stepbrother ➼ luke hemmings (REWRITING)

35 - YET TO BE REWRITTEN

"Well, I'm not," she diverts her eyes away from me.

"You already hate me enough, Sophie. I don't want to add to that." she says.

"What?" I narrow my eyes at her. "Hate you?"

"Yeah-"

"I don't hate you, Chloe," I tell her incredulously. "I've never hated-"

"Anyone, I know, I know," she grimaces. "You gave the same pep-talk to Calum."

"He told you that?"

"Yeah," Chloe nods. "He also said you'd accept my apology, and I argued that you wouldn't."

I stay quiet, for whatever apology she was thinking of giving me hadn't quite come out yet.

"I know I don't deserve it. At all," she carries on, looking sullenly at the floor. "Y'know, your forgiveness and that. I was a bitch to you. I treated you like dirt and I resented you so much-"

"Chloe, it's fine." I tell her sternly, but she doesn't listen.

"I made you promise not to like Luke, even when I knew something was going on. What kind of a friend does that?"

"The kind who makes mistakes," I say firmly, placing my hand on hers. It's not much, but it's the only thing I can do that isn't too straightforward.

She swallows. "Sophie, it shouldn't be that easy to forgive someone. Especially someone like me."

"I don't care-"

"But I do," she sighs. "If only you knew the sort of stuff I did just to spite you, you'd hate me forever."

"No, I wouldn't." I say quickly. "Hating you has been the last thing on my min-"

"I sent Luke that text," Chloe blurts, her cheeks taking on a light pink blush as I focus on her. "I sent Luke that picture, too. And every single text since then."

"What?"

"Yeah," she breathes. "I'm the one who threatened him, Soph, but she sent the pictures and the videos, and I can't possibly explain just how sorry I am. W-we used my uncle's burner phone to do it, so that Luke couldn't track the numb-"

"Chloe," I stop her, placing my hands on her shoulders and giving them a slight squeeze. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about," she exhales, almost desperately. "Sophie, I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was thinking, please don't-"

"I promise you now, I have no idea," I say to her, more confused than ever.

"What texts? What pictures?"

"Luke didn't tell you?" she gulps, and I can see just how fast her face drains in colour.

I shake my head no. "Didn't tell me what?"

Her eyes rake my face, as if hoping for me to come out and say that I know exactly what's going on.

But I don't, and she displays a look of absolute panic because of it.

Suddenly, Chloe stands up from her seat, her palm pressed tightly against her forehead. "F-forget I said anything."

"Chloe," I say, rising up from the seat myself to go follow her, before she rushes into the house with her head down. "Chloe!"