Hate vs. Love ✓ [Original Version]

Chapter 24 The Girl To My Left Does

Dedicated to Bookworm092100 for guessing Cassie's reaction, correctly before others. Awesome! Thanks for the feedback! Check out her awesome works, people!

Chapter 24: The Girl To My Left Does

"Cassie, wake up," someone with an unusual accent said next to my ear. Way too loudly.

"Stop shouting in her ear, Julian," another voice said. It was somewhat familiar, however, it was hard to connect a face to.

Slowly, I opened my eyes and instantly met Julian's face in front of me. He was lucky to pull back just in time I raised my hand to smack him.

"Violent, much?" he commented, looking at my raised hand.

Ignoring him, I sat up, slowly. For some odd reason, I was on a hospital bed, almost. As memories of the night flooded in my brain, realization dawned on me of where I was. My anger rose.

"You put me on a bed that was used by the asylum patients?" I asked Julian through clenched teeth. The foreigner gave me a guilty look.

"Everyone inside here thought it was a good idea," he replied.

"I recommended the car seat." I ignored the person who made the comment. He was way too much for me too handle at the moment.

As I looked around the room, I saw Lucas's group as well as those teenagers who had been drinking and trying to scare us.

"Julian, take me home," I ordered as I got off the bed. Unfortunately, it was a little too fast because I stumbled back from dizziness.

Both Julian and his cousin stepped forward to help me. I only looked at Julian and shook my head. Anger was building up inside me...rooting from the pain of seeing my best friend. I needed some space to think things over. Plus, he needed to realize how much his disappearance had hurt me for the past four years.

"Are you sure you want to go home?" Julian asked for clarification. His glance kept going over to the tall guy standing right by him.

"She's mad at me. It's her brain talking right now," said my so called best friend, "not her heart." Ever so calm and knowledgeable he was. I couldn't care less whether it was my brain or my heart...although, I was pretty sure it was my mouth that was doing the talking.

"Oh I am certain she isn't the only one angry," Julian told him and nodded towards Lucas's direction.

For once, I had sympathy for Lucas. His very own brother had disappeared and randomly shown back up. Even he wasn't aware why Brandon had left.

"Let's go, Julian," I said firmly. I made sure to have some strength to walk for a little bit towards the car. No need to pass out again. I should have eaten more, today. The chemical energy from brunch was long gone.

"Cass, wait." My arm was grasped as I took two steps.

"Oh, wasn't four years enough?" I retorted, finally meeting his light, green eyes.

His flinch gave me no satisfaction rather just hurt me more. "I can explain," he said in a desperate tone.

"What's the point? You chose to leave! You would have still left some time ago if we hadn't seen you!" I shouted.

His guilty look told me I was right which further frustrated me. So, he would have indeed chosen to leave rather than meeting me. Great. Just great. As if four years of isolation and torture wasn't enough. It was like putting salt on an open wound. So damn painful.

"Hear his side, Cassie," pleaded Julian.

"Julian, listen to me, now. For the past couple of weeks, I have been listening to you. Trust me, I have been awfully nice. But there is a limit to everything. I have a life, too. I like to make my own decisions. You dragged me to so many things, but I said nothing. The damned park, the club, this asylum. Not anymore. Stop butting in my life!" I snapped. While it was wrong of me to take my anger out at Julian, it still gave me some relief. Julian just stared at me with a sad look. Even that annoyed me. I turned towards Brandon and pulled my arm out of his grasp. "You can go back to wherever the hell you were gone. Because Cassandra Evans makes no difference to your life."