Gone

22

An hour or so had passed with the four of us coloring, and drawing in our notebooks, when Lukas slowly shuffled into the room carrying two plastic bowls of mashed potatoes. He sat the bowls down carefully in front of Taylor and me and grabbed two more from the kitchen for Kelsey and Chloe. While we ate, Lukas began to blare some type of indie music from the kitchen or living room.

"I'm just glad neither of us has broken a bone yet," Chloe randomly stated, finishing up her mashed potatoes.

"Well that was random," Taylor commented, shoving the spoon in her mouth which was full of potatoes.

"I remember when you broke your leg Sophomore year, Chloe," Kelsey reminded us, setting down her bowl.

"Doesn't everyone?" Chloe laughed, setting hers down as well. I remembered it perfectly. In fact, that was a major event for our friendship. During Fall Break, Sophomore Year, Chloe had broken her leg. Apparently, the day after it happened, Chloe texted us in the group chat and explained that she had injured it by practicing something for cheerleading in her backyard. I guess she did a flip wrong or something and landed on her leg. When we got back to school, rumors spread around like wildfire. As soon as school started back up, Chloe dropped out of the cheerleading team. Since Chloe was in a wheelchair, she needed quite a bit of help going from class to class, so Taylor, Kelsey, and I tried the best we could to help her out. One of the first pieces of news going around was that Addison was pregnant. And from this news going around, she was receiving more than enough popularity about it. What I thought was pretty strange was that when someone would ask her who the father was, she would say "I can't tell anyone that."

Not only was Chloe dealing with her cheerleading friends turning her back on her due to her drop out, someone was sending around a picture of Chloe at the party puking in the toilet, and barely covered up. People had speculated that the culprit was Destin. Evidently, I was still in a relationship with Destin. Another rumor going on was that Chloe hadn't really broken her leg from practicing in her backyard, apparently, someone had been telling people that Chloe's step-father more than likely hurt her and broke her leg.

"I don't understand who could have known about my home life to make a ridiculous rumor like that!" Chloe had told me irritably while I strolled her in her wheelchair down the hall one day to Algebra.

"Well, who all did you tell besides me, Taylor and Kelsey?" I asked her, passing by other kids in the halls.

"I told Alicia, but I don't know who she could've told... Destin?!" she had suggested Destin, mostly since people suspected him for already spreading around her embarrassing picture.

"I bet he's doing this to you because he doesn't want me to still hang out with you guys," I thought aloud. Kelsey then found us and joined in on the conversation.

"You guys heard Addison was pregnant right?" Kelsey asked us in shock.

"Yeah, we did," I said.

"Who do you think the dad is?" Chloe questioned Kelsey.

"I think it's either Kalen Frazier or Damian Treadway," Kelsey answered. I thought the same thing in my mind. After taking Chloe to her class, I headed down the hall to my class, which Taylor met up with Kelsey and me.

"I can't believe Destin would seriously spread around a picture of Chloe, and tell everyone about her home life. Like, it actually pisses me off," Taylor vented.

"Wait, is that true?!" Kelsey asked, her face turning bright ass red, and clenching her fists.

"Kelsey, I don't know. No one has proof, but that's what everyone has been saying," Taylor cautioned carefully.