I was running from my room before my brain could connect to my feet. I knew I looked like I had just woken up, but with my phone in my hand and my stomach feeling like it was going to vomit, my appearance was the last thing on my mind.

Jason and Chelsea were sitting in the hotel room's main area, both with drinks in their hands and dressed like they had, in fact, taken advantage of that dinner reservation. Regardless of the conversations we had had. Regardless of what had happened...

Their conversation stilted the moment I emerged from my room, and my attention was solely on Jason.

"You," I snarled, clutching my phone so tight, my knuckles showed white. "How could you?"

"Samantha?" Jason had stood from the couch but now he was taking a step back, perhaps from guilt. Perhaps from the surprise of my outburst. Either way, my fury and rage and distress was solely focus on him and him alone.

"I know what you did. I know what you did to Tony Marino. I know—"

"I didn't do anything to him—"

"Don't lie to me," I screamed out. "Stop fucking lying to me!"

"You looked it up," Chelsea murmured from the chaise, frowning as her gaze dropped to the phone clutched in my hands.

I waved my phone in front of me for emphasis. "Why didn't you tell me?" I snapped, turning to her. "After all this time— after this week— you could have said something."

"No, I couldn't have," Chelsea said, almost resigned.

"And there was nothing to tell," Jason cut in.

"How can you say that?" I was shrieking now. "Tony Marino had his damn tongue cut out of his mouth! And you were arrested—"

"It was a misunderstanding," Jason began, but Chelsea scoffed, which received a harsh glare from Jason. "I had nothing to do with it."

"I think you're the only one who still believes that drug deal gone wrong scenario."

"Maybe you'd like to enlighten us, then, since it was your parents who fed them that bullshit—"

I wasn't in the mood. I was beyond upset and I was exhausted and...

"Why can't I remember?" I demanded from both of them. When I received only silence, I screamed. "Tell me!"

"Why you can't remember doesn't have anything to do with us," Chelsea said quickly. "But we didn't tell you because we couldn't."

"Stop making excuses!"

"She's not." Jason took a step closer, which was enough for me to take another step back. He stopped moving, and the look on his face was one of pity, and I wanted to rip it off. I never wanted to see it again. "We were specifically instructed not to talk to you about it. After everything that happened..."

Chelsea sighed. "Your parents, my parents, Jason's— after you went away they all met with us. There was a court order, we signed affidavits— it was almost as messy as what happened to Tony."

"Chelsea, enough," Jason growled.

"What?" she asked, incredulous. "I wasn't the one who was accused of maiming the guy."

"Stop, stop, stop!" I begged. Holding my head. The pounding had returned, but for a different reason now. "You said you all met after I went away— to school? Why wasn't I a part of any of this?"

Chelsea frowned. "It all happened summer before you left, Sam. After the party. I just assumed you never wanted to talk about it."

"Now who needs to cut the shit?" Jason snapped.

"I swear to God, one of you needs to stop acting like I'm a child and start giving me answers." I was ready to throw my phone at the next person who avoided my questions and gave me another non-answer.

Neither of them spoke, both exchanging glances between themselves with the occasional look at me like they were weighing their options. After what felt like an hour, Jason finally broke the silence.

He sat back on the couch, running his hands through his hair acting like he wasn't the one who had a part of their life manipulated by those he trusted the most.

"After what happened at the graduation party you were... a mess. And rightfully so, but... you weren't in a capacity to think rationally. Or to make any decisions on your own, so your parents... they got you out of town."

"Like... on a vacation?"

"More like a hospital. And once you were settled, they sought us out. With their attorneys. And thanks to some misrepresentations believed that we were going to be more harm than good being near you, so they made us stay away."

"Those misrepresentations were well-warranted," Chelsea added.

"I didn't do anything," Jason insisted.

"And yet they still haven't found who did. You were the only one who left the party right before Tony was found. You were the only one with a reason to seek him out with any sort of vengeance. You had the intent and the timing to execute it."

"You said it was a drug deal," I offered.

"The authorities said it was a drug deal," Chelsea corrected.

"Your parents told the papers it was a drug deal," Jason scoffed. "In fact, your parents were spearheading the efforts to keep me behind bars!"

"My parents were trying to protect my best friend from someone so violently jealous they would brutally attack the object of her affections in their house. That they let you out was a technicality."

"There was no evidence!"

"ENOUGH!"

Both Chelsea and Jason spun to me as if they forgot I was there. As if what they were discussing wasn't involving me, or directly having an effect on my psyche. There was too much information and not enough time to sort through it all, especially with the two of them bickering over who was right or wrong and telling the truth or otherwise.

Jason took another step towards me, but I needed time. I needed space. I know I asked but now it was too much. I was suffocating and felt like there wasn't enough room in my lungs to breathe.

"Sam, you have to believe me that I would never do anything to hurt you."

I took another step back. "But you did," I gasped. "You could have told me. I asked so many times... you had so many chances. I deserved to know."

"But you couldn't..."

"I need some air," I announced, backing up until my back collided with the door.

"I can come with you," Chelsea offered, but I cut her off before she could say anything else. Before either of them could.

"I need to be alone." I looked to Jason. "I need you to leave me alone."

I didn't care about the hurt on his face. I didn't care about either of them, not as I exited the room and ran down to the hotel lobby in my bare feet and sleep shorts.

I needed to get away and the only thing keeping me from doing so was the raging storm outside.