My Best Friend's Brother

Chapter Twenty-Four

I stepped carefully down the hall. It felt like all eyes where on me, even though I knew they weren't. Every motion toward me made me jump as I made my way down to Sabrina's locker. The immediate subject was the problem at hand. "We're telling the guidance counselor."

"Please don't do that."

"Why not!?" Sabrina raised her voice to me and I flinched. "He's threatening you, Bella! Your life could be at risk!"

"He wouldn't do anything. You and Michael are overreacting." She gave me a stern look in return.

"It's not just Michael and I. It's Taya. It's Aura. It's everyone. He's trying to turn everyone against you!" The blonde emphasized her words with her hands.

"Don't worry about it. I've been in worse situations..." I muttered, biting on the inside of my cheek, stopping when I tasted iron.

"I don't want to hear it." Sabrina gave the look that she always gave me when she was scolding me. "I was consoling your crying boyfriend at two o'clock in the morning!" I wanted to shrink into a hole and die at this point. But that's probably what he wanted. Sabrina pulled her black android phone -with a Whoopi Goldberg sticker on the back from Michael- out of her pocket. "Look at this." Several pictures popped up on the screen of a conversation between Aura and John.

John: "Why are you friends with her? She's a horrible person."

Aura: "She isn't. She's my best friend and there is nothing you can say to me that will change that. We always look out for each other and I care about her." This message in particular tugged at my heart strings. Those words meant a lot. Especially coming from Aura, a very reserved person.

John: "She will betray you some day."

Aura: "I don't believe that."

John: "I have a plan. And I will go through with it. And I will make sure she will never get in anyone's way again.

Aura: "You're insane. You seriously need help. See a therapist." And that was the end of the conversation. If I had eaten that morning, I was certain I wouldn't have been able to keep my food down. I was light headed and nothing seemed real. Sabrina said something, but it didn't really process. Just as I felt as if I were going to fall, a solid form held me at my waist. Michael pulled me into his arms and pressed my face against his chest.