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than this?” Kara asked, looking over me.
    “ I’m alive – it was a stupid mistake; it’s not like I died or something.”
    “ Maybe not…but you are missing a big part of who you are…you’re missing your confidence.”
    “ I’m confident that I want safe haven – that’s Salem.”
    “ You need to feel safe in your own skin, Charlie,” Kara said, standing. “Mom is following us back this afternoon just to make sure you’re settled, and to have a celebration lunch.”
    I bit my lip and felt the anger blush in my cheeks. I felt out of control and hated every second of it. I figured I could go home for the weekend or something, then find an excuse to come back here. At least that way, everyone would get what they wanted.
    “ Charlie, please come – please,” the whispers pleaded.
    I shook my head from side to side.
    “ Can you at least get my phone back?” I asked pleadingly.
    “ I’ll try. If not, I’ll let you use mine.”
    “ I want if for my music, not to talk on it,” I said, rolling my eyes.
    Kara gently reached her hand to the side of my face and cradled my ear. “Have you forgotten how to make them silent?”
    I looked at her curiously. “I never knew how to,” I said quietly.
    Fear filled her expression as she tried to smile. “Get ready.”
    Once I was at the school, I went to the gym to line up with my class for our march to the auditorium. I searched the crowd of royal blue robes for Bianca, trying to focus on the random conversations and ignore the muffled whispers. I wanted to tell her that I didn’t have my phone, to make sure she knew that I wasn’t going with her to Cancun – to tell her goodbye – forever. I didn’t want to be her friend. I didn’t want her in my life – her seductive image – the way she manipulated everything and everyone around her was something I wanted nothing to do with. Not after what she did to me the other night.
    I’d given up and was making my way to sit on bleachers when silence came to the whispers and I felt her arm hook through mine. I looked to my side to see her huge crystal blue eyes smiling at me. Next to her olive skin and long dark hair, the blue almost seemed angelic, but that was her weapon. I knew that under her innocent reflection, there was something sinister – something I’d been trying to conquer for a while.
    “ I know you’re not mad at me?” she said, grinning.
    “ I am,” I said under my breath.
    “ Did you sleep? I’ve been texting you like crazy. I came over, but your mom wouldn’t let me in,” Bianca said, straightening my robe.
    “ Tell me your version,” I said in a harsh tone.
    “ My version of what?” she asked in an astonished tone as she took off her cap and swooshed her hair forward. She always kept her hair down to hide the birthmark on the back of her neck. It was dark and shaped like a broken heart. I actually adored it…it almost seemed poetic to me.
    “ What did you do to me?” I asked as she put her cap back on and adjusted her hair beneath it.
    “ Nothing…I thought it was valium. I just needed you to relax…you’re so uptight all the time.”
    “ That wasn’t valium, and that wasn’t what you were trying to do,” I said confidently as I looked away from her.
    “ What was I trying to do, Charlie?” she asked innocently.
    I moved my head from side to side. “It will come to me…until it does, I need time to think.”
    “ Well, you have twenty-four hours before we fly away, so think away.”
    “ I’m not going away with you – plans cancelled.”
    I could see anger come over her innocent expression. She stared into my eyes, and something told me to look away - not like a coward, but as if she didn’t deserve to look into my eyes.
    “ I think your mom has messed with your head – you’ll feel better in a day or so. Why don’t you and Britain go out tonight? Spend some time alone.”
    “ No…,” I said quietly. “I have plans.”
    “ With?”
    “ I have a life