Page 33 of False Idols

I shake my head at her. “Don’t do this. I want to be friends again.”

She sneers. “And I don’t.”

“Then why did you text me?”

“Just because I don’t want you dead doesn’t mean that I want to be your friend, or that I want you here. No one wants you here.”

I blink back tears. “That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is. You know it. Why are you here anyway?”

I open my mouth. The answer would be so easy to tell her but it’s then that I realize I never really told Minnie the truth about me. She didn’t know about how I felt after Beau got put away. She didn’t know, or care about the drama going on with my mom. Not really. I hid as much of that as possible. She only ever wanted to be around me when I was fun. When I was happy. I was never any of those things. I pretended so that I could fit in. I lied to have a friend.

My eyes go over Minnie’s head to Beau. He’s watching me, just behind Minnie and from the look on his face he doesn’t think much of her. Even though Beau’s been away for years, he knows me better than Minnie.

We share the secret of what happened that night. The mark it left on both of us is the thing that binds us. He sees me.

“I have to go,” I say and move past Minnie, but she swings around with me as I walk.

“What the hell? What are you doing here with him?” Minnie all but yells and I blush. More people are looking at us. “He hates you!” Minnie screams. I don’t know why she’s screaming like this.

“Stop it,” I tell her.

Minnie shakes her head. “He hates you. You don’t deserve him. You’re a liar.”

For me never telling Minnie what I thought all those years, she’s able to say all the things that I thought when I was alone. The thoughts that played in a continuous loop and haunted me. Maybe my best friend saw more than I realized.

I try to ignore Minnie, but Beau doesn’t. He comes forward and puts a hand on my shoulder. “She’s my friend,” he lies. His voice sounds so sincere that I know people around us are shocked. At least the ones that can hear.

Minnie’s mouth drops open. “She doesn’t deserve you. She’s trash.”

Beau shrugs. “Aren’t we all?’ He squeezes my shoulder and pulls me back. “Let’s go.”

We both turn and start walking again. I should not be following him but I don’t know where else to go. It’s like when the football players tried to drag me away and the only person I could crawl to for help was Beau.

He stopped them. He stopped them, but I know it’s just because he has a mind to give me worse. That’s it, isn’t it? But is being at the mercy of the man I’ve loved since I knew what it was worse than being held up as a villain by everyone else?

The football players were going to leave me for The Reaper to find, my mom got rid of me, the school wanted to take my scholarship, and my ex best friend called me trash in front of everyone.

I’m safe with Beau even if he’s different now, right?

I swallow hard because the truth is that I don’t know. I want to be safe with him, but I’m not stupid. He wants to hurt me. He wants to make me pay for sending him away to prison. But for whatever reason, he’s set on everyone thinking he’s a good guy. I watch as the crowd parts for Beau and a few people even raise their glasses or high five him as he passes. Their faces darken when they see me so I don’t look at them, I look at the space between Beau’s shoulder blades. I focus on his back and it’s because of that reason that I’m not paying attention to where he’s been leading us. When he stops walking, I almost run straight into him. That’s how much I’ve been concentrating on looking at his back that I don’t even notice he’s stopped.

“I’m sorry,” I say and try to put distance between us, but I stop when I see Beau shoving open a door. It’s a door I know.

It’s my door.

“What are we doing here?” I ask. We’re far enough away from the music playing in the common area that I know he can hear me, but it’s still loud. Someone stumbles past with a drink in their hand and bumps into me. Cold beer hits my arm and soaks my sleeve.

Beau shoves the person away that spilled their drink on me and opens my door wider with his other arm. “We need to talk, Nevaeh.”

I hesitate and shift from foot to foot. “I don’t know. Can’t we go outside?” I ask. I’m nervous to follow him. This feels like a trap. Why would Beau bring me to my room? How does he know it’s even my room?

He raises an eyebrow at me. “With The Reaper on the loose? You want us to go outside? Is that really where you want to go right now, Nevaeh?”

He’s right. It’s not safe. I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s safer inside.

“Okay, f-fine.” I tell him and step past him and into my room before I can chicken out. The room is so much quieter than the hallway and for a split second I feel disoriented. Sunny’s nightlight bathes the space in a warm dim light. It feels calmer in here and I look over at my bed remembering the nap I woke up from earlier. I don’t know how much time has passed, but it can’t be long. Maybe half an hour has passed since I woke up? I never dreamed that I would be back in my room with Beau.

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