Part 6 (1/2)

”No, you stay,” Grey said. ”I need you here if anything happens. Kate, don't be ridiculous, just go wait for the ambulance and flag them down.”

”Fine,” Kate said, annoyed, rolling her eyes, as she walked up the beach toward the roadside above them.

”I'm okay,” Chloe said, trying to sit up.

Grey pushed her back down, ”You are not okay. Stay there.”

He left his hand firmly on her chest just below her collarbone. Chloe could feel the warm pressure of his hand on her skin. She did feel a little weird. Grey wasn't paying attention to her. He was looking at Jake.

”Has Chloe told you that someone's out to get her?” Grey demanded.

”What?” Jake said, incredulously. ”This was just an accident. Kate and I weren't paying attention. We didn't see her go under.”

”Yeah and that might be true, but it's really weird to me that this girl has had more than one close call this week,” Grey was looking at Jake intently.

”Are you accusing me of trying to kill my friend?” Jake's eyes were wide with shock and indignation.

”Well...” Grey left his statement open for translation.

”I. Was. With. Kate. We were making out. I didn't notice that Chloe went under,” Jake's cheeks were turning pink, his fists balled at his sides.

”Well, a few days ago I found Chloe locked in the darkroom. There was a chair thrown into the rotating doors to keep her inside,” Grey said.

Jake smirked, ”Sounds like something someone just thought would be funny.”

Grey shook his head, ”Well, Chloe didn't think so. She practically jumped out to attack me when I walked in to see if she was in there.”

Jake paused in silence and then said, ”Well, I still think that was probably just a joke and this was an accident. Chloe, tell him what happened, will you?”

Jake and Grey looked down at her almost simultaneously. Chloe felt a little confused. Had she almost just drowned? Did Grey save her? Had he given her mouth-to-mouth? She felt her cheeks start to burn.

Grey spoke before Chloe could, ”You don't have to tell me anything. Just rest.”

Then he looked over at Jake, ”I'm just trying to warn you to watch her. I think someone's got it in for her and I think she thinks so too.”

”It was an accident,” Chloe croaked.

”What?” Grey and Jake said simultaneously.

”It was an accident,” Chloe said again, her voice hoa.r.s.e. ”The wave pulled me under. There was an undertow or something. I couldn't get back up. There was n.o.body near me. It was an accident.”

”Don't worry about it right now,” Jake said, quieting her and putting a firm hand on her shoulder to prevent her from getting up.

Chloe looked between the two of them with frustration. Obviously what had happened had been an accident. Grey still seemed reluctant to believe her, but before he could say anything more, the paramedics had arrived.

A few hours later Chloe was glad to be walking out of the hospital. The doctors had given her a clean bill of health and warned her about the dangers of swimming in the ocean. All she wanted to do at the moment was go home and take a long, well deserved nap. She was completely exhausted.

Random thoughts kept running through her mind. Chloe was still trying to push away the images of water surrounding her and closing in on her. It was all she could see when she closed her eyes. Chloe didn't know if she'd ever want to go swimming in the ocean again. She felt like she had just gained a phobia of water. She needed to think about something else. Chloe smiled. There was one plus side to all of the chaos. Grey had come with her in the ambulance to the hospital. Jake and Kate had followed in Jake's car, just behind them. Grey had held her hand for the whole ride, Chloe thought warmly. Although, she frowned, he left as soon as he saw that she was okay.

Jake and Kate had been wonderful as well, Chloe thought. It was almost hard to believe how two-faced Kate had been just hours before. She had spent the last few hours trying to entertain Chloe as they waited for the doctors to examine her. Kate had even made her laugh by telling her funny stories about Jake, to his utter embarra.s.sment.

Still, Chloe thought as she, Jake, and Kate climbed into his car, she couldn't wait to get home and forget the day had ever existed.

Chapter 8: The Suspicious Girl.

Grey was waiting at her locker on Monday morning when Chloe walked up to it. Chloe tried not to smile too enthusiastically as she walked over to him.

”How are you feeling?” Grey asked as Chloe came up to him.

”Fine,” Chloe said. ”I'm completely fine. All good.”

”Good,” Grey said, seeming relieved. ”You scared the h.e.l.l out of us on Sat.u.r.day.”

”I scared the h.e.l.l out of me too,” Chloe nodded. Nightmares about water had woken her up all weekend. Even clutching Teddy, her childhood teddy bear, as she slept didn't help them go away.

”You need to be careful. Really careful, Chloe,” Grey warned, suddenly unable to look at her, staring down at his shoes.

”I know you think that maybe what happened Sat.u.r.day wasn't an accident, but it was. I got pulled under by the tide and couldn't swim back up. n.o.body could do that to me. Jake and Kate weren't anywhere near me even,” Chloe said.

Grey looked up into her eyes, ”So, you trust Jake and Kate then?”

Chloe paused, ”I trust Jake and I don't know Kate that well, but why would either of them want to hurt me?”

”I don't know. Everyone has their own reasons. I just think you're in danger. You've had too many close calls in one week to a.s.sume it's just chance,” Grey rationalized.

”I have had a lot of weird things happen in the last week or so,” Chloe agreed, ”But I can't just run around freaked out. It could all just be bad luck. That note in my locker could have been a prank and so could that chair in the revolving door of the darkroom. People have been paying a lot of extra attention to me and not all of them are bound to be nice. And, the thing at the beach, well, it was just a freak accident and anyway, I'm okay.”

Even as she was saying it, Chloe had to agree that it had been an alarmingly dangerous and strange week of her life. She just didn't want to think she was in mortal danger. How would she make it through her cla.s.ses if she was afraid someone was trying to kill her?

Grey frowned and then asked, still digging, ”Do you remember anything? About what happened at the beach?”

”Just going under and then waking up on the beach with all of you surrounding me,” Chloe said, trying to think back. ”How did you end up being there?”

”I live near there, just off the beach. I like to take long walks along the ocean sometimes to think. I saw you go under and you didn't come back up, so I dove in. I thought you were gone and then your hand came up. I actually didn't realize it was you until I got you to the beach and then my heart almost stopped. You weren't breathing. I started CPR and then Kate and Jake ran up and called an ambulance. You woke up, spurting water a second later,” Grey said, looking haunted at the memory.

”Wait, so Kate and Jake only got to me after you had pulled me onto the beach?” Chloe asked, mind suddenly whirling.