Baby Barton

Chapter 7 Chloe

Slamming the door behind as you leave, you let out a blood curdling scream. You storm down the hallway towards the kitchen and living area. Tony has left a bottle of bourbon on the counter with a clean empty glass next to it. Either he heard the whole thing and left it for you, or it was a coincidence. You neck about 3 glasses to calm yourself, but it only makes you feel worse, smashing the glass off the wall, you close your eyes and take a deep breath trying to slow your heart before it comes bursting out your chest in a fit of rage.
You jump as someone puts their hand on your shoulder, you grab it and try to flip them but they anticipated your move and counter by throwing you onto the sofa. Natasha's fiery red hair in your face as she straddles you and pins your arms down with her hands.
"You calm?" She pants
You push her off.
"Yes! I'm fucking calm!" You straighten your self out, muttering "Psychopath" under your breath.

She grabs a chair and flips it backwards, sitting on it. Man she is so slick, effortlessly cool.
"We are going to have ourselves a little chat Chloe" shes got her serious face on now. You laugh sarcastically and tilt your head to the side, "what now?" You aren't sure how much more you can take.
She purses her lips at you, switching her face from serious to concerned,
"Tony said that you had a little chat," you nod acknowledging her question
"He said that you admitted killing someone, who?" Tony is a fucking rat. How dare he!
"Fuck off Natasha, I'm not talking about this, especially not with you." You are livid, you would kick Tonys ass if he was here right now.
Natasha smiles at you as she moves the chair closer to you and sits back down.
"I'm not trying to pry or upset you Chloe," you raise your eyebrows at her sarcastically "I'm not, I promise." she continues "I am a killer, and you don't strike me as one, so I want you to tell me exactly what happened." You are completely caught off guard by her candour, it makes you feel at ease with her, like you can trust her, before you realise you are forming the words in your head, you want to get it right. You roll your eyes and take huge breath in...
"I ran away, after the Frank shit." You close your eyes, remembering it, the images flashing across your mind "my ex, Cameron, he let me crash in his garage for months, we would smoke and shoot up in there. His mom cared more about the bible than being kind to him, so he was into it too. Ignored like me." You look at Natasha and she nods, encouraging you to go on, you close your eyes again and continue, "at first I was using to numb the pain, but then it was more than that. I wasn't chasing a high any more, it was chasing me." Your heart is beating uncontrollably, voice quivering as you struggle to get the images from your head and form them into words that Natasha will understand, you go on "we didn't have any money left... we... I...umm...I'm ashamed to say it Natasha..."

"You can tell me anything, I'm not here to judge you, I promise." She replies softly

You close your eyes again "the dealer, he um... suggested that I...I... and Cameron he..." you look at her, your entire body shaking like a leaf, she gives you a sympathetic half smile, "I had sex with the dealer for the drugs." A single tear falls down your face, you wipe it away aggressively and continue to tell Natasha how you killed Cameron "the H turned out to be a batch bad, fuck knows what it was cut with, but he took it first, and Cameron, he od'd."

You breathing quickens again, and you start to have a panic attack, picturing his body fitting on the floor of the garage, remembering putting him into the recovery position, pulling the needle out of your arm, it was still filled with the heroin, relieved that you hadn't pushed down the plunger, or maybe you would be dead too. He was dead before the ambulance arrived, so you ran, out of fear, you ran.

Natasha crouches in front of you clasping your hands in hers, looking you in the eyes, the serious look back on her face, "alright Chloe, listen to me...because this is important..."
"lets hear it." The cynicism seeps out of you, nothing she is going to say will make you feel anything different about this.
"You didn't kill him, okay? He took the drugs himself. You didn't make him take them. He took them himself, you gotta get that. Before I leave here Chloe, you have got get that. Because if you don't, you are not gonna make it."
You fall off the sofa to your knees, Natasha saying those words out loud relieved you of the colossal guilt you have been carrying around for 5 years. She was right, everything she said was right. You were a child!
She sits on the ground with you, cradling you, rocking back and forth. She wipes your tears with her sleeve, and smoothes your hair. Standing up she puts her hands out and pulls you up to stand with her, looking you dead in the face and says;

"Now, straighten yourself out. Don't you ever let them see you weak, you were dealt a bad hand Chloe, but don't let that define you. Understand me?"