Relentless

Chapter 38

Juliet

It's the first day back to school after Christmas Break and I already want to go home. Walking through the hallway, I receive different looks than usual. Smiles. People are smiling at me and saying hello.

Okay...

I go to my locker and see Erica already waiting for me.

"Hey girly." She says, smiling.

"Hi."

"How was your break?"

"Emotionally exhausting. How about yours?" I ask.

"It was okay." I bend down and open my locker to take my books out when she continues. "I talked to Jim."

I stand up and look at her, shocked and confused.

"Why would you talk to Ashton's friend?"

"Because none of this seems right!"

"He cheated on me, Erica. That's not necessarily right."

"Exactly! He loves you! Why would he do that if he loves you?"

"It's simple! He doesn't love me. He never has and he never will. I've accepted that, Erica, and I think you should too." I say, closing my locker and walking away. I hear her running behind me, which means the conversation is obviously far from over.

"But I was right! Something is up!"

"I don't want to hear about it."

"But you both are making a big mistake!"

"I can assure you I'm not."

"But you don't understand."

"You'll understand one day." That is what Ashton told me. But maybe I don't want to understand! Maybe I don't want to know the reason why he did what he did! Maybe I just want to hate him and get over it!

"Erica, can you please just drop it?" I ask politely, even though I want to scream.

"Fine. But you're making a mistake."

"Then I'll live with it."

------

As we go through the school day, I take different routes and keep my head down to avoid any sights of Ashton.

When last period comes, I take my seat in the soprano section of the chorus room and wait for class to start. I look over my surroundings and realize that Brooke isn't here.

That's strange, but I'm not complaining.

When class starts, we sing through each of our pieces and listen to Myers tell us stories of her life. I love when she does that. It makes me laugh and takes my mind off of everything that's going on. When class ends, I walk to my car and see that the spot where Ashton parks his car is empty.

The coward can't even face me sober.

On the drive home, I decide I'm not going home. I don't want to go home to be in an empty house for hours on end and be tempted to run over to my ex's house. It takes at least 20 hours to drive from LA to Montana. Why can't I be a rebel and do it? You know what?

Screw it! I'm going!

I turn around and drive down the highway and follow the GPS. I turn on the radio and listen to the hosts bicker about different topics on the news.

------

After countless hours of driving, I finally pull up to Maris and Luke's house and four o'clock in the morning. I get out of the car and look across the street to what used to be my own hell. I look away, feeling all of the memories come back to my mind and walk up the lawn to Maris's front door. I call her cell phone, not wanting to wake the entire house up, but it goes to voicemail. I call Luke's cell phone and he answers on the third ring.