8
363words
“Chloe, what is this?! You said Luna was pregnant! You said you were living with her! Since when was there some random guy?!”
“You're just a man-supporting trash! I should've beaten you harder! Look at you, acting like some cheap seductress!”
Chloe cried out in pain. Even the police had to step in and stop her mom.
After both her parents finished beating her, Chloe screamed at me:
“Luna, you're so disloyal! Why couldn't you just take the blame for me? You just can't stand to see me happy! You wanted me to get beaten!”
Her ridiculousness made me laugh. Through the pain, I told her:
“Taking the blame for you isn't loyalty. If you were loyal, you'd own your mistakes instead of making me cover for you.”
“And you were never happy to begin with. How can I be ‘jealous' of that?”
“I warned you to stop using me as an excuse. You didn't listen. Don't blame me now.”
In the end, Betty and I demanded compensation from Chloe's parents for assault and defamation.
I refused to settle unless they made a public apology in front of the school to restore my reputation.
After the story blew up, I heard Chloe got expelled.
Her parents took her back to their hometown.
Before she left, she sent me a long text.
Why not call? Because after the public apology, I blocked her number.
I could still see her texts in the blocked folder.
Basically, she said I'd ruined her life—giving her a police record, exposing her boyfriend, getting her kicked out of school…
She blamed all her misfortunes on me.
She thought a guilt-trippy text would make me feel sorry for her.
But I've already died once. I'm kind, but I'm not stupid.
The last time I heard about Chloe was from an old high school classmate.
After taking her back home, her parents quickly married her off to a local guy.
They fought constantly—a miserable match.
Probably the rest of her life will be just as noisy.
I put down my phone and enjoyed the sunshine…
