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“Thank you,” I reply through trembling lips, feeling so grateful that he’s on my side that I almost forget how fucked up it is that I’m in this situation in the first place.
There’s something haunted in his expression, letting on that whatever is going on in his mind is much bigger than what’s happened today. There are a million things I want to say, but he quickly walks off, leaving me standing alone in front of the school I’m suspended from. I quickly pull out my phone and return to the draft of the message I’d begun to Emmett before running into Coach.
I know that as long as Coach Granger believes me, he’ll do everything in his power to make this right. And work with me on the side until then, like he promised. But I need to be in Emmett’s arms right now. Even though there have been times when he has been the cause of my torment, nothing compares to the comfort of being near him.
9
Chapter Nine
I wait outside school for what feels like forever after texting Emmett, but my concept of time seems to still be off. I am still coming down from everything. Finally, I hear the side door swing open and shut before Emmett appears around the corner and comes running up to me.
I used to only feel safe when I was alone. But now I only feel safe when I’m with Emmett, even when he is the one I am afraid of. It’s the thing that makes me feel the most broken. My love for him makes me feel sick, but it heals me at the same time.
“What’s going on?” he cries as I collapse into his arms. “Your message had me worried. I came to meet you as fast as I could!”
“I’m suspended!” I sob against his shoulder. “Fucking Vivian and Lily did this. And don’t you dare try to defend them! I told you they wouldn’t stop coming after me until you stepped up and did something. Look!” I whip my sleeves up, revealing the forced track marks.
“What the fuck?” he growls, gently rubbing his thumb along the throbbing punctures. “What did they do?”
“They grabbed me in the bathroom and pumped me up with heroin,” I explain rapidly, my breath quickening as I relive it all. “What if they had given me too much, Emmett? They could have killed me!”
I watch the heaviness of the situation settle across his face, and I don’t know that I’d fully accepted the severity of it all until just now, with him standing before me.
“They suspended you?” he recaps with me as I feel the muscles in his arms tightening beneath my fingers.
“Yes, and kicked me off of the track team,” I seethe. “Those fucking b
itches. Running is my life, Emmett. It’s the whole reason I’m here. I’ll lose my scholarship and I can forget about college or any sort of athletic career I expected to have after that.” My words quickly trail off into tears. “Coach Granger says he’ll try to fix it, but I don’t see how he can. He’s the only one that believes me. He’ll never convince Principal Brown.”
“I believe you,” he says, pulling me closer and stroking my hair. “So, Coach Granger offered to help? You told him what Vivian and Lily did?”
“Yes,” I sniffle into his arm then grow still. Coach Granger. I have never talked much to Emmett about him, and the mistrusting side of me still wonders if I should have even mentioned our alliance. But then a new slew of questions come over me. “I need to ask you something,” I announce, stepping back to look him in the eyes. “Do you know anything about why Coach Granger disappeared before you held me captive?” I ask lightly, almost afraid to know the answer. “Did you have anything to do with it?”
“No, Ophelia,” he answers sincerely. “I don’t know anything about that. I promise I would tell you if I did.”
The possibility of him lying is too overwhelming for me to even consider it. I lean back into his arms and decide I have to believe him for the sake of my own sanity.
“I’m going to fix this,” he assures me, as he straightens up and begins adjusting his hair and shirt.
“How? What are you going to do?”
“Just go home and get some rest,” he commands, already stepping back to rush off into action. “I’ll call you in a little bit.”
“But what about my dad?” I ask reluctantly, hoping this somehow means we don’t have to meet with him at all. But I know this doesn’t change anything about Bernadette. We still need to find out if he knows something.
“Don’t worry about that right now,” he tells me, scooping me back in for one final kiss. “We’ll go meet with him tomorrow. You’re right. I should have taken things with Vivian and Lily more seriously. I have to fix this for you. I owe it to you.”
My heart pounds with the same familiar, intense drum beat that strikes every time Emmett looks at me like that. Really, any time he is near. He still looks like the same boy who stalked me down at the track meet before I came here, but nothing about him seems the same. Not after everything that’s happened. He has shown me glimpses of redeeming qualities, just enough to keep me hooked, in hope of what could happen between us. Just enough to keep me entirely at his mercy—always.
Before I can say another word, he runs off and disappears back under the brick archway into the school. The day suddenly feels cold with him gone, so I pull my sleeves back down and quickly remember that I now have these awful marks to try and hide from everyone…including my mom. I’m hoping that Coach Granger won’t still make me talk to them, now that he knows the truth. I don’t think my parents could handle the idea of me using heroin right now. I can’t even handle the idea of it.
I start walking to my car before remembering that I rode to school with Emmett this morning. I start to turn to remind him, but he’s long out of sight by now. Pulling my zipper up the rest of the way and securing my hood firmly around my face, I resign to run home. It could do me some good. Maybe help sweat the rest of this shit out of my system so I can feel normal again.
My feet pound against the pavement, the muscles of my legs rippling with each step. A cold fire burns through my lungs, which would erupt in a cough if I wasn’t so rapidly running out of breath. I’m outrunning the cough or anything else that could possibly slow me down. Move. Just keep moving. One leg after another as fast as you can, as far as you can.
But my legs wobble less than a mile into my stride and I go into a coughing fit that makes me feel like I might start throwing up again. The sweat is freezing against my skin, which starts burning with an intense itching.
“Dammit.” I heave as I stop to buckle over my knees and catch my breath. “I hope this isn’t permanent.”
