Forgetting Naomi

Chapter Two

                                                                      NAOMI 

 "I knew this was a mistake." I just knew it! I had avoided going anywhere near Trent Kenridge for the last five months and now I was stupid enough to let Amy talk me into going to one of his parties?  

Idiot! 

If my parents would have allowed it, I would've easily quit school just to avoid him. But appearances were everything for a small town preacher's daughter and daddy wouldn't hear of allowing his oldest daughter to quit school in her sophomore year. He had thought getting Trent out of my life would solve everything.  

It had ruined my life instead. I had known happiness for a few brief months, then it was all gone. I can still remember the smell of burning tire rubber and the sound of metal against metal. I still woke up in the middle of the night crying. 

I had lost so much that night, not the least of which was the boy I loved. The boy whose eyes now look at me with hate. 

Never having him in my life again, never telling him the truth I was almost dying to confide in him, was almost worse than living with the loss. The only consolation being he didn't have the knowledge of exactly what we'd lost that night. And my father-who I now hated with a passion-promised not to have Trent thrown in jail. That was the main reason I agreed to Dad's stupid plan. I'd do anything to keep Trent out of jail. My life was already ruined, but Trent's didn't have to be. Instead, I'd been sentenced to hell on earth ... at least that's what it felt like these days. 

"I don't get you." 

Amy's exasperation got through to my deep thoughts and I turned to see her standing next to me with her hands on her hips. She looked royally pissed. 

I licked my lips. "What do you mean?" 

"I saw where you were looking, missy, so don't try to pretend." 

I didn't want to talk about this. "Let it go." 

"No, I won't. He's obviously moved on. You were the one who broke up with him and now you're the one with the broken heart." She quirked a brow. "I don't get it. You said it wasn't working-" 

"It wasn't." I swallowed, glancing around to see if anyone was listening. Oh, yeah, let's add humiliation to the knife in my gut the minute I saw him dancing with that slut Donya Fisher. 

Amy scooted closer and leaned down to whisper in my ear. "Yeah, you are so totally over him." 

"Let it go," I snapped at her. The last thing I needed was her sarcasm. "I don't want to talk about it." My chest felt funny, like someone was sitting on it. Is it possible for a sixteen year old to have a heart attack? 

"Fine!" Amy stomped off, but I didn't care. I was done. Done with parties and the Kendridge barn and everything in the same hemisphere as Trent Kenridge! 

Pulling out my phone, I texted Amy to let her know I was going to wait by her car. I wanted to go home, but I was stuck since she'd driven us tonight and I didn't have my license anyway. I had my permit and Trent had been teaching me to drive before we broke up, but we'd been over before I'd turned sixteen. No license. No boyfriend. No- 

Swallowing hard, I shook my head and pushed my way towards the entrance. There was no one I could call to come get me. Heaven help me, my dad would kill me if he knew and mom would tell him. She never kept anything from him. She knew better. 

I'd wait beside Amy's car and play a game on my phone. 

"Dude! You're totally wasted!" Jake Ramsey and assorted other football jocks crowded the entrance, joking, pulling each other into headlocks, and throwing "F" bombs around like they were going out of style.  

They were drunk. My lip curled and I side-stepped around them to the side entrance that led to the stalls. There was a door at the far end that led outside. I knew the partygoers weren't allowed back there and probably didn't know an exit existed. I did because Trent had taken me through the barn into the stalls one time when we needed privacy. 

I swallowed back tears, pushing the memories away, at least until I could get home to let the pain consume me like it always did. Only now, I had another memory to add to the list-Trent holding Donya in his arms on the dance floor and the smug look he gave me while she squeezed his butt. He knew exactly how much he was hurting me-that was the saddest of all because it meant he had moved on finally. He had stopped wanting me, stopped waiting for me. 

He hated me. 

"Oh, God," I moaned and hurried to the stall door. 

It was strange how it happened. A film of tears I couldn't stop blurred my vision. My step was off, but I knew the way. The crowd around the door suddenly seemed to thin out, to shift, as if the planets were all in alignment for disaster. 

My sweaty hand gripped the side pull, an old fashioned mechanism I'd laughed with Trent about the first time he had shown me. It wasn't obvious. The door was hidden in plain sight as a secret entrance to the stalls. 

I pulled sharply on the handle, feeling the heavy weight of the door in my muscles. A sound creaked above me, but I ignored it. I couldn't stop the tears this time. I had to get out of there before I lost it and Trent knew exactly how devastated I really was to see him with Donya.  

I pulled the door back against me enough so that I could slip through the opening. Something clanked above me-metal against metal.  

My head and clothes were drenched in heavy, pungent liquid.  

I cried out, moving backward to get away, but my sandals wouldn't cooperate. I slipped, trying to get my balance, but I couldn't get enough traction.  

A sharp pain shot through my ankle and I screamed as I felt myself falling to the red soaked floor.