I Hate That I Love You

Chapter 4

"Jed," Hope said.

Her Aunt Freya had just finished giving Hope and Jed a uselessly boring lecture about the lines that they shouldn't cross. She had mentioned something about how the school's mission of producing educated students who would change world did not mean 'producing educated students who would change the world by creating fear, panic, and pandemonium in the world'.

"Jed!" Hope said once more.

Jed stopped in his tracks, and glanced at her.

"Follow me, will you?" Hope said, giving him a false cheery smile.

Hope turned on her heels and marched into the library.

"Close the door," Hope told Jed. She seated herself on top of a desk, and swung her black boots onto the chair in front of her.

"Jed, do you know what the term 'gratitude' means?" Hope began. "It means being thankful for something another person has done for you."

She paused, and watched as Jed awkwardly positioned himself in the beanbag chair beneath the window.

"You know what I've done for you, Jed, don't you?" Hope asked. "You know that I allowed you to become the Alpha of our school's wolf pack. And in doing so, you were granted all the powers that come with being an Alpha. The extra strength, the satisfying surge of power you get every full moon, the ability to boss your fellow wolves around without getting any retaliation in return."

"I gave all of that to you," Hope laughed, shaking her head as she did so. "And yet somehow, you found the nerve to go behind my back and betray my trust."

Jed clenched his jaw, but didn't say anything.

"I'm going to give you a choice, because I'm generous that way," Hope said. "Tomorrow, during gym class, a change in leadership is going to happen. You can either announce to the wolves that you will be stepping down as Alpha voluntarily, or you can wait until I publicly challenge you to a fight. It's your decision," she said, letting the silent threat linger in the air for a long while.

She stood up to leave, but just as she was nearing the door, Jed asked, "Why'd you do it?"

Hope paused, and turned to him curiously.

"Kaleb was the one who came up with the plan to use MG. Why did you make the whole school believe you were the one who had done it?" Jed asked.

"I..." Hope faltered. "I needed someone to know that I was capable of being that evil."

"But you're not," Jed said. "You act tough all the time, but you'd never, ever let an innocent person die."

"I know," Hope answered. "But he doesn't."

And before Jed could question her further, she pushed open the door, and marched out of the library with the widest strides she could muster.

*****

It was all over the news. That was the strange thing about Mystic Falls. No one batted an eyelash at an animal attack, but when word got around that a teenager had drowned in the midst of a party, it was all anyone could think to talk about.

What made it so much more interesting to the townsfolk of Mystic Falls was that it had all happened in Sherriff Machado's house. The local news station was having too much fun coming up with headlines: 'Dead Body Found Right In The Sherriff's Backyard' and 'Student Drowns In The Sherriff's Own Swimming Pool' were the ones that stood out the most.

Lizzie hadn't seen or heard from Ethan since that night. She knew that he was completely fine, thanks to the Salvatore School's vampires, who had been more than eager to help heal the victims of MG's attack. But the state of his wellbeing was all she knew.