I backed away, looking at both him and Kai and wondering why they were doing this.
A pathetic dog. Was that how Michael saw me?
Tears filled my eyes, but before they had the pleasure of seeing me break, I twisted on my heel and took off. Into the forest and toward home as fast as I could away from them.
I let the pain of the last couple of hours go and barely saw the world around me as I cried the entire way home.
Alone, so one could see.
Present
“SHE’S LYING.”
I looked over at Kai, his narrowed eyes glaring at me.
Michael stood with his arms crossed over his chest, a flat expression on his face.
“Kai was with me,” he stated. “He caught up to me at my house almost as soon as I got home, and we got drunk while watching game footage the rest of the night. He wouldn’t have had time to take you out into the middle of the fucking woods.”
I shook my head. “No. That’s not right. He was there!”
“She’s making it up to save her own ass,” Damon chimed in, stepping up next to his friends.
“And I certainly don’t remember that,” Will added. “There was the warehouse and then nothing. I was drunk off my ass.”
Michael looked away, shaking his head almost regretfully. “Just admit it. You leaked the videos, and we know.”
My heart flipped in my chest. “What? Leaked the videos? You think…” I trailed off, scanning the air in front of me.
We trusted you…
Your tantrum cost us three years…
You owe us, and this has been a long time coming…
I closed my eyes, my lungs emptying. All this time they’d thought…
I looked at them again. “You think I posted the videos that got you arrested? That’s why you’re doing this?”
Oh, my God.
Michael leaned in and grabbed me by the back of the hair. I let out a small cry, sweat breaking out on my forehead.
“You had Will’s phone,” he charged.
But I shook my head. “I didn’t! I would never have done that.”
“You had the phone, because you had Will’s sweatshirt,” he argued. “Damon saw you with it. Say it!”
“Yes!” I gritted out. “Yes, I had the phone, but it fell out of my pocket when I was fighting with them!”
“You weren’t fighting with them,” he growled, his voice stinging my ears. “Stop lying!”
“I swear!”
He shoved me away, and I curled my fingers into my palms. None of this made any sense.
“You’re already caught,” Will said. “Michael says Kai was with him. That’s how we know you’re making all of this up. He wasn’t even there.”