The sound of the door opening and the cold air of the night touching her face brought her back to the present.
“Hello, Mr. Ma—Chloe, are you okay?” Elle’s face had changed from a smile to concern as quickly as her tone did.
Staring at her face from the floor as Elle stood on the other side of the doorway, Chloe was too stunned to speak.
Maxwell took it upon himself to answer for her. “She’s fine … She tripped. Who are you …?”
I tripped. No one hurt me.
Desperately trying to shake off the fall and the memory banging at the door in her head, she began to get up to avoid raising any alarms for Elle.
“Um, I’m Elle. We are supposed to finish our science project.” Her eyes danced between father and daughter.
“Do-Don’t you r-remember?”
“No, because-s-she you didn’t tell … me.” He went back to fetch his alcohol. “Get rid of her,” he voiced to Chloe as he walked past, uncaring if the girl at the door heard.
Putting her eyes on the floor, Chloe did as she was asked. “I-I’m sorry. Now’s not a g-good time.”
Elle waited until Maxwell was no longer seen and hopefully out of earshot before she went up to Chloe, whispering, “Are you okay? What happened?”
“Yes, I-I tripped.”
“Bullcrap!” Elle whispered harshly. “I’m calling my mom to come back. You can come home with me.”
“No, I’m fine!”
Elle pulled out her cell phone, not listening to Chloe’s pleas, and told her mom to come back. Once she hung up the phone, she addressed Chloe again.
“Is he the one who hurt you?”
Shaking her head, she looked back at the floor.
“And I’m supposed to believe you!”
“Yes. He’s just been drinking. T-that’s how he handles what … happened to me.”
Knowing she was telling the truth, Elle relaxed just a smudge. “You’re still coming with me.”
“N-no, really. It’s okay. I swear he’s never physically hurt me before. My falling was an accident.” I’m sure he didn’t mean to. “Mom is almost home. I don’t want to leave him alone.”
She could see the wheels turning in Elle’s head before she nodded. “Okay, I’ll ask my mom if you can come over to my house tomorrow to finish our project.”
“I thought you said your parents didn’t want company over?”
“Yeah, well, I lied,” Elle answered as she headed back out the door. “See you tomorrow.”
“Um, okay …” Chloe closed the door behind her when she saw Elle’s mom pulling back into the driveway.
Heading back into the house, she hoped that she could tiptoe up to her room unnoticed.
“Sit down, Chloe.”
Stopping in her tracks, she saw her father sitting at the dining room table. She also noticed his tone had changed to a somewhat more pleasant one. Maybe he wants to apologize…
Taking the seat in front of him, she sat down at the table.
“Does she know what really happened to you …?” He took a sip from his glass.
Chloe violently shook her head, scared of where this was heading.
“Why not? It’s written all … over the paper what really hap-p-p-pened to you.”
Staring at him, she didn’t know what to say.
He quickly reminded her, “Tell me what happened to you, Chloe.”
Wringing her hands, she began to dig her nails into her palms. “I was in a car wreck; that’s all I know. I was in a car wreck. No one hurt me.”
Ten
I Can’t Tell If I’m Scared of You, Or If … You Just Became My New BFF
Letting Chloe spend the night at Elle’s the next day was her parents’ way of making it up to her after what had happened. Plus, the girls really did have to finish their project if they didn’t want a big fat F.
Her mother driving her to Elle’s house consisted of straight complaints since it wasn’t in “the suburbs” and was too far out for her “taste.” Chloe had just kept her mouth shut and was thankful when they reached their destination.
Walking up to the house, Chloe felt embarrassed to see Elle again after what had happened. She just hoped they could pretend yesterday hadn’t happened. That’s what I’m going to do, at least.
Before getting to the door, she could see Elle peeking her head out the front window of the house, and then she was gone.
“Hi!” Elle opened the door wide for her.
Cracking a small smile was the best she could do with her nerves. She was still not used to showing her face, and she wasn’t sure how Elle’s parents would react to her scars.
As soon as she came through the door, she was pretty much in the living room, and the first thing she noticed was a cute, little boy playing on the floor with his cars. Her eyes then went to the wheelchair that held a man who was watching his son play beside him. Chloe had known what to expect, but seeing it was different.
Finally, when he looked up, she expected his face to turn to shock, if even for a moment, but it didn’t.
“This is my dad and my little brother Josh, and this is Chloe Masters,” Elle made the introductions quickly, pointing to the person the name correlated to.