Fallen Crest Public(125)

“I know.” His mouth dipped down. “I meant that I tried, you know. I told you at Nate’s party that I’d try to get them to help.”
This conversation was going to a bad direction. He was talking like I had died, and I still had fight in me. I needed to find Kate. I had a whole lot more fight in me. “Where’d they go?”
“Who?”
I snorted. “You’re a bad actor, Jeff. You might’ve been able to lie to me before, but I’m smarter now and I hang out with liars who are in the professional league. Tell me where they went.”
“Sam, don’t do this.” He reached for me.
My arm swung away from him. “Don’t.”
“It’s not going to end well. We heard about it.”
“Where are they?”
“She’s been all over him this week. Even if it’s not over between you two, it’s,” he hesitated, “it’s over, Sam. He’s back with her.”
I was getting really sick and tired of hearing this. “You tell me where they are, or I’m going to give a character reference to your new girlfriend.” I bared my teeth at him. “And it won’t be a good one, if you know what I mean.”
“They went downstairs. That door right there.” He pointed at a door behind me. It was closed with Jasmine and Natalie guarding it. Strauss and another guy stood with them, but I marched over anyway.
“No. No way—” Jasmine started to say, raising her hand at the same time.
Strauss caught it and twisted it behind her back. The other guy opened the door for me and stepped so he was blocking Natalie from me. I sailed behind both of them without breaking stride. As the door closed behind me, I heard Jasmine cry out, “What?”
As soon as the door clicked shut, I stopped on the other side of it. The stairs were in front of me, but I grabbed the railing and held onto it. I couldn’t move. Everything in me was trembling. I felt them kicking me. Hitting me. Shut up and get her. Kate’s voice came back to me. Images flashed in my head, and I flinched with each one. I felt every hit and every kick all over again. I was back in that bathroom. It was dark, like it is now. They were coming for me.
“Hey.”
I cried out, shooting my hand out. They wouldn’t hurt me. Not again.
“Bitch,” someone hissed at me.
My eyelids flew open—when had they closed? My hands jerked up, ready for an attack. It never came and I was staring at Tate. She was pressed against the far wall, rubbing at her throat. She cursed at me. “You hit me. That hurt.”
“Oh.”
We stared at each other, and no one said a word. She snorted then. “Of course you’re not going to apologize.”
Waves of anxiety were still crashing over me, but I wouldn’t have even if I was fine. She knew it. I knew it. Why lie about it?
“I’m in this mess because of you, you know.”
“How?”
“Because I backed you in the hallway.”
“You backed Heather, not me.”
“It doesn’t matter to Kate. Once someone crosses her, she doesn’t let it go. So thanks for this.”
“You blew Logan when you knew a camcorder was there.”
“I thought he covered it up. We don’t make noises when we do things like that.”
“Why in there then?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. He looked stressed. I was giving him a treat.”
A bitter laugh came from me. “I don’t get you two. You guys just hook up now? There’s no feelings anymore?”
She smirked. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
My smile matched my tone. Brittle. “Just don’t screw him over again.”
“Hard to hurt someone who doesn’t give a flying f*ck about you anymore.”