Hide and Seek in the Dark (Being Rewritten)

Chapter 21

21

Daren

It wasn't long until rumors began circling.

People in town avoided him like the plague; the crowds in the halls opened up as if they were the Red Sea and he were Moses; even the teachers gave him strange looks as he walked by their classrooms during the passing periods. Hell- he wasn't even allowed to go to practice anymore!

It'd been like this for days, since his folks bailed him out. The precinct let him go on the condition he wore one of those ankle monitors, the ones that tracked everywhere he went and so forth, and arrived for every one of his court hearings. If he missed one or he even stepped foot outside of town he was headed back to sleeping on those lumpy cots behind bars until the whole mess was settled.

It got to the point where Daren began wondering if it was even worth it heading to Christine's that night to make up. Sure, his heart was in the right place, but look at where it landed him. He was the main suspect in his girlfriend's kidnapping and until his lawyer could prove otherwise his life was pretty much down the drain.

"I hear you murdered that punk dike you called a girlfriend and shot her mother, too," Chelsea stood in front of him and placed her hands on her hips, her made-up lips quirked in that shark-like smirk of hers. As soon as she had wind of what was going on with him she was on his heels night and day, yapping away and trying to get a rile out of him. She raised her voice loud enough so the entire hallway could hear her: "Guess I was right to dump your sorry ass when I did, huh?"

"I didn't touch Christine." He glowered at the girl. "And the bullet missed her mother. She's fine." Daren moved to walk around her to his next class but she stubbornly grabbed at his sleeve.

"Don't sweat it, D. It's not like one bitch is gonna doom you. Besides," she cooed. "A girl like her, no one will ever even miss her. Except that bitch mother of hers I mean."

He gazed down at her over his shoulder. "You really mean that?" he asked. "One missing bitch won't doom me? You mean that?"

She rolled her eyes. "Duh."

"Good." He grabbed the hand she had attached to his arm and gripped it hard as he loomed over her. "'Cause y'know why?"

Chelsea merely stared at him, eyes wide and startled giving away her usual poker face.

"Christine was my girlfriend and nobody knows where she is or what happened to her." His lips pulled upwards in a menacing smile. "Imagine what I could do to you, my ex," he whispered.

With a shriek she pulled away from his grasp. "You're a fucking freak, just like that whore!" she cried, cradling her wrist. "You get near me again and I swear I'll press charges on your demented ass so fast your lawyer's head will be spinning!"

He chuckled. "I wouldn't come near you with a fifteen foot pole." Daren turned back down the hallway. "And for the record," he called back to the trembling girl. "I dumped you. Remember that."

Twenty minutes later he was in the principal's office, being lectured about threatening other students. Daren would have explained what happened and why he said what he did but:

1) He doubted that anyone who witnessed the exchange would back him up being that he was the new psychopath in the school. And

2) He was fairly certain the old man before him who was currently dialing up his parents had no sense of humor.

So he remained quiet until the principal ended his call.

"Your parents will be picking you up in front of the school shortly," Principal Winslow informed him once the phone was placed back on the receiver. "Why don't you go and wait for them out there?"