[5 Weeks Banned, 4 1/2 Months Home]
The five weeks of silence hadn't just been quiet, they had been deafening. For Ethan, the separation was a physical ache, a restless energy that turned his already short fuse into a hair-trigger. He'd dropped off the team, lost his social standing, and was now a ghost on the edge of the Combs' property line, but he didn't care about any of that. He only cared about the light in the window across the way.
Every night, he sat in the dark of his room, his green eyes fixed on Annie's silhouette against her curtains. She wasn't sleeping. He knew the rhythm of her insomnia as well as his own. He'd reach for his phone a thousand times, his thumb hovering over her name, but he knew her. She was loyal to a fault, a girl who would bleed out before she'd break her father's heart by disobeying him. He respected her enough not to put her in that position, but the restraint was carving him out from the inside.
He'd spent the first two weeks digging into Kyson. He knew Kyson's brand of cruelty- it was loud, aggressive, and self-involved. But after ten years of brotherhood turned sour, Ethan realized Kyson was a dead end. Kyson was a blunt instrument, not a mastermind.
So, Ethan shifted his focus. He started trailing Margaret.
He cut school, his truck parked three blocks away from the Combs' residence, watching. He'd always found it strange- a woman who claimed to be the pillar of the household was almost never there during the day. But since Annie's return, Margaret's patterns had shifted. She was playing the part of the doting wife with terrifying precision.
On Tuesday, he followed her silver SUV. It was a mundane trail, a stop at a "friend's" house for tea, two hours of mindless wandering through the mall, and a brisk trip to the grocery store. She was killing time, waiting. He watched her pull into her driveway exactly one hour before Dylan was due home. She was a woman who understood the power of optics.
Ethan sat in his truck, hidden behind a thicket of oaks at the end of the street, his grip tightening on the steering wheel as a second car pulled into the driveway.
Dylan climbed out first, looking tired but offering a wave to Margaret, who met him at the door with a practiced, hollow smile. Then, the back door opened.
Annie stepped out.
Ethan's heart hit his ribs like a sledgehammer. From this distance, he could see the change, and it shattered him. Her black hair, usually so vibrant against her fair skin, looked dull. She moved with a heavy, cautious gait, her shoulders hunched as if she were trying to occupy as little space as possible. Even from twenty yards away, the hollows under her blue eyes were visible- dark bruises of exhaustion that makeup couldn't hide.
She looked fragile. She looked like a bird with a mended wing that had been broken all over again.
Behind her, Kyson climbed out, shoving past her without a word, his face set in its usual mask of arrogance. Annie didn't even flinch, she just let the momentum of his shoulder push her aside, her gaze fixed firmly on the pavement.
Ethan felt a roar of protective fury rise in his throat. This was the "safety" Dylan wanted for her? A house filled with a stepmother who wore a mask and a brother who treated her like a nuisance?
He watched as Margaret reached out, patting Annie's arm in a way that looked maternal to anyone else, but Ethan saw the way Annie's entire body stiffened. It wasn't a caress, it was a claim.
'I'm going to burn it all down,' Ethan thought, his green eyes narrowing as the front door clicked shut, swallowing Annie back into that quiet, suffocating house. 'I don't care what Dylan says. I'm finding out what you're hiding, Margaret. And then I'm taking her back.'
*~*~*~*
The fluorescent lights of the secondary hallway flickered, casting a sickly pale glow over the scene. This part of the school was a dead zone after the final bell, making it the perfect place for a trial.
Annie was backed against a row of dented lockers, the cold metal biting into her spine. Vanessa stood front and center, her blue eyes icy with a delusional sort of righteousness. Beside her, Peggy looked even more dangerous- her blonde hair perfectly curled, but her face twisted in a snarl of pure, unadulterated rejection. Rebecca and Sarah hovered on the flanks, looking nervously at the security cameras they knew were out of range, their hands twitching with hesitation.
"You think you're so special, don't you?" Peggy hissed, stepping into Annie's personal space. "Ethan didn't just ignore me today, Annie. He called me 'pathetic.' He told me I wasn't worth the dirt on his boots. And we both know why. He's obsessed with a ghost who isn't even allowed to look at him."
"I haven't talked to him, Peggy," Annie whispered, her voice trembling. "I'm following the rules."
"LIAR!" Vanessa barked, stepping forward. "You're playing the victim so Kyson will feel sorry for you. I see how you live in that house together. You're disgusting, Annie. You're holding onto him because you know nobody else would want a girl who tried to 'end it' once already."
Ellie stepped in front of Annie, her silver tongue ready to draw blood. "Vanessa, if your brain were any smaller, you'd have to be watered twice a week. You think Kyson wants you? He doesn't even want himself. And Peggy, Ethan didn't call you pathetic because of Annie. He called you pathetic because you are."
"Shut up, Ellie!" Peggy screamed. She looked at Rebecca and Sarah. "Hold them."
The two girls hesitated for a heartbeat, then grabbed Ellie's 's 's arms. They weren't rough, but they were a solid weight, pinning her against the lockers.
"We need to get Ethan! He's still in the parking lot!" Ellie shouted.
"No!" Annie gasped, her eyes wide. "We can't. If my dad finds out- "
"I told you to shut up!" Peggy turned her fury back to Annie. She reached out, her nails digging into Annie's fair skin as she grabbed her by the jaw, forcing her to look up. "He's ruining his life for you. He left the team. He's failing classes. All for a girl who's too scared to even speak his name."
Peggy didn't use a fist, she used her palm, delivering a sharp, stinging slap that echoed through the empty hallway. Annie's head snapped to the side, her black hair falling over her face. Before Annie could recover, Peggy shoved her hard. Annie's shoulder hit the locker handle with a sickening thud, and she slid to the floor, clutching her arm.
"That's for Ethan," Peggy spat.
Vanessa stepped over, looming over the curled-up girl. "And this is for Kyson." She raised her foot, looking ready to deliver a kick to Annie's ribs.
"HEY!" Ellie screamed, a sound so piercing and feral that Rebecca and Sarah instinctively let go of her arms.
Ellie didn't wait. She lunged forward, not at the girls, but at Annie. She threw her body over her best friend, shielding her. "If you touch her again, I will make sure the police see every single bruise on her body, and I'll tell them exactly whose manicured hands did it! Get out! NOW!"
The sheer volume of Ellie's protective rage caused the four girls to recoil. Vanessa rolled her eyes, trying to look bored, though her hand was shaking. "Fine. She's not worth the trouble anyway. Let's go."
As the sounds of their footsteps faded, the hallway returned to its eerie silence. Annie was shaking, a sob trapped in her throat, her hand hovering over the scar on her abdomen that only a few people knew existed.
"I've got you," Ellie whispered, her voice cracking as she tucked Annie's hair behind her ear. "I've got you, Annie. We're leaving. Right now."
Ellie hooked her arm under Annie's, hoisted her up, and practically dragged her toward the side exit, Annie's head bowed low as she tried to disappear into her oversized sweater.