Chloe saw the “good luck” Elle mouthed to her as Nero drove off in front of her big, white house.
I’m gonna need it.
Sneaking into her house, she felt strange not going straight to her room. That was where she had learned to stay all day. It was safer there. The only time she ever came out was if her parents demanded her presence.
Trying to find her housekeeper Lana, she hoped to find her before anyone else.
Lana had been hired when her father had become mayor, and frankly, she was the best thing to come out of it. She was certainly more of a mother to her than her own mother ever had been, and Chloe could trust her with anything. Lana had cared for her since day one, picking up pretty quickly that her parents wouldn’t win any awards.
A sigh of relief escaped her when she found Lana. She was sure to keep her voice down as she said, “Lana, I need your help.”
“What’s wrong?” Lana whispered back, concern showing on her face.
“My tires got slashed at school, and when someone offered me a ride home, they wouldn’t take no for an answer. They said it would be too dangerous to drive it with all four tires out. I didn’t want them to think—”
“Okay.” Lana nodded her head understanding. “I’ll tell them my husband drove your car to get fixed. I can drive you to and from school till then.”
Relief flooded Chloe. “Thank you.”
“Do you know who did it?”
Shaking her head, she could tell Lana didn’t believe her for a second, but there was nothing she could do. Lana had questioned her parents in the beginning about Chloe, and they had told her, if she kept asking, they would easily replace her. Therefore, Lana had stayed on, keeping her mouth shut, figuring she could at least help Chloe in some way.
“Okay, go on upstairs. I’ll bring your dinner up to you later.”
“Thank you,” Chloe told her again before quickly heading upstairs to her room. Thankfully, she made it without seeing her parents.
After setting her book bag on her bed, she quickly ran to her attached bathroom to relieve her bladder that she had held all day. Elle and she hadn’t used the school’s bathrooms once since becoming friends. The girls’ bathroom was unmonitored, so the chances of them coming out alive were slim if they ever met Cassandra or any one of her friends. If it ever came to it, pissing yourself was a better option.
Once she was out of the bathroom, she took a seat on her bed, looking around her blank white room. The bed and nightstand were the only pieces of furniture present; nothing else was needed as she had a big closet to house her clothes, and her bathroom held her makeup and other girlie stuff. Chloe had never cared to decorate her room because this house wasn’t a home, and her father broke anything she ever cared about. To her, it was just four walls and a place to lay her head at night.
Keeping the walls white made it easier for her to watch the nightmares play out, like a TV screen, then close her eyes to star in the show.
I know you can talk, Chloe.
Amo’s voice entering her head froze her in place. She was used to hearing a voice in her head, but not that one.
Rinnng.
The ringing of her cell phone made her jump, scaring her half to death. Shaking off Amo’s voice, she answered the phone, seeing it was Elle.
“Hey.”
Elle didn’t bother saying hi. “Did you tell your dad?”
“No. No point. I told Lana, and she said her husband will take care of it for me.”
“That’s good.”
Chloe paused, not wanting to tell Elle about the fact that it meant Elle would have to ride the bus again until she got her car fixed. “Lana will be driving me till I get my car back, so …”
Elle knew what she was getting at. “That’s okay. Nero said he would give me a ride tomorrow morning, and I always have the bus.”
“Oh, really?” Chloe smiled, thinking about her friend’s new love interest. She could tell they were getting close pretty fast by the way he would hold her hand every chance he got.
For once, Elle was getting protection, so Chloe was definitely rooting for him, though his friends made her uncomfortable. That was something she was going to have to get used to if they planned to survive the semester.
“Tell me how the car ride home was.”
“Fine.”
Hmm. “Just fine?”
“Yep. Fine, Chloe.”
Her mouth dropped to the floor. “He kissed you, didn’t he?”
When the line remained silent, she knew she was right.
“Oh, he totally did! Tell me, how was your first kiss?”
“Well, it technically wasn’t my first.”
What! “Oh, my gosh, what?”
Elle didn’t seem like she wanted to tell her the next part. “He kissed me earlier, in Art, in the supply closet.”