Chapter 34
Anger grew inside of me as I thought about what Sarah had done. Why had she done it? She had no reason to. It had to be some kind of sick joke. I had done nothing to her, I didn't even show her I was angry when she had tried to kiss me. I mean, sure I raised my voice a little, but that was out of shock and surprise. She had no reason to start the rumour, and what made me even more angry was that Nadine and Nicola had went along with it.
I couldn't believe what Sarah had done. This had to be some kind of joke. Why would she have done that? I had done nothing to her, I didn't even show that I was angry when she had tried to kiss me. She had no reason to make up this rumour.
“I can't believe the f*cking b*tch has done this!” I cursed in frustration. “Did the two of you seriously believe her?” I looked at Nicola and then to Nadine, waiting for either of them to answer.
“No, I didn't.” Nicola spoke first. “Sarah had made up rumours before, so I had my doubts.”
“I believed it.” Nadine admitted. “I don't know why I did, I was being stupid. Everything just got on top of me. When you went to get Kimberley, I thought that you would go and kill her for what had happened. I'm sorry for believing it and for freaking out at you.”
“I was going too, but Kimberley made me promise not to.” I replied, smiling a little at the memory. “It's okay Nadine, I understand. Now come over here and give us a hug.” I opened my arms and Nadine moved from her bed over to Nicola's and hugged me. “So, how did the rumour go around the whole school?”
“Well...” Nicola started, I could see the guilt on her face and I knew what was coming. “She made us tell everyone that she came to your dorm to do homework and you tried to kiss her so she ran away, leaving you in tears.”
What a stupid rumour. I can't believe she made that up. How stupid was she? “And you two actually spread that?” I asked, raising my voice in anger to them.
“We had to...” Nadine replied weakly. “She made us, Cheryl. She may act all sweet and innocent in front of you, but when you're not around she's like a monster.” From Nadine's voice, I could hear she was scared. She hadn't told me fully what had being happening between her, Nicola and Sarah and just now seemed like a good time to find out.
“What did she do to the two of you?” I asked quietly, knowing that it was going to be something bad. Kimberley had told me what Sarah had done to her and I had a feeling that Sarah had been worse to Nadine and Nicola.
“It started about a year ago.” Nadine spoke. “We had just come back from the summer holidays and we thought everything was going to be fine. Sarah and I became very close and I thought nothing of it. After all, you and Nicola were always really close, so I thought she just wanted to have that relationship with me. Then, one day, she told me that I had to stop being friends with Isabelle. You remember her, right?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “She used to be your best friend and now she absolutely hates your guts.”
“Yeah, well she hates me because Sarah told me that I couldn't be friends with her. I told Sarah that I wasn't going to do that and she hit me.” Nadine winced at the memory, but continued on with her story. “She threatened me and said that if I didn't do what she told me to then she would hit me again. I was so scared of her that I believed her.”
“Is that why you've always been so close to her?” I asked as things suddenly began to make sense now. Sarah and Nadine had both become close over the past year and I never understood why because Sarah had always been quite mean to her.
“Yeah, I had no choice. Her rules were that I couldn't tell anyone what was going on and I had to agree with her on everything. That's why when Kimberley came along and Sarah hated her because she was so close with you that I had to hate her too.”
