“It was on the slip, Sloan. I saw it. The delivery man was shocked that you were so surprised to be getting the flowers you’d sent. He said you were behaving strangely.”
“Because this is all strange!” She looked to her right and saw tears in her mother’s eyes. “I’m not crazy! I didn’t do this! You have to believe me.” Now it was her turn to cry. “Mama, please.”
“Why are your eyes so red, Sloan?” her mother asked.
“What?” She shook her head.
“Your eyes. They stay red now. They have all week. And you sleep all the time. You look frazzled.”
“I am frazzled!” She yelled so loud others around her looked to see what Saint Sloan was freaking out about now. “You all think I did this?”
“No.” Ray stood up with her. “No, I don’t. She didn’t do this, Aaron. She wouldn’t send flowers to herself. It’s stupid.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know it.”
Ray shook his head. “Like a split personality? You jumped to that conclusion because of one piece of paper.”
“Sloan paid with a credit card.”
“Doesn’t that seem obvious? Think, Aaron. A credit card. With her name on it? Who would do that? Someone is setting her up.”
“Do you really believe that?” Aaron stood. Challenging him. He sure wasn’t going to let his little brother win.
So they were all standing now. That was awesome. Everyone who had decided to eat in the yard had a show, and they took advantage of it too. They were all gawking. If she’d been one of them, she would have gawked too. Ray Hunter, former assault suspect Aaron, Saint Sloan, and her mother. All yelling at the end of the lawn.
Sloan wanted to crawl under a rock.
“You think ‘split personality’ was the first thing that popped in my mind?” Aaron said, his nose flaring.
“Boys, not here,” her mom reprimanded, but the guys were too far gone in their own sibling rivalry.
“Seemed like you jumped to it fairly easily,” Ray yelled back. “Oh, a credit card was used in Sloan’s name, so she must be crazy, right? Crazy like Mom, is that it?”
Whoa! When had their mother gotten in on this? Sloan only knew what she’d been told about Susan Hunter. She’d left the boys when Ray was sixteen and Aaron was eighteen. Could the drugs have driven her crazy too?
Did Aaron really think she’d lost her mind?
Aaron’s brown eyes got very dark at the mention of his mother. “Don’t compare Sloan to her. They are nothing alike.”
“You seem to think they are.” Ray crossed his arms, flexing his muscles as he went toe to toe with his older brother.
“You don’t know what happened to our mother. You have no idea.”
“And you do?” Ray’s yell echoed through the campus. It was so loud a few teachers stuck their heads out of the front entrance to see what was going on.
“Not here. Not now,” her mother whispered forcefully.
“Not now. Not ever,” Sloan corrected with tears in her eyes. “I’m not crazy, and I’m not on drugs. Something is happening to me whether you want to believe it or not.” She looked at Aaron. “I didn’t send those flowers to myself. Someone else must have. Someone took my credit card or something.”
“Do you have it?” Her mother asked.
“If I do it’s in my bag.” She handed it to her mother without taking her eyes off Aaron. Her heart broke looking at this boy she’d kissed yesterday. The one she’d put so much effort into thinking about all day. The one she would have chosen if she’d had to choose.
Now, he thought she was crazy or had split personalities, or maybe had even made it all up. It hurt so badly, and she fought to stand there and not yell at him. Everyone at the school had already gotten a show. No need adding to it.
“You can think what you want about me, Aaron. I can’t stop you, but know someone is setting me up for a fall. That’s what the note said. Maybe this is it. Maybe this is my fall.”
His eyes hardened, and the compassion she rarely saw flashed in them. “Sloan,” he said gently. “I believe you. I do. I think we need to talk about all of this tonight. When people aren’t all around.”
“You chose this place, not us,” Ray spat. Aaron didn’t pay him any attention.
“I’m worried about you, Sloan.” He looked down at his hands. Whatever he was going to say next seemed very difficult for him. “I care about you. You know I do, and I don’t want to see you hurt.” His jaw clenched after he’d declared his intentions.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Ray flinch. It wasn’t fun to be stuck between brothers. Not fun at all. Especially with all of this going on.
“Then prove it,” she said, her voice cracking. “Prove you care and stop thinking I’ve lost my mind. Someone is setting me up, Aaron. I don’t know who, but I know someone is. Someone took my credit card and sent those flowers to me to make you all think I was doing this to myself. I’m not. I promise I’m not.”