A Promise Is A Promise

[26] Claire

"You can't tell anyone about this," I demanded, ready to use whatever threats I had to in order to make sure Sierra didn't out Kayla to anyone else. "If you do, I swear to God, I'll—"

"I won't," she promised. "I wouldn't do that."

"You're sure about that?"

"Yeah, I could see how upset she was. Plus none of this is any of my business and I might be shocked, but I don't really care who either of you are sleeping with."

"Who said anything about sleeping together?"

"Oh, come on. I've never seen anyone more desperate to make sure that they're forgiven. She must be good in bed if you want her to stay with you that badly."

I rolled my eyes and groaned, then moved to pull open the door. A crash came from the other side of it, effectively silencing the fellowship hall. I yanked on the handle, wondering if my girlfriend was okay.

"Kayla, I—oh." She was standing right outside and I almost barreled into her, but I managed to stop myself in time. My eyes flickered first to the giant mess on the floor, then to her parents' faces, which were filled with a terrifying, stony fury. I wasn't supposed to talk to her. I probably wasn't even supposed to be within a mile radius of her.

I heard her take a deep, shuddering breath and my focus returned to her. My hand reached out to touch her shoulder, but I thought better of it. Before I could do anything else, she started crying and bolted up the stairs and out the back door.

"The poor girl, I hope she didn't think I was angry with her," Mrs. Alston muttered. She stooped down to start putting pieces of the broken dishes into the tub she must've been carrying. "I was just trying to remind her that it's good to slow down sometimes."

I bent down to help the woman, knowing that if I went after Kayla, it would only make things worse for her. A part of me knew that if things got worse for her, that would make them worse for me, too.

You're a terrible girlfriend, a voice in the back of my head told me. You can't even leave it alone like Frankie said. It's your fault she was so upset today. You could've just let everything be and none of this would've happened.

"Is everything okay, Claire?" Mrs. Alston asked. She must've been talking to me, but I hadn't heard anything else she'd said. The room was so loud now, almost deafening.

"I'm fine, thanks," I mumbled, giving her a tight smile. I could still feel Mr. and Mrs. Booker's eyes on my back. I was sure they wanted me dead.

Once we'd cleaned up the mess, I went over to the table that my family was sitting at. I had to get out of there. I had to figure out what I was going to do. All of them looked up at me as I stood at the end, shifting back and forth. I swallowed hard and risked the tiniest glance at my parents. Their concern was evident, but I ignored them.

"Um, I think... I think I'm going to go home. I'm just not feeling that well."

I turned and started to walk away, but a hand caught my arm as my foot hit the first step.

"Claire, wait a second," my cousin said, "I need to talk to you."

"About what?" I tried to keep my voice light, but it didn't work very well. Chase and I were the closest in age out of all of our cousins. We weren't best friends, but we were each other's go-to at family events.

"I think you know," he hinted. "Let's go outside."

He led me up the rest of the stairs and out the same door that Kayla had escaped through. Her car was gone from the parking lot, along with any evidence of her ever being there in the first place.