She nodded, but I could tell she was nervous. And that made sense. We were all scared and angry at Julian for what he’d done.
As we finished breakfast with Ellie’s parents, I told myself that Julian was harmless. I hated him for what he’d done, for the lies and manipulation, but I was convinced it ended there. His cruelty, his conniving, the way he’d hurt people, were all the actions of a coward, carried out from a distance, hiding his real identity.
Julian wasn’t the type to confront us on the street and try to harm us.
At least, that’s what I told myself.
When breakfast was over, we bundled up and headed outside. Ellie’s father usually drove her in, and he didn’t like the idea of us being out in the cold, but we managed to convince him.
Once we were finally alone, walking side by side in the bike lane, I could sense that my worries about Ellie weren’t wrong. Something was going on with her. And that something had to do with me.
“Listen, Ellie…” I said after a brief uncomfortable silence, only interrupted by the chirping of birds and one or two passing cars. “Do you have some kind of problem with me?” I said, cutting to the point. I didn’t want to feel awkward around my best friend, especially not now that I needed her more than ever…
She didn’t speak for a few seconds, then she told me, “I’m really sorry for what happened with Julian, Kami.” She was looking at the ground, as though she didn’t have the courage to meet my gaze.
“What do you mean, exactly?”
“You know he forced me to do things I’d never have done otherwise…”
Like hooking up with Danny at the Halloween party. How could I forget! I still had nightmares about the two of them together, not because I was jealous, but because my best friend, someone I loved and respected, had gone after the maniac who’d made my life impossible for two years. It made me angry, but it made me sad, too.
Danny didn’t deserve someone like Ellie.
And Ellie… She deserved the best. A good guy, someone fun, someone who could make her laugh, get under her skin, push her to do things she’d never do on her own.
She deserved the best guy in the world, which I told her straight up. Ellie looked off at the trees and said, “What if the perfect guy’s out of my reach?” Then she turned back to face me.
“Ellie, no decent guy with a brain would turn you down,” I responded. She was a total catch: smart, pretty, fun, sweet. She looked at me skeptically, hinting that she had her eye on someone. I shouted, “Oh my God, who is it? Do I know him? Is it someone from our class?”
I went through all the guys at school in my head, and no one jumped out as someone even remotely in her league, but hey—if there was someone she liked, I wasn’t going to be the one to burst her bubble.
“We’ve got some classes with him…” she responded, even more nervous than before. Dammit! Who was it?
“Ellie, spit it out!” I said when we were almost to school.
I could tell she was hesitant, but at last, she took a breath and said, “Sorry, Kami, it’s just… I don’t want you to hate me. It’s not like I planned this or anything. Feelings, you know, they just appear out of nowhere, and I didn’t see this coming…”
Just as she was about to say more, a car honked, and we bothnearly jumped out of our skin. “Jesus!” I shouted, and noticed it was Thiago and Taylor pulling into school. We watched them turn as we kept walking. The brothers parked at the edge of the lot, far from the school building but close to us.
I could feel the nerves in the pit of my stomach as Thiago got out of the driver’s side, slamming the door and turning toward me. Taylor did the same from the passenger side.
“What have you done now?” Ellie asked.
I froze: They were headed straight for me, with angry expressions on their handsome faces.
“You want to tell me what the fuck you’re doing walking to school by yourself?” Believe it or not, it wasn’t my boyfriend, Taylor, who asked. It was his brother, Thiago.
I was stunned. Thiago was like a bulldozer; he couldn’t control his temper. I looked at Taylor, and he was pissed, too, but part of that was his anger at being upstaged by his brother.
Thiago was going too far. I think sometimes he forgot that I was going out with his brother, not him.
“What am I supposed to do?” I shouted. “I wanted to take a walk with my best friend!”
“Your best friend can do whatever she wants. You’re a different story!” he shouted, standing just inches away from me. God, he was so tall, so strong, so fucking irresistible.
I looked to Taylor for help. “Can you get your brother to stop yelling at me?” The last thing I needed was somebody else making a spectacle of me at school. Thankfully we were at least far enough from the doors that no one could gawk at us except the last few people pulling into the parking lot.
“Sorry, Kami, but not this time. I hate to say it, but he’s right. It’s pretty stupid to walk around alone when you know an absolute psycho has you in his sights!” Taylor said.
