Twisted (Torn Series) Page 0,56

was starting to consider a friend would never do something like that.

The fact that she had used my grieving cousin to get to me infuriated me more than anything though. Only a truly sick individual would pull something like that. I hoped that either Drake or Jordan was with me next time I saw her or there would be some major bloodshed. Growing up with my mother, I was a strong advocate against violence, but she had crossed too many lines in my book; using Danny, those pictures, and stalking Drake. The girl had a bad case of the crazies.

I was starting to wonder if Drake had decided to just hide in the bus when he finally emerged. He still looked pissed, but he seemed to have calmed down a bit.

“You ready?” He asked as he walked up to me.

“Yeah, you know this area better than I do, so lead the way.”

We walked side by side down the street, but he kept at least a foot between us at all times. I noticed that he kept wiping his nose as we walked.

“Are you getting sick?” I asked.

He glanced up at me. “What?”

“You keep wiping your nose, I thought maybe you were sick.”

He shook his head. “No, just allergies or something.”

We walked in silence until the bus was out of view. I was uncomfortable with the silence and awkwardness of the entire situation. With the exception of when I was with Logan, we had always had an easy relationship with each other, even when we were just friends. With one small envelope, I felt like all of that had disappeared right before my eyes.

We turned the corner and walked into a small park. There were several children playing on the swings, but I continued past them to a more isolated location. What we needed to say wasn’t for small children to hear.

“I don’t even know where to start.” I said as I sat down on a picnic table.

Drake moved to stand a few feet away from me. He leaned against a wooden beam that supported the roof above us as he looked down at me. “Neither do I. I just never thought you’d do that to me.”

“I didn’t do anything Drake. You know me better than that!”

“I saw the pictures myself Chloe, you can’t deny them.”

I grabbed my face in aggravation and winced as I put pressure on my bruises. “She took those pictures during innocent moments and twisted them Drake. I would never cheat on you, I love you too much.”

“Like you loved Logan?”

That stung. He was throwing our past back in my face and I wanted to slap him for it. I did love Logan, but I knew now that it wasn’t the same kind of love that I felt for Drake. If I had figured that out a little sooner, it would have saved all three of us a lot of pain.

“You’re an asshole.”

“No, I’m honest. It just sucks being on this side of it. I always felt guilty about Logan, but now that I’m in his shoes, I pity him. Getting burnt by you hurts like a bitch.”

“I know I screwed up with Logan, and I came clean. But you have to believe me, I never did anything to hurt you. Jordan is my friend, that’s it,” I pulled the pictures out of the envelope and held them up, “Every single one of these can be explained.”

“By all means, explain them to me then.” His tone was sarcastic, but I ignored it as I held the first one up.

“This one, he was hugging me because I was upset. There was nothing romantic about it, just two friends dealing with a lot of shit. These two were taken at my aunt’s funeral. He closed up and I was trying to get him to talk to me. He held my hand because he needed comfort. The one where I’m thrown over his shoulder, that was the day I was talking to you when he threatened to drag me downstairs if I didn’t hurry up. The one by the pool was taken just before he threw me in the pool, we were just playing around. The one in the pool was when I was trying to dunk him. They’re all completely innocent.”

“You forgot my favorite one though; the one with the two of you in bed together.”

I didn’t want to explain the fact that I was stuck in bed because my mother had beaten me, but I didn’t see how