Dirty Secrets

Part 49

A split-second after stepping off the roof's edge, Clover evaporated in mid-descent.

Lyla watched in horror as Jack's body twisted on his downward journey to the pavement. He managed to momentarily catch the edge of a windowsill, slowing his fall but causing him to lose his bearings when his hips and legs swung wildly. The brick wall scuffed his back before his shoulder took the full brunt of the impact against the pavement where he landed with a loud KA-THUD.

She sprinted across the field toward the players, some kneeling, some standing beside Jack's prone body. Darcy trailed.

Jack groaned.

"Don't move," Julian cautioned. "Stay still til the ambulance gets here."

"I don't need..." Jack swallowed his words then rolled onto his back.

"You saw her, right?" Lyla knelt beside Jack.

He looked around, expecting to see Clover's twisted body.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"Where is who?" Julian looked around.

"There was a girl..." Jack wheezed.

The guys looked up at the roof.

"A girl on the roof?" Wes shielded his eyes against the sun. "I don't see nobody."

"Unfinished business," said Lyla clenching her trembling hands together.

"My shoulder." Jack winced. Then, to Julian, "Dude, help me up."

"No, no, dude." Wes placed his thick hand on Jack's chest. "Just lay there for a minute."

"What girl on the roof?" Darcy asked.

"What are you even talking about?" Carissa hissed.

Dizzying images of Carissa's angry face, Clover on the church roof, ambulance lights, and EMT's spun Lyla to the pavement.

"Hey, girl," Darcy squatted beside her friend. "Lyla!"

"Just... need a minute, okay?"

EMTs placed a backboard beside Jack. He pushed their hands away.

"Just a precaution. Don't fight us on this," said the EMT.

"Feels like I broke my collarbone." He rubbed his aching shoulder. "Maybe dislocated. I can walk, for Christ sake."

The EMT said, "You're making this harder than--"

"Screw that! I'll get in the ambulance but you're not strapping me to that board."

Lyla caught her breath and sat up, watching Jack climb into the rear of the ambulance, cradling his left arm against his abdomen.

"You okay, girl?" Darcy asked.

"Stop being fake with everyone," Carissa scolded Lyla. "This isn't about you."

"Fake?" Darcy shot back. "There's something you know a lot about." She helped Lyla to her feet when the ambulance drove away.

"What's your problem?" Carissa replied. "Your training bra too tight?"

Nicole and Emily laughed and clapped.

"Forget you," Darcy snarled. She and Lyla trudged across the grass toward the food trucks, Carissa, Nicole, and Emily following.

"What's the matter?" Carissa said to Lyla. "That ambulance give you flashbacks?"

"Shut up," Lyla growled.

"Ignore her," said Darcy.

"I actually felt sorry for you that night with your crazy snakey boyfriend." Carissa smirked. "Turns out you're even crazier than he was."

"Leave me alone," Lyla snarled.

Emily laughed, Nicole wrapped one of her pigtails around her finger. Lyla and Darcy accelerated their pace as they approached the food trucks.

Carissa wouldn't let up. "Why don't you take a mental health day or a mental health week and stay out of normal people's business?"

"Normal people?" Lyla's pitch rose. "You're totally deranged if you think you're normal."

"Every time you're around Jack, something bad happens, or didn't you notice?" Carissa got louder. "Stay away from him. You practically ruined his life. He doesn't want anything to do with you. What part of that don't you get? Go find yourself a nice little schizo boy in the psycho hospital."

Natalie caught Carissa's attention when she stormed down from the food truck lot into the grass, her cheeks flushed, her thick arms swinging, her eyes flashing.

"Hey, Barbie," she shouted at Carissa. "Thought I heard you say something about schizos and psycho hospitals."

Carissa's beautiful face froze.

Within her limited high school societal circle, Nicole's posturing was sufficient to earn her the reputation as a badass. Outside of her circle, her fatal flaw was her inability to read the room, and so she made the foolhardy mistake of striking a fierce pose, fists clenched at her sides, and bellowing imperiously, "Who the fuck are you?"

"Natalie. Don't." Lyla tried to calm her before her explosive temper erupted but it was too late.

Natalie pushed past Lyla and went nose-to-nose with Nicole. "Who am I?" She breathed hot gyro breath on the trembling girl inches from her face. "I'm your worst fuckin' nightmare, bitch. You wanna go, pigtail?"

In that awkward moment, Nicole realized that she was way out of her league and had leaped head-first into dangerous, unfamiliar territory.

Natalie's brawny friend lumbered down the hill with a look on her face that said, "I live for these moments."

Natalie directed her ire at Carissa. "Psycho hospital? Seriously? You went there?"

Carissa couldn't force a syllable. Emily stood behind her, knees shaking, tears welling in her eyes.

"Answer me, Barbie," Natalie barked.

"I'm sorry," Carissa said timidly.

"I was at the hospital with her." She gestured toward Lyla. "Does that make me a psycho? Go ahead, bitch. I wanna hear you say it!"

In a shaky voice, Nicole said, "Leave us alone or I'll call the cops."

Natalie grabbed Nicole's pigtail and flung her to the grass with one hand. "Well, if you're gonna call the cops then I'm gonna get my money's worth." She stood over the trembling girl who wiped her bloody nose.

"Hey!" A man watching from the picnic tables shouted.

"It's okay," Lyla called. She turned to Carissa. "Tell him it's okay."

"It's okay," Carissa waved, a plastic smile on her blotchy face. "Everything's okay."

"We're good," Emily squeaked.