Chapter 2

Melissa was sitting on the couch when Spencer came through the front door. It was now or never. She needed to confront Spencer about her obsession with making her life a living hell. Their parents couldn't break up this fight; both of them wouldn't be home for at least another hour. So Melissa stalked up the stairs to Spencer's bedroom, fully prepared to confront her.

Spencer was putting her stuff down when Melissa walked into her room. She waited for Spencer to realize that she was there, before saying, "Why do you hate me?"

Spencer looked annoyed, "I don't hate you, Melissa."

"Then why are you so obsessed with making me unhappy?"

"Melissa, please, I can't do this right now."

Melissa wasn't going to let her walk away from this fight. She'd cornered her in her room and they were going to talk about this, whether Spencer wanted to or not, "Answer the question, Spence. What did I ever do to you?"

"You didn't do anything," Spencer answered through gritted teeth, "I'm not trying to make you unhappy. I know it seems that way, but it's not true. I do care about you Melissa. That's why I pushed Wren off of me when he kissed me, that's why I went back to the church to grab your phone, and that's why I'm telling you he's dead. I don't want you to hurt anymore than you already have."

Melissa was fuming. How could she bring Wren into this? How could she act like she wasn't trying to hurt her? She stomped over to Spencer and stared her right in the eye, and then she slapped her hard across the face. Spencer's head spun and when it came back there were tears. Melissa knew that she'd done it. She'd hurt Spencer the way Spencer had hurt her. All Spencer wanted was for Melissa to forgive her, and Melissa had just made it very clear that it wasn't going to happen. Pleased, but holding the glaring look, Melissa stomped out of the room and slammed the door.

After Melissa had slapped her, Spencer curled up in a ball on her bed. It wasn't because Melissa had hurt her, even though she had. Spencer's stomach was rolling over again and she was trying so hard not to lose its contents. The pain was almost unbearable now, and it only disappeared when she stopped moving. She'd been rolled up in a ball for ten minutes, and finally the pain was starting to ebb away. Now she could feel the pain on her cheek.

Spencer wasn't upset about Melissa slapping her. In fact, she was glad she'd done it. Melissa needed to think that she'd won, that Spencer was broken because Melissa had denied forgiveness, when Spencer didn't care anymore. Melissa had made it clear, long ago, that she didn't care about Spencer, so why should Spencer care about Melissa. Melissa had taken Ian's side. Her parents had taken Melissa's side. In Spencer's eyes, all of the mistrust in her was because of Melissa.

Suddenly, Spencer was thrust back to the bell tower. She was running, afraid, knowing that Ian was coming after her. She came to the grating and opened it, only to see Ian waiting for her. She screamed and she was thrust awake and into her bedroom again. She was sitting straight up, her body shaking, and sweat running down her forehead. She hoped she hadn't actually screamed, so that her parents wouldn't be alerted and come running in.

She waited five minutes before getting up. No one came to the door and she assumed she was safe. But as she got up, a pain so sudden and so sharp shot through her side and she crumpled to the ground. Why did it hurt so much? For ten minutes she just cried in a heap on the floor. She was sure her parents would come and find her, ask her what was wrong, and rush her to the hospital, but nothing like that happened. She just pulled herself back into bed and stayed in a heap on the bed, hoping that the pain would just go away.