My life was some kind of movie shit. Great. What I always wanted.
“I miss you,” I whined into the phone. “I wish I could’ve stayed.” I mean, I was eighteen. Legally an adult. I shouldn’t have had to move here, but I couldn’t think about living on my own and paying all those bills myself, so it wasn’t like I had much choice. I didn’t have a job. Mom always wanted me to focus on school, which had been great, until it wasn’t enough.
“Me too,” Leah agreed. “The rest of senior year is going to suck major monkey balls without you.” We both laughed, our laughter trailing off to silence. “I hate to do this, but I got to go, Elle. Mr. Ramos is making us write a research paper—”
I knew the one she was talking about. It was the dreaded research paper all seniors at my old school hated. “And you procrastinated until the last possible moment,” I finished for her, smiling at my ceiling.
“You know me. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay.” I said my goodbyes and hung up, setting the phone against my stomach as I lost myself in my thoughts.
Make Alec fall in love with me, drive a wedge between him and Christian. I could do that. While I was focusing on Alec, I would keep an eye out on Xander, be nice to him. Kiss his ass, if I had to. Oh, and who could forget Jessie? I still had no idea whether she was as nice as she acted—I had her notebook in my backpack to copy tonight—but I could be friends with her. Get her to trust me, and then tear her away from Christian and leave the douche with nothing.
Christian deserved absolutely nothing.
Chapter Six
The next morning I found Alec by his locker. When his locker neighbor finished up, I took his place, leaning against the metal as I looked up at him. He was cute, I had to give him that, and when his green eyes turned to me, my stomach did a little flip.
“Hey,” I spoke softly, getting his attention. “I just wanted to thank you for yesterday.” Christian’s locker was further down the hall, and with any luck, the dickhead would see me here.
“For what?” Alec asked, running a hand through his blonde hair, the motion lifting up his t-shirt somewhat. Before I knew what I was doing, my eyes fell, spotting the muscles on his abdomen. Now was not the time to ogle Alec Perry.
“For driving me home. I know I’m not the easiest person to get along with these days,” I went on, pulling the shit directly from my ass, “I just didn’t know how to act around you. It’s still like a part of me is back in sixth grade.”
Alec had his stuff for his first period class, and he was slow to close his locker. I had to hurry this up, otherwise I’d be late. “We’re not in sixth grade anymore.” Well, thank you, Captain Obvious.
“I know.” As I spoke, I set a hand on his arm. A soft, gentle touch, one he probably wasn’t expecting. I didn’t let the touch linger though, quickly dropping my hand to my side. “And no matter what you think, I would be happy to start new. To forget about the past.” Tilting my head up to him, I gave him a smile that I prayed was meek and shy. “I’ll see you later.” Before Alec could say anything more, I wandered away.
I had to get ready for homeroom and first period too, didn’t I?
Planting the seeds. That’s what I was doing.
I was quite happy with my little encounter with Alec, at least until a rough, strong hand appeared before me, closing my locker with force and causing me to blink in shock. I stared at the hand, knowing who it belonged to even before I turned my head to meet its owner. Christian stood less than a foot from me, taller than ever, smelling like body spray and hair gel. It wasn’t a bad smell.
Christian was…even larger up close. Wide shoulders, at least six feet tall. The kind of guy every girl in the school had a crush on at one point or another. His blonde hair was cut short on the sides, a little longer on top. He was clean-shaven, allowing me to see the curve of his cheekbones and the small cleft in his chin. Underneath his Letterman jacket, he was all muscle, and everything I hated.
And yet, my heart did a funny kind of pitter-patter when I met his sapphire eyes.
His posture was aggressive, but instead of being scared, I was, for lack of a better word, sort of turned on. His mean and haughty sixth grade face had morphed into one of sexy arrogance and handsome cruelness.
“Stay the fuck away from Alec,” he whispered, a scowl forming on his attractive face.
“You,” I said, taking a step toward him, stopping when there was less than a few inches between my chest and his abdomen, “don’t get to tell me what to do. Not anymore, Christian.” It was a confrontation to his jerky attitude, but it was difficult to hold my resolve when every time I breathed in, I smelled him.
Damn, the boy smelled good.
“Alec is my friend, and I’m just looking out for him. You are trouble,” Christian spoke with a sneer, his mouth curled into a frown. A sexy frown, but a frown nonetheless.
I was trouble? Oh, the nerve of this guy. “Only one of us is trouble here, and it isn’t me,” I told him with a shrug. “Now, could you kindly leave me alone? I’d hate to be late on my second day back.” My voice was coated in sugar, the exact opposite of his.
“As long as you stay away from him, we’ll be good.” Christian sent me one more glare before leaving.
Well, that was…completely unexpected and totally uncalled for. I hadn’t even enacted my plans of revenge yet, and Christian already had it out for me. Great. That would only make things harder.
The morning passed quietly. I kept my nose in my books for most of my classes, ignored the sneers that came from Christian during English class, and before I knew it, it was lunchtime. Regardless of what Georgia thought, I was going to keep sitting with her. I rather liked her.
Georgia had the same packed lunch she did the day before, and I had the feeling she always brought the same thing, day in and day out. She was a creature of habit, which I could respect. I slid into the seat beside her, dropping a chocolate bar onto the table.
Her red eyebrows lifted. “Chocolate for lunch?”
I shrugged. If there was one thing she should know about me, it’s that I had a sweet tooth. Came hand in hand with having an orthodontist as a dad, who never let me eat sweets in the house growing up. When I lived with Mom, I ate candy as often as I could, and I wasn’t about to stop the tradition now. It just meant I had to work out a little more and brush my teeth a little extra.
“Want a piece?” I asked, breaking off the first row of the bar.
“No, thank you,” Georgia said with a shake of her head. “I’m good.” Silence overtook the table, and I was focusing on my chocolate bar until she said, “This is weird.”
I looked at her. “What’s weird?” My mouth was full of chocolate, and I flicked my gaze to Christian’s table. He had his hand on Jessie’s, and she was busy laughing at something he’d said. On his other side, Alec was busy trying to pay attention to the table gossip, but failing miserably, mostly because he kept looking at me. I made sure to meet his stare across the cafeteria a few times, to let him know I knew he was watching me.
Georgia fumbled with the snacks in her brown paper bag. “I’m not used to sitting with anyone. Usually I just eat and read, maybe do homework, if I have a lot.”
“If that’s what you want to do, don’t let me stop you. I’ll just be eating my chocolate.” I grinned, meeting the girl’s eyes. Today her orange hair was swept back in a braid.
“No, it’s…” She coughed, embarrassment flashing across her face. “It’s kind of nice, having someone to talk to.”
“You want to talk, do you?” I swallowed a piece of chocolate before adding, “Then tell me all the gossip. Everything. I want to know everything I’ve missed.” I knew she hadn’t been here the entire time I was gone, but I’d get the gist.
Georgia managed to chuckle. “Why? Do you have a plan to rule the school?” When I looked at her, her chuckle faded, and she was deathly serious when she said, “You do. You do have a plan to—”
“Shh,” I shushe
d her. “That’s top secret, don’t you know?”
“You’ve seen high school movies, right? Plans like that always backfire when you’re least expecting them to.” Georgia rested her chin on a hand, looking at me with a whole new light. “It is kind of exciting though, not going to lie.”
I wasn’t sure I could trust Georgia with keeping the detailed secrets of my plan, so I’d just let her think whatever she was thinking. I leaned in closer to her, whispering, “What can you tell me about Jessie?”
“Christian’s girlfriend?” After I nodded, Georgia went on, “Well, she’s a cheerleader, gets decent grades. Everyone loves her. Even I like her, although I have no idea why she’s with that tool.”
“How long have they been dating?” If Georgia liked her, then she must be genuinely nice. And if that was the case, I was also clueless. Someone who’s nice shouldn’t be with that asshole.
Georgia thought on it. “Not that long. Maybe less than a month?”
I learned their relationship happened after winter break was over. Not long at all, but then again, romances in high school were always all or nothing. Everything or nothing at all. A whirlwind of emotions and hormones—they’d probably slept together by now, exchanged the L-word, among other things.
I wasn’t jealous. Not really. I could sleep with anyone I wanted, too. In fact, I had, back at my old school. The day after I learned…well, that my life was going to change. Brett Wenton. It hadn’t been much fun, truly. I’d wanted to do it, to release the pent up emotions inside of me, but in the end, it didn’t do much for me. He had a great time. Me? I was mostly in pain and stuck inside my head, wishing I had someone else’s life. It was before Leah and I decided that my revenge fantasies should become a reality.
“I’m partners with her and a girl named Sarah in chemistry,” I said, finishing up my chocolate. “She let me borrow her notebook since there’s a test next week. I didn’t know if she was just being nice to me to try to pull the rug out from under me later on.”
Georgia shook her head. “No, she is nice. Not like those bitchy cheerleaders you see in the movies.”
Great. That definitely put a damper on things, didn’t it? If Jessie was a nice girl, I didn’t want to hurt her. I didn’t want any friendly fire in my revenge. The only ones who should be hurting were the three in the Dick Squad.
When the lunch bell rang and it was time to go to our next classes, I took my time heading to chemistry. When I sat at the table I shared with Jessie and Sarah, I found Jessie already there. Christian and Alec weren’t here yet, which gave me the perfect time to talk to her without their eagle eyes on me.
As I sat down, I handed her the notebook she’d lent me. “Thank you for letting me borrow it,” I said, smiling.
“Oh, no problem,” she quickly said, meeting my smile with one her own. I detected not a hint of animosity toward me; I couldn’t say why I hoped she’d feel some kind of annoyance or some negative emotion toward me.
Wait a second, yes I did. I wanted her to be mean, I wanted her to be like Christian, because then I wouldn’t feel so bad about breaking them up.
“How do you like the school?” she asked, leaning on her elbows. Sarah came into the room, moving to sit beside her, and it wasn’t too long before I saw Christian and Alec enter the science room too.
Did her question mean she didn’t know I’d been a part of this school district before? Had Christian told her nothing about me? Hmm. Maybe I could use that to my advantage, somehow.
“It’s good to be back,” I said, my grin forced.
“Back?” Jessie echoed. “You came here before? I don’t remember you.”
“From kindergarten to the middle of sixth grade,” I said. “I was actually in Christian’s class.” I tossed out the fact as if it meant nothing, but I saw the way her eyes shifted toward her boyfriend, who was busy glaring at us. When Christian saw Jessie looking at him, his expression softened and he returned his focus to Alec. Or pretended to.
“Huh,” Jessie muttered. “Wonder why he didn’t say anything.”
I shrugged. “Who knows? Boys are weird.”
Behind Jessie, Sarah nodded enthusiastically. “True that.” Her words made Jessie laugh, and I watched the friends talk about what was going on this weekend. Maybe she was just a good liar, but Jessie seemed nice.
Sucked that I’d inevitably have to break her heart as I broke Christian’s.
Chapter Seven
It was the next day’s photography class when I had a revelation. Or, more specifically, when I realized just how I was going to get closer to Xander. Out of all three of them, so far he’d been the most aloof. What better way to break through his cold exterior than spend time with him doing what he enjoyed doing the most? Taking pictures.
While the rest of the class was out and about, filling up their portfolios and developing their most recent shots, I went to the teacher, who once again was on Facebook. He didn’t even bother to minimize the screen. Taxpayer dollars hard at work.
“I’m kind of clueless where to start…” I began, trailing off as the teacher met my stare. I rubbed the back of my neck, hoping I seemed nervous about asking for help. “Do you think Xander could help me get started?”
The teacher agreed that, since half of the school year was already over, I did need some help to get on track with the other students. Xander was my official tutor in photography. Go figure. Until today, I’d never heard of a photography tutor before, but it worked. Getting the aloof Xander to spend more time with me was step number one.
The next time Xander stepped foot in the classroom—he’d been out in the black room developing some of his shots—the teacher told him. And he did not look happy. His frown could not have been more intense, but he didn’t argue, mostly because he was a suck up to this teacher.
Xander glanced over his shoulder, watching as the teacher walked out, probably to gossip with the choir teacher, before returning his dark eyes to me. “Do you really need my help, or are you just trying to fuck with me?” No other student was in the room, so he must’ve felt free to speak his mind.
I creased my eyebrows, holding onto the digital camera I’d signed out. “I’m not trying to fuck with you,” I said quietly. I sat at a table while Xander stood tall. I watched him nibble on his lip ring. The action shouldn’t have caught my attention, but it did. It did, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
How would kissing him work with his lip ring? Could he not kiss rough? How would the lip ring feel when you…
Okay, more thoughts I shouldn’t be having. My mind was apparently in the gutter, and I couldn’t blame it because it was so consumed by three equally attractive teenagers who were more like men than boys.
“After everything…” Xander frowned, shaking his head. “I don’t believe you.”
I gave him my best smile as I got to my feet, moving around the desk. He watched every movement I made beneath his shaggy black hair, and I resisted my urge to run a hand through its length. Would it be soft? No, I had to fight my wandering mind.
“Look, I know this is weird,” I said, shrugging, “but this is the one class I was excited for. I didn’t know how coming back to this school would be—I thought I’d have to be on guard all the time. This was supposed to be the one class I could relax in, the one class I could have fun in. I’m not trying to fuck with you, Xander, because I need this class more than you do.”
Damn, I sounded smooth. Earnest, too. Gold medal for me.
Xander’s expression softened a little, and he averted his eyes. He had always been the one to watch, always the first to laugh at whatever Christian did. How did he change so much? Was the Xander of elementary and middle school still in there, or had he really turned over a new leaf? “Okay,” he eventually said. “What do you need help with?”
“Turns out, I like the idea of taking pictures, but when it comes to inspiration, I have no idea how to do it. What would look good.”
Xander’s mouth actually quirked into a smi
le—a tiny one, one that faded almost instantly, but I still noticed it. His teeny, tiny smile was kind of adorable. “That’s not the point.”
“I don’t…”
“The point is not to take the most beautiful shot. Pictures are just pictures without heart and soul put behind them. You can tell when a photographer put his everything into a shot. Those shots are the ones you see on the news, in the papers and the history books…” His long-winded explanation trailed off when he saw me watching him with a smile. “What?”
I actually had no idea what the hell I was smiling about, so I turned away, fiddling with the camera in my hands. “Nothing.”
“No, what is it?”
Seeing as how Xander didn’t look like he was about to let it go, I tried to find the right words to explain, “Really, it’s nothing. It’s just…you’re not at all like the Xander I remember.” That was putting it lightly.
“And you’re not the Elle I remember,” he shot back, though his tone wasn’t exactly unkind.
I met his stare, beneath his shaggy black hair. His hair was naturally this dark; he wasn’t the kind of guy to dye his hair. Until him, I never really knew how attracted I could be to his type. He wasn’t too tall, and he was on the thin side, but my body was drawn to his anyway. Those piercings, the slight kink in his shaggy hair, even his stupidly slumped posture—I was officially attracted to Xander Hill.
Not once did I ever think I’d fall down that rabbit hole. Not after everything he did to me.
I was leaning against the fence, trying to read a book I’d gotten from the school library. It was recess, and my class was outside. Everyone else was having fun, laughing and playing. Half of the class was on the small playground, while the other half was playing a kid’s version of football. I was the odd one out, as always, and I was trying to make the best of it. Trying to do my reading assignment. Trying to focus on anything that wasn’t Christian and his friends.
Spite: A Bully Reverse Harem Page 5