Broken Silence

Chapter 17: In Love

3 months later

With the passing of winter and spring coming in, there was new life in the air. Not only had I been living with the Edwards for a little more than 3 months now, I was officially under the legal wing of Abigail Edwards.

I thought that everything would be fine now, it certainly was starting to feel like it. Christmas had passed and winter had been spent playing with the young boys and getting to know Susan's youngest child, Anthony, or Tony as they all preferred calling him (who I had learned was the half-brother of the Edwards siblings).

But things were different once we went back to school. Although I wasn't being bullied like before, most of the girls having recognized they couldn't do anything to change what happened, for some reason I was uneasy.

I had received enough glares to know when there was someone looking at me. That feeling of someone being behind you, observing, with an ill intent. It had come back 10 fold. I felt tense in school, my fight-or-flight instinct always on.

"Are you okay, Noelle?" Gabriel asked beside me. His hand lightly touching my elbow. I looked at his concerned face and nodded. "You didn't eat much this morning, are you feeling faint?"

I shook my head smiling and softly took back my arm. After what happened in my room after the event with Leo, I couldn't help feeling something had slightly changed in our relationship. I found my eyes straying to him whenever I had a free moment, my heart fluttering. Strange was the word I would use to describe the feeling. Foreign.

It made me nervous.

Seeming not to have noticed my slight movement, Gabriel casually smiled and said, "Okay, let's hurry. We'll be late."

And we quickened our pace into school, the feeling of someone watching me still on my back.

"Stay away from him."

I read the bold, red letters again.

"Stay away from him."

The longer I stared at the note, the more nauseous I felt. That explained why these weeks I felt like someone was watching me. It also explains why on more than one occasion I felt like a foot was put out so I would fall (and I did a couple of times), why someone had stolen my backpack and I had found it sitting on a puddle outside, and why someone had spread the rumor that I gave my virginity to Peter Anderson behind the school's dumpster.

I thought we were past this.

I thought we were all done with the bullying.

There was no signature obviously, and I didn't recognize the handwriting. But the red lettering made the writer's intention clear to me. Someone was mad. Someone didn't want Gabriel to be seen with me. The question was, how much further would this person go to make that happen?

"Noelle!" I heard Matthias say behind me. Crumpling and fisting the note, I turned around as casually as I could. I smiled up at the tall, dark boy, his grin a startling contrast to his lovely skin.

"We were all talking about going for some pizza after school, you in?" He asked leaning against the lockers. I nodded, and, as discreetly as I could, put the note back in my locker and closed it. Matthias offered his elbow like a gentleman and, smiling, I took it.

"This pizza place is so good, Noelle. Not even kidding. The bowling's cheap, which mean we can play a round or two. Have you ever played?" He asked. I shook my head. "Oh, you're gonna love it! Not a lot of people bowl anymore, it's a—" He continued his banter on bowling as we walked outside of school and met with Maddie and Gabriel.