Damned

Chapter Two

When we got in the car, I contemplated telling Dara about Trevor's suicide. She might already know. It was on the news. I'm sure people were posting it on Social Media. Although, Dara had deleted every Social Media account she had. There had been a lot of people sending her hate mail. Honestly, I thought about deactivating mine too, but I didn't. I just ignored what people were saying about Dara and her involvement. 

I didn't want to upset here, especially on our way to school. But kids were cruel and if Daniel had seen the article, then everyone at school probably did too. I didn't want her to be caught off guard. I rolled my jaw left and right, trying to come up with the perfect choice.

"Dara?" My voice was rugged. She looked up at me, her face full of innocence.

"What's up?" Her words were ripples.

"I-I," I stuttered. "I think you should know that Trevor killed himself the other day. Everyone will be talking about it at school. I didn't want you to be caught off guard." I finally said.

"Oh, I uh knew." She plays with her hands. 

"You did?" I asked her incredulously. I don't know why I'm surprised that she already knew. Daniel had known, so why wouldn't Dara?

"Yeah, someone forwarded me the article." Of course, someone sent it to her. People were so cruel.

"How are you? It must be--

"I'm okay. In a way, I kind of suspected it. I mean I didn't think he would kill himself, but I'm not surprised." 

"If you want, we can stay at home. We can tell mom and Gran that we found out on our way to school." I offer to skip class with her. She's made so much progress in just this short week, I would hate to see her go back to that dark place.

"No," she shook her head. "I want to go to school. I wasn't lying when I said I have homework to turn in. I have a lot of making up to do if I want to graduate the ninth grade. 

Plus, finals are coming up next week." She's stressed. I had forgotten about finals approaching. At least, that meant Spring Break was coming up. Unfortunately, that also meant Ivelyn's birthday was approaching and my liver wasn't ready for the alcohol poisoning that was yet to come.

"Let's work on that after school," I assured her. "I have a lot of stuff to study and I can help you out." I flashed her a smile. I wasn't going to let her fail. 

I was going to be there for her. I wasn't letting her slip through my fingers again. She was my responsibility. 

The rest of the car ride, I thought about ways to help Dara out. I wasn't the best at studying, but flash cards always helped me. The last time I checked, Dara had three failings grades, but she just needed to turn things in. She was in ninth grade and they didn't penalize you for turning in things late. Her other classes were either C's or D's, which weren't great, but we could get those up too. 

I pulled into a parking spot and we walked into school together. I couldn't help but be reminded of our first week of school. I remember trying to walk with Dara, but that was before. We weren't close back then. That and I had been seeing Levi everywhere. I look over my shoulder, seeing the large tree at the edge of the courtyard. I had talked to Levi there, under the safety of the long-looming limbs, so no one would see me talking to myself.

I had trusted him.

Dara had trusted Vayne.

We had been burned by people we trusted. We were both coping with that. I had to come to terms with the fact that I had befriended a Demon who was sent by Sarah Good to trick me and kill me and my family. That was hard, but not as hard as coping with the fact that Levi had been a murderer -- killing innocent girls all around me, without me even detecting it.