Empire High Elite

by Ivy Smoak

  Kennedy, Cupcake, and Felix all raised their hands.

  “So you’ve only had a fake one?” Felix asked with a laugh.

  Something like that.

  “That’s not part of the game,” Kennedy said, saving me from answering. “It’s your turn,” she said to him.

  “Coming from someone who forced Cupcake to clarify about a thousand times,” Felix said.

  Kennedy threw a pillow at him.

  Felix easily caught it before it hit him in the face. “Never have I ever wanted pizza more than I do right this second.”

  I let the sentence roll around in my mind. “Wait, does that mean you do want pizza?”

  “I think it means he doesn’t?” Kennedy said. “Because he said I never.” She put her hand up in the air but she looked really confused.

  Cupcake shook his head. “No it means he definitely wants it right now?”

  “My head hurts. I have no idea whether or not I’m supposed to raise my hand,” I said. “But all I can think about is eating pizza right now.”

  “Same!” Kennedy yelled and waved her hand in the air. “Pizza please!”

  Felix started laughing. “I was trying to be clever but I have no idea if that made any sense. I’m starving. Who else wants pizza?”

  I shoved Felix’s shoulder. “Cheater. You’re supposed to confess something like the rest of us.”

  “I’ll make it up to all of you by ordering pizza.”

  “Oh, you should use my Amex card. I think it’s for stuff like this.”

  “It’s fine, I got it,” he said with a wink and started talking on the phone.

  “Amex card?” Kennedy asked.

  “One of the perks of being a Pruitt. Mr. Pruitt gave me a credit card and told me to expense whatever I wanted on it. Pretty irresponsible of him if you ask me.”

  Kennedy shrugged. “I guess he trusts you.”

  That was it! I’d just had an epiphany. “What if he didn’t trust me?”

  She just stared at me.

  “I should just go crazy and buy a ton of stuff. Then he’ll hate me and disown me.”

  “How much stuff do you think you’ll have to buy to make him mad?”

  “I don’t know. Like…a thousand dollars’ worth?” I looked down at the couch I was sitting on. “I should buy a couch! That would really show him.”

  Kennedy nodded. “Those are expensive. We got ours second-hand and it was still a few hundred bucks.”

  This is genius. “Miller, can we go furniture shopping?”

  It wasn’t just a small corner of his mouth to lift up this time. He was full on smiling. He even laughed. “It’ll have to be more than a couch. You’re thinking too small.”

  “So like…the matching love seat and chair too?”

  “He won’t even bat an eye at that. He’ll just think you’re decorating your room.”

  “Well what do you suggest I do?”

  “I don’t know.” He walked over to us, his air of seriousness completely gone. “But I’m going to have another one of these.” He picked up a sugarcake. “They’re great.”

  “Thanks,” Cupcake said.

  “What if I bought a thousand sugarcakes?” I asked. “That would be…a lot.” I couldn’t mentally get over the number one thousand. Anything more seemed so extreme.

  “Why don’t you just tell him how you feel?” Felix asked. His arm was still stretched out behind me on the couch and I let my head fall on his shoulder.

  “I already tried that. It didn’t work.” I left off the fact that Mr. Pruitt swore he didn’t know about me. It didn’t change anything. It was my mom and me against the world. As soon as I thought it, I closed my eyes. My mom and me against the world. For a few minutes there, I had forgotten that my mom was dead. I’d forgotten everything that hurt. I took a deep breath and breathed in Felix’s familiar cologne. It was him. He’d taken away the pain.

  God, I was such an idiot. I thought Matt was the one for me. Hell, for a few minutes there I even thought Miller could be it. But it was Felix. Clearly it was Felix. He was literally my shoulder to cry on. And he’d made me forget. My whole body felt weird and light, like the realization had put me on a cloud. I’d let myself forget about Matt for an hour and it had given me all the clarity I needed.

  “I love you, Felix,” I thought to myself. I did. I loved him. It had always been him.

  Everyone around me stopped laughing and talking. A hush fell over the room. I lifted my head off Felix’s shoulder and stared at them staring at me.

  “What did you say?” Felix asked.

  Holy hell in a handbasket. Had I just said that I loved him out loud? Like…the words came out of my actual mouth? I reached up to touch my lips and was weirdly surprised that they were even there.

  “What?” I croaked.

  “You said you loved me.” Felix’s voice was soft. Like butter. God, butter was so good. I wanted some right now. I wanted him right now.

  “I did say those words out loud, yes.”

  The doorbell rang, but Felix didn’t break eye contact with me.

  Miller cleared his throat. “The pizza’s here. I’ll get it.”

  Felix reached out and ran his fingers down my jaw.

  The action made me shiver.

  “You love me.” He touched me like he was scared I’d disappear.

  And I realized it wasn’t just me that didn’t have any love left in my life. I lost everyone who put me first. But Felix had said his parents never put him first either. They were always gone. He was all alone. Just like me. And when I’d told him I was all alone at school the other day, he told me that I wasn’t. That I had him. I had him. But that wasn’t why he was looking at me like that. He was staring at me because he had me. And he needed love just as badly as I did.

  I tilted my head up to his. I didn’t care that Kennedy or Cupcake were watching. Or that Miller and a pizza delivery guy could probably see too. I was much too curious to find out if two broken souls could make one perfectly whole one. Because I really needed them to. I didn’t want to feel like I was drowning anymore.

  Just before our lips touched, I heard the one person that could break me out of my trance. The person who had thrown my broken, shattered heart into oncoming traffic. Matthew. Freaking. Caldwell.

  “Get your fucking hands off my girlfriend.”

  Chapter 14

  Saturday

  Nunca.

  I was imagining Matt standing there, right? Like I’d imagined him kissing me a million times before he’d ever even spoken to me? He was just ingrained in my brain and wouldn’t go away no matter how much I tried to force him out.

  But then Felix’s face morphed from a smile to a frown. “Girlfriend? What is he talking about, newb?”

  Oh no. No, no, no. Felix wasn’t supposed to find out about this until I figured out a great way to tell him. Definitely not like this. Shit.

  “I’m not going to say it again,” Matt said. And then he appeared before me. His chest rising and falling like he’d just sprinted here. I was definitely not imagining him. Or imagining the way it felt like there was a knife twisting in my heart. I wanted to run into his arms. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to cry because I didn’t have any idea what I wanted.

  “Brooklyn?” Felix asked. His hands were still on my face, trying to get me to look at him. Trying to get me to answer his very simple question. But it wasn’t simple to me. Nothing was simple anymore.

  And then Matt’s hands were on Felix, ripping him away from me. I wasn’t sure who landed the first punch, but before I even realized what was happening, they’d toppled onto the coffee table, snapping its legs with a crunch that echoed around the room.

  Kennedy and I both screamed.

  The snapped wood cracked even more as they rolled on top of it. And the sound of broken wood was quickly replaced with bone slamming against bone as they broke out into a full out brawl.

  “Stop it!” I screamed and tried to grab Matt’s arm before he could
land another punch. But his fists were too quick. “Stop it! Miller! Miller, do something!”

  For some reason Miller was laughing as he got between the two boys. He was bigger and older, but not that much bigger and older. The weird laughing confidence was alarming. He could easily get hurt.

  “Miller!” I yelled as Felix’s fist hit him before it hit its final destination of Matt’s face.

  Miller immediately stopped laughing.

  “Oh my God,” Kennedy said. “Cupcake, help him break it up.”

  “There’s no way I’m getting into that,” Cupcake said as he helped himself to another sugarcake.

  “What are you doing?” she shrieked and slapped the sugarcake out of his hand.

  I tried not to pay attention to them as Matt slammed another punch across Felix’s jaw.

  “Don’t you ever fucking touch my girl again,” Matt yelled.

  “She doesn’t belong to you,” Felix said and elbowed Matt in the throat.

  “Stop! Please stop!” I yelled. But they didn’t listen. Someone needed to stop them. I stepped forward, but Miller blocked my path.

  “Just give me a second,” he said. He was able to pretty easily separate the two of them when he finally tried. Miller pushed them apart with a grunt. “That’s enough. Cut it out you two.”

  Matt wiped the blood from the side of his mouth. “Why was he touching you?” He sounded so pained.

  “Matt.” My voice cracked when I said his name. “You and me…we broke up.”

  He shook his head. “Like hell we did. We had a disagreement. That doesn’t mean you go running into someone else’s arms without talking to me.”

  I felt so small. And that was the whole problem. Something about being with Matt always made me feel small. At least when we were around other people. I didn’t want to have this conversation in front of everyone. Not now. Especially when he was kind of right. We broke up yesterday and I was already telling someone else that I loved them. There was seriously something wrong with me. It was like all my thoughts were colliding. I didn’t have an explanation for him. “Matt…”

  “Come on. We’re leaving.”

  “What? No.” I wasn’t going anywhere with him. I wasn’t even allowed to. “What are you even doing here?”

  “You invited me,” he said.

  “No I didn’t. And I think you should leave.” What was he talking about? I looked over at Felix and grimaced at the blood on the side of his jaw and his eye that was already swelling shut.

  “You texted me asking me to come here,” Matt said.

  I absolutely did not. Sure I had thought about it. But I didn’t actually do it.

  He was staring at me like I’d lost my mind.

  I grabbed my phone and looked down at the text message thread. I had indeed texted him. It was right there in front of me. But I had no recollection of doing it. “No.” I shook my head. “I didn’t write that.”

  Matt looked over at Felix like he was about to attack him again.

  “It wasn’t Felix either. I don’t…I don’t remember.” It felt like my head was spinning. And for some reason, I really wanted to laugh. Because Matt’s face was so serious. Everyone’s faces were so serious.

  “What do you mean you don’t remember?” Matt said. “It was less than half an hour ago.”

  “I…” I didn’t know what else to say. Maybe someone had stolen my phone. But I didn’t think Felix would do something like that. I looked over at Cupcake. If I had to guess one person who would steal my phone and text Matt randomly, I’d guess him. We were barely even friends.

  “Matt, she asked you to leave,” Felix said. “So I’m not going to ask you again. Get out of my house.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Matt sounded more pissed than ever. But he wasn’t looking at Felix. His eyes were trained on me.

  I tried to take a step back as he took a step closer, but the back of my legs collided with the couch. What, was he mad that I was staring at Cupcake? I was trying to figure out what the hell was happening, not checking him out.

  “Your pupils are huge,” Matt said. “What have you been taking?”

  “Nothing.” What was his problem? First Cupcake implied that I looked huge. And now my pupils were big too? All men were jerks.

  Matt drew even closer. “Have you been drinking?”

  “No. You sound insane right now. I think you need to go home and chill out.”

  Kennedy giggled. “Chill out, bruh.” She laughed again as she lifted up a sugarcake. “Do you want one? They make me happy. They’ll probably make you happy too.” She held it out to him.

  Matt looked at the sugarcake in her hand and then down at the almost empty box of desserts. He grabbed it out of her hand. “Did you put something in these?”

  “Um no, psycho,” said Kennedy. “What would I have put in them?”

  Matt turned toward Felix. “What the hell did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Felix said.

  “You expect me to believe that? You’re a drug dealer.” He tried to step around Miller, but Miller blocked his path. “You wanted to get with my girl and the only way you could do it was to get her high off her mind? You laced these with something, you dirtbag.” He threw the sugarcake at Felix.

  Felix ducked, but not quite quickly enough. The sugarcake smooshed into the side of his face, smearing the blood along his jawline. Felix lunged at Matt, but Miller stopped him.

  “Enough!” Miller said. And then he laughed. And then he stopped. And then he laughed again. “Shit. There is definitely something in those.”

  Everyone turned toward Cupcake, who was sitting there happily on the couch munching on a sugarcake.

  “What?” he said. “I told Brooklyn not to have any more and everyone made it seem like I was a monster. I was trying to get her to pace herself. She didn’t listen.”

  “Pace myself?” I asked. “What the hell is in those sugarcakes?”

  “Pot, obviously. I was trying out a new recipe so it would be easier to get away with selling them at school. It was Felix’s idea. He’s a freaking genius. We’re all about to make so much money.”

  “Fuck,” Felix said and ran his hand down his face. “We were supposed to work on the recipe together, you dick.”

  “I thought you’d be happy that I did it so fast. Surprise.”

  “Happy? You freaking drugged us, Cupcake. What the hell is your problem?”

  “Wait,” Kennedy said. “You’re selling drugs?” She looked upset. Furious even. But her face looked so calm, like she was about to fall asleep.

  “Yeah, Felix gave me a stake in his business when he had to stop selling himself. I thought everyone already knew this? Kennedy, you tried out my first batch last night.”

  Her face went ghostly pale. “I can’t believe you,” Kennedy said. Instead of falling asleep like I thought she was about to, she stood up. “I trusted you, Cupcake.”

  That sentence was ridiculous. She did realize that, right? Trusting a cupcake? I held back my laughter because I could tell it wasn’t the right time. But I swore the smile on my face probably looked like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.

  “Why do I always fall in love with drug dealers?” she said and put her face in her hands.

  Always? I looked at Felix. He was the only other drug dealer I knew. Kennedy had told me she didn’t like Felix when I’d confronted her about it. But then I thought about how weird Kennedy had been when I’d first started hanging out with Felix. How she’d tried to get me to stay away from him. How she’d kept saying she thought Felix was probably related to me. God. Rob had even tried to warn me about this, but I hadn’t listened to him. Kennedy really was in love with Felix?

  But Felix didn’t react to what she said at all. No one did. The only person that knew what she meant was me.

  I put my hand on her back. I didn’t even care about the fist fight that had just happened right in front of me. I was solely focused on my friend’s pain. “Kennedy, I’m so
sorry. You told me you didn’t…I didn’t…” I let my voice trail off. My best friend was in love with the guy I just told I was in love with. And I couldn’t say any more in front of all these people who were still clueless.

  “What?” she said and pulled her face out of her hands. Her eyes grew round as what she’d just said dawned on her. “I didn’t mean that. I’m just upset that my boyfriend is selling drugs without telling me and tricking me into being his guinea pig!” Her throat made a weird squeaking noise when she swallowed.

  For a second everyone just stared at her.

  “I have to go.” She sprinted so fast I would have sworn she was on the track team.

  “Shit.” Cupcake ran after her.

  I tried to move around Miller to run after her too, but he stopped me.

  “You were only given permission to come here,” Miller said. “You can’t follow them wherever they’re going.”

  “So now we’re following the rules again?”

  “I only didn’t follow them one time by letting those two in in the first place. And look at what happened.” He gestured toward the broken coffee table.

  “No, this happened because you just let Matt waltz in here and he’s not on my approved acquaintance list. Or whatever the hell it’s called.”

  “Actually he is,” Miller said. “All the Caldwells are.”

  “Of course. The one person I don’t want on it already is.”

  “Pizza delivery,” some stranger said as he entered the family room. “Whoa, what happened here?”

  Miller cursed under his breath and grabbed the pizza delivery guy by the arm, hauling him back toward the hallway.

  Felix, Matt, and I were left standing there in an increasingly awkward silence.

  I wanted to make a joke about how good the pizza smelled, but it didn’t seem like it would be well received.

  “So he’s the one you kissed?” Felix asked. “When you promised I could be your first?”

  I wasn’t sure if his words were just harsh against the silence, or harsh because he was angry.