Chapter 17
Ella
Last night, I kept texting Briggs, but he didn’t text back. I was up all night imagining all the horrible things that could be happening at that house. Now it’s morning, and I’m panicking because I still haven’t heard from him.
When I get to school, I search the parking lot for his car, but I don’t see it. Finn’s Range Rover flies past me, and I wait for him to park, then run over to him.
“Have you heard from Briggs?” I ask as he’s getting out.
“What the hell?” He looks around. “You know you’re not supposed to talk to me here. Get the fuck away from me.” He shoves past me and heads to the school.
“Did you hear from him or not?” I yell.
He ignores me.
I notice Parker going around the side of the building and run after him.
“Parker!” I yell as he goes down the hill.
He turns back, looking annoyed. “What do you want?”
I catch up to him. “Have you heard from Briggs today?”
“Yeah.”
“Is he coming to school?”
“He better fucking show up. He’s the one who called this stupid meeting.” He stops just behind the bleachers.
“What meeting?”
“You weren’t invited?” he asks, giving me a smug grin.
“I guess not. What’s it about?”
“The text we got on Friday.”
“What text?”
Parker laughs. “He didn’t tell you? Guess you two are finally over.”
“What are you talking about? What text?”
“You’re late.” I hear Briggs’ voice, and relief washes over me.
I turn and see him behind me. “Briggs, why didn’t you return my messages? I was so worried I didn’t sleep.”
“Worried about what?” Parker asks, looking between Briggs and me.
“Nothing.” Briggs shoots me a look like the kind he used to give me when he bullied me. A cold, threatening look meant to intimidate me and silence me and make me back down. But I’m not backing down. I need to know what happened and why he didn’t text me back.
“Are you okay?” I ask Briggs.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” he says in a cocky tone.
“What the fuck happened to your face?” Parker asks Briggs. The bruise on Briggs’ cheek faded a little overnight, but the one on his neck is still a dark shade of blue.
Briggs chuckles. “She got a little rough with me on Saturday.”
“Who?” Parker looks at me. “Ella?”
“No! The girl I was with. When are you going to get it through your tiny brain that I’m not doing shit with Ella?”
His words slice through me, making my chest ache. I know he wants to hide our relationship from Parker, but telling him he was with another girl? Acting like just the thought of being with me disgusts him? He didn’t need to do that. All he’s doing is hurting me, and he knows it.
Parker smiles. “Who was she?”
“Nobody you know,” Briggs says. “She doesn’t go to our school. She’s in college.”
Parker smiles even more. “What’d she do to give you that?” He points to Briggs’ neck.
“I’m not fucking telling you.” He laughs a little. “Let’s just say it was worth it.”
I stare at him, furious that he’d make up a story like that in front of me. And why is he acting like I’m not even here?
“Where’s Finn?” Briggs asks Parker.
“He’s not coming. He said he’s done with this. He doesn’t care what happens.”
“It’s not just him this affects. It’s all of us.”
Parker shrugs. “I’m just saying what he told me.”
“I’ll deal with him later.” Briggs turns to me. “You need to leave.”
“I’m not leaving,” I say. “Parker said you got another text. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it doesn’t involve you. Now get the fuck out of here.”
Parker chuckles. Briggs and I shoot him a dirty look, and he gets serious again.
Briggs looks back at me. “I told you to leave.”
“And I told you I’m not.” I get in front of him, my hands on my hips. “Just because I’m not getting the texts doesn’t mean I’m not part of this.”
“That’s exactly what it means. Whoever’s doing this is going after Parker, Finn, and me. You’re off the hook. Whatever happens from here on out is between us, not you. So get the fuck out of here.”
I can’t believe he’s acting this way. Last weekend, he was acting like we were a couple, like that’s what he wanted. And now he’s acting like we’re enemies again. What the hell?
“If you don’t tell me what’s going on,” I say, “then I won’t tell you what I find out from Susan. I have inside information that might actually help us, but if you guys want to do this on your own, then fine. I’ll leave.”
Parker looks at Briggs to say something. When he doesn’t, I go around him and storm off.
“Wait!” I hear Briggs say when I reach the end of the bleachers.
I turn around. “What?”
“You can see the text.”
“And? Then what? I’m back in your little group?” I roll my eyes, annoyed that I have to even ask to be part of it. How dare they exclude me?
“If you give us information, then yeah. Do you want to read this or not?” He holds his phone up.
I walk back to him and snatch his phone from his hand.
I read the text, not really surprised by what it says.
I knew this was coming. Finn and Parker didn’t cooperate, and now whoever saw us is going to the cops.
But will they say I was there that night or not?
And when’s it going to happen? The text didn’t say.
“So he’s turning us in,” I say, giving Briggs his phone.
“That’s it?” he says. “You’re not going to get all crazy about us going to jail?”
“What’s the point? We knew this was coming.” I’m playing it cool, but the truth is I’m freaking out. This could all come to an end at any time. At any moment, a cop could show up at my door, or here at school, and haul me off to jail.
“Just get to the point,” Parker says to Briggs. “Why are we here?”
“Because there’s a chance the cops could show up at school today and arrest us. Or it could be tomorrow. Or next week. Who the fuck knows? But when it happens, I need you to keep your mouth shut. Same goes for Finn. We say nothing, not a word. You only talk to your lawyer.”
Parkers nods. “Yeah, got it. But I can’t see Finn going along with that. He’ll try to fight with the cops.”
“I’ll deal with Finn.”
“Was that it?” Parker asks.
“Yeah, get out of here. I need to talk to Ella.”
Parker smirks as he goes past me, like he thinks I’m about to get yelled at by Briggs. It’s more like the other way around, me yelling at him for being a jerk.
“What was that about?” I say to Briggs when Parker is gone. “Did you really have to say you were with some other girl?”
“How else am I supposed to fucking explain this?” he says, pointing to the bruise on his neck. “Why are you getting pissed about this? There is no girl. I just made it up.”
“Why didn’t you just tell Parker the truth? I thought you guys were best friends.”
Briggs leans down to my face, his eyes dark and threatening. “Nobody knows. And nobody’s going to find out. If you tell anyone what you saw, I’ll—” He stops, his gaze locked on mine. “Nobody can fucking know.”
“So you’re just going to let it keep happening?”
“Stay out of it,” he says, his jaw clenched.
“I can’t stay out of it. He’s hurting you — beating you. How can I just stand by and let that happen?”
“Because I told you to.” He backs me up to the bleachers and puts his hands on the metal poles on each side of my head. “This is not your problem. It’s not yours to fix. You tell no one. Not your father. Not anyone at school. No one.”
I feel my heart thumping in my chest, hard and fast, like it did when he used to threaten me.
I feel like we’ve gone back to those days, where Briggs is bullying me, and I’m trying to remain strong, hiding my fear of him.
I would never be afraid of the Briggs I was with last weekend, but this one?
This one sparks fear in me, and uncertainty.
I never know what he’s going to do next.
“How long has it been going on?” I ask.
“None of your fucking business,” he says, his eyes locked on mine.
“Why does he do it? Does he have a reason, or does he just like beating you up?”
“What is this? A fucking intervention? You don’t get to ask questions. It’s not your life. Not your fucking problem.”
“I care about you. I care about what happens to you. So in a way, it is my problem, because I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
He looks down, then back up at me. “It’s over, Ella. You and I are done. You need to stop calling me, stop texting me, stop showing up at my house.”
My heart crumbles into pieces hearing him say that. “I don’t understand. What about last weekend?”
“What about it?”
“I thought we were back together. Everything was so great between us. Friday night—”
“Was just sex. That’s all it was.”
I look back at him, my eyes stinging from the tears threatening to fall. He’s back to being the mean, hateful Briggs I’m all too familiar with, but in his eyes I see the other Briggs, the one that doesn’t want to treat me this way.
Why is he doing this? Why is he pushing me away?
He takes a step back. “Go. You’re late to class.”
“So are you.”
“I can be excused. You can’t.”
I hurry past him, just wanting to get away from him.
“One more thing,” he says.
“What?” I snap, turning back.
He comes in front of me. “This valedictorian shit isn’t over. You will give it to me.”
“No. I won’t,” I say, staring back at him. “Go to hell, Briggs.”
I storm off, up the hill, and into the building, angry and hurt and not wanting to be here.
I walk into class late, but Mr. Walker doesn’t say anything.
He just gives me a dirty look. I’m sure I’ll get detention.
I don’t even care anymore. I’ll probably be going to jail soon, so getting detention won’t even matter.
Briggs doesn’t even glance at me all morning. He sees me in the halls and in class but won’t acknowledge me. Charlotte notices and mentions it at lunch.
“What’s going on with you two?” she asks.
“He’s back to being A1.”
“So you guys aren’t together?”
“I don’t think we ever were.”
“Ella, don’t say that. You were crazy about him. You smiled whenever you talked about him.”
“Clearly there was something wrong with me. I don’t know why I ever thought Briggs would change. He’s a good actor, I’ll give him that. He had me fooled into thinking he actually cared.”