The Heavier the Chains...

Chapter 13

The cowardice we see in ourselves.

Kenzlee~

I lied.

I was a liar.

When Talon had taken me back to Alex, and I had begged her to go home, the panic on my face had been real enough that she had asked no questions, and we'd been out of there without so much as a goodbye, see you later, or fuck off.

The entire ride home, Alex had wisely kept quiet, but once we'd gotten home, she had come into my bedroom and had asked me what happened. I hadn't been able to stop the tears that rushed out, and Alex had quietly held me as I cried my heart out.

When I'd finally been able to get myself under control, I had lied and told her that I'd just been overwhelmed with seeing Cameron and my friends-or ex-friends-again. I had told her that Talon and I had fought over Cameron, and she had believed me. Now, while all that was basically true, I had left out where I'd let Talon fuck me up against a tree after fighting with him for days.

The next morning, I'd told Uncle Allen that I wasn't feeling good, but I'd suspected that Alex had told him about us meeting up with Cameron because the entire family had let me wallow all day long. I had also ignored the text messages, phone calls, and voicemails from Talon.

Now it was Sunday evening, and I'd been hiding out like a true coward all weekend. I was also pretty sure that the only reason that Talon hadn't shown up at my house was because I had been such an emotional basket case after we'd had sex. He was probably afraid that I'd really lose my shit if he showed up. Now, while I didn't think that he'd really care if I did end up becoming unhinged, I was sure that he didn't want it to happen with an audience. The last thing that he probably needed was for my uncle and aunt to find out that he had piped me in the woods unprotected.

I'd been deleting all of his attempts to reach out to me as soon as they came through, so that I wasn't tempted to answer. However, when my phone rang, and I saw Julie's name on the screen, I answered it.

"Julie..." I answered tiredly.

"Holy crap, girl," she said, diving right in. "Cameron told me that he saw you at some fight thing Friday night. Is that true?"

I sighed with every bit of emotion that only a teenage girl could muster. "It's true."

Julie let out a soft whistle before saying, "He said that you looked great."

What?

"He said that?" Seeing as how I hadn't been particularly dressed up, that took me by surprise.

"Yeah, he said that you were looking pretty hot," she said slyly.

I snorted, unimpressed. "He was probably expecting me to look like a homeless disaster with my parents losing everything," I replied, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Julie laughed. "Probably." A heartbeat later, she added, "He also said that you were there with Talon freakin' Draven, Kenz."

"I was not-wait." I paused with surprise. "How do you know Talon?"

I could feel her rolling her eyes over the phone. "Join the real world, Kenzlee," she said theatrically. "Everyone knows who Talon Draven is."

"Uh, I beg to differ," I argued. "I had no idea who the guy was until I started going to Lakeside High."

"That's because you're not the partying type. At least, not outside Providence," she amended. "I'd bet you money that Kaden knew who Talon was." The mention of Kaden's name felt like a jab to my ribs, but I shook the impact off like I always did.