Chapter Four

Vance looked shocked to see me standing there. His face was flushed, which could be because of his recent activity of the fact that I caught him red-handed cheating on me.

The girl, or should I say, woman, grabbed the sheet and wrapped it around herself. “Renko—I, u-uh…” Obviously, she had no words for what was going on.

“Sorry, uh, Linda, uh, Mrs. Greene, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” I looked over at Vance, who had his head laying on the pillow. “It’s over…like really over this time.” I couldn’t keep the tears from falling. I knew he cheated on me before, but to have him say he would never do it again, then to catch him with Tori’s mom blew my mind.

I had to get out of there and far away from this party. I slammed the door shut on the way out. I raced down the hall and ran down the steps. I heard Vance yelling my name from the second floor and knew he was going to try and find me.

My eyes were all blurry from crying, but I could make out Ashlyn still in the same spot as I left her. I touched her arm to get her attention. “I have to leave.”

“Renko, what’s wrong?” She tried to follow me as I walked around all the other kids but stumbled as if she had two left feet.

I saw my destination of the front door wasn’t too far away. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I have to be alone.” I gave her a final wave and raced out to my car before Vance could find me.

I grabbed my keys off the passenger seat and started my car. I was thankful this group of kids wasn’t into stealing cars since a majority of us usually left our keys in our cars so that we wouldn’t lose them.

I pulled out of the grass area where I’d parked and onto the small road that led to the main street. My head was pounding, my eyes were burning from the tears and makeup runs, and my heart felt like it had been ripped out and stomped on until it was in a million pieces. I saw the main road was coming up and made the left turn that would take me home.

The images of Vance with Ms. Greene kept flashing through my mind. I slammed the steering wheel out of anger and frustration.

Why did he have to ruin everything again?

Why couldn’t he just wait until I was ready to have sex?

Why did he have to go and sleep with Tori’s mom?

So many questions kept popping into my head. So many questions, but never any answers. I leaned my forehead on the steering wheel for just one second. Just one second to regain my concentration and to get my eyes focused amidst all the tears.

I looked up and thought I saw something, like a wolf, standing in the middle of the road. I swerved my car so I wouldn’t hit it, but when I looked back in my rearview mirror they were gone.

The sound of something crashing together and a bright light were the last things I saw and heard before it all went black.