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"I didn't steal..." I trailed off, finally making the connection. "Beth."

"You let her into my house? What the hell were you thinking?" Dakota seethed. There was a hint of uneasiness behind his words. "Oh right, you weren't thinking. That was the problem."

"Hey, you don't get to be angry at me."

"Yes the hell I do. You let Bethany Giller-the part-time psycho and full-time Pierson Redmond stalker-into my brother's home without even asking for my permission."

"She said she needed a place to stay."

"And you believed her?" He scoffed.

"I told her to kick her out!" Ronnie shouted into the phone.

I cupped the phone, brought it away from my ear, and set my eyes on her. "You're not helping. I'd like it if you didn't go against me at a time like this."

"Sorry," she murmured sheepishly.

"You don't get it, Silvia." Dakota stated. "A lot of my belongings are there. Along with my sister's. You gave Beth complete access a lot of our things. Including the diaries Diana left behind. I can't believe you would be that careless and let her in without thinking twice about it."

"I-"

"You know what? I don't want to hear your excuse or explanation or the sappy sad story she gave you to convince you into Dion's apartment."

"I think you're blowing this a little out of proportion."

"I'm...blowing things...a little...out of proportion?" He repeated my words painfully slow, gradually getting louder after ever pause. "How about I let Xander roam around your house, huh? I'm not blowing this out of proportion. I'm acting exactly how anyone would when they get robbed."

"Are you a hundred percent sure someone took your laptop and cell phone?"

"Ooooh, of course I'm not one hundred percent sure. I just like to accuse people for shit they didn't do."

I narrowed my eyes. "Being an asshole won't get your stuff back."

The phone went dead. Here I was, waiting desperately for some form of communication from Dakota. I wasn't expecting a bitter phone call with so much hate wrapped around each word. Had I messed up? Most definitely. But that didn't mean he had the right to talk to me in that way.

I shoved my phone back into my bag.

"That didn't seem like a positive conversation." Ronnie realized. She flinched after I threw her a glance over my shoulder. "I'll shut up now."

The parking lot was starting to fill up. Students had begun to file into school, chattering away about their weekend. I would give anything to trade my weekend for someone else's. Anyone else's.

After changing into my clothes, I checked the time. There was about ten minutes until the first warning bell. I had to grab some things for my first period. I started to walk toward my locker, but a voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Aw, why the long face?" someone chirped. She was the last person I wanted to see. She stood with her posy of drones, leaning against a yearbook poster. "You look like shit. Is that the new look you're going for?"

"I'm just copying you," I said with a smile.

She huffed. "That's not funny."

"Yeah. It's not," Rosemary added on with a sassy tone, crossing her arms over her chest.

My eyes slammed shut. "I'm not in the mood for you or your hype-man. Go find someone who cares to fuck with, Carmen."

"If you're not in the mood for me, then you're surly not going to be in the mood for the surprise you've got on your locker."

I didn't bother to ask her what she mean by that. After turning the corner, I saw what she was talking about. There was a small huddle of people circling around my locker, laughing among themselves. Ronnie was in the middle of it, ripping off papers from my locker.

Were they the photos, tapped on to my locker? Was that why they were laughing?

No.

This couldn't be their prank.

This couldn't be my life.

Cutting through the crowd, I reached Ronnie and began to grab at what was glued on to my locker. The first photo I snatched up was of something worse than the pictures I got sent on my phone. The first photo I grabbed, I was inebriated, half conscious and unaware of my surrounds with an older man in the frame, getting a little too close for comfort. They were all of the same thing, just different men in each picture. The photos had to have been at least a year old, back when I lived in Maine. How would Segg get a hold of these?

Hands coiled around my waist and dragged me out of the crowd. I pushed against him when I saw who it was.

"Get your hands off of me," I hissed, struggling out of his grip. "Is this what you were doing last night? You sneaked into school and tapped this on to my locker?"

A crinkle formed between Dakota's brows. "What? You think I did this?"

"Hey, Silvia. You sure have a type. Of course you weren't into me," Franklin snickered. "Maybe I should give you my dad's number instead."

"Honey, you are no one's type. Don't blame her shutting you down on it being an age thing." Ronnie snickered. "If I had to choose between you or Larry King I would choose Larry King. Every. Time. Heck, if it came down to it, I'd choose his suspenders over you."

The huddle of student's attention had shifted from my photos to Franklin and Ronnie, having a stare down in front of my locker. For the most part, the pictures were gone. She had taken most of them and stuffed them into my backpack.

"I don't know what you're yappin' about, Veronica." Franklin huffed. "I had loads of babes at my party last night. I practically had to throw them off of me."

"I heard a completely different story," I scoffed. "You were the one throwing yourself at girls like Beth."

"Beth wasn't at his party," one of the kids chimed in. Sooner than later, a few other students said they hadn't noticed her there at all.

"I didn't see Beth." Franklin supplied. "I don't know what she told you, but it's not true."

I balled my hands into fists, thinking of how she had lied to me. I had been stupid enough to believe her into thinking that Franklin had sexual assaulted her. That he had forced himself on to her and that she had ran out of the party with nowhere else to go. There was no way I could turn away from her after that thought had sprouted in my head.

How stupid could I be? There wasn't anything Beth had done for me before. All she did was trick me, deceive me, and betray me. Why would I trust her after everything she had done? The girl had dressed up as me so she could sleep with her crush. She was willing to do anything to make my life hell. At a moment of weakness, I had let her trick me for a second time.

After I told Dakota what happened with Jared, my barriers were down for the first time in four years. I was open. I was accepting. She had caught me at the perfect time to swoop in and send a dagger into my heart. I was easy prey at that point.

"C'mon," Dakota whispered into my ear and guided me out of the hallway and toward the east wing exit. We'd left the building undetected. Numb and completely silent, I let him take me through the parking lot and to his car. I hadn't raised my guard up against him until we were inside of his car and almost off school grounds.

I smoothed my hand over the leather interior of his car, loving how lush it felt at my fingertips. In a way, this helped me not look at Dakota while I spoke. If Beth was lying, then why wouldn't Dakota lie?

"I..." I began.

"What is it?"

"I don't trust you." I breathed. There were two ways I could continue this question. I could start with a question and see where it led us. Or I could state what I knew and make him spill the truth. "I know where you were last night and I don't know if I should believe what I saw. But after what just happened, I think you need to start answering some questions."

He slowed down the car at the exit of the parking lot. "I told you. I went to get some fresh air."

"And you had to take your car?"

"I needed to get out of the apartment."

"You're going to have to give me better answers than that." I ordered. "That, or I'm going to step out of this car and start walking the opposite direction...and I won't ever give you a second chance to answer yourself."

"Right now isn't the best time to give me an ultimatum." His hands gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles whitened. "What the hell was with those photos on your locker? They were like twice your age or more."

"Oh no. You don't get to ask me about my past." I snickered. He wouldn't throw that in my face when there was a high chance I couldn't trust him.

"How is that even legal?"

I shook my head. "I'm done answering to you. It's your turn. Spill. Where were you?"

He fell silent, holding on to the steering wheel even harder as if his life depended on it. Rising a hand off the wheel, he ruffled his fingers through his hair. "I went to the a lake."

Dakota's P.O.V.

Silvia reeled back in her seat, watching me in that judgmental way she did without knowing it. Arched brows. Narrowed eyes. Pouted upper lip like one of those unrealistic Instagram models that were trying to sell me teeth whiting products to help pay for their nose job.

"You didn't."

"I did," I assured her. I took the first left on Fillmore Road. Driving Silvia to the exact lake I had visited last night.

This place had a carved a hole into my heart. Besides that, I would say I was quite indifferent with most things in life.

"Out of all the places you could've gone-Franklin's party included-you decided to go here." She wore that questionable face, doubting my earlier response. Silvia looked at me in the way I assumed she looked at her father after the affair came out into the open. With disgust, disdain, and disbelief. She had entered this car wanting to win this argument and be done with me. "Why the lake?"

The lake's parking was clear of any cars, yet I still hesitated with my words, as if I was worried someone else would hear. Besides the occasion buzzing insect, there wasn't much movement going on at this man-made lake. My hand found the keys and I turned the car off. The rumbling noise faded away, leaving us in silence.

"Tomorrow will be the two-year mark of when Erick Thompson almost died. I was going to go visit him, but thought decided that it would be best if I didn't." I allowed those words to hang in the air as I went for the door handle and pushed it open. Silvia followed suit, rushing out of the passenger seat and to my side.

"Is he a friend of yours?"

"Hardly," I scuffled and brushed my foot against dirt. "He was a Boulder Valley high student. Maven had this thing about treating them like shit for no apparent reason beside for the fact that they were our rivals for every sport."

"This was back when you were friends with Maven and Pierson, right?" Silvia figured out on her own. I was about to ask her how in the hell she knew that, but she quickly filled in: "Hunter told me a while ago. I didn't really think it was true."

I forced a laugh. "Yeah, it's true. I used to be on the lacrosse team and the basketball team. We became friends through sports. I thought they were my best friends and that we'd know each other years after we graduate."

"I know what you mean by that," she exhaled. "Friends can change."

I stepped on to the boardwalk that stretched over the water. "No, it was less like what happened with you and your friend in Maine. We never had issues with secrets or trust. I honestly saw them as my brothers at one point. If there was some kind of problem in the group, we always solved it before the end of the day. That was just how we were.

"Things were fine until I caught Hunter with Carmen. It only went downhill after that. I should've left after I caught her cheating. I could see there was division between the group. It was like they were on Hunter's side. Saying that I wasn't a good enough boyfriend and that it was about time someone stole her from me. Stupid shit like that. Things only got worse after Erick moved into the picture. Maven had a hobby of fucking with Boulder Valley members. One of his favorite victims was Erick Thompson. The guy was already picked on at his own school for being poor. Maven and Pierson just rubbed it in his face that he was a lowlife even more by tormenting him. Maven slept with his girlfriend to piss him off...even though I know he didn't like her."

"That's awful," she frowned. "I don't know how he could possibly do that."

Yeah, especially because he's gay.

I wouldn't tell her that though. It wasn't my secret to spread. Anyone with eyes could see that Faye wasn't really his girlfriend, though. How could anyone believe him? He never kissed her or held her close. He showed more affection to his right hand than he did to her.

"Maven can do some horrible things without even thinking about it." I settled down at the edge of the boardwalk. I sat far back enough that my shoes didn't touch the water. "That's why nearly two years ago I agreed to go with them to the beach. Something didn't feel right about it since we ended up here, at this lake. I wasn't sure why Maven had pulled up to a lake and not a beach...until I saw Erick's car parked near the lake. He had convinced everyone else that we should push it into the bank. May I remind you that we were under the influence, except for Maven. Maven was more so pissed off than he was pissed drunk. He was the only sober one. He had this whole plan on how he would get Erick back for running his sister away from him. I tried to say we shouldn't, but three against one wasn't a fair argument. I watched the street for incoming cars and the three of them pushed the car into the water. It wasn't until the car was entirely engulfed with water when we started to hear the screaming."

"Erick was in the car." The end of her sentence didn't rise like a question should. It was flat.

I nodded my head. "Afterwards, I learned that Erick had been kicked out his house and that he had started to live in his car. It was the only home he had...and we had pushed it into the water. Of course, after I heard the screaming, I had to dive in. The other guys went against that thought and stayed behind."

Hearing his cries getting muffled with water had caused us all to stop that night and look among the three of us. When his hands started to bang against the glass, I began to take off my shoes to get into the water. Maven held me back, saying it was too late and that Erick was done for. I had pushed him back and had gone inside the lake anyway.

She squeezed my hand, reminding me that she was there. "Did you call the police?"

"Yes, I did once I pulled Erick out of the water. He wasn't really responding at first. Hunter called for an ambulance and we waited for them."

"How did Erick end up?"

"Well he had a lot of brain damage from the lack of oxygen to his brain. He's alive but he isn't the same person anymore." I revealed, drawing in a slow breath. "It was the first time any of us were arrested. I could sense that division in the group even more when the trial happened. There wasn't a jury since we're all minors. Our final punishment was up to a judge. I was appointed a state attorney and your father supported Maven and Hunter-he also agreed to work for Pierson. They had forced all of the blame on to me. Your father used the knowledge he had on my family, saying that because my father was a violent man that I was following in his footsteps. He marked me off as some kind of bad seed and the mastermind to this attack. It was a pretty good case he had against me, I must admit." I laughed without any humor. "The entire town already thought badly of my family and marked my parents off as lunatics. My punishment had been decided before I had even walked into that courtroom. It was all based on prejudgment on my character simply because of my last name. The judge obviously sided with the rich kids. They were given some community service while I was sentences to a year inside of a juvenile hall. Because of good behavior, they let me go early. I only did about a couple of months."

Once I was out of juvie, I made sure to keep a ten feet pole between my old "friends." I had guilt dominating my thoughts. I had thought of how Erick's parents must've felt after they discovered what happened to their son.

"Does this by any chance have anything to do with that whole rule against being in Boulder Valley?" Silvia's words dragged me back to the present.

"In a sense." I shrugged. "There was almost a pre-written rule before us about going to Boulder Valley High in large groups. After Erick's accident, there was a kind of a agreement that we wouldn't cross paths and cause trouble like we were before. Boulder Valley High students didn't go to our campus or our hangout spots and we didn't go to theirs. It wasn't until Heath and a bunch of our friends started crashing more of Pierson's parties. That's why Pierson stormed into the Smell that one night. He was getting sick and tired of the party crashers."

She leaned into my shoulder, moving her hands into mine and knitting the fingers together. She was going to trust me again; I knew it now. "So you went to the lake because of Erick. You didn't go to the party?"

"I didn't go to that party." I said earnestly without a pause or hesitation in my voice. "Why do you think I would be at that party?"

She shook her head. "You still can't ask me questions."

"Can I at least ask where my laptop and phone is?"

"Nu-uh," she sang. "I don't have to answer to you."

This shouldn't have caused a smile to grown on my face, but it undeniably did.

"I saw the Halloween tickets," she mused.

"Oh, you did? I don't know if you want to still go."

"I don't have. It's in a few days and I don't have a costume." She let out a yawn. "I'd rather do something with you alone."

"We can do something else that day. I can still get refunds for the ticket."

She snuggled up next to me. "I'd like that."

I held on to her as if I was going to lose her. We relaxed onto our backs, lying flat on the boardwalk, facing the cloudless California sky. We stayed like for a long while.

I kissed her forehead and turned to look at her face. She was most certainly asleep, drifting off into a dream. When I was one hundred percent she wasn't waking up anytime soon, I relaxed on to my back. "I...I love you, Silvia...And I'm so sorry. I wish I was better-not for me. But for you. You deserve something special, something more than me" I breathed. This was possibly the only time I could get anything off of my chest. I wasn't sure what it was, but I felt almost invincible...it was most likely because she was knocked out.

I took in another breath. "You don't understand it when I say you're mine. I've never had anything of my own. I never had anything that was mine. My sister was never truly my sister. She was taken by her own desires to be among the elite. My mother was never mine either, she was too hung up on what happened years before to even remember that she was alive in the now. You're the first thing I've ever had as my own. My doll, my Silvia."

That reason alone told me that I had to leave. If I loved her, I had to let her go...before things got bad. Before she started to hate me. Before everything unraveled.

I had to either leave this town or leave her alone. I needed to transfer to Boulder Valley High for the second semester. It would be hard at first, but needed. I knew it was the best for her.

I would only make things worse the longer I stuck around. There was no good way this relationship could end. We were set to fail and I was starting to believe everyone else. I would hate myself for being the cause of her sadness.

Before Thanksgiving break was a good enough time to break it off. If I did it any later it would be too close to our birthday. I couldn't ruin that day for her as well. I couldn't ruin anything else for her anymore.

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Song for the chapter: Say it Ain't So by Weezer

Lyrics: ❝I can't confront you.❞

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