Remembering Chloe

Chapter 10 [pt. 1]

Chapter 10 [pt. 1]

 

May 4th

8:22a.m.

My feet felt like lead. Maybe heavier. The stares and whispers hadn’t died down like I hoped. They still ambushed me at every corner, laughed at me in every hall and resounded in every classroom. People weren’t even trying to be secretive about the conversations they had revolving around my return. Some girls would openly gossip with their backs turned to me and think I wouldn’t notice when they peeked over they shoulders and spun back around to giggle together like a heard of sheep. Boys thought I was too stupid to recognize that their eyes followed me wherever I went.

Say it all you want that it takes time to adapt. But I was never going to get used to all of the attention.

Nevertheless, I resolved not to call Ryan with my tail between my legs, running from all of this. I would have to face it sooner or later and I was too stubborn to fall back on my word and head home. I managed to survive one day of the spotlight; I could survive another.

I tripped over my feet as I entered the math room.

It was funny. The only person that I wanted to see me was the one who refused to.

Natalie’s black hair fanned around her face and cur me short as I took my seat beside her. She was absorbed in the work and the bell hadn’t even rung yet. Was that because she loved math or because she hated me?

Either way, I was going to talk to her. I was going to apologize. She deserved at least that much from me.

“Hey, Natalie,” I greeted.

A lock of hair fell in my face so I brushed it back.

Her arched shoulders froze at my voice but then loosened as she dug her pencil back into the math worksheet.

I hesitated. I wish I planned what to say last night when I came up with the brilliant idea of speaking to her.

“I’m really sorry,” I said, loud enough for her to hear, “I shouldn’t have spread those rumors about you and- and the- um- the football team.”

She met my eyes, finally, but there was already a scowl on her lips.

“What’s your game, Chloe?” she demanded; her pencil fell from her finger tips like it was a snake.  

“Game?”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. It must have required amazing coordination, “Come on. We both know you’re playing some game. There is no way in hell that Chloe Roberts would apologize for ruining my life. So what is it? Do you want to pretend to be my friend and then dump pig's blood all over me like in Carrie? Or do you just want to spread some more rumors and get everyone to think that I’m a slut?”

“I don’t want to do either!” I exclaimed.

My foot went out under the table and kicked something hard. I looked down for only a moment to see that I’d hit one of the legs of the table.

“Whatever,” she grunted.

Natalie leaned back over her math handout and pulled out her black veil of hair. It separated us again as if it were a sound-proof, one-way mirror.

I lost the battle. She wasn’t going to believe that I meant what I said.

And to be completely honest, if I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t believe me either.