DUSK by Esther Machethe (top books of all time txt) 📕

“Why didn’t you tell us before, don’t you trust us?” she asked in a small voice.

“It’s not like that, I only found out today, I would never keep something this big from you guys, you are my family.” I tried to assure her. I turned to Ash and he looked torn between two things but I let it go since mostly it did not concern me. He stood up and walked to the kitchen and left me with two overly excited girls. It didn’t take long for Ash to walk back into the room and he didn’t look that well. His posture was stiff and his face had morphed into a mix of anger and guilt. He was definitely not okay. He sat down next to Sapph and turned to me.

“So, did you decide if you are going with Alec?” he tried to sound casual but there was an edge to his voice.

“I’m going…” before I could finish my sentence, everyone in the room started complaining and talking at once.

“Wait, hear me out first. I need to get closure on everything especially this relationship because I can’t keep asking myself what I did wrong to make him just choose another girl.  Have to get some answers from him.” I tried to justify myself which worked because Ashton’s eyes softened.

“We are your best friends Chloe and we get that but you also have to understand that we are trying to protect you. You want the truth, the honest truth which everyone in school knows then ask me, I am a guy and I know everything because he flaunts them in the locker rooms after gym. Hell, I even know why Jared doesn’t like you that much. You want to know everything, ask me Chloe.” He exploded leaving us to gape at him in shock, he’s never been this protective or angry before but he says he knows everything so I decided to put it to the test.

“Tell me then Ash, why did everything happen, why does Jared hate me so much?” I challenged hoping to get something that will shed some light on everything. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“Before you came here four years ago, Alec was a playboy; he never committed to any girl and always preferred wham bam thank you ma’am. He never hung out with anyone but the twins and Jared and everyone knew that.

When you guys started dating everyone thought he would change; that you would change him because you’re a real sweetheart but then after six months of dating he started sleeping around with everything that wore a skirt and had breasts.

People thought that maybe you two had problems or something like that but you were always oblivious to everything so people thought you were a bitch behind their backs.

Alec used that card as his pity card; he would tell other girls how you were sleeping around behind his back and how you never pay attention to him so everyone started hating you. Jared and the twins found out the truth and Jared told me everything to warn you, I never thought it was real until that day when I heard him say it with his own words.

Jared doesn’t like us because he thinks that we decided to ignore him. You don’t believe me, listen to this recording.” He drew in a deep breath and handed me his phone. It was too much to hear, all this time I thought we were okay and people were just jealous but it was never that, they were being fed something different.

“We trust you Ash but she needs to hear this; it’s the closure she surely needed.” Em spoke for me, voicing my thoughts exactly as I had. I knew there was a reason she was my best friend, a darn good one too. Ash nodded and I pressed play with shaking hands.

“It gets so hard when you know your girl is cheating on you and I can’t break up with her without being seen as the bad guy so I just do what I can to survive until this senior year is done then I can blame it on the long distance or shit like that.” That voice was definitely Alec’s but I didn’t recognize the other girlish sound that awed in sadness.

“But what if you get caught? Won’t you be the bad guy?” the girl asked in a sultry voice.

“I can always pretend that I want to apologize for doing that to her and ask to take her out. She can never say no to me. No one can.” Alec’s voice rang out loud and clear. So it had been true all along, he was just using me to get laid which was a cheap and stupid move because he was Alec Jones. He could get anyone he wanted. I stared at the phone screen, lost in my own thoughts until something caught my eye.

“You put Sapph as your screen saver? When? How did it even happen?” I kind of blurted out without thinking. Em snatched the phone from me and looked at it before squealing gleefully.

“You guys, I totally ship Sapphash or is it phireash…I really have to figure out a ship name” Em rambled on making us laugh. Just like that, Alec was forgotten for the rest of the night. Hopefully, it would be forever too.

One of my worst enemies is waking up in the morning. I am not a morning person so when the alarm clock decided to mess up my amazing dream with its annoying sound I decided to throw it away where it crashed and finally the room fell silent.

“Wake up Chloe, its ten o’clock; you will miss the new episode of Castle season eight.” A robotic voice rang through my head and I would have discarded it as part of my dream if I didn’t remember I have a robot named Dusk in my head. This made me jump from my sleep and almost fall.

Not a second later, my bedroom door burst open and everyone I knew came flooding in.

“Damn, I wanted to jump on her bed and scare her like last time. Oh well, I’ll just jump on your bed. Happy birthday Chloe!! Welcome to the grown-up side.” Ashton yelled as he threw himself on my bed and almost crushed my legs. Everyone in the room laughed and muttered their birthday wishes. My parents came in holding my favourite cupcake with a lit candle.

“Happy birthday honey, make a wish.” Mom said in a loving tone. I blew the candle after making a small wish (that I won’t tell you) and greedily ate the cake.

“Wow, you still eat like a pig.” Em exclaimed with a serious face making everyone laugh.

“Hardy har har, very funny Em.” I retorted sarcastically making everyone laugh even more.

“Let’s all go and have some breakfast, I made the traditional birthday waffles and the last one down is not getting any.” Mom chimed as she walked down the hall with dad. We stared at each other for a minute before everyone scrambled out of the room.

Usually, I would be the last person because I can’t run to save my life but today I found myself moving with ease and I even beat Ashton who stopped and gaped at me. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it, thrice. He looked like a fish out of water.

“How…how…” he tried to form a sentence but his mind was not processing it quickly enough.

“How did she do that? Easy, it was all thanks to Dusk and her super speed. We all know Chloe can’t run to save her life.” Em, so sassily reminded them.

“Times like this I wonder why you are my best friend Em.” I tatted in a sophisticated manner making them laugh.

“You know you love us.” She retorted and stuck out her tongue at me; very mature.

Everyone sat round the table and we did the normal birthday ritual; told stories of interesting encounters with Ashton going on about his ‘secret missions’ since he is a ‘spy’ on a mission to protect ‘the princess’ from the most vile creatures on earth.

We all know it’s a load of bull crap but we always let him humour us because his stories are surprisingly very interesting and he’s the only one who can come up with such stories not to mention how he can have all of us, including my parents hung up on his every word. It’s pathetic really but it’s what makes us great friends; we listen to each other.

“So I got the message from HQ that there was a traitor among us but they had no clue who it was so it was up to me to identify him and keep the princess safe.” Ash told his story about how he was able to foil an attempted kidnap on a certain princess. We all waited for him to resume his story after pausing dramatically for almost five whole seconds; a new record for him.

“I knew I shouldn’t let word get out so I went to my partner; the only person I trusted and I was like ‘hey dude, there’s a mole here who’s working for the vile ones’ but Leo thought I was just fooling around so I went on detective mode to find who he was. You won’t believe who it was,” he paused again making Em groan in frustration.

“Get it over with, I want to know what happened.” She complained making everyone chuckle except my dad who was glaring daggers at Ash who didn’t seem to even notice.

“So I did my digging around until I came across a voice recorder. Guess whose voice was there; the boyfriend’s I took it to HQ and he was arrested, the kidnapping never happened and I saved the day. My partner was so jealous mostly because the princess kissed me. It was my best mission yet.” He sat back on his chair, satisfied with his story. Everyone’s face had matching smiles on them except dad who was still glaring at Ash.

“What’s wrong dad? You look mad.” I commented; drawing everyone’s attention to him. He managed a brief smile before muttering nothing.

“Ashton, can I have a word with you?” he said as he stood up. Ash shrugged as he stood up and followed dad into the kitchen. He looked mad, very mad. We all turned to mom who only shook her head that she didn’t know anyone. I wished I could hear what they were saying.

“Would you like me to access their intercom to overhear their conversation?” Dusk asked inside my head. It was weird having her there but it was cool.

‘Yes please’ I mentally agreed but absentmindedly nodded my head.

“What are you doing?” mom furrowed her head in confusion. I couldn’t tell her what Dusk was doing so I decided to create a diversion.

“Dusk just reminded me that the new episode of Castle is almost starting. It’s the episode where Kate and Castle are supposed to get married.” I gushed, temporarily distracted from my mental quest.

“Oh, then I guess I better let you girls get to it.” She mumbled before walking out in the opposite direction from where dad and Ash went.

“Would you like me to play