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“And he got away with that, too?”
She nodded, her expression grim. “He’s friends with a lot of people, related to even more. Adam and his mother won’t speak up against him. Nothing anybody can do. Nobody would ever listen to me anyway.” The sound of shattering glass came from inside the hospital room. Chloe jumped to her feet, her cheeks flushed with anger. “Let’s get out of here.”
We walked down the hallway together.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Just frustrated. He acts like… never mind.”
“He seemed so down. I feel bad for him. He was freaked out after the crash.”
“I can imagine.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “He didn’t need this after everything. I try, you know? We played together as kids. I try to keep him involved, but none of the others even bothered walking around the corner to see if he was all right.”
“Hospitals freak people out,” I said hesitantly. “And he was pretty out of it himself.”
“You came with me.” Her eyes glistened, but she didn’t shed a tear. “I don’t know why I let this stuff get to me. Nobody else gives a crap. Here, you’re going to drama on Saturday, right?”
“No choice. I’ll be hunted down by Tammie if I miss rehearsal again.”
She smiled. “Good. Maybe I won’t kill Emma with my bare hands if you’re there to stop me.”
I gave her a weak smile in return. People were odd, once you got to know them. I’d once thought of Chloe as kind of a bitch, but there was a lot more to her. People were instinctively warned off by the chill of death around me—for want of a better explanation. Chloe appeared to be getting used to it already. I decided I was glad about that.
“Dorian’s birthday party is going ahead,” I told her. “I hope you come. It won’t be like Halloween.”
She shivered. “I hope not. That was way too weird for me.” She glanced at me. “If you’ll be there, I’ll go. Emma will go, you know how nosy she is, and the others will probably follow. Adam won’t be up for it. He had a full-on meltdown about Halloween.”
I couldn’t blame him after hearing his story. Although, I doubted anyone who witnessed the spirit board incident would forget last Halloween.
We reached the others. “Already done?” Emma asked.
“Yeah. Let’s go for food. I’m starving.” Chloe turned to me. “You’re gonna come, right?”
I smiled, pleased to be asked. “I could eat.”
We headed for the exit, followed by Emma and the others. They were so noisy, people kept giving us dirty looks.
“I’m surprised we were all even allowed in here,” I remarked.
“Emma’s mam works here, so nobody will kick her out,” Chloe said. “Didn’t you know?” She squinted at the doors. “Is that Dorian?”
I passed through the doors and waved at my boyfriend’s approach. Then the group noticed him because Emma squealed and ran right to him.
She wrapped her arms around Dorian’s neck with a giggle. “It’s my hero!”
“What the hell?” Chloe murmured.
Dorian reached for Emma’s hands, presumably to remove them, but then he hesitated, frowning, and said something to her that I couldn’t hear. They both stood still for a moment, Emma looking somehow vulnerable.
“Let’s get over there and put her in her place before she makes a bigger fool of herself,” Chloe said under her breath.
We marched past the others—who weren’t paying any attention—until we reached Dorian and Emma. By then, she had taken a step back, her arms folded across her chest, an odd expression on her face. I didn’t know what to make of it, but the entire day had been full of people acting weird, and I was getting sick of it.
Irritated, I barely managed to say hello to Dorian. “I thought you had a thing.”
He looked taken aback by my tone. “I was done early. I thought you might want to see me.” He glanced at the girls. “If you’re busy, that’s cool.”
“We’re going to get food,” Chloe said. “I suppose you can come if you want.”
