She’s softly sobbing, my heart breaking right along with hers.
This is killing me. I’ve never suspected her, but considering she’s confessed to drugging me and has an apparent undying love, I need to be sure.
“No, Hudson,” she finally spits. “Why would I send myself those notes and texts? I just wanted you to give me a chance.” Her mood shifts on a dime, the sadness morphing to anger. “I can’t believe you’d accuse me of that. For fucks sake, the worst I’ve done is pop some benzos into a bottle of tequila and put your medicine bottle in that slut Heather’s—”
She slaps a hand over her mouth, her eyes as wide as saucers.
All the air leaves my lungs.
“You put my pill bottlewhere?” I ask, seething.
I advance on Ella. She retreats until her butt meets the arm of the couch and sits.
“I was just so mad…” She’s crying again, but now I couldn't care less.
“What did you do?” I yell, spit flying past my lips.
She winces, real fear radiating from her. “I-I stole your pills from your Bronco while we were on our date… I planted the empty bottle in her purse.”
My hands fly to my hair, tugging to help ground me. I breathe deeply, trying to remember my counts. Tears well in my own eyes, betrayal and hurt like I’ve never felt before bubbling to the surface.
“Hudson, I’m sorry! I know it was a silly thing to do, but when you told me you were with Cull, it cut so, so deep. I was high and angry and—”
“Sillything to do? Are you fucking kidding me, Ella?”
She reaches for me but I grab her wrist, using every ounce of self-restraint I have not to hurt her. I shove her hand away and point a finger in her face. “I was accused of rape! Handcuffed at our graduation in front of our entire senior class and God knows how many parents. I lost my scholarship and my place at Ashbridge. It fucking helped push me off that ledge!”
“I didn’t think she’d go to the police and make up a story like that,” she whispers.
“What did you hope to accomplish by doing that then?”
Ella just shrugs, her arms holding herself around her midsection.
The fact that she doesn’t have a real reason hurts more than if she did.
“I never want to see you again.” The words feel like glass scraping their way up my throat, so many mixed emotions running rampant in my system. “Don’t call me. Don’t text me. Do not show up at my house.”
“Hudson, I’m sorry! Can’t we talk about this? I’ll be better. I won’t give you pills anymore. I won’t—” She’s frantically reaching for me, but I’m backing away, my head shaking.
She doesn’t even understand the gravity of what she’s done. The damage she’s caused.
“I’ve defended you at every turn. Made sure Cull knew you weren’t the bad guy. But all along you were playing against me.”
Her body shakes as she cries, her face red and blotchy.
There is nothing left to be said, so I silently turn and walk out of the house.
The moment the car door slams shut, I scream.
The sound rips out of me before I can stop it. My fist crashes into the dash, then again, and again, until the sting shooting through my hand forces me to stop. My entire body is shaking.
Ella was my first best friend. My first secret keeper. We grew up together, celebrated birthdays, and went on family vacations together. She was woven into nearly every good memory I have from childhood.
And somehow I don’t know her at all.
A sob catches me off guard. I fold forward, my forehead pressing against the steering wheel as everything crashes over me at once.
The drugging. Heather. My false charges.
