To Heaven and Hell

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Aspen

"Aspen you should be careful, you know that she is an insider."

I roll my eyes at Greyson, ignoring his warning about Andi. Again. I don't care that she is an insider, it doesn't even matter. They are stuck here like the rest of us. Why should it matter how they got here, or how much information they know. It's bullshit. And I hate that people keep saying that she is an awful person. She is not.

"Shut the fuck up Grey," I warn. "Stop talking shit about her. If you don't, you'll regret it. I will make you regret it." He knows I wouldn't be able to follow through on the threat, but he still stays silent.

I glance up from my food to a clock on the wall. We have ten minutes until our first class. Andi was supposed to meet me, but she isn't here. I tap two fingers on the table and look at Greyson. He is staring across the room at something. My eyes follow his line of site. I see who he is staring at.

"You are staring at her," I note.

The tips of his ears go red and he looks away. "I don't know what you are talking about," he half-heartedly lies to me.

I look back across the room at Nix who is retrieving food from the cafeteria line. "What did you do? Fuck her?"

Greyson glares at me, his eyes cold. "No," he growls defensively. "She isn't like that."

I shake my head at him. "Now you know how it feels." His breath catches in his throat. I got him on that one.

Next thing I know, Luca is sitting in a seat next to me, clearly pissed off. "You!" He points at me. "You better be fucking careful. You better know what you are getting yourself into with that girl. You know that she is an insider. You better know what the hell is going on inside her head before things go too far."

"Dammit!" I stand up, my chair flying back. "Would you all stop making her out to be such a bad person?" I yell. Luca's stern look falters for a moment at my yelling, but it immediately reverts back. I lower my voice. "You better figure out who you are dealing with before you go off making things out to be worse than they are." I turn to walk away.

"Aspen!" Luca calls from behind me. I turn around and look at him, our eye locked in a stalemate stare. His voice is low and warning when he speaks again. "You better figure out where your loyalties lie."

**

"Andi!" I call out into the woods. She never showed in the cafeteria. I know that I shouldn't care what Greyson and Luca think, but they are the closest things I have to friends. Either way, I am worried. I walk through the trees, glancing around, looking for Andi. I don't give a damn about skipping class. Fuck school, I am so done with it. Beside, Andi is usually out here when I can't find her. I don't know why, but she likes it out here. I don't. Not anymore. I--

"Aspen." A hand touches my lower back and I jump. "It's just me." I spin around to face Andi. She looks up at me, eyes wild. "I'm glad you came out here, I was hoping you would get it."

I don't say anything.

Her eyebrows crease. "What's wrong?"

I shouldn't be worried. I shouldn't care about what other people think. I shouldn't. But it is instilled in my head that way. That is only what my life was. Dwelling on what others thought about me, my family and how messed up it was, the things that happened to me. That's when the cutting started, and then I couldn't take it...

"Give me one reason why I can trust you," I state, pushing the horrible memories from my mind. "Everyone is saying that I shouldn't trust you, so I need a reason why."