she wouldn't. She was stronger than anyone he knew.

"Aspen?" Hayden mumbled, looking up from her bag, "I-I left my pills.."

And suddenly Aspen's focus wasn't on the fact that she might have just broken up with Liam- it was on Hayden. That's all that mattered to her at the moment. Hayden.

Aspen bent over the bench where Hayden was standing. "Y-you have a bottle in your locker, right? Can you go get them?"

She didn't turn to Scott or Lydia for permission, like she normally would, only looked back up at Hayden.