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“You’re such a fucking bitch!”
“Lizzie, stop it.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“What do you think she’s saying, genius?”
“Are you saying it was him?”
“Obviously.”
“Oh my god.”
“No!”
“She’s lying!”
“Everyone just back off.” That was Hugh, who had come to stand beside me. Grateful for his presence in this moment, and the strong arm he had wrapped around my shoulders, I sagged against him, feeling weak and demoralized. “Fuck.”
“Bullshit,” Lizzie screamed, still spitting her pain like venom. “You’re such a fucking liar, Claire!”
“Gerard,” I repeated, voice cracking, as my hand shot to my mouth. What did you do, Claire? Oh my god, what the hell did you do? Ignoring Lizzie’s verbal onslaught, I begged him with my eyes to not hate me. “Please.”
He didn’t respond.
Instead, he continued to stare at me like he was seeing a stranger instead of the person he’d spent his whole life adoring. Instead of seeing me.
“Gerard,” I strangled out. “Please! It’s okay. It’s okay. You have nothing to be ashamed about here, baby. You didn’t do anything wrong!”
“No!” Johnny barked, eyes wide and full of fear. “It’s not him.” He looked to me, willing me to take it back. “It wasn’t him.”
I hung my head in shame.
“Gibs,” Johnny called out, bolting for the door in his bid to chase after his best friend. “Just hold up, will ya?”
But it was too late.
He was already moving for the exit.
“Gerard, wait!”
He didn’t answer me.
He didn’t look back, either.
Instead, he stormed out of the room faster than I’d ever seen him move.
Like we were attached by an invisible cord, I bolted after him. “Gerard, wait!”
Charging through the empty darkened hallways, I raced past a random couple kissing against the lockers, all while calling his name at the top of my lungs.
We weren’t supposed to be inside the main building—it was off limits after 10:00 p.m.—and I knew there was a good chance that my screaming would alert a teacher to our breaking and entering, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.
Everything I was, and all I would ever be, was focused solely on the boy up ahead. “Gerard!” I panted when I pushed through the exit door and caught a glimpse of him stalking through the courtyard. “Please wait!”
His jacket had been discarded in the courtyard right along with his bowtie. Stepping over both, I hurled my body forward, adrenaline pumping my legs in this moment. “Please,” I begged, catching ahold of his shirtsleeve when I finally caught up with him. “Don’t leave like this.”
Taking his momentary hesitance as my chance, I threw myself at him. “I’m sorry, baby, I’m so sorry for it coming out like that,” I cried, peppering every inch of his neck with desperate kisses as I clung to his big body. “I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you…”
