Life settled down nicely over the next few days.
Work was fun with Alice around to keep me company- we goofed around, told each other stupid jokes and even had some frank discussions about our lives. My only bone to pick with her was the fact that she was doing an uncharacteristically good job keeping her mouth shut about whatever was going on at the Bishops'.
And something was going on, I could tell that much by her shifty eyes every time it came up.
After work, I would bike over to Shana's where we'd lay around gossiping about everything under the sun, except for the one thing I wanted to talk about - Jake. I was dying to grill her about all the rumors surrounding him, but my fear of getting her agitated in her state won over. So that was a little frustrating.
Jake would pick me up from Shana's around nine and together, we'd go back to Buck's, otherwise known as Dry Hump City, population two.
Then, Thursday afternoon arrived and changed everything.
Due to some pipework that had to be done around the sties, I was excused from my afternoon mucking duties. To save Peyton the trouble, I decided to take Alice back to the Bishops'.
She had a jolly good time on the back of my bike, screaming her lungs out with her arms wrapped tight around my waist. Maybe that was why I didn't make much out of her reluctance to enter the Bishops' mansion when I dropped her off. Instead, she stood in front of the door and insisted on seeing me off.
I left her there, and to save myself some time, decided to cut through the property to get the main road.
Which took me by the lake.
And by the lake, I saw something that made me stop dead in my tracks.
Jake's truck, parked by the dock.
What?
Oh, you'd better believe I hid.
Creeping in the tree line, I looked for him. He wasn't far from his car, absently skipping rocks across the surface of the water. (He did that well too.)
The twist of betrayal in my gut was nauseating, the hurt profound. Swallowing hard, I forced myself to tear my gaze from him and look for Charlotte.
Because it had to be her.
Rage was up next, and it was nearly blinding. My heart raced and my knees shook so bad that I had to lean against a tree to keep my balance.
Chill the fuck out before you give yourself an aneurysm.
Maybe they were just friends.
Unlikely, though. All I'd ever seen them do was say hi and goodbye in passing.
My mind wandered back to the day I saw the two of them with Noble Elise, back at the ranch, and the too familiar way she'd touched him. Bile rose in my throat.
Grow up and face the music, Layla. It's far more likely that they're still fucking.
That much was true. Jake wouldn't cut work just to hang out with her. She would have to do better than that.
I pictured the two of them together, him doing all the things he did with me with her, and blinked back the tears. "Fuck this," I mumbled, stepping out into the open. I marched towards him, fully intent on giving him a piece of my mind. And her too, once she arrived. That's right, I planned to kill both these fuckers with one huge stone.
Thank God, I didn't sleep with him.
I was passing the boat shed when I heard the distant roar of a car engine. Without thinking, I jumped into the shed, disappearing from view.
Peyton's car rolled up and parked beside Jake's.
Eh?
And Peyton stepped out of it.
Double Eh?
Stepping deeper into the shadows, I squatted down behind the overturned canoe and peered over it.
Unless Jake was deaf, blind and dumb, which he wasn't, he had to know that Peyton had arrived. But he kept his back to him and continued to skip his rocks. Peyton took a few steps forward and stopped when he was about five feet from Jake. With his hands in his pockets, he watched.
I didn't know whether to scratch my watch or wind my butt.
What was this? And was this better or worse than Jake coming here to meet Charlotte? Who called who? Jake had gotten here first so maybe he'd called, but the way Peyton was waiting him out made it seem like Peyton had done the calling. How wrong would it be if I were to look through Jake's phone later? Most importantly, why were they meeting?
Peyton spoke. I was too far to hear anything specific, just the low rumble of his voice. Jake listened to whatever Peyton had to say without turning around. But he did stop throwing his rocks.
Every once in a while, Jake responded, but the answers were short and clipped.
Whatever they were talking about was serious. And stressful, for both of them. I didn't have to be a body language expert to figure that one out.
Once Peyton was done talking, the two of them stood completely still for a while, both of their bodies stiff.
Then, Jake turned around.
What I wouldn't have given for a pair of binoculars at that point.
Then, Jake started asking the questions while Peyton responded in short, clipped answers.
Once they were done, Jake stretched his arms, one after another, across the front of his body. Finally, he shrugged and seemed to agree to something. Some of the tension eased from Peyton's shoulders.
I was nearly dead from curiosity.
They stood in silence for a while longer, and there was an air of melancholy between the two of them, a reluctance to part. There'd been a deep love between the two, I could sense that much and watching the two of them like this was emotionally draining.
Eventually, they shook hands and left, Peyton following Jake until they reached the fork at the road. Peyton turned right, heading toward the house, and Jake made the left that would take him off the property.
For a long ass time after they left, I knelt there in the musty dark shed, completely drained of energy, wondering how the hell I was going to drag my ass up and bike back home.
Then a voice spoke up from behind me.
"So? What do you think they talked about?"
***
I screamed before falling flat on my ass and scrambling away, stopping only when my head hit the side of the canoe. The oar dislodged and smacked me across the shoulder before clattering to the floor.
When I looked up, she was staring down at me with her hands clasped behind her back, her head cocked slightly to the right, like she simply couldn't understand my reaction.
"Charlotte! You scared me!"
"Did I? I was standing here the whole time, right in that corner. From the moment you came in, actually."
The thought of her watching me for that long without my knowledge was enough to make tears of terror well in my eyes. As it was, my heart was hammering in my chest so hard that I felt pretty sure I was going to throw up. "God, Charlotte, what are you doing in here?"
And why the hell are you wearing that creepy ass white dress, looking like you walked right off the set of "Children of The Corn"?
"Same thing you're doing, I imagine. It's strange to see the two of them together, isn't it? After everything that's happened?"
Well, I wouldn't know, because I knew nothing about that. I considered engaging her in conversation to see if I could get some information out of her, but thought better of it. Daddy'd always said that knowing yourself was half the battle, and I knew I stood no chance in outwitting her.
"So...? Any theories?" she asked.
"Leave me alone, Charlotte." Bracing myself against the side of the canoe, I struggled to get back onto my feet. My knees were still shaking from shock.
Refusing to cower before her again, I forced myself to look at her. And when I did, she shocked me again, this time with her appearance.
She looked wretched.
She was still impeccably groomed, her hair and makeup perfect even in the gloomy light of the shed.
But her eyes...
They were manic, unhinged. Too blue, too bright, bloodshot. She looked like she hadn't slept in a month.
You know, I'd always said she was crazy, but for the first time, I wondered if she was crazy in the clinical sense. She sure looked it at the moment.
"Charlotte?" My voice came out reedy and thin. Scared as fuck. But I was.
"Layla?" Her tone was sing-song-y, like some fucked up little girl ghost from a horror movie.
She also hadn't blinked for like two whole minutes.
"Charlotte, are you okay?" If I hadn't been so afraid of her, I would've reached out and put a hand on her arm to try and shake her out of it.
"Oh, so now you care about how I feel?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
It was ninety five degrees out, but I was freezing.
I sized her up. We were about the same height, but she was ultra thin and built like a gazelle. So at the very least, I had bulk on my side if it came down to that.
Still, nothing beats crazy so I took a hesitant step back.
She took one forward, stepping into the light. "Leaving already?"
Her skin was so pale and wan that I could see all the veins running beneath her skin. I was pretty sure she had a broken blood vessel in her eye and she also had a long scratch on the side of her neck. No, make that scratches, as if someone had clawed at her neck.
Why are your hands behind you back?
"I... I... gotta go," I stammered.
"But I'm talking to you, Layla. Tell me, what do you think Peyton and Jake were talking about?"
"I have no idea."I kept backstepping toward the door because there was no way I was turning my back on her. She kept stepping forward, closing the gap between us.
"Maybe you? Maybe me? One of the two, I'll bet," she said.
If I could just get out of this shed, I could run. I'd never seen her run before but I was fast.
"Oh, Layla," she said, rolling her eyes and smiling at me.
Were her canines always that sharp? Would she bite?
"Don't be afraid of me," she said. "I'm hardly the one you need to be afraid of." She chose to bring her hands out from behind her at that moment.
Empty.
Smiling, she did a horrifying little hand wiggle, showing me her palms before clasping them in front of her.
"I'm leaving." I walked out of the shed. I turned my back on her as soon as I felt the sunlight on my skin and started walking away as fast as I could without breaking out into a run.
Because bullies thrived on fear.
Only, I wasn't so sure she was just a bully anymore.
Whatever she was, she was dangerous. Stand up for yourself. You can't run forever.
I turned to face her. "Quit messing around with me, Charlotte. I'm sick and tired of it, and of you. Just leave me the fuck alone."
She stared at me, an empty, pleasant smile on her face.
"I don't even understand why you're so obsessed with me. I never did anything to you!"
She laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. "You?" She laughed again, doubling over and holding her arms around her stomach.
Petrified, I watched her.
She straightened herself and looked at me again, lightly coughing into her fist. "Oh, sweet, simple, Layla. It's not about you, it's never been about you. You're less than nothing to me. It's about him. It's always about him."
I turned and ran, leaving her laughing behind me.
***
I pedaled the fuck out of there as fast as my poor trembling legs could manage. Once I was off their property, I pulled over and took a seat by a tree trying to gather my thoughts, but my mind wouldn't calm down enough for me to make any sense of it.
Did that really just happen?
My first instinct was to call Peyton, but I didn't know if I could stomach looking at his face at the moment. Plus, what was I going to say to him?
"Hey Peyton, by the way, is your sister insane?"
If he'd wanted me to know, he would've told me a long time ago.
No, no. Peyton wouldn't do.
Jake?
But what do you really know about him?
If I set my hormones aside, he was a guy with a shady ass past that nobody wanted to talk about and a reputation for violence that everybody wanted to warn me about. As a cherry on top, he had a maybe-crazy girl obsessed with him.
Speaking of, anyone who would stick his dick in that kind of crazy had to be certifiable themselves.
Beth.
Longingly, I looked down the empty road. She'd still be at Beaudry's, but to get there, I would have to pass by the Bishops' again, and I couldn't, for the life on me, get myself to do that.
Once I calmed some more, I decided that curiosity was not going to kill this cat. Getting back on my bike, I headed towards Buck's, where I'd be safe. Wasn't that something? Safe at Buck's.
I laughed a hollow laugh, sounding as crazy as Charlotte did.
***
All I wanted was for the day to be over but when I got home, I found my mom and Daniel Harris sitting at the kitchen table. Daniel looked up and smiled when I entered and Brandy continued to scroll through her phone, a tendril of smoke curling up from the cigarette in between her fingers.
"Hi Daniel," I said. "I thought you were out of town."
He smiled, but it was a little tight. "I was, but something important came up." He winked.
I glanced at Brandy. She looked a wreck, but I didn't know if it was from her bender last night or from something else. Uncertain, I took a seat at the table. No one said anything so I picked at a spot of dried out food with my thumbnail.
"The Harris' want you to move in with them," Brandy finally said without looking up. "The old man here, gave me a nice long talking down to about being a fucked up mother."
Daniel sighed, but said nothing.
"Sorry," I mumbled.
"Yeah," she was quiet for a moment. "You gonna go?"
"Can I?"
She shrugged. "Like I told him, it's your decision, not mine."
She wouldn't look at me and I didn't know what that meant. Did she want me to go? Was she sad to see me go?
"I think I should..." I said finally, unable to look at her as I said the words.
She was quiet for a long time. "Alright."
"It's only because of those other people though, not because of you or Buck or Amber."
She said nothing.
"And I'll come by all the time to visit so it's not like I'm never gonna see y'all again."
"Suit yourself." Without looking at either of us, she grabbed her pack of cigarettes and walked up the stairs.
I looked at Daniel and he smiled sadly.
He had some news for me too.
A/N: So... what did Jake and Peyton talk about?
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