“I could activate the access to your phone’s messages,” he paused, “Or you could tell me.”
Asshole. Fine. “Christine, if you must know,” I said.
“The woman from Club Hades?”
“Ah. So, you like? So you two can be love birds, then.”
“No interest.” He gestured at the phone. “Your stalker was at the club. You need to be careful around anyone you met there.”
“So you too, then?”
“I’m on your side.”
“Or you’re trying to screw with me.”
He clenched his jaw. “My point is that you should stay away from her, or at least tread lightly until we figure this out.” He sighed. “Go to school. Make friends with people who have nothing to do with Club Hades. Get an outsider’s perspective on this. It could be good for you.”
Some of what he was saying made sense. But there was only one word that stuck out to me.
“You want me to go to school too?” I sat up, raising my hands. “Great. Just fucking great.”
“It’s an idea, Hazel. Your sister has a point.”
“And I suppose you have a point about Club Hades. But what is it?” I kept my chin high. “Are the members of the Afterglow not good enough for you?”
“Not when one of them is stalking you.”
I sucked in a breath and shook my head. “You’re just like the rest of them.”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
I grabbed my phone and walked upstairs, slamming my bedroom door shut. I checked my phone, another message from Christine:So tell me, why do you need a bodyguard? Are you an incognito celebrity and I missed it?
I collapsed on my bed and started to text,Caught me. Witness Protection Program, but deleted it. Even if it was a joke, I was trying to tell the truth now. No more lies to hide who I was. If I wanted a true friend, I had to be honest. And if the person didn’t like my honesty, then that was it. I couldn’t change who I was. Not anymore.
I typed,I did some bad things. People like Oliver hate me for it.
She responded quickly:It can’t be that bad. You’re too nice.
The compliment shook me to my core. I wanted Christine to like me. Desperately.
You said he’d kill you if his boss ordered it. Do you really think he would do that?she sent.That seems extreme.
No, I sent. I didn’t think he would kill me. But would he control me? Try to get me to stop texting the one person who had treated me like an equal, who had been kind to me for no reason? He might not have been violent towards me, but he was a control freak. Tracking my location. Threatening to invade my privacy. He was like Heather in that way. Not treating me like a person with my own decisions. Not trusting me to take care of myself.
Because he didn’t accept me. In his eyes, the person inside of me wasn’t capable of anything. He only saw what he wanted to see.
But maybe I hid parts of myself too. Because everyone left. They always did. My parents had left. Heather, despite her efforts, always left too. And so I ran away because I knew that was the only way she would try to find me. She was happy to let me leave. To trust me in someone else’s hands. It was easy to leave me with a man who was forced to stay.
