Page 119 of The Other Side
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“Violet! What happened!?” Jolene ran out from behind her desk, almost knocking me over to embrace me.
“He’s leaving—but I have to talk to him,” I mumbled.
Jolene pulled back from me. “How long were you seeing him?”
“Since Christmas—or Thanksgiving—I’m not sure.” I looked over her shoulder to the stairs. I’d still have time to catch him. But if Jones found out…I’d be done at Montgomery.
Jolene guided me over to the couches in the lobby area. “Violet, why didn’t you tell me?” she scolded. “I’m your best friend. I could have warned you that he’d do something like this.”
I looked up at her with glassy eyes. “I thought I was protecting you. I didn’t want you to get in trouble for knowing. I didn’t want you to have to lie about it.” I shook my head. “It made sense at the time.” But what I really meant was that Chance had made sense when he’d persuaded me to keep her in the dark about everything.
“It’s my fault.” She rubbed my back to calm me. “I should have known something was going on with you. You’ve been so distant, and I thought you needed your space. Now I know he was keeping you away from me.”
“It wasn’t like that…”
But maybe it was…
“Violet, if he really cared about you, he wouldn’t have isolated you from your friends.”
“He didn’t—” I paused, trying to sort through the chaos in my mind. Had he isolated me? It didn’t feel like that. He’d encouraged me to make friends with the other teachers. He’d changed how I’d thought about things.
“You’re better off without him.” She smiled encouragingly.
“I need to talk to him.” I pulled out my phone to text him.
I had to know.
Either way.
I had to.
“Violet, I heard the headmistress. She’ll fire you,” Jolene hissed, grabbing the phone from me. “Why are you defending him? I heard some of what he said. It was awful.”
“I love him,” I choked out, quickly wiping away tears I hadn’t meant to shed, and grabbing my phone back from her.
“No, Violet. You just thought you did. He tricked you. You heard him.” She grabbed my shoulders, trying to talk sense into me.
But I wasn’t ready to hear any of it yet. Not until I knew for certain. I tried to replay the moment he’d turned the corner. Had he really given me our signal?
“I have to go.” I got up, shrugging out of Jolene’s grip.
“Go where!?” Jolene was frantic. “Violet, I need you. You can’t get fired!”
“I just need some air.” I couldn’t take a deep breath, not in the musty basement. It felt like the decrepit walls were closing in on me.
“I’ll go with you,” Jolene offered, following me as I made my way to the stairs.
“No.” I shook my head, extending my arm, gesturing to her to stop. “I just need to be alone.”
“Promise me you won’t go back to your room before he leaves. She’ll find out. Then you’ll be gone too.” Her voice began to quaver. She’d lost so much. Her world was falling apart, just as much as mine was.
“I won’t.” I sighed. As much as I needed to see him, I knew it would be a death sentence. But if I could just get him to call or text me, then I could figure things out.
But luck wasn’t on my side that day. I think it had completely turned its back on me. Calling Chance’s phone, it didn’t even ring, as if it had been turned off. I tried texting, but it didn’t show as delivered, which was unusual.
And then I realized that the phones he and I used were issued by the school. Another perk of the job. It seemed his had already been deactivated. I had no way of getting ahold of him after he left campus, but I couldn’t approach him.
