I felt Echo’s anger intermingle with my own, and I lunged for Clarissa, seeing nothing but red. I grabbed her sleek black ponytail and yanked her backward. Her head hit the cement of the sidewalk and I was on top of her in a second. My fists thrust out over and over, hitting arms that were desperately trying to protect the face I was gunning for. Clarissa’s terrified screams echoed in my ears, but it did nothing to soften my vengeance toward her. I’d lost control, and somewhere in the distance, I heard Jennifer shouting at me to get off Clarissa, and then came the screeching tires of a car. Jennifer had jumped into the fray and was trying in vain to pull me off of Clarissa, but I was hell-bent on bashing her pretty little face into the sidewalk. I’d never felt rage so potent in my life. It boiled over and consumed me, and all that remained was the blind drive to inflict as much damage as possible. My vision blurred until all I saw was a tangle of colors, grey, black, brown—and red.
“Eden! Eden, Stop!” Drew materialized out of nowhere and yanked me off Clarissa with so much force that I went sprawling into the grass. “Jennifer, make sure Clarissa is okay.”
Drew turned away from Clarissa and stalked toward me. My ears were ringing, and I didn’t realize I was balling my eyes out until Drew knelt down in front of me and pulled me into his arms. He sat on the grass and rocked me back and forth like a baby, petting my hair as he did.
“Are you okay, are you hurt,” Drew asked as he continued to stroke my hair.
I shook my head and heard his relieved sigh. His heart was hammering away at his rib cage, and I realized I’d scared him. I tried to compose myself, tried to stop the river of fury and hurt that was flowing from me, but it just wouldn’t dam up. The tears kept coming. How could Clarissa say something so mean? I buried my face in Drew’s chest and breathed him in. Still, the tears wouldn’t let up. I chanced a glance in Jennifer and Clarissa’s direction and saw that Clarissa was sitting up, holding her right arm, tears, blood, and dirt, smeared her face as she glared back at me.
“Damn it, Clarissa, let me see your arm,” Jennifer said, and Clarissa shifted her attention to my best friend. “Oh shit, it looks like it’s broken.”
Clarissa’s forearm was bent at an unnatural angle, and I felt Echo’s wave of satisfaction course through me. All I felt was remorse, and that made me cry even harder. It wasn’t like me to lose control like that. I felt numb and disconnected as Drew stood and pulled me off the ground with him.
“We gotta take Clarissa to the hospital,” he said to Jennifer.
“No, I’ll take her. You take Eden home.”
She didn’t have to tell him twice. He steered me toward the car and deposited me in the passenger seat, where I curled up and didn’t say a word. I’d never felt so emotionally raw in all my life. Echo had retreated into herself, she was still there, but it was deep beneath the surface of my conscious. Something had shifted in her, and I was worried, the amount of hatred I felt pulsating from her was palpable.
“Eden what happened back there,” Drew said after several moments of silence.
“I don’t know—I—I just snapped.”
I told him all the nasty things Clarissa said and tried with everything I had not to start crying again. He pulled in my drive and waited for the garage door to roll up before pulling in and cutting the engine. The garage was closing when he came around the car, opened my door, and helped me out. By the time we made it up to my room, the numbness had begun to wear off, and I realized my hands, specifically my left one was hurting—bad.
“Let me see them.” He gently cradled my hand and examined the bruises that had already started forming. Small cuts covered my knuckles. “Well, you banged them up pretty good, but nothing looks broken.”
“Drew, do you like Clarissa’s type of hair better than mine?”
He reached up, tangled his fingers in my loose black curls, and glanced at the hair as his hand stroked its soft spirals. Slowly he dropped his gaze to mine, and I held my breath.
“No—I can’t say I do.” He locked me in, studying my face, and I saw a handful of emotions cross his features. He cared about me; of that, I had no doubt. “Your hair is beautiful, Eden. I love it because it’s part of you. There is nothing about Clarissa that would make me want her over you, not a damn thing. You’re the one I want.”
For a moment, we stayed just like that, nothing but silence and emotions arcing between us. I felt the shift, and I know he felt it too as we sat there, spoiling our eyes with the sight of one another. Then he leaned in and ran the tip of his tongue across my lips. I’d kissed Drew before, but that single gesture sent a pleasant shiver down my spine, and something inside me came unhinged. All it took was just one look, and he must have seen it too because he closed what small space there was between us, and I didn’t fight the desires that were begging to be
