Free When Angels Fall (Fallen Angels) by Jo Cattell Page B

followed him. He took her hand and led her into the woods along the running trail. There was a damp chill in the air, and Chloe had wished she’d worn a jacket or something.
      Josh stopped at one of the picnic tables and sat down.
    On so many levels, she felt this was wrong. She shouldn’t have come with him here, but there was no going back now.
    He looked at her and smiled, then patted the spot on the table next to him. This was the way he was going to talk to her.
    Chloe sat down.
      Josh got up and played with her hand. He started talking about them, as a couple. How things were going to be and what he had expected of her. But while he was rambling on, she started to think about Nick.
    So many times on this date, she thought about him. He was easy to talk to, and she really enjoyed his company. He was always trying to make her laugh and seemed to only want for her to stand up for herself to her friends and not let them push her into things. Like this situation, here she was sitting on a picnic table in the middle of the cold, damp night, listening to this obnoxious football jock talk about how she was to act now that they were a supposed couple.
    She didn’t want to be a couple with him. She didn’t even like him. The truth was that she was starting to like Nick, which was strange for her because she was always afraid to get close to people. She was still afraid to get any closer to Nick; if he let her down, she didn’t think she could handle it.
    “Chloe, did you hear what I said to you?” Josh spoke a little louder.
    She looked at him and saw he was annoyed at her. “I’m sorry, Josh, I didn’t hear you. It’s getting kinda cold. I think I want to go home now.” She wondered if he would offer her his jacket. Nick would have. Why did she keep comparing him to Nick?
    “We’re not done talking and I will take you home when I’m ready. Wow, that really made your eyes spark. Did I make you mad?” He laughed.
    She started to bite at her bottom lip. Had he actually told her when he was ready? She heard Nick’s voice telling her to just tell her friends she didn’t like him. “Listen, Josh, you’re really nice, but I really don’t like you. I’m sorry, but you want someone who is going to follow your every command and live off every word you speak. That’s not me. I really have tried to be nice, but I have to be honest and tell you the truth.” She couldn’t believe she’d just said that. She actually said no to him and let him down easy. Inside her head, she was smiling at the way she handled him. Suddenly, she was relived.
    She didn’t remember how she ended up on the ground or feeling the impact of his smack. Her cheek hurt so bad it felt like it was burning, and she was looking up at him as he towered over her, his face bright red with anger. “You stupid little prude bitch. I will teach you to talk to me like that. You should feel honored someone like me would want an emotional mess like you. You think that Nick kid wants you? He thinks you’re fucked up, like the rest of us do!” Josh was yelling at her.
    Chloe tried to cower away from him and somehow, she got up to run, but he caught her fast. She fought him, but he fought back harder. She felt the buttons on her shirt being torn open and knew what was coming. She tried kicking him but she missed as he pinned her down. “Please, Josh, no. Don’t do this. Please, no!” Her scream filled the night air.

     
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    Nick climbed into the backseat of Mark’s car and couldn’t stop laughing. Kevin was holding his phone and getting ready to send out the mass text.
    Mark was not so happy. “God help you if you send that, Kevin. You do have to sleep sometime,” he warned him.
    “But, Mark, you just were so stupid. You come out of the bathroom acting all cool and the paper was hanging out your pants like some kind of monkey tail.” Nick could hardly say it.
    Kevin started hitting the dashboard at that.