White Liar (25 page)

“Justin Pinnix, you better come back here right this minute.  I‘m not through talking with you yet!” Cathy yelled out at his retreating back.  When he didn’t bother to turn around and only continued to walk further and further away from her, she stomped her foot like a petulant toddler.  “You walk away now and I’ll never take you back,” she screamed again.  “Do you hear me Justin, never!  Not even if you come crawling back to me on your knees, we’re done!”

Justin walked around the corner and disappeared completely from her view.  She wanted to yell, she wanted to scream but more importantly she wanted to make someone pay for ruining her perfect little life.

It wasn‘t fair, she told herself.  She and Justin were supposed to be together.  That was simple high school sociology.  They were meant to be.  Spinning her body around, she let out a bellow of rage and slammed her bare fist hard into a locker.

“Damn it!” she cursed, clutching her now throbbing hand to her chest.  It wasn’t supposed to be like this.  If it hadn’t been for that stupid meddling bitch, she and Justin wouldn’t be fighting right now.  Instead, they would be in the cafeteria making out.

This was Chloe’s fault.  All her fault and if she thought that she was going to get away with stealing her man, then she had another thing coming.  No one had ever dared to take what belonged to her before and she wasn‘t about to let anyone start now.

Cathy turned around and headed off in the opposite direction of Justin.  She needed some time to think.  She needed some time to come up with a plan.  A plan to get her man back and at the same time, a plan to put the slut back in her place, once and for all.  Life around here was about to get real- very, very real.

“I can take it from here,” Chloe stated harshly, shrugging Troy’s hand from her shoulder.  She didn’t want anyone touching her, especially right now.  She looked up and realized that he had stopped in front of the girls’ bathroom.  If the look on Troy’s face was any indication, he had every intention of going in there with her.  No way.

Troy dropped his hands to his sides.  “I’m not sure that is such a good idea.”  He noticed her shivering and could see the tears welling up in her eyes.  He could kill Cathy and her fellow groupies for what they did to this girl.  “Why don’t I come in and help you clean some of this gunk out of your hair?” he suggested.

After being so thoroughly humiliated in the cafeteria, and then seeing her cousin and knowing that she was the cause of it all, Chloe wanted nothing more at this point than to be alone.  That was it.  “I’m fine,” she told Troy and started to turn away from him.

“No, you’re not fine.”  Troy grabbed her arm again and gently turned her back around so that she was looking back at him.  “No sane person would be fine after what happened back there.  Those girls are just bitches looking for someone to push around.  You’re a beautiful girl Chloe and they felt threatened.  It’s no excuse for what they did, but it’s the truth.  Let me help you.”

She wasn't sure about Troy.  She didn’t know him all that well but she was having a hard time shutting him down after what he had just done for her.  She knew that he was in her English Lit class.  He wasn’t at all athletic and he didn’t run in Justin’s circle, but he seemed to be a popular kind of guy.  “Look,” she started, and ran her hand through her hair only to pull out a blob of spaghetti noodles.  “Ew,” she scrunched up her nose and tossed the cold noodles to the floor.  “This really is disgusting.”

She glanced back up at Troy who was searching her face.  He looked concerned and on some elemental level, that expression touched her.  But right now, she didn’t want nor need his concern.  She needed time to recuperate and figure out how in the hell she was going to stick it to her cousin.

“I’m fine,” she said again.  “I just really need to be by myself right now.  Can you understand that?”

Troy released her arm and scratched his chin.  The truth was, he couldn’t understand it.  Why would anyone want to be alone after all that happened back there?  Wouldn’t she need someone to tell her that it’s going to be okay?  Didn’t she need reassurance that this wasn’t her fault and that not everyone was as dim witted or cruel as Cathy was?

Chloe let out a tired sigh.  At first she was stunned, then she was upset, now she was just plain pissed off.  “I can see the questions in your eyes Troy.  I’m a big girl,” she assured him.  “I can handle a little food in my hair and some silly name calling.  I’m starting to feel really sticky right now so if you don’t mind, I’m going to go in here to get cleaned up.”  She pointed at the bathroom door and added,  “Alone.  You can go back to whatever it was that you were doing before you decided to be the great white knight in shining armor and save the day.”

He frowned.   That’s not exactly how he had envisioned it.  He wasn’t thinking about saving the day; his only thoughts were for Chloe and the atrocity that had occurred.  “I don’t think-” he started and was cut off by Chloe’s pointer finger being pressed up against his lips.

“
Do me a favor Troy, don’t think.”  This time she smiled back at him.  “Thank you for what you did for me earlier but right now, I need to deal with this in my own way.  Please, just go back to the cafeteria.  I promise you that I’ll be fine.”

He sucked in a big breath and slowly blew it out between his teeth.  He turned his head to the side, not wanting her to read too much in his expression.  “Fine,” he said and after a stretched silence he whipped his head back around, “but only if you’re sure that you’re going to be alright.”

Chloe reached over and covered the hand that still rested on her arm with her own.  “I will be.  You will see me in English Lit later today and you’ll be able to see for yourself.”

Troy still wasn’t so sure but it was obvious that Chloe wanted to be alone.  English Lit was only two classes away.  “Alright,” he conceded, “but wait a second.”  He reached in his back pocket and pulled out an ink pen.  “Can I see your hand please?”

Chloe looked at him oddly but lifted her hand to him.  Troy grinned a little and turned her hand over so that he was looking at her palm.  Taking the pen he pulled out of his pocket, he quickly jotted his number on her hand.  “If for any reason you need me,” he told her seriously while still holding her hand.  “Call me.  I don‘t care what time it is, or where you are at- you can pick up your phone, call me and I‘ll be there, alright?”

Chloe audibly gulped.  “Okay.  If I feel like I need to be saved again, you’ll be the first person that I call.”

Troy lifted his hand and pulled another wet noodle out of her hair.  He held it up in front of them.  “Go clean yourself up Chloe Miller.  I’ll be checking on you in English Lit this afternoon.”

“I’m going,” she told him and turned around to open the door.  Surprisingly, she was already feeling a little better.  She pushed the door open but stopped when she felt another tug at the back of her head.  She glanced back over her shoulder and Troy held up another noodle for her to see.

He grinned sheepishly at her, dropped the noodle to the accumulating pile in the floor and held up his hands.  He didn’t say anything else to Chloe.  Instead, he very slowly started to back away from her, eventually turning around and walking down the hall.  She watched his retreating back for just a little longer before turning herself around and going into the bathroom.

One thing was for sure, she mused.  Troy was another enigma.  He wasn’t at all what he seemed to be.  She glanced at the number on her hand.  “Nope,” she said aloud.  “He was definitely a different kind of guy.”

**********

Justin stood at the corner of the hall and watched Troy interact with Chloe.  At least she didn’t look as distraught as she had earlier, he thought to himself.  He was getting ready to approach the two of them when he noticed Troy’s arm on her shoulder and then her hand covering his.

What’s going on here? He seethed.  Troy was supposed to be taking her away so that she could get cleaned up, not taking advantage of her vulnerability and hitting on her.

Then he saw it.  It was just a fraction of a smile, but it was an honest to God smile.  That one smile captivated him.  After everything that she just went through ten minutes earlier, she was standing there smiling.  But that smile wasn’t for him, it was meant for Troy.  He scowled at that realization.

Justin stood there and continued to watch the two interact, getting more and more frustrated by the second.  He was the one that wanted to get to know her.  He wanted her to feel like she could come to him to talk but how was he going to convince her that she could count on him when Troy McFarland was making passes at her.

Justin was three seconds away from storming the two when suddenly they seemed to be getting a little too close for his own sense of comfort.  He forced himself to stay back and observe.  Every time he confronted Chloe, they ended up screaming at each other.  Maybe Troy was doing something right that he wasn’t.

He watched him as Troy wrote something on her hand and then even touched her hair.  Justin fisted his hands in tight balls by his sides and didn’t realize that he had been holding his breath until Troy walked past him.  Only then, did he release that breath and relax his hands.

What is wrong with me?  He didn’t understand what was happening to him. Why was he getting so angry with Chloe talking to another guy?  Then it hit him.  Cathy said it first.  She knew it all along.  It was because he wanted to be the guy that she talked with.  He had always wanted to be that guy, it’s just Chloe never even gave him a chance.

He watched Chloe disappear into the bathroom and strode towards the door.  He leaned back against the wall and crossed one leg over the other, settling in comfortably until she came back out.

Maybe she hadn’t been willing to give him a chance in the past, but that was about to change.  He would somehow make her see that he wasn’t as bad a person as she seemed to think he was.  He would find a way to break through that heavy chink of armor that she wore on a daily basis and get her to open up to him.  One way or the other, the time for he and Chloe to have their come-to-Jesus meeting had finally arrived.

T
wenty minutes later, Chloe finally walked out of the bathroom.  The moment she stepped out, Justin lifted himself off the wall and stepped in front of her.  “We need to talk.”

Chapter 21

     Chloe took an automatic step back.  Justin was the last person that she expected to run into when she first walked out of the bathroom.  But yet, here he was bigger than life and in her face. And surprise, surprise- he wants to talk.

     Right after John’s accident, for a while there she had started to think that maybe, just maybe Justin Pinnix might have a little bit of humility somewhere deep down inside of him but after what she witnessed a few minutes ago, she knew that her original assessment of him was correct.  Justin was simply a player and players only had one thing on their minds- themselves.  To hell with everyone else.

      She curled up her lips.  "I don't have anything to say to you," she murmured and made a move to walk around him.  She had not forgotten the way that he stepped in at the cafeteria and instantly took Cathy’s side.  Chloe was the one covered in pasta sauce and wet noodles while being ridiculed, but it was her hand that he held.   It didn't matter though.  She didn't need someone like Justin anyway.  Cathy could have the jerk, the two were obviously meant for each other.

      Justin reached out and grabbed her arm.  "Wait a minute," he told her, pulling her to a grinding halt.  "Where do you think you're going?"  He watched her stare down at his hand and then lift that pretty little head of hers.  Her chin angled up and then her eyes met his; the first thing that he noticed was the fiery spark he had become so fond of was back.  He hid his smile.  That was exactly what he had been waiting for.

     She jerked on her arm, wanting nothing more than to distance herself from this ape of a guy.  But Justin was relentless and his firm hold held tight to her arm.  It wasn't painful but it wasn't forgiving either.  "Let me go," she whispered angrily.

      Justin pulled her closer to him and lowered his head.  The familiar scent of the anti-bacterial soap that the school stocked the bathrooms with filled his nose.  Even angry and looking every bit of a tigress readying to attack; he thought she looked adorably cute.  Justin sucked in a breath and valiantly fought the urge to kiss the grimace from her face.

     He reigned himself in and clamped down on that wild urge.  "I said," he spoke abnormally calm, "that we need to talk.  Now we can do it here," he indicated the empty space in the hallway and then glanced at his watch, "where students will be coming out in oh- about five minutes, or we can go somewhere else more private.  Your choice, but either way Chloe Miller, we are going to talk."

     Chloe's scowl deepened.  Who did this prick think he was to tell her what she was or was not going to do?  He wasn't her daddy.  He had absolutely no right whatsoever.  "I said let me go!" she practically shouted out at him.  "I don't have a damn thing to say to you."

     She jerked again and this time, almost broke free from him.  She wasn't being very cooperative and quite frankly, after the way her day had gone, he couldn't blame her.  He tried to tell himself that he should let her go and just walk away but he just couldn't do it, not now anyways.  Not after the way that he watched her converse with Troy.  This was his chance; probably his only chance.  He had to make the most of it and talk to her.  He had to know what it was about him that she hated so much.  Why would she not even give him a chance?