Everybody heard that comment. And everyone thinks it’s A-okay.
“All Night Albright,” some girl cackles.
“All Night Albright!” another girl sings.
I spin around trying to see who said it, but I can’t tell for sure. There’s way too many people around.
Welcome to North Valley HATE School.
Great. I’m sure the cheer squad will work up a cheer in my honor by lunch time.
Let the waking nightmare begin.
I speed through the gauntlet of haters and beeline toward the senior lawn. Since I don’t see Rox anywhere, I stride right past it, heading toward the gym and all the grass fields behind it. Since we’re not allowed to leave campus during brunch, the fields are the only place I can be alone right now. I pass right by the girl’s restroom. There’s no way I’d risk going in there. My loving peers would probably corner me and start casting stones at the village slut. I’d end up murdered for sure.
oOoOoOo + O+O+O+O
Sitting through third and fourth period is murder.
I can’t concentrate on what my teachers are saying. All I’m aware of is the eyes of everyone clawing away at my back. I try to focus on my notebook and taking notes, but I can’t figure out how to move my pen. That’s not true. I know how to use it. But I’m afraid if I start writing, I’ll just jot down all the horrid gossip I’ve been hearing for the last two hours.
When the bell rings at the start of lunch, I feel a mix of relief and wretched dread. Relief because I need a break from the hate I’ve been getting, and dread because I know there’s going to be more judgment waiting for me outside.
I go to my locker and dump my books in it. I notice the pink cloud wallpaper that Rox helped me put up a few weeks ago. Rox. I need my BFSF right now. Badly. I need to find her and apologize profusely. I have to remind her that we pinky swore the day we met Dante that we would let him decide between us. I know she’ll understand. And I know she’ll stand beside me in the face of all the hate I’m going to be forced to endure for the next few weeks. Hopefully it won’t take long until the gossip about me is replaced by some other gossip and I become yesterday’s news.
“Hey, Skye,” Jason Carpenter says as he puts his school books in his locker and pulls out his Magic The Gathering binder.
“Hey, Jason,” I smile uncertainly. Has he seen the ChatBrat post? Does he care about that sort of thing? The genuine grin on his face says no.
“What are you doing for lunch?” He asks hopefully. “Me and the guys are playing Magic in the library today. If you want to join us.”
“Oh, thanks, Jason. That’s sweet. But I have to find my friend Rox.”
His shoulders sag, disappointed. “Oh, okay.”
“But thanks for offering. It means a lot.” It really does. Not everyone has been so kind today.
“Maybe next time?” he suggests.
“Yeah.” I don’t know if I’ll ever spend a lunch in the library with the geeks playing games, but it sure is nice of him to offer. “See you later,” I smile and wave as I walk away.
“Yeah!” he beams hopefully.
I text Rox as I walk toward the main parking lot: I’m sorry, Rox. Can we talk? I need to explain.
She hasn’t responded by the time I make it to the parking lot. I look around for her car. It’s not where she parked it when we came to school this morning. There it is! I see it driving down one of the parking lanes. I trot toward it.
Rox is at the wheel and Nicole sits shotgun.
That’s my seat.
Kayla sits in the back seat.
“Rox!” I shout. “Wait up!”
She doesn’t hear me. Or if she does, she’s ignoring me.
Nicole grimaces when she see me and Kayla rolls her eyes with obvious disgust.
The car drives away and turns into the street.
I slow to a stop and watch them disappear.
This is too many kinds of wrong to count. I can’t believe Rox ditched me! She’s never ditched me! My world is officially falling apart. My best friend has abandoned me. I glance around the parking lot. The kids who leave for lunch are already gone. It’s just me and the parked cars in an empty suburban high school wasteland.
I feel totally alone.
This blows.
I really don’t want to be alone right now.
It’s killing me that Rox blew me off like that. I don’t know what hurts worse: all the slut hate, or Rox abandoning me like this. I’m about to fall apart. But I can’t do it out here. It feels too vulnerable, like some kids might see me and point and jeer while I cry.
I pull myself together.
What are my options? I’m not going to the senior lawn. The quad is a minefield of gossip bombs. I could go to the bleachers and hang with the burnouts. But I don’t really know them. Maybe I’ll walk to Ralph’s by myself. No, that won’t do. I need to call Dante. I pull out my phone and call him. He bought a pre-paid phone over the weekend so we could stay in contact. But he doesn’t answer. I text him: Call me. It’s important.
“Don’t you have any friends, Slutbright?” Ashley Masters shrills behind me.
I don’t want to turn around. I tilt my head up and stare at the sky. Nobody up there seems to be listening.
“Were you just calling your brother for a lunch time hookup, Slutbright?” Monica Webb asks.
Now she’s calling me that too?
Brittany Price chimes in. “Maybe you can fuck him in the school library and I can take your picture again.”
“Yeah,” Ashley laughs, “we’ll post it on ChatBrat. I wonder which will get more kisses. I see here the current photo has 1,277. But I bet a good X-rated photo will triple that. Get all the local pervs and pedos sharing it around town. Maybe you can make a career out of it like Kim KarTRASHian.”
Bitches.
If only I’d managed to take Brittany’s phone away from her the day she invaded my privacy in the meeting room at the library, none of this would be happening right now. If it wasn’t for that stupid librarian, I would have. Too late to worry about it now.
“Do your parents know you’re fucking your brother, Slutbright?” Ashley asks. “I’m sure they’d love to know.”
I whip around, my fists clenched at my side. I’m ready to cut a bitch with my claws. “He’s my stepbrother,” I hiss.
“Same diff…” Ashley smiles pleasantly, holding an E-cig in her fingers She sucks on it with great joy and the tip lights up blue. “…buuuuut you’re still fucking him.”
It’s true. I can’t deny it. All I can do is glare. The good thing is it’s not like Ashley knows my parents. And my parents don’t frequent ChatBrat. I don’t think they know it exists. What are the chances they’ll find out? I mean, only every kid in school knows. Is it possible one of them will mention the photo to their parents? This is bad. Then again, the reason ChatBrat is hip is because parents don’t know about it. Maybe that’s my one saving grace. I can hope. Either way, there’s nothing I can do about it now.
Since Dante hasn’t called or texted, I need to go elsewhere. I don’t want to spend my lunch being taunted by these three heathens. Rather than turn my back on them, I march straight at Ashley like I’m going to kill her.
Her eyes goggle, which looks so very much out of place on her effortlessly pretty face.
Seeing her shock thrills me to no end. I stop with my nose an inch from hers. Well, a few inches, because she’s taller and I have to look up at her. But I’m seeing red, not measuring distances. “Do whatever you want, Assley Masturbates.”
“Whoa!” Brittany chuckles. “I think she’s butthurt!” She too has an E-cig and takes a fake puff.
I ignore her dig, still focused on Ashley. “Just remember who you’re messing with,” I finish with as much danger as I can muster. I’m not exactly known around campus as a badass, but now seems like a good time to change that reputation.
For a moment, Ashley looks unsure of herself. It’s a look she rarely wears. A second later, it�
�s gone, replaced by her usual superior contempt. “We’ll see who gets messier in the coming weeks, Slutbright.”
I have nothing to say to that. I grimace and shove past her, heading back toward campus.
If my Dad somehow finds out about me and Dante, things are going to get much worse.
What am I going to do with the rest of my lunch?
I need to regroup and figure out how to do damage control.
Chapter 14
“How much damage does that guy do again?” Jason Carpenter asks the kid sitting across from him in the library at one of the dozens of tables in the room.
The other kid, who has a hair helmet that practically hides his entire face, and tiny glasses that make his eyes look really big, says in a sniveling voice, “My Bogardan Hellkite does five damage. He also has five toughness. Your Elemental Shaman doesn’t stand a chance, Jason.” He giggles in this sputtering way that is really strange.
Maybe the library was the wrong place to spend lunch.
Jason and his friend haven’t seen me yet. I turn to leave before they do.
“Hey, Skye!” Jason hollers. “What are you doing here?”
I wince, freeze in place, then slowly turn around, “Hey, Jason,” I say in a shaky voice. I so don’t belong here.
Jason’s friend stares at me. I swear, his eyes get even bigger than they already were. He blinks at me like maybe I’m a ghost or a mirage.
“Hey,” I smile.
Jason says. “This is my friend Trevor. Trevor, this is Skye. She’s a senior.”
Trevor gulps audibly but doesn’t say anything. He just stares with his giant eyes through his tiny glasses. I think he’s never seen a girl up close before.
“Hey, Trevor,” I say nervously. He’s kind of weirding me out.
Trevor looks really nervous. He leans over the table toward Jason and whispers, “She’s a girl!”
That was so cute, I can’t help but chuckle. “Yeah. And I can hear you.”
Trevor just stares at me.
“Do you want to learn how to play magic?” Jason asks.
“I guess?” I say tentatively but also hopefully.
Jason stands up like a little gentleman and pulls out the plastic chair next to him.
“Thanks,” I smile and sit down.
After the dirty looks I’ve been getting all day, I’d rather do something goofy like play games in the library with two nice guys like Jason and Trevor than endure any more hate from the all the other rabid animals at North Valley.
For the remainder of lunch, Jason and Trevor attempt to explain the game to me. It’s totally confusing, and obviously requires math skills, which I find ironic, but I do my best to follow their instructions. The alternative of stewing in thoughts about my social downfall is way too painful.
Magic it is, then.
Jason is more than happy to help me learn the game. Trevor is nearly speechless at first. Slowly, I’m drawn in by all the fantastic art on the cards and the story that goes along with the game mechanics. It’s all fantasy creatures like in the movies, and it seems like fun, like Harry Potter on steroids or whatever. The more questions I ask, the more comfortable Trevor gets. Whenever he explains what a card does, or how to use it in play, he gets impassioned, like he’s telling me something super secret or life altering. It’s kind of cute. More than anything, I’m struck by the fact that Trevor and Jason are both so completely nice. Something tells me that even if they’ve seen my illicit photo on ChatBrat, they don’t care, which makes them five times awesomer in my book.
The next thing I know, the warning bell rings, signaling the end of lunch.
“Wow, that was cool,” I say. “Thanks for showing me how to play, guys!”
“You want to play again tomorrow?” Jason asks with bright hope.
“Maybe,” I smile. “I’ll have to check my social calendar first,” I wink. We already know I’m clear through eternity after this morning.
“We’re here every day if you want to play more,” Trevor smiles.
These guys are too nice.
Lucky me they were here today. It’s nice to know not everyone in the world is a terrible asshole.
oOoOoOo + O+O+O+O
“It was terrible, Dante. Everybody knows.” I jump into his arms the second I walk in the door after school that day. And I do mean walk, because Rox was nowhere to be found after sixth period when it was time to go home, so I walked. I didn’t mind the exercise, but every footstep felt like failure, like embarrassment, because I no longer had my BFSF driving me. It didn’t help that she, Nicole, and Kayla all ignored me during fifth period English. Is it ironic that we’re reading The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne for AP English Lit, and my closest friends are now all shunning me? I’ll let you be the judge. Whatever. Sooner or later my friends will get over it and re-friend me, right? Maybe? Hopefully?
I fight back tears and gaze up at Dante’s loving, I mean amoring eyes.
“What happened?” he asks, surprised, holding me gently by the arms.
His pure beauty melts my heart. For a moment, I forget that I’m just a high school girl living at home with her parents. For this moment, it’s like I’ve walked home to my own beautiful house and my own beautiful man. Too bad it’s tinged by the events of the day. “Remember that photo that girl took of us at the library?”
“Oh yeah,” he grins. “What about it?”
“It’s out.”
“Out?”
“Someone posted it on ChatBrat. Now the whole school has seen it.”
“What?”
I open ChatBrat on my phone and show him the post. It now has 1,764 kisses. Geez, it’s spreading.
Standing beside me, he puts his arm around my shoulders and reads the caption. “What the fuck?” he hisses. “Who posted this?”
“ChatBrat is anonymous. Nobody knows. But it’s probably Ashley Masters.”
“Was she the chick at the library?”
“No, that was Brittany. Ashley was at Blazing Waters the day we met. She was the gorgeous blonde. The one we talked to outside the bathroom?” I forget that none of these people are a part of Dante’s life like they are mine.
Dante frowns. “She did this?”
“Probably.”
He shakes his head. “If your dad sees this…”
“I know.”
“Can you email ChatBrat and have them remove the pic?”
“I can try. But the company is somewhere in like Latveria or wherever. They’re not known for responding to emails from random teenage girls in California. Besides, I’m sure plenty of people have already saved it, so it’s bound to show up elsewhere if it gets removed.”
Dante’s eyes grow distant as he stares off into space. “Fuck…” he mutters.
“Yeah,” I snort. “My dad and your mom are going to find out. It’s just a question of when.”
Dante winces and runs his hand through his shaggy blond hair, “That pic doesn’t look good, does it?”
“Not really. The caption doesn’t help either.”
He looks at the phone and reads the caption. “Used and abused? That doesn’t make me sound too good, does it?”
“It’s just stupid gossip,” I dismiss. Then I quit the ChatBrat app so we don’t have the picture staring back at us. “We know what happened. You didn’t abuse me.”
He arches his eyebrow, “I know, but…”
I sigh. “Yes, this is a disaster. But at least we can go through it together.” I look at him hopefully. For a second, I’m deathly afraid that he will disagree, that he’ll bow out and skip town, never to be seen or heard from again. If that happens, I’ll have to pick up the pieces alone. My Dad would probably love it if Dante disappeared, but I sure wouldn’t. The last thing I want is to do this without Dante.
I need him.
I hope he needs me.
He places his big hands on my shoulders and turns me to face him. Damn it, he’s so handsome. His emerald eyes shine from beneath that ruffle of
hair that always falls over his brow in the sexiest way possible. “Don’t worry, Cielo. We’ll get through this. Together.” I wrap my arms around his waist and he pulls me into his chest, folding his arms around my shoulders while he kisses the top of my hair. “Everything is going to be all right, Cielo. I promise.”
Remember when I said way back in the beginning that I knew Dante was going to fight for me, no matter what? Yeah, that. Wrapped in his muscular arms, I know I was right to feel that way.
Dante is going to fight for me.
He’s going to fight for us.
We’re in this together.
No matter what evil people throw at us.
oOoOoOo + O+O+O+O
I want to throw my phone across my bedroom.
I’ve texted Rox a million times since I got home from school, but she totally ignores me. It hurts ten times worse than it did at lunch or during fifth period. She really is blocking me out and abandoning me. But she’s my BFSF. She’s not supposed to do that.
I sigh heavily.
I’ve always been able to talk to Rox. Especially when things went bad. We have always been there for each other. What’s worse, I don’t know what her deal is. I’ve never seen her get this attached to a guy who wasn’t into her. Then again, I can’t get over how attached I am to Dante myself. It totally scares me. But at least I know he’s in this with me.
And that’s another thing. I should be sharing all of my giddy glee about Dante with Rox. We’re always the first person either of us talks to about boys. The good stuff and the bad stuff. I don’t get to share either with Rox. Total bummer.
For now, Dante and I agree to play it cool at the house, especially under the circumstances.
For the next several days, we act like what we’re supposed to be. Plain old stepbrother and stepsister. Dad and Catarina totally buy it. The whole family has dinner together every night. Dante and I sit across from each other. Never once do we flirt or play footsies or anything. But the secret knowledge of our connection makes it something special. A wink here, an arched eyebrow there, nothing too obvi, but enough to let each other know that we’re connected deeply.
Stepbrother Obsessed Page 25