Hollow

Chapter 31

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My encounter with Jamie stayed fresh in my mind as I walked to the music room. After revealing everything to Sebastian and him accepting it, we fell back into our normal routine. I could tell that he still had questions, but he didn't ask. He knew it was a sensitive topic for me.

I opened the door, letting myself become momentarily distracted by Sebastian's easy smile. I grinned back at him and entered the room, letting the door shut behind me.

"There you are." He stood up and came over to me. In a second, I was wrapped in his embrace, his strong arms pressing me against his body.

His scent floated around me and I closed my eyes, letting it take over my senses. I had long since stopped trying to understand my feelings for Sebastian. I decided that if he wasn't question it, neither should I. And really, I didn't want to bring anything up and risk losing moments like these with him.

He pulled back to look at me, causing a fluttering in my stomach when his fingers brushed across my cheek.

"You took longer to get here today." He commented. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I nodded, thinking back on my strange meeting in the hallway. "What do you know about Katherine?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "Katherine?"

"Yes." I stepped away from him and sat down on the small couch. "She came to me in the hallway. She thinks I'm trying to get between her and Angela."

He raised his eyebrows and sat as well, a few inches away from me. "That's ridiculous, but I can't say it surprises me. I don't a lot about Katherine, but from what I've seen, she isn't very good with sharing."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him. I wanted to understand why Katherine disliked me so much.

He sighed and leaned back, as if contemplating if he wanted to tell me. My curiosity spiked even further. After everything that had happened, I didn't think Sebastian and I had secrets anymore. I thought that we were past all of this.

"I don't know if it's completely true," he began, and I listened intently. "But there were some rumors right before her boyfriend broke up with her my sophomore year. I never knew whether or not to believe it because I know how rumors can be and Angela insisted that it was a lie."

I leaned in, mentally urging him to continue.

"A week before her boyfriend broke up with her, he was seen around school with this other girl." Sebastian winced as if recalling the memory. "Katherine was sure he was cheating on her. She was a mess, crying in the bathroom at lunch."

"She was upset, but she never talked about getting revenge. She said she just wanted move on. We all believed her." He shook his head, deep in thought. "Angela and Katherine both had P.E. with this girl. During class, someone snuck into the locker room and put hair removal cream into the girl's shampoo bottle."

I let out a gasp. "Her hair fell out?"

He nodded. "It was hard to watch. She ran out of the locker room, screaming and crying. She ran out of school that day and never came back."

I stared at him in shock. I knew now how things were in high school. Teenagers were judgemental and often cruel, but this? A girl losing her hair as part of a prank was beyond anything I could have imagined.

"Do you think Katherine really did it?" I asked Sebastian.

He gave a small shrug, looking away from me. "I have no idea. The principle never found any evidence, so the person who did it got away with it. Katherine swore that it wasn't her, but not everyone believed her."