Page 91 of I Don't Need Your Protection

“I don’t know what happened,” she says, “but I can tell you’re hurt by it. So this is me chasing away the pain. Is it working?”

I laugh a little. “Definitely.”

She sits back and looks at me expectantly. Sophie and Raven seem very curious but also wary and concerned. I’m sure I wear a spooked-out look on my face.

“So…I…” I sigh and shake my head. “You were right about Clarissa, guys. She’s an evil witch. The most evil witch on the face of the planet.”

Sophie’s jaw falls open. “What happened?”

Raven sits up sharply, as though she’s ready to bolt out of the room and hunt down Clarissa if she hears she hurt me in any way.

I hold up my hand. “Don’t freak out, okay? The important thing is that I’m okay.”

“I don’t like where this is going,” Raven mutters with a scowl.

“Me either,” Carly says.

I sigh again and look away. “They invited me to their sleepover because they wanted to send me a clear message. To stay away from Warner. Turns out, Clarissa is not over him and wants him back.” I look at my friends and hesitate for a moment before whispering, “They tricked me and took me to an abandoned area with a lot of run-down and destroyed buildings. It was pouring like crazy and they just…left me there.”

“What?!” Raven shoots off my bed so fast she almost loses her balance. “What do you mean they abandoned you there when it was pouring?”

I reach for her hand and pull her back to her seat. “I told you not to freak out, remember?”

“Too late for that,” she mutters with another scowl.

“I know this will be hard to hear, but I need you guys to promise me that you’ll keep your cool.”

I look from one to the other and raise a brow. Carly and Sophie nod while Raven purses her lips. I give her a serious look, and she surrenders with a sigh.

“Before you guys can tell me, ‘I told you so,’ I just want to let you know—”

“We’d never say that!” Sophie says. “You’re such a good person for giving Clarissa the benefit of the doubt. It’s so much easier to dismiss people as bad, but you wanted to see the good in her. We would never make you feel bad for that.”

“And saying ‘I told you so’ is so kindergarten,” Carly adds. “People make mistakes all the time. They shouldn’t be made to feel bad about it.”

“And Clarissa was very manipulative,” Raven says.

“Thanks, guys,” I whisper as I avert my gaze to my elephant. “I feel so stupid about the whole thing. I wish I hadn’t trusted her. Looking back, I can see the signs. I should have realized during Truth or Dare that they were trying to play me. I guess it felt good that she and her friends liked me. Well, I thought they liked me.”

Sophie shifts closer and rubs my arm. “Don’t feel bad. Everyone loves feeling loved. And you wanted to get closer to them because of Warner. That’s totally understandable.”

“Wait a second,” Raven says with furrowed brows. “If they abandoned you in the middle of nowhere, how did you get back to school?”

They all stare at me with puzzled expressions.

“Well…I…”

I don’t want to lie to them anymore. If the situation withClarissa taught me anything, it’s who my real and true friends are. The girls sitting before me don’t care what I look like or what I wear or how smart I am or whether or not I’m rich or poor. These girls love me for the person I am, just as I love them for the people they are. I don’t have to pretend to be cool like I tried to do with the Witch Crew. Our bond is stronger than anything in this world.

And I want them to know who I truly am. I trust them with my life.

“Caleb saved me,” I say.

“Caleb?” Sophie asks with such creased brows that they nearly touch her eyes.

“Wait, what?” Raven wonders.

“Caleb, as in Caleb Foster?” Carly asks. “The guy who started school the same day you did? The guy who refuses to be friends with anyone?”