Song of the chapter is Avcii's 'Addicted to You'
Photo is of Holland Roden who plays Annabelle (up in my weird, ginger head)
CHAPTER TWELVE
After I managed to recover from the pain that was in my hands and legs, a different kind of pain took over. The sort that makes it possible for you to hear the blood travelling around your body as it thumps in your ears. I started to shake again for the thousandth time that night.
How could he?
How could Tyler treat me like this?
How could he hurt me?
I slowly stood up which was difficult due to the jittering my body was doing. I stood up only to come face to face with the girl I definitely didn't want to see right now.
Annabelle Cross.
The red head who hated my guts.
Not that hating my guts was an unusual thing in this town.
"What are you doing here?" she said, her voice showing her annoyance "and more importantly why were you on the ground?"
"Ask your boyfriend," was all I said before I made the steps to walk passed her only for her to stop me.
"Get your hands off of me!" I all but squealed at her as her talons began to dig into me due to her death grip on my arm, "those nails of yours are like weapons of mass destruction- I'm surprised you don't claw your own eyes out when you wake up," I said referring to her long and sharp manicured nails.
"It's a pity they weren't sharper actually - well a pity for me, probably a blessing for you," she said, her hold on my arm growing tighter.
"Annabelle, if that's a threat, you may get in line because there are people higher up the list who want to cause me pain and you will just have to wait your turn."
"I honestly just wish someone would just kill you - you almost got hit by a car a few years ago didn't you? But my heroic boyfriend stepped in to save you, didn't he? Poor Tyler, he was heartbroken when you ditched him for Mackenzie but his life has been getting better recently, especially with me around - he told me that himself," she said, each word was like a dagger into my heart which was already in pain. I had been hurt so much that night and all I could think about was how much I deserved it for all I had done.
"I was thinking Khloe, if someone won't just kill you, then why don't you just do it yourself? It would make everyone a lot happier; especially Ty-"
"Don't even finish that sentence Annabelle," a voice said from nowhere.
Was everyone just hanging around outside Tyler's house tonight?
Immediately, Annabelle dropped her grip from my arm as the person came into view.
Tyler.
Here to save the day once again.
My bloody hero.
Oh wait, no I'm the only bloody one here.
"Tyler! Hi..." Annabelle said, faking happiness.
"What are you doing here?" he said sighing.
"I came to see you, you said your mom was going out so I thought I'd come keep you company," she said while smiling.
"Well you thought wrong Annabelle. I told you that I didn't want a relationship with you so why do you keep insisting that I'm your boyfriend? I don't get it. I heard what you said to Khloe and if I'm honest I'm pissed. So if I was you, I'd go home and wait for me to call you so we can sort this out. But I am not your boyfriend and I never have been so please, do me a favour and leave me alone. This - whatever this is that you're doing - is starting to get annoying and quite frankly, I haven't got the time or the energy to deal with you especially not tonight," He said, parts of his voice showing how angry he actually was.
"But Tyler, we kissed!" she started.
Wow, another knife straight in the heart.
"That was one time Annabelle and I was drunk - completely and utterly off my head. And you kissed me; not the other way around."
With that, Annabelle flounced off, her hair hitting me straight in the face.
Gross, Annabelle germs.
"Are you okay?" Tyler asked.
"Perfectly peachy," I spat back at him before I turned to go home.
Tyler stopped me before I could even get out of his drive. He grabbed my arm, in the same place where he did earlier and to put it simply; it hurt like a motherfucker.
"Fuck!" I cursed as his hand made contact with my arm, "Get the fuck off of me!"
"Khloe calm down!" he shouted back.
"I can't calm down, let go, you're hurting me!" I screamed at him as I tried to wriggle from his grasp.
When he finally released me, he looked upset.
"I did that, didn't I?" he asked, visibly wincing at his words.
"Yes," was all I said and I watched the horror that over took his features as he realised what he had done, "but I deserved it."
In a second after I said the words, Tyler looked up so fast, a type of angry glint in his eye, "don't you ever say that again."
"Say what? That I deserved it? Why not? It's true - I ditched you Tyler! What part of that is okay to you? Because I know I'm not particularly proud of myself over it. Never mind just that, I deserve the pain, the anger, the resentment - I'm a bitch. The worst girl you'll ever have the displeasure of meeting. Everyone hates me Tyler, and I don't care, I make them hate me. It's all my fault. You got hit by a car because of me and everything is just my fault," I said, frustrated tears running down my face.
"You can't go home like this, Khloe, why don't you come inside with me?" he said after sighing.
"No, I can't," was all I could say.
"Why? It's not like you can go home looking like that-" he started as his eyes began to rake over my attire.
"I can't come inside with you because I don't want to end up hurt again."
Tyler looked hurt by my direct approach but hey, I'm a bitch, it's in the job description.
"I won't hurt you- earlier on, that was an accident, I realised it as soon as I closed the door. I came to see if you were okay but instead I saw Annabelle and I'm sorry about her - I heard everything she said," He said while looking into my eyes, trying to get me to believe him.
And I did.
***
I always knew that people were capable of doing horrible things, even from a young age. The kids who used to bully me in London, they were young but yet they had the power to do such evil things. They thought up really elaborate pranks and at first it was never set out to hurt me, just to scare me - it was a joke. But then things got more sinister. Some girls used to constantly break the locks on the shitty cubicle doors while I was inside so I couldn't get out. They'd throw wet toilet roll and over the toilet door and it would become tangled in my hair. I'd be forced to sit there for hours waiting on some teacher to realise I was gone. It took them a while and at the start, I'd just sit and cry because of the soggy toilet roll trapped in my hair and on my clothes. I'd cry because despite being a really childish thing to do, it hurt. It hurt that nobody liked me. It hurt that I was alone. At lunch when we were outside playing, I'd have to hide from the other kids. They would always find some way to bruise, cut or embarrass me so I just kept to myself. Classmates who used to be my friends and come to my birthday parties turned on me when I became a social pariah.
Nobody wants to be friends with the girl who is treated like a fucking leper.
Despite all the abuse I got, I was never horrible back. I just took it. I let them do all those things to me without retaliation simply because they looked happy. It sounds pathetic but I figured that if I couldn't be happy then they should be able to. Or maybe that was just an excuse for being so weak.
When Mackenzie walked into my life, it was safe to say that the power she had just went to my head after a while. I liked being in control which is something I had had so little of in London. The downsides to the power were the crumbling of my most prized relationships - the ones with Tyler and my family.
I haven't mentioned my family much throughout this, mainly because it's hard to recall what happened in the last few weeks of me being alive. I fought with a lot of people, which is why there are so many suspects. I know I continually say that I don't have regrets, but that's not entirely true.
I do have regrets, just not the sort of one's any seventeen year old girl should have.
I regret how I acted with my parents.
I regret not having a relationship with Jack.
I regret losing the relationship I had with Chase.
I regret losing Tyler.
I regret befriending Mackenzie.
I regret being in a relationship with Caleb.
But I don't regret anything else, I tortured some kids in my few years as Queen Bee and I really couldn't care. I suffered for years, they suffered once and then I left them alone for good.
They should be thanking me; I may have been a bitch but at least I was fair.
"I'm sorry," Tyler said, pulling me out of my thoughts as I was sat on his kitchen table. He was looking through the cupboard under the sink in an attempt to find the first aid kit his mum had stashed away in case of emergencies.
"It's okay," was all I could reply.
It wasn't okay, I understood he was mad but he manhandled me. I'm not going to sugar coat it anymore, I'd thought about it and I may have deserved harsh treatment, but literally throwing me out of your house is not okay.
"It's not," he said with a tone of finality.
"Okay."
I really was in no mood to talk, I was exhausted after today but my brain was wired. Today had been a really long day and all I wanted to do was get into bed. If something like this had of happened any other day, I would have just gone to Caleb's and told him I'd had a really bad day and he would have cuddled me as he put some shit movie on to try to make me happy. Caleb could be a very good boyfriend; he probably would have made a fabulous boyfriend providing he wasn't going out with me. I brought out his bad side in more ways than one.
Tyler came over to where I was perched on his kitchen table and started to rifle through the first aid box, the tension in the air was high. Neither of us knew what to say, it was weird being around each other, especially after the earlier dramatic turn of events.
He started to clean the cuts on my hand, I wanted to tell him to stop and that I could do it myself but I couldn't. I didn't want to. He was practically holding my hand and the butterflies made their way throughout my entire body from such a simple gesture.
How clichéd and cute, makes you want to throw up doesn't it?
"I know you can feel it," he said as he continued to try to mend my cut hands.
"Feel what?" I said confused.
"How your heart feels like it beats only for me. How a herd of elephants have taken over your stomach and are climbing up the walls. How we were supposed to be together."
"How can you be so sure?" I asked, trying to hide the fact he was correct.
"Because I can feel it too; down to every last elephant footprint," he said looking me straight in the eyes.
***
word count for the chapter; 2,056
a/n
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