Colton reaches around me and pushes Charlie back a step. “Back the fuck off, man. Don’t talk to her like that.”
Charlie scoffs. “This chick came in and divided us from the beginning and now she’s fucking gone as far as to have you two fuckers keeping shit from me? You have Jude locked in a fucking dungeon. We don’t do that, we never have. What is so fucking bad that you didn’t trust me? What could he have done to you?”
Tears grow in my eyes but I won’t allow Charlie to keep going like this. He has to know and right now, I don’t give a shit if it means that he’ll look at me differently. His words are hurting and if my truth hurts him right the fuck back, then so be it.
I step into him, slamming my hands against his shoulders and forcing him back with a strength I didn’t know I possessed. I slam him against the wall, right beside the wine cellar door. “That friend of yours, that brother, raped me. He spiked my drink, tore my fucking dress off my body, and as I cried for help, he fucked me like I was his to destroy. That’s why that motherfucker is locked in a fucking dungeon, and the look you’re giving me right now, that’s why I didn’t say a goddamn thing.”
Colton’s hand finds my waist and he pulls me back a step, knowing I need a moment to calm down. “No,” Charlie says. “I know him. He wouldn’t do that.”
Spencer scoffs. “Come on, man. You can’t be that fucking naive. He raped that girl two years ago and she fucking disappeared.”
“He didn’t. He gave me his word.”
“Charlie, come on. You always want to see the best in people but he fucking lied to you. He hurt that girl and now she’s gone. He’s admitted it time and time again, and now he did the same to Ocean and I won’t let him get away with it.”
Charlie continues shaking his head as his horrified gaze comes back to mine. “Surely you saw the signs,” I whisper, hating that I have to open this old scar but the blank expression on his broken face has me going on. “He hated me from the beginning. He came into my room on my first night here and tried something, then the Black Widows beat him up. He cornered me on Colton’s boat to try again, he cornered me in the school pool. It was only a matter of time before he finally got to me, and the night of the Masquerade party, he did. He broke me, Charlie. He hurt me and I’m sorry that this was kept from you but I couldn’t bear the thought of you looking at me like I was used goods. You have such a sweet innocence about you and I love that because when I’m around you, I feel it. Your goodness is contagious and I needed it so damn bad. I couldn’t risk it.”
His gaze sweeps past Colton and Spencer before coming back to mine. “You told them.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t. Colton found me while Jude was … you know. I didn’t tell either of them.”
Charlie glances up at Colton. “You saw it.”
Colton silently nods, not packing on any more details for Charlie to have to work through later. They hold each other’s stare for a moment longer than necessary and the hurt spilling out of Charlie is enough to have me feeling like the world’s worst friend. He trusted us and we lied to him. We kept a secret that would change the way he looked at us and just like that, we became just as bad as the Widows.
Who am I becoming? I don’t like this dishonest, murderous version of myself that I’m turning into. I’ve always prided myself on being a loyal person but that’s not who I am at all. I’m weak. I'm a liar.
Charlie looks toward Spencer and with a heavy breath, he moves over to the wine cellar and peels the door open. He looks back at the three of us and knowing exactly what he’s about to walk in to see, a single tear tracks down my cheek and splashes against my black bikini top.
Charlie tears his gaze away and disappears into the wine cellar, closing the door behind him and I swallow back fear, not knowing what’s going to come from this. Is he going to free him? Give him help? Or is he going to find that same darkness in his soul that I found? Who knows, maybe it’ll completely take over him and he’ll take all his hurt and frustration out on Jude just like I did. Maybe he’ll go too far or maybe it’ll have him throwing up. Charlie is a sweet guy. He wasn’t cut out for torture and murder and now we’ve exposed him to this ugliness.
Charlie will never be the same again.
“Come on,” Colton finally says, pulling on my arm. “We need to give him his space. He’s hurting right now and he hates that he didn’t know you were going through that, but our methods of dealing with it … he won’t accept that easily. It might take some time, but he’ll come around.”
I let Colton pull me along and I find myself staring at the shiny marble beneath my feet. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” Spencer says, stepping into my other side. “He’ll be alright.”
I nod, not convinced by either of them in the least, especially as they don’t believe the words themselves. All I know is that this could be a game-changer. Charlie is either with us or against us and right now, I have no idea which way he’s going to go.
Chapter 19
Four days down and not a word from Charlie.
My heart aches for him. He hasn’t come around in the mornings before school, he hasn’t texted stupid memes, he hasn’t even sent a sexually suggestive text message.
He’s hurting and that’s on us.
We should have been upfront with him. He spent weeks worried about his friend, completely in the dark, and not knowing what happened to him. The boys should have been honest with Charlie about the girl Jude hurt two years ago and I should have been honest about him hurting me now.
What kind of friends are we?
I walk from my last class and meet Drix and Jess by their lockers while giving fake smiles to everyone who demands my attention. I’m not in the mood today. Sunday was easy to pretend that nothing was wrong, but the days after that just sucked.
Colton had gone down to see Jude after Charlie had left to get some kind of indication of what had gone down in there. From the way Charlie left him, I’d dare say that our secret is safe. Charlie isn’t the violent type though—no matter how much he talks it up—and that kind of shit would have left a scar.
I dart across the hallway and grab my stuff out of my locker before slamming the door closed with a sigh. I really hate this. I’ve been against my boys for weeks now and that doesn’t hurt nearly as much as knowing that Charlie is hurting. Maybe it’s because, with my boys, I was the one who was wronged, but with Charlie, I’m the one doing the hurting.
I have to find a way to make it up to him. This isn’t fair to him. He shouldn’t have been left in the dark, just as Colton shouldn’t have left me in the dark with the same damn thing.
Why can’t things be simple for a week or two? I just need a break from all the constant bullshit. I need to go away and forget everything that’s been going on. I don’t know, maybe Colton will sweep me away to a deserted beach resort and show me the time of my life where I can pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist.
Damn it. I can’t even suggest that to him because he will and then I’ll be stuck on a beach wishing I was back home so I can handle my shit and stop running away like a little bitch.