WHITE LIAR

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

 

 

Justin kept his arm around Alana’s shoulder, holding her close to his side as they followed Mr. Able to his office.  He was still flummoxed over what had just happened.  One minute he was walking down the hall, determined to just survive the day and the next, he heard a noise, turned around and saw the little sprite raining down blow after blow on top of Chloe. 

The sight before him left him frozen. He was shocked to see sweet little Alana fighting like that. Not just fighting, but fighting like a possessed wildcat.  He was even more surprised to see Chloe just laying there. She wasn’t even trying to fight back. She didn’t lift a finger to protect herself or even try to block one of the blows from Alana, and that just didn’t seem right. 

And this was supposed to be the same bad ass Chloe that exuded mountains of strength, loads of confidence and carried that f-you attitude everywhere she went. Even when she walked down the halls of the school she seemed to let off an aura that radiated that she was untouchable.

But something about all of this wasn’t right. She seemed subdued now, worried and maybe even a little concerned.  This wasn’t the same Chloe that he had come to know over the last few weeks.

“This way,” Mr. Able said curtly, holding the door open to the main office and waving both Justin and Alana through.  His eyes were stony and the set of his mouth was grim.  Oh yeah, Justin silently mused, just by the expression on his face he could see that Mr. Able was not in a good mood and that did not bode well for Alana.

“Mr. Pinnix, you can sit out here and Alana, you’ll follow me.”

Alana meekly glanced up back up him and Justin nodded, encouraging her to go ahead.  Mr. Able would not be denied.  Taking a step back, he released his hold on her and watched her follow Mr. Able into his private office until the door closed and she was completely out of his sight.  All he could do now was sit and wait. It was out of his hands and no matter how he felt, he knew there was nothing more that he could do.

Once again, Justin found himself waiting. Waiting to see what was going to happen.  While all the waiting really sucked, it was the not knowing what was going on that really sucked the most. 

They were in high school and this time was supposed to be the prime of their youth.  They were supposed to be having fun, laughing and making memories to last a life time.  Not worrying if best friends were going to live, breaking up cat fights involving little sisters, or questioning every decision that they had ever made.  They were just kids for Pete’s sake.  None of them were ready to face these types of issues.  Justin shook his head as he reflected, damned if they weren’t all being forced to face them anyway.

Feeling the weight of his frustrations bear down on his own conscious, Justin pulled his bag up into his lap and started to rifle through it, looking for something that might possibly take his mind off of reality, even if it was just for a few minutes. 

Pulling out his notebook, he stared blindly at his planner.  As he started going through it, Justin realized that he had yet to come up with an idea for his senior project and the proposals were due this Friday.  “Great,” he mumbled to himself.  This was something else to add to his exceedingly long list of problems. 

He let out an irritated sigh and snapped the planner closed before shoving it roughly back into his book bag.  Who am I kidding?  There wasn't anything that could take his mind off of everything that was going on right now.  It was just too much.  Jerkily, he zipped the book bag closed and dropped it back down on the floor beside his feet.