Deep Burn (Burned Duet 2)

ELODIE

I stared down the mostly empty hallway as nerves thrashed through my body at high speed. I’d made it this far, but now I was frozen to the spot, too scared to take another step inside the school. It had been nearly three months since I’d last walked through these halls. Three months of pain. Three months of healing. Yet, I felt just as broken as I did back then.

I’d driven into school early, so I didn’t have to put up with the stares from the other students. I’d figured it would ease me back into it, which was why I’d forgone the ride Asher said he’d give me. I had to face this without him there for me to fall back on, and now I was regretting that decision. I should have just let him bring me to school and begged him to stay with me.

“Elodie,” a voice said from behind me, and I closed my eyes in relief. “I’ll walk you to your locker.”

I swallowed, opened my eyes back up, then turned to face Leo. I wasn’t alone here. I had my only real friend, and although he was several years younger than me, he provided a comfort I hadn’t known I’d needed. “Thank you,” I croaked out.

My legs were stiff as I walked beside him down the hallway. Students were starting to file inside the building, and I could feel their stares burning a hole in me. I couldn’t help but wonder what they thought about me. Did they believe the lies Knox was sure to have told them? Of course they did. He was the popular guy in school, the one who could do no wrong, not in their eyes anyway.

Whispers echoed the closer to my locker I got, and when I finally made it there, it felt like I’d run a marathon. “Thanks, Leo.”

He leaned against the locker next to mine as my shaky hands reached for the lock. I didn’t know why I was opening my locker because it wasn’t as if I was going to come back here throughout the day. But it felt like the right thing to do—the normal thing to do. Everyone else was gathering their things, so I was trying to follow suit, trying to mix in with the masses, but I wasn’t doing a very good job of it. I may as well have had a neon arrow above my head.

I pulled my backpack off and opened up the zip, staring inside it and wondering what the hell I was doing. I should have stayed home. I should have just settled for getting my GED and been done with it.

“You’re doing good,” Leo murmured, low enough so only I could hear him.

“Am I?” I asked, moving my gaze to meet his eyes. “Because it doesn’t feel like it.”

He smiled, the same smile all the Easton men did. “You’d never know.” His attention slid away from mine for a second and he stood to his full height. He’d had a growth spurt over the last few months and was now taller than me. “Come on, I’ll walk to your first class with you.”

“You don’t have to—”

“I want to,” he cut me off. “Besides, my first class is near yours anyway.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal, but it was. It was a big deal because I shouldn’t have been scared to simply walk to class. My life had changed so much in such a short amount of time, and I had no idea whether I was coming or going. I was caught in a whirlwind, holding on tight until I was spat back out to land on my feet.

I closed my locker, took a breath, and then walked through the now packed halls. Whispers and words I couldn’t make out surrounded me. I tried to ignore them the best I could, but the word “liar” was repeated over and over again. They didn’t believe what had happened, and I wasn’t surprised in the least. Knox was the big shot at this school, and now he wasn’t even allowed to attend. It was my fault he couldn’t be here. My fault he couldn’t run these halls the way he always had.

But it wasn’t my fault. It was his fault. He decided to break into the shop. He walked into my apartment that night. He took what he had no right to. This was all his fault. And the more I reminded myself of that, the more my shoulders pushed back, and my head lifted. I didn’t need to be ashamed. I hadn’t made any of the choices because they’d been ripped away from me. All I’d done was told the truth, and now the pieces were falling into place.

So, I didn’t care if they didn’t believe me. I didn’t care that in my first class a note was thrown across to me. I didn’t open it because I wasn’t going to give them the time of day. I was here to attend my classes and get my diploma. That was it.

My second class went much like my first, but by lunchtime, students weren’t whispering. Instead, they were talking about me at a normal level, tearing who I was to shreds with their words. But still, I didn’t let it get to me. Nothing they said or did could compare to what I had already been through. If anything, they were giving me the strength to continue on the path I’d started. They were making me realize how all too often things like this happened. Victims were made to feel ashamed—scared into silence. But not this time. This time I’d take the victim label and twist it, turning it.

I was a survivor.

I’d survived my life in a trailer. I’d survived each day with an addict for a mother. I’d survived my days where Knox would wear me down. I’d survived Knox raping me. I was a survivor. And not one person in this school was going to make me feel any less than that.

So, as the last bell of the day rang, and I packed up my books into my bag, I patted myself on the back for making it through my first day back. I’d done it on my own. I’d faced the people at this school and not given in.

Until I exited the school and tripped over someone’s foot. My hands came out to save me, my palms scraping against the rough ground of the top step, and my face missed smacking into it by mere centimeters.

Laughs echoed around me, jeers and applause mixing in with them. I could have kept my face down. I could have waited them out and scampered away. But I was done. I was done with letting people push me around and judge me without knowing me. Done with feeling like the scared little girl I used to be. So, I slowly stood, keeping my gaze fixated right in front of me.

“Is that all you’ve got?” I asked, feeling my blood pumping through my body. My hands stung from the grazes and I let it fuel me—let it push me forward. “You think tripping me up and calling me names will change anything?” My voice was louder now, carrying over the errant laughs until silence ensued.

“You’re a fucking liar!” a male voice shouted, followed by several jeers.

“Were you there?” My breaths came harder and faster, my head starting to spin.

“Elodie,” Leo said from behind me, but I ignored him. I wasn’t going to stand for this any longer. I wasn’t going to be scared every time I had to come to school. This should have been one of my safe spaces

, not the place I dreaded coming to most.

“No.” I stepped forward and glanced out at the crowd of students. Their expressions ranged from anger to shock. “None of you were there.” My nostrils flared and my hands clenched at my sides. “You think he’d have been charged if he didn’t do it?” Silence rang out so loudly it almost hurt my ears. “I don’t have to answer to any of you.” I shook my head and took a step forward. “I don’t give a flying fuck if any of you believe me or not. Just leave me the hell alone.”

I didn’t say another word as I walked down the steps and through the crowd. They parted for me, the whispers starting again, but there was a different vibe to them this time. Shock and understanding.