To Be

Chapter Twenty-Five

I catch up to him by the bleachers. "Levi Cruze," I shout across the field.

He looks up from his cigarette in a billow of smoke and smiles. Heart racing, I march up to him and with my hands on my hips, I demand, "What do you want?"

His full lips curl up on the sides in a smirk. "Isn't it more like, what do you want? You were the one chasing me..."

"But you're the one with all the secrets. And then you go and disappear for days, taking all those secrets with you."

His smirk spreads, which frustrates me. I feel like I'm a joke to him. And maybe I am. Maybe I'm the mouse that he's just toying with... "But aren't you hiding some secrets of your own?"

I cross my arms over my chest. "I might be. Just like you were hiding the fact that you are Dr. Lewis's nephew."

He looks surprised, his perfect bad-boy demeanor falling. This makes me smile. At last, I am the one who's pushing ahead in this little game of cat and mouse. "That's how you know all about me, isn't it?" I continue. "You must have snuck into your aunt's office like a bad little boy and found my file. And confidentiality doesn't exist for you, so you read it. Am I right?"

"Sort of." Now his smirk is back. "My aunt left your file wide open on her desk, ready to be read."

"Are you serious?" I'm a raging fire ready to consume everything in its path. "Any idiot would know that that file is private. And then you go and read it, invading all my privacy. I think I'm going to kill you!"

This makes him take a step back, cigarette butt falling to the ground. "There's no need to kill me. You'll just be adding more guilt to your conscience."

Those words are like a brick to the face. "How dare you?" I yell, my eyes overflowing with tears. "You have no right to talk about what's in my file. Just like you had no right to read it in the first place."

"How was I supposed to know that I would meet the girl behind the file? You were a stranger."

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8 sharp nails digging into the soft flesh of my palms as I curl my fingers tightly closed. Breathe, breathe, breathe.

"Go to hell." I gasp for breath. "And burn my file with you."

My body trembling like a leaf, I turn my back on him and start to make my way back toward the school building.

"Shelby," he calls after me.

I let his words get lost in the wind.

***

Adrian finds me by my locker struggling with the combination.

"Everything ok? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Finally, the stubborn lock clicks into place, and my locker door swings open. I start to shove my belongings into my backpack. "I'm not feeling too great. I got permission to go home."

"Oh no. What's wrong?"

"Bad stomach aches." Always the same lame excuse.

He accepts it since he pretty much always accepts all of my pathetic lies. "Feel better soon."

I give him a false smile. "Thanks." Then swinging my backpack onto my shoulders, I head out of the school building.

***

Comfortable in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, I bury myself underneath my blankets. Country songs blast from the speaker on the dresser. I close my eyes imagining myself riding my majestic, black stallion along the dirt country roads. Wind blowing through my hair...