Chasing Cars

Chapter Seventeen

I watched my friends leave, biting my lip nervously at the thought of being here all alone. Of course, it wasn't just a thought now, it was reality and I'd experienced reality in this office before. 

At least this time around, Charleston was acting semi-normal. Once the heavy door closed with a satisfied click, the principal we all know and love scurried over to it and locked all twenty eight of the locks. When she finished her task, she faced me.

"I'm getting a strange deja vu feeling. How about you, Miss Grey? Are you feeling the same thing?" something about the look in her eyes made me feel like disagreeing would be the wrong choice, so I nodded in reply, too nervous to actually form an answer in words.

A minute later, I was ready to actually speak. "What do you want?" I asked bluntly, crossing my arms and shooting a glare at Charleston. Don't get me wrong, Charleston scared me more than monsters scare children, but I wasn't going to let her ruin my life any more than she already had. 

My act of confidence had taken the principal by surprise, and she laughed darkly. "You're funny. Trying to act all bold. We need to hang out more often!" she grinned.

"In your dreams." I answered. Her suggestion had made me begin to wonder what exactly this principal did outside of this office, and I wondered if she had any family to come home to or anything. Maybe she had a dog. Or sixteen cats, all named Fluffy. I was almost tempted to ask, but I bit my tongue.

"How did you know about our chats in my dreams?" Charleston narrowed her rat-like eyes, and I made a face. I didn't know - or even want to know - that she spoke to me in her dreams. That's more than just a little weird. 

"Thanks for the glimpse into your messed up head. That's just what I needed," I cringed. I was feeling surprisingly confident, and I felt like I could take down Charleston and anyone else if needed. 

"My pleasure," was the response I got out of Charleston. "I know about the drugs." she added a second after her first reply. All the air left my lungs and I suddenly forgot how to breathe. How she found out, I had no idea, but that didn't even matter. She still knew. 

I stared at her in shock, my eyes wide. "What do you mean?" I croaked, my eyes watering with the sudden lack of air in my lungs. I hoped that playing dumb would at least buy me a little time to plan what to do here. 

"You know exactly what I mean, Karev Grey." Charleston said emotionlessly. "Don't even try the dumb act with me, I'm the school principal, I've seen all the tricks in my time." 

I looked around, trying to keep my calm and not freak out. Charleston knew about the drugs, and I was horrible at hiding things. Before I could say anything, Charleston continued.

"I have a proposal for you," the principal said slowly, pacing across the tiny office space. "I'm not interested in marriage...sorry," I replied sincerely. Of course, I knew that Charleston didn't mean that kind of proposal, but I needed time to think about my plan of action, and the best way to do that was to stall for even more time.

With a heavy, clearly irritated sigh, Charleston stopped pacing and glared at me viciously. "Not what I meant, Grey." she replied angrily. I was clearly getting on her nerves, and if I didn't watch it, chances were I'd end up worse than paralyzed before Sue and Andrew had their alone time with the principal, so I toned it down.

"Oh," I answered, looking around at the office, noting that Charleston's desk was painted a darker shade of gray than it had been last time I was here. Other than that, everything looked the same. "I love how colorful your office is," I complimented, regretting my sarcastic words as soon as they came out of my mouth.

"Mmmhmm," Charleston nodded, acting as if she wasn't even paying attention to what I had said. Thank God, because I shouldn't have continued pushing it. She slowly walked around and behind her desk, looking lost in thought.

As she stepped in a pile of fries, I winced. Those had been fresh looking, and now they were going to be the same as every other moldy food pile in this room. Sue would not have approved of seeing fries stepped on, had she been in here when it happened. 

When I was too bust staring at the now-ruined french fries, I hadn't even noticed that Charleston came out from behind her desk, and was now standing before me with a look of rage across her face, the face that had been so lost-looking just moments before.

"Quit with the talking," she snarled, waving the bat in front of me. I leaned back in my chair, surrendering. I nodded, showing her that I wasn't going to continue talking. 

"I could turn you in for this. You could be thrown in jail! You'll be eighteen soon, right? Yes!" she looked up, like the thought of me behind bars was too great for her to continue staring at me in front of her. I raised an eyebrow. "And I could turn you in for beating me. You'd be behind bars, while I would probably just be sent to therapy for living the 'sad life of a drug dealer's daughter.' I would be fine. You, on the other hand, would not be." I smirked.

Me mentioning the beating made Charleston narrow her eyes at me. "Look, Charleston, we are technically a team now. If you don't mention the drugs, then I won't mention the abuse, plain and simple. However, I will have you thrown in jail for paralyzing me. I could even press charges, and you'd have to pay for my entire surgery and care while I'm in the hospital. Are you sure you want to do that?" I asked, loving the advantage I had on the terrifying woman before me.

"Are you blackmailing me, Miss Grey?" Charleston asked in a low, angry voice. I shrugged. "That depends. But you know, you committed a much bigger crime than I did. You could have an assault charge. Mine wouldn't even be a criminal charge, I'm not an adult yet." I said again, reminding her what I was capable of. 

Charleston laughed. "True, you're not an adult yet. But I could easily wait until you are. Only a few more weeks, right?" she grinned. I could have denied it, but she could easily go look at my file in her desk, and there would be my birth date. November fifth. 

"Thought so. But I won't mention it...until I have you gone. Nobody is to know about what happened to land you paralyzed, got it? I know you told Sue, but have you told it to...Andrew? I think that's his name?"

I shook my head. It's not like I've never lied before...after all, I've lied to Charleston once already, so why not continue it. There was no point in throwing Andrew under the bus, so I didn't even go that far. 

"Why are you lying, Miss Grey? I know he knows." she said angrily, studying my expression. "Why did you even ask, if you already knew the answer?" I replied coolly. 

"Get out. I want to speak to Sue." Charleston demanded, clearly about to explode. I wheeled my chair to the door and opened it. Sue and Andrew jumped up from their spot on the bench, then relaxed when they saw me, perfectly fine without a scratch.

"Sue, she wants you in." I whispered, my voice cracking. My friend slowly walked over to the door, then looked back at us once. "If you hear screaming, do whatever the hell it takes to get that door down. Promise me you will." she said, looking at us intensely. 

Andrew and I nodded. "I promise," I said right away. "I second the promise," Andrew agreed. With a satistfied nod, my best friend turned and walked into the dark office, closing the door behind her.

"Well if you made it out alive, Sue will too. Right?" Andrew asked. I nodded, but inside my head I knew that Sue could be a complete asshole when the time was right, and I prayed that she wouldn't choose now to act like one.

----------------------

My Valentine's gift to the few people reading this. Hope you enjoyed it, if so then comment, vote, and follow! If not, still do those things ;)

Just a reminder: The next chapter will be showing Sue's point of view! Like I said before, it would be an incredibly boring next chapter if I just made Karev and Andrew talk the whole time, right? Some of it will be them, but most of it will just be Sue. 

~Ri