Barely able to catch her breath, Chloe sat behind the lockers, clutching the scissors in her hands. Having no clue how it had gotten this far or even how she had gotten in this position, she just wanted to disappear.
It had all happened so fast when Cassandra had placed the scissors in her hands. She didn’t even know why she had done it or what it had been for. Then, before she had known it, Cassandra had been fighting with some girl named Elle.
It all blacked out for her until she heard Cassandra’s voice, “Chloe, give them to me.”
Mustering up some courage, she concealed the scissors behind her back and planned to tell Cassandra that enough was enough. However, when she saw the scene before her, any courage she’d had quickly evaporated.
Elle was being held on the ground face down with Cassandra on top of her. With the help of her new friends, Stacy and Stephanie, holding her arms down, it wasn’t much of struggle to keep her in place.
A trickle of blood started coming down Elle’s face. By the looks of it, she had hit her head on the locker room bench on the way down.
Whatever she had been expecting from her best friend since kindergarten, it wasn’t this. In fact, this was the first time she had witnessed anything like this from her.
“Chloe, give them to me,” Cassandra repeated, sensing her reluctance.
Slowly, she revealed the scissors. Staring down at them, she was prepared to tell her no.
“You don’t want to be like her, do you?”
Stunned was the only way to put it when those words came out of her mouth. And looking into Cassandra’s eyes, Chloe believed her. Cassandra’s eyes showed her how committed she was to being the most popular girl in school. It was almost as if she were daring Chloe to get in her way.
Frightened at what her best friend had become, Chloe shook her head and held the scissors out before Cassandra harshly grabbed them from her. Instant regret filled her when the metal no longer touched her skin, and she began praying Cassandra was only going to use them to frighten her.
“Now, bitch, think again next time you turn your back on me.”
Chloe watched in shock as Cassandra took Elle’s ponytail in her other hand and started cutting it off. Hearing Elle cry as Cassandra snipped away, the tears started to brim her own eyes.
What have I done? was the only thing that went through her mind.
“A girl like you doesn’t need long, pretty hair like this, anyway,” Cassandra told Elle as she waved Elle’s own ponytail in her face.
Sitting up once they’d released her, Elle began to cry into her legs, holding them tightly in front of her.
Chloe could barely hold it together when Elle looked up at her with a now butchered haircut and tears.
“Sorry,” she managed to get out quietly without breaking down with her.
Running out of the locker room to follow in her best friend’s footsteps and leaving Elle there on the floor bawling like that was the hardest thing she had ever done at that point in her life.
I’m so sorry, Elle …
Little had Chloe known, she was going to leave Elle in a much worse condition just a few short weeks later behind the school. She hated the part she had played that day, though, and she still apologized to her every time she noticed how long and pretty her strawberry blonde locks were getting. The length had been fully returned to her, and Chloe noticed how protective she had become over her hair, not even wanting a trim.
Cassandra was pure evil from that moment forward, along with her brother Sebastian, and after what had happened in the cafeteria, they were one word: F.U.C.K.E.D.
Brrring.
Watching the students swiftly leave the classroom to go home for the day, she waited anxiously for Elle to return safely.
However, she wasn’t expecting Mr. Evans to be the one to enter the classroom first.
Taking a seat at one of the desks in front of her, he seemed like he was almost careful about it.
Seeing him closer than she usually did, she could tell why almost every girl at the school was secretly in love with him. He certainly didn’t look like any other teacher here with his short, kempt, dirty blond hair and beard. His eyes matched perfectly, seeming almost golden. Not to mention, he was clearly built under his well-dressed clothes.
“You’re not running out the door to leave?” Mr. Evans asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
“N-no, I-I-”
“Are you shaken up after what happened earlier?”
Oh, gosh. Chloe shoved her hands to her face, not wanting to talk about this with him. The last thing she wanted to do was run her mouth about Cassandra.
See, Mr. Evans was new this year and had no clue how this school worked yet. The Ross’s practically owned this school, and the teachers all looked the other way when it came to them. As a result, talking about it with him was only going to bring more danger to her.
She needed to think of an out quickly.
Elle abruptly entered the room, concern apparent in her voice. “Chloe, are you okay?”