Chloe (Made Men Book 3) (9 page)

W
hile Elle sat
on her bed, her eyes grew tired from the countless studying. She had a big test in Science class tomorrow, and she really needed to get an A.

A little knock came to the door before her mother opened it. “Elle, sweetie, it’s late.”

“I have a big test tomorrow.”

Her mother came into the room and took a seat on the bed in front of her. “I’ve noticed you’ve been obsessed with your grades lately. You know we are proud of you no matter what, and I don’t want you to stress so much.”

“I know.” Elle smiled. “I’m just trying to make sure I give it my best so I can keep my options open in the future.”

“With what?”

“You know … for college and stuff.”

“Okay, sweetie.” Her mother smiled back before she reached into her robe pocket and pulled out a picture. “I developed some pictures today and thought you might want to put them in your photo album.”

Staring down at the photo, Elle’s eyes were immediately drawn to Chloe. Even though her scar had healed a bit since then, you could still see the same amount of torture in her eyes today.

“This was when she first came over for our science project.”

“Yep.” Her mom patted her leg before she got up. “Now get some rest. You want to at least be awake during the test to get an A.”

“Mom,” Elle stopped her before she could close the door. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, sweetie.”

Getting up out of bed, she went to her bookshelf and pulled out her photo album then set it on her bed. Elle flipped through the pages before she came to an abrupt stop at the picture Sebastian had given her as a warning message. Despite her wanting to sear this image of her bloody and bruised body into her brain, every day with Chloe, it started to fade.

Slowly, she started to place the picture of her and Chloe over it, covering the heinous picture and replacing it with something good.

Gone, but not forgotten.

Looking down at the new picture, she finally looked at herself. Her hair had grown quite a bit in a short amount of time, and it now grazed the top of her shoulders, showing her that all wounds heal with time, even though time wasn’t on their side …

“We will survive”—Elle closed the book with one last glance at the photo—“together.”

T
ick
. Tock
.

Don’t look at the clock.

An hourglass was still broken.

Tick. Tock
.

Look at the other clock.

The last grain of sand had fallen.

Tick—

Time was up.

I
t was either going
to be the end or just the beginning for Elle. She had made her choice, and now the last piece of the puzzle needed to be added.

Looking at the newspaper on the bus, she saw all the X marks she had made under the classifieds. There was only one place left on the list, and if they turned her away, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do.

The bus stopping had her getting up to exit, and once she was off the bus, she started second-guessing the whole thing. Downtown Kansas City didn’t seem like a place for a newly fifteen-year-old girl who was alone. Thankfully, it was a quick walk to her destination.

Elle stopped to stare at the diner, looking up at the sign. The D flashed off and on, spelling out “Diner” or “Iner,” depending on the moment you looked at it. She was able to clearly look inside since it seemed like nothing but windows revealing it was very outdated and needed a major deep clean. Finally, her eyes rested on the “Help Wanted” sign that was placed on the door.

In that moment, staring at the sign, a feeling of determination came over her. No matter what, she was going to get what she wanted. She didn’t care how many lies came out of her mouth; it was hers.

Walking up to the door, she pushed on it, taking the first step inside.

That was the moment she decided to flip both hourglasses, causing both to start over.
The beginning.

C
hloe was
, of course, the first one to take her seat or even reach the first class of the day. Beginning to wring her hands, she wondered why she had even tried to look nice today. Her makeup couldn’t cover up the fact that she was a freak, and her long-sleeved, black shirt that matched her black jeans to perfection made her look crazy, considering it was warm outside.

Black was the only color that suited her anymore. It helped her fade into the background, just the way she wanted, and she still hadn’t revealed to the world her other markings. For some dumb reason, she hoped that, since it was a new year, she could finally blend into the background.

The rest of her school days were going to be hell without Elle. She didn’t know how or even if she could do it, but there wasn’t an option.
Sophomore year won’t be the same without her…
Chloe had nothing and no one to save her. She was trapped and set to die in this school. Elle was at least free, and that made a part of her happy for once
. One of us made it out alive
.

“You look really pretty today,” A sweet voice standing over her told her.

Chloe hated to look up and see who was about to make fun of her. The last thing she ever got was a compliment, so she knew it was going to turn into a cruel joke. She almost didn’t look, but when she did, her mouth dropped open.

“W-Why are you here? You’re not supposed to be here.”

Elle crossed her arms with a smirk on her face. “You don’t want me here?”

Utter confusion came over Chloe. “I don’t understand.”

“Well, I got a scholarship for my grades to pay part of my tuition, and I got a job to pay the rest of it.” She took a seat in front of her. “You don’t seem very happy. You’re supposed to be happy.”

“I’m n-not. You don’t deserve to be here … because of me.” If Chloe could still cry, she was sure this was a moment in her life when she would. She had hated herself all last year when Elle had been her punching bag, and now she was back here again. Chloe was still too weak and broken to take up for herself and knew it was all going to happen again, no matter how much she hated herself for it.

“That’s why I didn’t tell you I was coming back. I was afraid you might talk me out of it somehow.”

“I am. You’re transferring back.”

Elle laughed. “Won’t work now. It would look really strange to my parents, and I would just have to tell them the truth about what happened to you and why I felt it necessary to come back here for you.”

No, no, no, no!
She began shaking her head.

“It’s too late, Chloe.”

She continued shaking her head back and forth. “Why are you doing this?”

Elle turned around in her desk, facing the front. “Because you need me.” Looking back over her shoulder for just a moment, she revealed another truth, “And I need you, too.”

If Chloe were strong, she would shake Elle until she changed her mind. Nevertheless, she wasn’t. She was only weak.

Elle was right; she did need her. Elle knowing that was the reason she wasn’t going to get a fight out of Chloe.

Never would she forget what she had done to Elle in the past, and now she was never, ever going to forgive herself for what was going to happen to Elle in the future.

I can honestly, truly say I hate myself and forever will.

The day seemed to drag by, and despite Elle taking the exact same schedule as her, they hadn’t said a word to each other. Chloe was too upset to. She knew what this was going to mean for her best friend, and she was heartbroken.

When the lunch bell rang, they went through the shortest line of sloppy Joes. Elle got to the lunch lady first, giving her the lunch number.

“You have a balance from last year on your account. You need to get that paid if you plan to eat next week. Now move along.” The lunch lady shooed her away, not wanting to give her the time of day.

Chloe was just as stunned as Elle with the lunch lady’s attitude as she gave her own lunch number to the lady.

“You should transfer after this week, just to tick her off,” Chloe told Elle as they took their seats at their table from last year.

Elle cracked a laugh before she shut her down. “As much as I would like to piss her off, that’s not going to happen. I’ve made my choice, and I’m staying here.”

“Well, then I hope you fail all of your classes.”

“Aw, thanks, I appreciate that,” Elle retorted as she held her hand over her heart.

She gave Elle a smile. “You’re welcome.”

They both laughed for a minute then began eating what no one else wanted.

“Who even hired a fifteen-year-old, anyway?”

“No one.” Elle swallowed the food that was in her mouth. “A diner downtown hired a sixteen-year-old.”

Chloe blinked her eyes a few times, digesting what she had just heard. “How in the world did you get away with that!”

“Easy. It’s a crappy diner, and they needed a waitress so badly they hired me on the spot because a waitress had just quit. Put me to work that night and everything.”

“What did your parents say?”

Elle took another bite of food, clearly trying to dodge the question before she finally gave in. “Well, they think I work at Magical Cupcakes in the suburbs.”

“Oh, my gosh.” Chloe stared at her like she was a monster. “Do you just collect awards for all the lies you manage to pull off?”

Elle shrugged. “Possibly.”

The two had missed each other a lot over the summer and were glad to catch up and be in each other’s presence again. Chloe had spent the night over at Elle’s a couple of times, but not as much as they would have liked due to her parents.

Stopping mid-bite, Elle’s mouth almost dropped to the floor. “Oh, my gosh, who is that?”

Glancing behind her, Chloe saw an extremely tall and very well built teenage boy walking across the cafeteria before she quickly turned her head back around. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s a transfer. He looks like a senior.”

She continued to gawk at him before her eyes got big. “No freaking way. Look! I think that’s Amo!”

“What? No, it’s n—” She stopped mid-sentence when she looked back to see him sitting in the exact same spot Amo had last year—at the table where his best friends Vincent and Nero sat. Vincent was the pretty blond, but Nero was like their group leader and perfection with his dark hair and skin along with his piercing green eyes. He and Vincent had managed to have every girl drooling after them last year, while Amo had been just a normal, awkward teenager. But now he was unrecognizable.

Elle had yet to move her eyes from him, much like all the other girls in the cafeteria.

“Jeez, it looks like he started eating roids for breakfast.”

Chloe practically laughed up her sandwich.
I bet he’s going to give Nero and Vincent a run for their money now.

“Dang, he went from about a three or four to a solid ten really quickly.”

Definitely a run for their money.

“Don’t you think so?” Elle asked, still not moving her eyes from Amo once.

Chloe shrugged. “Eh, he’s all right.”

Elle finally moved her gaze to Chloe like she had been struck. “All right! Excuse me?”

“I think Nero is better looking in my opinion,” she told her matter-of-factly.

Elle busted out in laughter. “Too bad his ego is about as big as Amo, which makes Nero a zero out of ten.”

“We were ranking looks, not personality. If we were ranking personality, then they would all be zeros, and Vincent would round it out at negative one.”

“What’s wrong with Amo’s personality? He’s never really done anything.”

He has to me…
But Chloe decided to keep that information to herself.

“And that was pre-pubescent Amo. Puberty Amo will be a jerk like them. I mean, come on, he looks scary now.” Chloe turned her head back to stare at him for a moment. “Like a beast.”