“I need to pay my bill.”
“Okay, what’s your name again?” a woman with a tight, brown bun and glasses asked.
Really, you can’t remember my name one time after all these years? “Elle Buchanan.” When it came out hasty, she watched the woman stop to glare at her.
She clicked her mouse a few times, and Elle saw her face become shocked.
“You have a zero balance.”
Zero! He didn’t even pay the fucking bill due. No, he paid the whole thing!
“I didn’t pay it. Take it off!” Elle started pulling all the money she had out of her pocket and throwing it on the desk.
“I can’t do that—”
“Take it off!” Elle’s eyes began to water all over again.
For the first time in Elle’s life, Chloe grabbed her arms. “Elle, it’s okay. It’s all going to be okay.”
Chapter Forty
March
Chapter Forty-One
April
Chapter Forty-Two
May
Chapter Forty-Three
The Scariest Place on Earth
Now that it was officially June, the weather had turned into a hot summer in the city. Elle walked down the hall, looking at all the shorts, skirts, and dresses. She still wore the same things she had been wearing the past few months, and that was jeans and a three-dollar shirt from her favorite place on earth. She had grown to understand Chloe’s love for black, especially the super-faded, old black t-shirts with some heavy metal band she could barely read since the letters were peeled off.
Since her freak-out in the office, Elle had learned to flip her switch. Despite Nero paying off her tuition, Elle had worked every night to keep busy. When she went to bed at night, she would cry herself to sleep, having to flip over her pillow from the pool she created. Then, as soon as she got out of bed in the morning, she would shut down and become a zombie. Nothing would make her happy and nothing would make her sad. Then it would start all over again as soon as her face hit the pillow.
Every day, she would cry herself to sleep less and less until the zombie filled her whole. Almost all of her. Her thoughts were now hard to come by. It was better for her not to think at all; otherwise, she would have lost her mind, thinking about Nero.
She trained herself not to look at him, and eventually he got the memo and didn’t come near her anymore. What’s more, she no longer felt his stares at the back of her head. Nero didn’t have to follow her any longer; no one even talked to her besides Chloe.
When she heard about Sebastian being in critical condition and having the whole right side of his face burned off, she had pieced it all together. She realized no one had gotten a fucking cold. Nero had kept his promise of watching everyone who had ever hurt her scream in pain. Unfortunately, the latter—of her screaming his name—had also come true.
Elle couldn’t believe how she hadn’t seen how terrible they all were. They clearly all killed for a living. She made sure she and Chloe stayed away from all of them, including Maria.
Ultimately, Elle did feel bad for not talking to Maria, though. She couldn’t help who her family was, yet Elle knew if she and Maria stayed friends, that gave an opportunity for Nero.
Elle had wished the past few months would fly by, but unfortunately, they were the slowest of her entire life. The graduating senior activities only made it that much slower and that much more irritating. She had to listen to all the chattering about who was taking who to prom. Yes, she had heard several girls ask Nero, and yes, she and Chloe hadn’t attended. It wasn’t like they would have gone if she and Nero were still together. Chloe wouldn’t have been able to handle it, and Elle would have never gone without her. Then there was this other thing of her being absolutely miserable at school for the past four years.
Elle was closer than ever to leaving; only two more weeks stood in front of her freedom. She and Chloe both were going to attend Stanford in the fall, and they could finally move on with their lives.
Brring.
Elle didn’t even realize English class had started, and now it was already over. She picked up her satchel and headed for the door.
“Elle, could I speak to you?” she heard Mr. Evans speak behind her at his desk.
Elle nodded for Chloe to go on to class then she turned around and went to Mr. Evans’ desk.
“Yes?”
She noticed a worried look in his eye.
“I have finished grading the final essays, and I would like you to take a look at yours early.”
“Okay.” The final essay was actually a redo of the first one he had assigned to the class, a five-hundred-word essay on who you love the most. This time, he had asked for it to be a five-to-seven-page paper. Basically, he wanted us to see our own growth and how our feelings could possibly change toward a person.
Mr. Evans held a huge packet of paper in his hands. “I would like to say I’m sorry about your father. That must have been hard. I can tell you really love him.”
Elle held out her hand. “Thank you.”
Mr. Evans placed the big stack of paper in her hands. She hadn’t remembered it being so long.
“You know, sometimes I accidentally staple students’ papers together.” He let go of the papers. “You can read it in here. I’ll need it back. I don’t want the students to think I’m playing favorites by letting you see your grade first.”
Elle stared at Mr. Evans before she turned to take a seat.
After she saw a big red “A” at the top, Elle flipped through the pages until she got to a paper she clearly hadn’t written with Nero’s name at the top of the paper. She quickly shut her eyes.
Elle took a deep breath and made sure her off switch was shut tight before she opened her eyes and started reading.
Nero’s paper began of him talking about his mother, of how much he had loved her and still did. He talked about how he had never been the same after her death. Elle stopped reading at the next sentence.