Love Lie ( COMPLETED)

17. Lost In Thought

     I yell for Landon to stop but he is lost in a state of rage and doesn't even seem to notice me calling for him. It seems like the entire school has now gathered around in a circle with the boys in the middle. Everyone just stands around staring at them like they have never seen two people fight before. Ethan gets a few good hits in on Landon but for the most part he is the one that gets the worst of it. Although Ethan is far from scrawny, Landon is much more built than him. Then again, Landon is being propelled by pure anger from what Ethan just said about me. The fight is getting pretty intense and I am clearly unable to break it up, but I know if it doesn't end soon someone is going to get seriously hurt.

     I do the only thing I can think of and walk over to where I last saw Aiden hoping that he will be able to help me. He is still a little drunk, but all of the commotion has seemed to sober him up a little. He stands back watching and I can't help but feel like a part of him wants the fight to continue. I'm not quite sure if this is because of Brooklyn or because of our new-found friendship. "Aiden, please. Help break this up, someone is going to get hurt." He looks at me for a minute like he is weighing his options, "I'm only doing this because I don't want my parents to shut the party down cause honestly Sadie, the guy totally deserves whatever he gets right now." I nod at him knowing that he is right but grateful that he is helping me. Even though Ethan deserves this, Landon doesn't.

     He walks over to the two of them and with complete ease separates the two of them. He looks at Landon and then glances towards me, "You should probably get her home". Landon looks at me and sees the tears streaming down my face and suddenly his expression softens and his anger fades. Aiden then looks between Ethan and Brooklyn and firmly tells them that they both need to leave. Ethan looks for a second like he is going to say something back and Aiden picks up on this. "You're really pushing your luck here man. It's bad enough that you show up at my house with my ex, but I won't allow some jerk to come here talking like that about one of my friends. I don't know what you guys are used to at Summit, but we don't talk to females like that here."

      I hear a few people in the crowd agree with him and some of the girls are cheering him on. Ethan looks pissed and I see him quickly glancing around the crowd of people and growing more frustrated at the looks he is getting. Brooklyn reaches for his hand, but he yanks it back and storms off. She looks embarrassed and hurt by his dismissal but quickly recovers and swipes a snarky smile back on her face before she says her goodbyes to a few of her friends and follows after Ethan towards their car.

     Landon and I stop by Aiden on the way out of the party, so I can say a quick thank you. "Aiden thank you for helping me and for standing up for me like that." He really is a much better friend than I ever would have imagined. "No problem Sadie. I'm sorry about the things he said, that wasn't cool at all." He holds a hand out for Landon and they shake hands, "You got some good hits in on him man. Way to stick up for your girl." I can't help but smile a little at this, what a guy move. I roll my eyes at them and take Landon's hand, "You ready to get out of here?" He nods, and we start towards the car.

     The first half of the drive home is spent in complete silence. I stare out the window as we drive along, and I can't seem to pull myself from my thoughts. Landon can sense how upset I am, but I think he is trying to decide what exactly to say to me. He remains silent but rests him hand on my thigh. I'm actually thankful for the silence and his touch is comforting in a bigger way than he knows.

     No matter how hard I try to stop thinking about what just played out at the party I can't stop replaying Ethan's words in my head. I thought for sure I was to the point that he could no longer affect me like this but that was when I thought I would never see him again. Running into him like that has truly shaken me. I am completely zoned out, so I barely hear Landon as he speaks, "Hey, are you sure you don't want to talk about what happened back there?" Everything snaps back into focus and I hadn't even realized that a few tears had spilled from my eyes and I was clenching my fists so tight that I could feel my nails digging into my palms. In that moment I looked at Landon and completely let go over everything I had been holding back.

     I could barely see through the tears that were pouring down my face and I felt like I couldn't quite catch my breath. I could feel the car slowing and finally coming to a stop as Landon pulled over on the shoulder of the highway. He turned towards me and slid me across the front seat until I was right against him and he just held me while I cried. I think he could tell that I needed to let this all out because he didn't say anything, we just sat in silence for a while. He somehow knew exactly how to make me feel safe in that moment in a way that I knew no one else ever had. When I was finally able to stop my tears, he delicately asked, "Sadie, what was he talking about with your old house? What happened?"

     I knew this was going to come up at some point. I'm not really sure why I hadn't mentioned this part before when we had talked about why my family moved. I know that this wasn't my fault but for some reason I am still ashamed of what happened. I take a deep breath before I proceed to tell him, "After Ethan told everyone at school that I slept with him at that party things changed. It's high school so I wouldn't have been the first girl to hook up with someone at a party. Even though it was a lie it shouldn't have been as big of a deal as it was. But the things that Ethan told people at school... He made up horrible details about things that we supposedly did that night. Details that made it hard for people to believe me when I said that it wasn't true. Most of the things that he said about me got him high fives and cool points while I was looked at differently and called names. All of the sudden the guys at school thought that I was fair game to treat with zero respect. All of this new attention I was getting ticked off a lot of the girls, so I basically had no one. Things had started getting really bad at school and my parents were starting to catch on that something was happening but then one Saturday morning we woke up and when we looked outside our house was trashed." I shudder as the images of what was done to our home come back into my mind.

     "Our house had been egged and had toilet paper hanging from all of the trees. We all went outside to check out the damage and that's when we saw the worst of it. Whoever had done this spray-painted Slut in huge red letters across the front of our house." I can see the anger that had faded from Landon's face start to reappear. "We clearly suspected that Ethan had something to do with this but the police in Hillmont were unable to find out who did this and didn't push it too hard and more or less dismissed the whole thing as just a high school prank gone wrong. Mom and Dad barely spoke to me after that. It was no surprise to me that once the neighbors all started talking, Mom and Dad were quick to want to move. And here we are."

     It feels good to finally have all of this out in the open between the two of us. Sitting on the shoulder of the highway in the glow of the streetlight is the first time that I am getting a good look at Landon since we started driving. He has a black eye and there is dried blood on his bottom lip. I can't believe that I got him caught up in all of this. Guilt floods over me as I reach open and gently run my fingers over his eye. "I am so sorry that I brought you into all of this drama. I never meant for you to get hurt." He looks at me and sighs, "Sadie, you're my girlfriend. It kills me that you don't know that this is how it is supposed to be. You should have never had to go through all of that. I care about you and I will never let someone hurt you the way that he has."

      I realize that no matter how damaged I am Landon is going to do everything in his power to show me that I deserve better than what I've been given in the past. In moments like these the feelings I have for him are almost overwhelming. He tilts my head up towards him and kisses me with one of the softest but most passionate kisses that we have ever shared. It's the kind of kiss that knocks the breath out of you. After a few seconds he pulls back and rests his forehead against mine. We stare into each other's eyes silently saying more than either of us are ready to actually say.