Bionic Chaos [Leo Dooley]

Chapter Twenty

Cloud 9 has become my new home. I have been riding on the high from that kiss for a little under a week. It doesn't matter that my parents decided to ground me for my entire life because I snuck out to go to the movies with Leo, Chase, and Adam. It doesn't matter that my brother hasn't come home in a couple of days because he's been partying hard somewhere in Los Angeles. Nothing even matters anymore, and it's all because of Leo Dooley. 

Every single night when my parents are making dinner, Leo and I talk to each other on the phone about everything under the sun. For once in my life, I'm acting like a teenager who wants to have a boyfriend and real friends instead of someone who has been doing everything to make her career happening, whatever it takes. I actually feel like a teenager whose only care in the entire world is her friends and (hopefully) boyfriend.

I haven't ever been happier in my life.

"Bree!" I say once I walk inside the school. Her and her brothers are all standing near Principal Perry's office, chatting together. I can't help but smile when Leo glances my way. He waves at me, so I wave back to him. However, I turn my attention back to Bree because I really want to talk to her about her chip getting fixed. "Bree!"

"Oh, you're talking to me?" Bree asks, glancing around us. I frown at the tone of her voice. For some reason, she doesn't sound happy like I thought she would. She pulls me farther away from the boys so we're alone to talk. "I thought you wanted to spend all your time with my brothers, not me."

"What are you talking about, Bree?"

"I told you my deepest secrets about feeling insecure about Emmie choosing Chase over me, yet you go and spend a lot more time with Leo and even Chase and Adam than me." Bree looks around us with a strange look on her face. I look around as well and notice that there's a lot of people staring at her with their mouths wide open, like they forgot how to move their jaws. "What's everybody looking at?" she asks, sounding a little quieter this time. "Maggie, why are people staring at us?"

Her eyes are blazing with fire as she looks at me. If I didn't know that Adam has heat vision, I would have bet my whole life savings that Bree is the one with heat vision. "I swear I didn't tell a single soul," I whisper to her. "I wouldn't do that to you, Bree. Or Leo."

"Why should I trust you, Maggie?"

I say the one thing that I haven't allowed myself to feel since I made the pact with Bree. It's been a long time coming, I know. "Because I'm your friend!"

Before she can say anything else to me, Principal Perry saunters over to us, dragging Chase, Adam, and Leo with her. I don't know how that woman does it, but she can hurt two bionic people and a regular boy at the same time. It's kind of impressive. It's also kind of terrifying, to be honest.

"There's a new video that has recently become viral," Perry says to us. "Guess what it's called? 'The World's First Bionic Humans.'"

Bree turns her angry gaze back to me. I try to shrink away from her, but Leo touches my arm, making me stop moving. I don't know why he wants me here right now. Does he want me to find out about their bionics? Because I don't want to be in this situation at all right now.

There's a pressure on my arm, and I know that Bree is gripping my bicep as we watch the video that Perry has up on her tablet. It shows Bree, Chase, and Adam in cool suits trying to do something that I know nothing about. 

"That's yesterday's mission," Chase breathes out.

"Somebody filmed us," Bree continues, her grip on my arm tightening. She pulls me away from the rest of them as they begin to talk about what they're going to do now that their secret is out. "Did you film us, Maggie?"

"What? No." I shake my head quickly. There's a lot of bad things happening right now, but the worst thing is that she actually thinks I would betray them. "I didn't even know you guys had a mission yesterday. Besides, I've been trapped in my house since your brothers helped me sneak out."

The look in her eyes breaks my heart. "I don't believe you," she whispers. Her voice gets a little louder when she says, "You've been trying to gather evidence about us for over a month, Maggie. As long as I didn't tell Leo or even Caitlin that you knew about us, you kept us a secret. But you decided that since I didn't have my chip anymore, you could show the world what we are?"

"Well, your chip has been fixed for a week and a half," I snap, "so why would I want to do that when our deal was back on?"

Her eyes goes wide, like she's surprised that I know that her chip is fixed. "Who told you?"

"Apparently not you. I'm not your friend, so you didn't bother telling me that your chip was fixed, right?" I answer, shaking my head. "Leo told me that you got better after we went to the movies together."

"Leo knows?"

"Leo knows what?"

Bree and I fall silent when we realize that Leo is standing right next to us. I try to catch Bree's eyes, to tell her not to say a single word to Leo, but she doesn't even look at me. She crosses her arms over her chest and says, "Maggie's known this whole time that we're bionic. The only reason she ever spoke to you was to get closer to us so she could get enough evidence to show the whole world what freaks we are."

I thought that my heart broke when Bree said she didn't believe me. That's an understatement, though, when I look at Leo. His eyes narrow as they look at me. I can still see them start to shine in the bright lights of the school, so I know that there's tears in there somewhere. My own eyes form with tears as he stares at me with hatred written all over his face.

"You knew, Maggie?" I nod slowly. His Adam's apple bobs as he swallows hard. "I can't believe you played me like that. I thought that for once in my life someone was actually interested in me. Of course, it was too good to be true. I just can't believe that had a bad feeling about you, but I still let my feelings override everything. I can't believe you kissed me like it was nothing to betray me." 

Bree's eyebrows shoot up as she glances at me like she didn't know we kissed. Like she didn't know I have feelings for Leo. "Leo --"

"And you," Leo says, whirling on Bree, his finger pointing directly in her face, "I can't believe that you knew about this and didn't tell me. I thought you were my sister, Bree. Don't siblings take care of each other? Don't siblings care about each other? Or am I not really your brother?"

"Leo --"

"I'm done with the both of you." He shakes his head, taking a step away from us. Betrayal is written all across his face. I can't believe that this is how he found out. I can't believe that Bree actually told him and doesn't believe me that I didn't spread the word about them being bionic. "We have to go tell Mr. Davenport together, Bree, but after that . . . after that, I don't know. But I do know that you two are awful people who deserve each other until one of you stab each other in the back just like you did to me."

Bree and I stand there as Leo, Chase, and Adam all leave the high school together. Both Chase and Adam look absolutely confused about why Bree isn't coming with them. I slowly turn toward her just as a tear rolls down my cheek.

"Thanks a lot, Bree," I say, my voice cracking. "It seems like you've ruined both of our lives, not just mine like you were hoping."

Just like that, my life has done a 180-degree flip. A few minutes ago, I was the happiest I have ever been. Now, I'm devastated. I knew something like this was going to happen. I just wanted some happiness before it all came crashing down. Apparently, I'm not worth that. I'm not worth anything anymore.