It All Started With A Note

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen - Ivy

It had been such a crazy week. The word around school was that Charity Owens got suspended for threatening me. She hadn't been back since and school had been mostly peaceful. I say mostly, because weird things had begun to happen. People who had never spoken to me before were greeting me in the hall. Everyone seemed to be happy with Eric and I's relationship, so Eric wanted me to start sitting with him at lunch. People literally got up and moved, without a word of protest, in order to make room for me. When this weekend's plans were discussed, they looked at me for answers to see what I wanted to do. My new status at school hadn't completely sunk in yet, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. As each day passed, I felt less awkward and nervous around everyone.

Tonight, Eric had family night with his family. Apparently, once a month, he, the twins, and his mom had a movie marathon until late into the night. I thought that was cool. Theresa obviously loved her kids very much. So tonight would be the first night in a while that I'd have to fall asleep without having Eric by my side. I left my window open though, just in case he got the urge to join me later. So when the bed dipped in the middle of the night, I expected to feel his strong arms come around me. Instead, I felt a horrendous pain in my side, but before I could cry out a hand clamped over my mouth.

I stared up, into the face of my attacker, and felt dread settle over me. Charity Owens hovered above me and even in the moonlight, I could see the crazy look in her eyes. She held up a knife, which already had my blood on it. I tried to reach for my side, to see how bad it was and to try to curb the pain, but she smacked my hand away. She hissed, "I warned you, Bitch, and now you're going to pay. Ouch!"

I bit her hand and as soon as she lifted it, I tried to plead my case, "Charity, don't do this. Everyone heard you threaten me. You'll go to prison if you do this."

"Yes I will, but you'll be in hell, so I'll take it."

"Why do you hate me so much?" I began to sob. The pain was horrible and I was scared out of my mind.

"You took everything from me! I had everything going for me and I was so close to landing Eric. Then you happened. You took him, my friends, my social status...you took everything!"

Instead of responding to me, Charity stabbed me again and I cried out. She forgot to cover my mouth this time, so I screamed at the top of my lungs, until Charity moved the knife to my throat. I sucked in a breath and held it, fearing this was my last second to live, but then another presence entered the room, as I noticed a slight movement near my window, and I suddenly felt a different kind of fear. What if Charity hurt Eric?

"Charity don't do this. If you go to prison, then how can we be together?" Eric's voice suddenly pleaded, making Charity jump, but luckily not enough to slice my throat open.

"You don't want to be with me. You want to be with her!" She screamed, knife still at my throat, her hands beginning to shake.

Eric shook his head, not looking at me, when he told her, "No, I was just using her. I made a bet with Alex to see if I could take the nerd's virginity. I've been trying to wear her down and as soon as she gave it up to me, I was going to dump her. I was going to beg your forgiveness and ask you to be my girlfriend then."

"You were?" Charity asked, sounding hopeful.

Tears were pouring down my face. I knew that Eric was lying to her, but the words still cut pretty deep. I know they shouldn't, but he was voicing some fears that I'd always had. I'd read book after book, fictional tale after fictional tale. I'd read many stories where a nerdy girl like me got used like that and I always wondered if I were to get a boyfriend, would I get played like that. So even though I knew Eric didn't mean what he was saying, I still felt his words to my core.