Reed grabs onto my fists on his t-shirt and the muscles in his stomach contract as he growls, “This is starting to really piss me off now. I was having a good day, all right? I won. Yeah, I also got beaten up for it by your wonderful brother, who packs a really mean punch by the way. But it’s fine. I don’t care. I’m the champion. I’ve been waiting for this day ever since your brother stole the title last season. So yeah, I was having a brilliant fucking day and I would really like to get back to it. So I’m going to make this really easy for you.
“These past few weeks have been good. Fun. I mean, I still don’t like twirling but I can see why dudes do it. And I’m not sure if I’m going to be walking into that cupcake store again. It’s too pink for me. But I have to say that it’s been interesting. Given the fact that the only reason it all started was because you’re the Thorn Princess. But you’re really fucking ruining it right now.”
“What did you just s-say?”
“Look, it was a clear-cut way to mess with him. It’s not as if I was thinking about it. It’s not as if I was plotting ways to seduce my rival’s little sister. But then you walked into my party looking all sweet and innocent. I tried to stay away, trust me. I even made that stupid fucking pact. But then you were so interested in me. I mean, why wouldn’t you be? Every girl is, but I would have had to be stupid not to take it. I would have had to be too stupid not to take you. Especially when it was too easy to reel you in. Too easy to take you for a ride, make you do things. You practically stood on the edge of a cliff for me. All I had to do was give you a push. All I had to do was make you fall.”
All he had to do was give me a push.
He’s right.
I stood on the edge for him. My arms wide open, wearing a white dress.
And all he had to do was nudge me a little.
All he had to do was make me fall.
“You did all this so you could mess with Ledger,” I whisper as numbness spreads through my veins.
His jaw clenches. “I did all this for soccer.”
“So you could beat him.”
“So I could beat him.”
I repeat his words from a long time ago. “Because winning is everything.”
“Yeah.” His eyes flick back and forth between mine. “Besides, I showed you a good time, didn’t I? So no hard feelings.”
“No hard feelings.”
“In fact, you should be thanking me.”
I dig my fists into his torso. “I should be thanking you.”
“Yes. For the fact that I made sure there was minimal damage.”
“What minimal damage?”
Reed lowers his voice then, staring at me with flashing eyes. “I didn’t fuck you, did I? I could’ve. But I didn’t, and trust me, that was hard. It’s not every day a guy gets a lap dance from a horny ballerina. I’ve had my fair share of cheerleaders and I know how bendy they can be. I know how bendy you could be. I’ve seen you dance.
“And some guys don’t like virgins. They say they’re too much work. You can’t fuck them how you want to. But I’m not one of those guys. I like them. I like training them. I like breaking them in. I like when they bite their lip and make those hurting noises. I like when they push you away like it’s too much for them. But you rub them in the right place and they cling to you like you’re their entire world. I like that. I liked how you clung to me and how when you came, you looked like you couldn’t believe it. You looked like nothing had ever been that good. And I could’ve rocked your world last night. Even more than I did. But I didn’t. I let you go. So yeah, minimal damage.”
“Why? Why did you let me go?”
“Consider this my good deed. Of the month.” He thinks about it. “Year. I let you escape my evil clutches unscathed. Your brothers should thank me. It was torturous.” He looks me up and down. “It still is. And if you don’t want me to pick you up and carry you to my Mustang and drive you back to those woods and give you a real reason to spin and bend over like the pretty blonde ballerina you are, you should really let me go, Fae.”
I do.
I let him go.
I step back from him.
Not because of what he said he’d do if I didn’t.
But because of Fae.
Because he called me by the name he gave me.
A fake name.
A name that I held dear to my heart like a fool.
I clung to it at night. I put it under my pillow like a wish.
A name that made me feel like a real fairy.
His fairy.
“You’re an asshole,” I breathe out and almost cringe.
He said all these things to me and this is what I say to him?
This is all that I say to him?
This is the extent of my wrath?
“Now you know,” he drawls.
“I can’t believe I…” I trail off because I don’t know what to say.
I don’t know what to think. What to feel…
I wrap my arms around my waist and bite my lip before trying again. “So stupid…” I shake my head, unseeing. “I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid. I… God, I’ve been so foolish. I thought you… I fell in l –”
“You’re not going to say the L word, are you?” he says, cutting me off.
I draw back, as if he has struck me.
“Well, you were,” he murmurs and all I can do is stare at him silently.
All I can do is stare at the guy who’s standing in front of me in dark clothes, not one ounce of softness on him, staring back at me with emotionless wolf eyes as he says, “Let me tell you something about guys like me. Guys like me, we like to play. We like to break hearts. Just because we can. Just because it’s fun. You don’t fall for guys like me. You don’t pin your dreams and hopes on guys like me. You don’t lie for them. You don’t sneak around for them. You don’t knit them sweaters. You called me a villain, remember? That’s what I am. I like breaking hearts. I like breaking lovestruck dreams. I like feeding on the innocent love of innocent girls like you. What I don’t like is for that girl to stand in front of me and cry about it. I thought I told you that the only thing I love is my Mustang. I thought you understood. I thought you were smarter than that. I thought your brothers taught you everything.”
Smarter than that.
That’s what Con said to me, didn’t he?
He said that I was smarter.
He said that he trusted me.
And I lied to him.
I lied to all of them. To him, to Ledger.
Especially to Ledger.
The brother I have betrayed the most. I don’t even know how he is. I haven’t even seen him since the fight.
Because I came here.
Because I came running here to see the guy who lied to me.
Who lied and used me.
For soccer.
Who played with me and broke my heart because he wanted to win at a game.
I shake my head again, my vision getting blurred. “Yeah, I thought that too. I thought my brothers taught me everything. But apparently, they didn’t. Apparently, I’m just a stupid girl who fell for a villain.”
His features are tight now, stark and gorgeous and heartbreaking. “Well, consider this your first lesson in love and growing up.”
Yeah, my first lesson in heartbreak.
“See you around, Fae.”
With that he leaves.
As abruptly as he came into my life.
He walks back to that couch where the whole world is waiting for him with open arms. While mine is crumbling around me.
While my world is plagued with earthquakes and landslides, his simply blooms and sparkles, teeming with a new life, a new adventure.
He’s going to New York this fall, isn’t he?
Foolishly, I thought that we’d still keep in touch. That we’d find a way to be together. I even thought about spending the last month of school… being with him now that the champi
onship game was over. Hanging out with him in the hallways, in the courtyard. Listening to music in his Mustang.
Yeah, I thought that.
In the deepest recess of my mind, I did think about life after the soccer rivalry comes to an end and after he leaves Bardstown High.
But as I found out tonight, I’m stupid.
And in love. With a villain.
With a guy who likes to break hearts.
***
I don’t remember walking out of that party.
I don’t remember finding Tempest out in the driveway either.
All I remember is that I’m here.
I’m outside, under the starry night and my best friend has a hold of my arm. She’s trying to get my attention. She’s asking me something, I know that.
But I’m too distracted.
I’m too focused on something that I saw as soon as I came outside.
In fact, it’s the first thing I remember seeing: a flash of white.
A bright, sparkly white.
Brighter than the moon even.
A white Mustang.
His white Mustang.
The only thing he loves.
That’s what he just said.
He said that the only thing he loves is his Mustang, and then all the numbness, all the fog that had surrounded me ever since he told me the truth, his truth, vanishes.
I turn to Tempest. “I-I need the keys to his car.”
“What? Why?”
“I just… I need…”
Tempest grabs my shoulders and makes me look at her. “What happened, Callie? What did he do? What’d he say to you?”
I look at her, into her gray eyes, so much like her brother’s. “I love him.”
Sympathy overcomes her features. “I know.”
“He used me.”
“What?”
I have to wait for this pain in my chest to pass before I can speak. “H-he said he used me. Against Ledger. He did it all to mess with him. So he could win at soccer.”
Her eyes are wide. “Oh God.”
“I don’t… I don’t know how to stop this.”
“Stop what?”
“This pain,” I whisper. “I don’t know how to make it stop hurting.”
She hugs me then. “Oh, Callie. I’m so sorry. I’m…” She moves away from me. “Listen, Callie, my brother, I love him, okay? I love him to pieces, but he has a major self-destructive streak. He can be… toxic and –”
“Will you bring his keys to me?” I ask, cutting her off.
“Keys to his Mustang?”
“The thing he loves the most.”
She studies me for a few seconds before nodding with determination. “Yeah. I will. Just wait here.”
And I do.
And she does too.
She does bring me the keys after a few seconds and I don’t ask her how she did it. How she swiped her brother’s keys.
All I do is get inside his car and despite my many protests, Tempest gets inside too. All I do is start his car and drive away.
I’m sixteen now so I can get my driver’s license.
In fact, Con was going to take me for my test next weekend and he’s been teaching me for the past few months. Ledger has been teaching me too.
Him too.
He’s the one who taught me to drive stick. He’s the one who taught me that in his Mustang.
So this isn’t the first time I’m driving this car.
Although this is the first time I’m driving it to this place.
I’ve been to this place before. With my brothers and a couple of times with my friends.
Never with him though.
I regret that.
It would’ve been poetic. Me driving to a place in his stolen car that we used to visit together.
But it’s not.
It’s tragic and catastrophic and awful.
Just like our Shakespearean names.
It didn’t help, did it?
Changing them, calling each other by made up names. Rivalry and hatred still fucking won and it’s so awful that I’m cursing and I don’t even mind.
It’s so awful that when I get there, to my destination, the lake, I stop the car.
I turn to Tempest. “I’m going to do something awful.”
“I know,” she says.
I flex my fingers on the wheel. “Aren’t you going to stop me? He’s your brother.”
Tempest throws me a sad smile. “He’s my brother, yes, and that’s why I know that he must’ve done something really horrible for you to do this. I know what my brother is capable of, Callie. I know he broke your heart. I know he didn’t just break your heart, he smashed it. Didn’t he?”
A tear streaks down my cheek as I nod.
“Well, then I was right. You wouldn’t do this otherwise.”
That’s all the encouragement I need.
I turn back and look at the lake, all shimmering and silvery under the moon, surrounded by trees. A slope leads down to it, a perfect slope for what I have in mind.
I start the car and pull at the gear. I put it in neutral and say to Tempest, “Get out now.”
She does and I’m right behind her.
And then, standing on the forest floor, my ballet flats crunching the leaves and tears streaming down my face, I watch the love of his life sliding toward the lake at a steady pace.
Before it hits the water.
Before the water slowly engulfs it, swallows it down, eats it up like he ate up my heart.
Just when it looks like I’ll never see it again, something goes off inside of me. Another earthquake. Another explosion, and I start to run toward the lake.
I start to dash toward it but Tempest stops me.
She grabs my arm and pulls me back. “Callie, no. Let it go.”
“No, I can’t… I…”
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s fine. Let it go.”
“I have to… I have to save his car. I have to…”
“Callie, you can’t go in there, okay? You can’t.”
“But I have to save it.” It’s going down and down, the bright white disappearing into the darkness. “I have to… He loves it and I… I can’t hurt him like this. I can’t hurt him…”
“Hey, hey, Callie. Look at me.” She turns me around and shakes me, makes me look at her. “It’s just a car, okay? It’s only a car.”
“But he loves it,” I tell her, tears streaming down my face.
“He’ll get over it.”
“I have to save it,” I whisper.
“You don’t.”
“I have to save the thing he loves.”
“No, not right now, okay?” She hugs me again. “Right now, you just need to save yourself.”
And then I can’t stop crying.
I can’t stop sobbing as I cling to my friend.
I cling to her like she’ll save me like I want to save his car.
But the truth is that no one can save me.
I’m already dying.
I’ve already fallen in love with a villain.
To be continued in…
A Gorgeous Villain
Please Note that it is highly advisable to read the prequel first in order to enjoy the full-length book.
Heart (n.):
A muscular organ with four chambers that beats in a rhythm
Broken Heart (n.):
A heart with cracked chambers that still beats but every beat is arhythmic and hence, painful
In the middle of the woods in the town of St. Mary’s, there is a school.
It’s a school only for girls.
Actually, it’s a school only for bad girls.
Girls who break rules.
Who cut classes or steal and totally do not respect authority.
Some of them are violent and have anger issues.
Like punching a teacher in the face because they asked to see your homework a
nd they kinda asked loudly. Which was not appreciated because you were hungover from all the alcohol you’d consumed the night before, illegally, and at a party that you should never have been at in the first place.
There’s a girl here who did that.
People tend to stay away from her because she likes to break things.
I like her though. She’s been good to me.
But anyway, not all the girls are this violent. Some girls are tamer.
Like, there’s a girl here whose only crime was to steal a credit card because she saw a really cute dress at a store and she wanted to buy it. And she knew that if she asked her mom, her mom would say no. Because for some reason, her mom has this crazy idea in her head that her daughter is a spendthrift and hence should not be allowed to shop without parental guidance.
So yeah.
We’re the bad girls and we’ve been sent here for reformation.
Because this school is a reform school and it’s called St. Mary’s School for Troubled Teenagers.
It was established years and years ago. Probably when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Okay, fine.
That’s an exaggeration.
It was established in 1939. All dinosaurs were long extinct by then, but still.
Anyway, if you stumble upon the website of this place or happen to pick up a glossy mustard-colored brochure at the principal’s office, you will see that this prestigious place has a history of excellent education and iron-clad discipline.
More than that, it has a history of producing some very well-behaved and socially adjusted girls who go on to do great things in their lives.
As opposed to the not-so-great things that they did which landed them here.
I, for one, love this place.
I love the fact that I live here now. That I’ve been living here for the past two years, ever since my sophomore year.
I love the rules. I love the restrictions.
I love that there’s a set time for everything.
Like, when to wake up, when to take a shower – every morning between 6 and 7AM. When to do your laundry – there’s a laundry room located in the basement of the dorm building and you go wash your clothes on a schedule so it doesn’t get overcrowded. When to do your homework or eat dinner or relax. And finally, when to go to bed: lights out at 9:30 every night.
A Gorgeous Villain Page 13