Chapter 6

Rachel walked through the halls of Blackwell the next day, unable to keep the conversation with Max out of her head. Behind her, Samuel was mopping the corridor. She reached her locker just as Alyssa walked up behind her. Just as she was about to open her locker, she noticed a scrap of paper sticking out from it. She pulled it out as Alyssa looked over her shoulder.

"Ooh, you got a love note!" She said, clearly excited. At that moment, something weird happened. Everything seemed to rewind rapidly. In a blur of motion that made Rachel want to vomit, everything rewound before fading to black.

Rachel woke up with a small trickle of blood seeping from her nose as the peace and tranquillity of the morning was shattered by the bellow of a wild animal.

"David Madsen, you are so dead!" Chloe screamed at the top of her lungs. Rachel wiped the blood from her nose as she hurried downstairs and into the garage to see Chloe glaring at a king-sized hole in her door. The metal had been roughly ripped away leaving sharp edges. David was just pulling away. Rachel could clearly see the shard of Chloe's door bolted crudely to the metal.

"He couldn't do that any better, could he?" Rachel asked, looking at the twisted metal edges. Since she knew Chloe so well, she knew that she wouldn't be as upset about the damage or the theft of the metal as she would about the shoddiness of the execution of the theft. It wasn't a properly done job, so it would probably trigger a massive rant any second now.

"I don't mind too much that he stole half my door!" Chloe ranted. "That much is fair! What I do mind is him doing such a crap job of it! Look at the state of that! It looks like it was done with a knife and fork!"

"Maybe he couldn't find any tools?" Rachel suggested lamely.

"The back of my truck is full of tools!" Chloe yelled. "The biggest tool in this operation was him! I could have done better with the blunt edge of a plate! I wouldn't mind but he's an ex serviceman for Jesus' sake! They're supposed to be all military neat! I see him making the bed every day and you'd never guess two people had slept in it! So why the hell is the door of my truck now a potential hazard?"

"You know, from all the mentions of knives, forks and plates I'm getting the impression that you're hungry." Rachel said, trying to change the subject. "Let's go into the house and ask Joyce if she can do us a bacon omelette each."

"This isn't over!" Chloe growled bitterly. From the tone of her voice, Rachel could tell it really wasn't over.

After supper, Chloe dropped Rachel off at Blackwell's front gates before driving off to see a guy she knew well. She knew he had a spare piece of metal in waste-down he could give her that only needed flattening out properly. Once that was done, she could weld that on and have everything sorted. Meanwhile, Rachel was left to walk through the corridor with everyone staring at her and gossiping about how she knew Max and wouldn't say what was going on with her. She tried to block it out as she walked to her locker, narrowly avoiding the wet patch from where Samuel was mopping the floor. She was just about to open her locker when she noticed a scrap of paper sticking out from it.

"Ooh, you got a love note." Alyssa said as she leaned against her own locker. Just then, Rachel flashed back to the dream she had last night.

"What the hell did you just say?" she asked.

"What's wrong?" Alyssa asked.

"It's nothing. I'm just having the weirdest Déjà-vu." Rachel told her. She opened the note to find a badly drawn symbol staring back at her. She knew it quite well from when she and Chloe watched DVDs together. It was the rewind symbol.

"Oh, that's so cute!" Alyssa said, looking over her shoulder. "He wrote you a poem!"

"What?" Rachel asked, glancing up at her. When she looked back, she saw that Alyssa was right. The rewind symbol was gone and in its place was boyish, crappy writing. Had the symbol ever actually been there? The only thing slightly weird now was that the bottom of the note had somehow got ripped off. "Yeah, it looks pretty sappy." Rachel tried to keep her voice calm as she ripped the note in half.

"Girl, what the hell are you tearing it up for?" Alyssa asked. "You might actually get a man."

"I have a girlfriend, Alyssa." Rachel reminded her.

"Yeah, but I always said you needed a man in your life." Alyssa said. "Come on, Rachel. Just give it a go."

"No, Chloe needs me now more than ever." Rachel said, replaying her conversation with Max again. Even if she were slightly interested, she just couldn't turn her back on Chloe.

"Is this about the thing with Max?" Alyssa asked. "What's actually going on with her anyway? I heard she was in hospital about an unplanned pregnancy or something."

"How did I know that one would come up?" Rachel muttered to herself. "No, boys getting into Max's pants don't have anything to do with the situation."

"What is it then?" Alyssa pressed.

"We don't know yet." Rachel told her. "Even if we did, I couldn't tell you until everyone else found out. No offense, Alyssa; but you're not exactly the most tight-lipped girl in Blackwell."

"That's such a lie!" Alyssa retorted as the bell rang.

"Is it really?" Rachel grabbed her stuff from her locker and headed to class. "Remember Dana with the pregnancy test and the rumours that started?"

"Okay, I suppose that's something I need to work on." Alyssa muttered. "I'm sorry, okay? I just overhear these things."

"When you're told something often enough, you start believing it. I get that." Rachel and Alyssa arrived at the door to Miss Grey's science class. "Just know that you don't need rumours to start a conversation. If someone is worth speaking to at all, they'll be happy to talk about anything with you. You don't need to spread rumours you overheard. Not to mention, you don't need to overhear stuff from the Vortex Club."

"They weren't Vortex, they were boys." Alyssa said with a wink as she went into the classroom.

"That's even worse!" Rachel called after her.

Chloe pulled into the parking space at the garage she knew. Once she got out the truck, she walked in only to find someone she really didn't want to see.

"Hello, Frank." Chloe stood facing him. The guy in the garage sensed the tension and jumped into the office at the back.

"Hello, Chloe. How's Rachel doing?" Frank asked.

"She's not looking to go back to you if that's what you mean." Chloe replied sharply. "It was two dates and then she realised she was a lesbian. You need to let it go."

"Actually, I was wondering what was going on with you." Frank said. "I haven't had any orders from you in nearly a week now."

"I'm kicking all my bad habits." Chloe replied.

"Well, good luck to you." Frank said. "To tell you the truth, I'd stop dealing if I didn't have extortionate vet and food bills for Pompidou. Of course now that you're looking to quit, my 'once you know I can't let you go' policy comes into play so there's no risk I'll go to prison." Frank reached into his belt and pulled out a knife. He gestured out the window where Chloe could see the tail end of his RV parked behind the tree line.

"You don't need me to help you go to prison." Chloe said. "You have more than enough rope to hang yourself with. The only question is if it'll be by your own hand that it's done."

"Only time will tell. Now, get walking." Frank gestured to the RV again. Reluctantly, Chloe started walking towards the exit when a sharp click stopped her and Frank in their tracks.

"That's enough, Frank!" the garage owner yelled as he walked out from the back with a fully loaded sawed-off double-barrel shotgun. "Let the lady go!"

"What about Chloe?" Frank asked.

"Don't test me, asshole!" the mechanic pointed the shotgun at the ceiling and fired one barrel. Plaster rained down on everyone's heads. The owner aimed at Frank again. "It's your choice entirely." Frank suddenly pulled Chloe round and aimed the point of his knife under her chest. Before the mechanic could react, he stabbed her. The blade sunk in to a depth that would easily pierce her heart. Frank turned and ran. The mechanic chased after him as Chloe hit the floor. He fired the gun just as the RV pulled away and took out the rear light.

"Let him go." Chloe said from behind him. He spun round to see her standing there like nothing happened.

"How are you still alive?" he asked. "Your chest would have to be made of steel for you to have survived that!"

"My chest isn't made of steel, but my girlfriend's bikini magazine has a lot of pages since it's a collector's edition." Chloe said as she pulled it from under her top.

"Can I ask why the hell you have a bikini magazine under your top?" the mechanic asked.

"This bra's needed replacing ever since it got caught in my closet door and broke on the left side." Chloe told him. "It doesn't give me any support, so I stuff one of her magazines under my top to help it out a bit. What better way to support your boobs than using someone else's?"

"Now that's some logic the world needs more of!" the mechanic said.

"By the way, Billy; do you have that spare piece of metal you mentioned? My step-ass stole half my door and it looks like he used a knife and fork to do it."

"I'm afraid I don't anymore." Billy said. "Between you and I though, I would return the favour. Also, I'm going to have to report this incident to the police, so if you don't want your name flagging up I would suggest you go. I'll just say I'd never seen the girl before in my life."

"Thanks, Billy." Chloe said.

"By the way, I hear you have a friend who's not too well at the moment. Give her my best, won't you?"

"I will. Thanks again." Chloe said as she climbed back into her truck. As she pulled out from the driveway, she knew just what she was going to do.

'How would you like a second sunroof on that truck, David?' she thought to herself.

I decided to do a double update since I couldn't wait to post this chapter. Please remember to keep reviewing. I really appreciate your support.