Bad Girls

by Aurora Yeo

  “When were you going to tell me that Blake has fucking cancer?” My expression dropped once I noticed Wesley still had a serious expression on. I was half expecting him to suddenly break out into a smile and laugh and say, “Gotcha!”

  He didn’t, though.

  “I already told you before, it wasn’t my story to tell.” I crossed my arms over my chest, matching his stance as he rolled his eyes.

  “Hell yeah, it is! He was my best friend too!”

  “Exactly. This is his sickness and his health that is being discussed. Not mine.”

  “Ava, do you know what a jerk I felt like when I found out? I nearly killed him that day when he wouldn’t donate blood to you when you were in that bloody accident!” I winced slightly at the memory, which caused Wesley’s expression to soften just slightly. “You should have told me. How long have you known?”

  “Did you really think that I would have taken such an insane revenge plan on him if I knew?” I asked, shaking my head. “Damn, Wes, you think so lowly of me. I only found out the last time we went to Blake’s. Monday.” I rubbed my arm slightly as Wesley’s face morphed into one that basically screamed “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry, Ava. I didn’t…I didn’t think of that.” Wesley flashed me a small sheepish smile as I shook my head.

  “It’s okay. How did you find out, anyway?” I took his hand in mine as I began to lead the both of us outside the school and into the yard.

  “I was by the hospital. William wasn’t feeling well, and he couldn’t drive, so I took him there. Bumped into Blake, and he dropped his test results on the floor. He just stared at me for a good moment before he grabbed his stuff, dashing off to God knows where.”

  “He probably didn’t want anyone to know.” I sighed, sitting down on the ground as I leaned my back against the lockers. “He’s always so stubborn.”

  “Avery, if I ask you something, will you tell me nothing but the truth?” Wesley’s face was completely serious, his eyes burning with so much intensity.

  “Of course. I have nothing to gain from lying to you, so…”

  “Do you still love Blake?”

  His question caught me off guard as I just stared blankly at him in pure utter shock. Do I?

  The answer to that question came to me immediately. No, I didn’t. Those feelings died long ago and were replaced by hatred. When I knew about his condition, it didn’t mean that those feelings were back. It had simply melted into a feeling that bordered friendship and sympathy. Some things just aren’t meant to be.

  “No.” Wesley’s features were filled with relief, but the tense posture was back once I said the next few words. “That’s because I’m in love with someone else.”

  “Who?” He was hesitant, his forehead already breaking out in perspiration.

  “Will you freak out if I told you it was you?” I decided to take the gamble. It wasn’t too soon; I had known Wesley since forever ago, and since he showed up again, I felt myself falling down the rabbit hole all over again.

  “Will you freak out if I told you that I love you?” Wesley grinned, happiness radiated off him as I started to laugh.

  “When did you become so corny?” I laughed even harder when Wesley playfully scowled at me.

  “I thought girls liked romantic stuff,” he mumbled to himself, but I easily caught his words.

  “I do, but this girl here prefers a bad boy.” I winked, and he chuckled along with me. “I just like the thrill and adventure that comes along as a package deal.”

  “I do mean it, you know. That I love you. Ever since we were little and you were wearing those silly little pigtails that looked like worms.” His eyes held so much sincerity that I was already having difficulty breathing. I didn’t even take into account that he had just insulted my favorite childhood hairstyle, simply too caught up in the moment to function properly.

  “I know you do.” I grinned, placed a small peck on his lips, and got up. “Come on, enough with all this mushy crap. I feel like being a villain today.” I pulled him up along with me as the final bell rang.

  Just as we were about to make our way out of school and into the parking lot, I heard someone approach us. I whipped my head and saw her hair was a mess as she panted like crazy. She looked at the both of us with her eyes near in tears. It had been a while since I had run into her because we didn’t exactly hang out with the same people. That didn’t mean that it was a pleasant surprise, though. My guard was immediately up as my smile disappeared.

  “I need your help.”

  Chapter 28

  “I need your help, please.” Miranda Hastings breathed out as she looked at Wesley and me desperately, her chest heaving as she struggled to regulate her breath.

  “And for whatever you need our help in, why should we help you?” Wesley spat out the words like poison, crossing his arms over his chest as I fixed my glare at Miranda, Charlotte’s best friend. She went hand-in-hand with Charlotte in destroying my seventeenth birthday party, and this girl was definitely not on my good charts.

  “That’s because I know you guys hate Charlotte, and you plan to basically wreck her social life for the rest of the school year. I want in.” Miranda stood tall as she reasoned, matching Wesley’s stance but failing terribly. For one thing, Miranda only reached Wesley’s chest even with her spine straightened. Even I was a good few inches taller than her, reaching Wesley’s shoulders without my heels.

  “You can’t just ‘want in.’ You don’t have the right to make decisions here. Plus, aren’t you Charlotte’s best friend, if I recall?” I scoffed, and her face fell immediately, dropping her confident posture and replacing it with a pleading one.

  “Please, just hear me out.” She pleaded, and I nodded my head once at her. “As I’m sure you know and mentioned, Avery, Charlotte and I were best friends since, well, forever ago.”

  “Don’t I know it,” I muttered resentfully under my breath, but she kept on going.

  “After she got together with Blake, her whole personality just changed. I mean, I knew she was slightly twisted in the head before that, but she just took a 180-degree turn after she started dating Blake Ryder, and she treats everyone as if she rules the high school.”

  “What do you mean, ‘slightly twisted in the head?’” Wesley prodded for information, and Miranda turned to him briefly before turning back to me.

  “One point, she was absolutely crazy, going absolutely nuts about this one guy called Ryan Smith, and she went to desperate lengths to get his attention. She was literally obsessed with him, but that’s another story for another time.” She tried to steer away from the subject, but the name Ryan Smith highly piqued my interest.

  “No, we have time. Go on about Ryan?” Wesley gestured for her to continue the story as if he could read what was going on in my mind.

  “Well, she liked this guy called Ryan Smith, Blake’s best friend I believe, and she knew that he was with this other girl then.”

  “Summer.” I filled in for her as Miranda’s eyes flitted to mine.

  “Yes! That cheerleader, Summer Dollen. So basically, she started to get real close with Ryan and even managed to persuade the teachers to put them together for a project, and one day, she said that she wanted to do the project at his place.”

  “How do you know about all this?” Wesley asked, doubt clear in his voice.

  “She dragged me along for the next part of her plan,” Miranda answered in a hurry.

  “Which is?” I hinted for her to go on.

  “Oh, right. So we ended up going to Ryan’s house, just as she planned, to ‘complete the project,’ and when Ryan was going to the kitchen to grab some snacks and more drinks, she drugged his drink, and, I assumed, she tried to go at it with him. I don’t know what happened after because she asked me to leave right after she put the powder in his drink.”

  “How did Ryan not wonder why you were there?” I raised an eyebrow as Miranda shrugged.

  “Charlotte lied to him, well partially, and
told him that I was her ride back. I suppose she told him that I had errands to run that’s why I left in a hurry. Ryan was too nice of a guy to ask me to leave and even joked about having another brain for the project. He wasn’t suspicious of her at all, almost like he trusted her.” Miranda explained, scoffing half way through probably at Ryan’s idiocy.

  “Damn, I knew she was nuts, but this is absolutely…”

  “Bonkers.” I finished for Wesley as we looked at each other, already agreeing with what we were going to do next. It was almost as if we had a telepathic ability to read and understand each other in just a snap of our fingers. “Well, welcome to the team. I do believe you will be a very valuable asset.” I smiled at her, faking professionalism, as Miranda’s eyes lit up with something I had not seen for a long time—hope.

  “Thank you! You don’t know how much this means to me. Charlotte took absolutely everything away from me, and thanks to you guys, I can finally give her what she deserves.” Miranda smiled as she cupped her hands over her mouth in delight.

  Well, girl. I know how you feel.

  “Yeah, yeah. Now, if you would excuse us, we have a date to go to.” With an award-winning smile that would send girls weak at the knees, Wesley pulled me behind him and into my car and took the driver seat, completely ignoring Miranda’s stuttering reply.

  Sorry, hun, he’s my boyfriend. You’re a few years too slow. So keep that mouth closed before flies enter, my mind immediately screamed.

  “Man, we finally got some dirt on that bitch.” I laughed as Wesley chuckled along with me.

  “We already have dirt on her. This is just the sweet maple syrup on top of a mountain of pancakes and waffles.” Wesley chuckled, buckling his seatbelt.

  “Revenge plan: Operation Charlotte begins!” I made dramatic hand movements as Wesley laughed at my antics.

  “Looks like we’re in for one hell of a ride.” He grinned, stepping on the gas pedal and zooming out of the school compound, leaving a very startled Miranda still in the parking lot in a cloud of dust.

  Chapter 29

  Most people often say that one should keep her friends close and her enemies closer. That’s what every good leader knows and follows when they plan strategic attacks on their opponents. Miranda Hastings was not exactly an enemy; yet she wasn’t a friend either. She went in between; she was an ally.

  We had the same common enemy, namely Charlotte Brooke, but we wanted different outcomes. Miranda wanted to teach her a lesson; I wanted that lesson to haunt her for the rest of her miserable life. Our different objectives set us apart, thus only making us allies and not friends. Our goal was only halfway the same. For what Miranda would not even dare to dream of doing to Charlotte, I would help her; I would help her destroy Charlotte Brooke once and for all.

  Many people would say that I was heartless, obsessed even. Everyone has obsessed over something at some point in their lives. My obsession was just much crueler. I was obsessed with breaking Charlotte, my reason being she broke my family. She broke Peter.

  In the past few months that I spent with the boy, he had already grown on me. He was an absolute ball of sunshine and an energetic bundle of joy. I could never ever see why those families wouldn’t want to keep Peter with them. I also couldn’t understand why Charlotte would mistreat such children when they needed love and care the most, not hatred and hurt.

  I made this battle much more personal then. There’s always this quote going around: “Mess with me, I’m fine. Mess with my family, watch your back.” I found this so true. To think that when Charlotte “stole” Blake away from me, I had already unleashed hell upon her. For her to mistreat Peter like that, she had better watch her back for real this time. I knew that it had been a while since Peter even saw Charlotte face to face, but I also knew that her words still keep haunting him. I would find him thrashing in his bed occasionally, begging in his dreams for the person to stop hitting him. When I would finally manage to wake him up, he would be in tears, and I would always hear Charlotte’s name while he sobbed his story out before eventually falling back to sleep.

  Charlotte Brooke may no longer be able to haunt this person, but she still haunted his dreams, and I would not rest until that rabid beast was put down.

  “What are you planning now?” Wesley asked, turning the wheel along with the traffic occasionally.

  “Who said I was planning?” I gave him a questioning look, raising an eyebrow.

  Wesley snorted. “You had the face on. Like you’re about to kill Charlotte.”

  “I always have that face on.” I rolled my eyes, and Wesley scoffed, muttering, “True,” under his breath. “I’m just thinking that maybe we should upgrade our pranks a little,” I said after a moment of silence.

  “How?” he asked, turning his head once in a while to check the traffic.

  “Our pranks were too childish, too mainstream. We need something that will really bring her down.” I sighed, crossing my legs as a new plan formed in my head. “She’s in love with Blake, no?”

  “I am starting to like where this is going.” Wesley grinned as he settled on a parking lot in a local cafe.

  “We’ll just land a bomb on her. She doesn’t know that Blake doesn’t like her. When she does, how heartbroken do you think she will be?” I grinned so wide that the Cheshire Cat would be proud.

  “Shattered like a china doll against concrete ground.” Wesley laughed, opening his door and then mine. “Don’t you think it’s a little cruel, though? Breaking a girl’s heart like that?”

  I shrugged. “She indirectly broke mine.” I nudged Wesley lightly. “Look at us, ditching school for coffee.” I smiled as Wesley took my hand in his.

  “I need my daily dose of caffeine.” He winked and dragged me inside as I laughed.

  As we stepped in, the cozy feeling of a cottage enveloped us as the aromatic smell of the coffee beans invaded our senses. Little things like this made me adore Wesley so much. He knew exactly what I wanted when I wanted it. Not many people would’ve kept up with my Charlotte craze. He stuck with me throughout without a single complaint.

  I already know what you girls are thinking.

  I’m sorry, girls, but there’s only one Wesley available in this world, and he is already mine.

  However, my mood for that delectable drink immediately vanished along with my appetite when I spotted Summer and Ryan seated together by a corner of the café making sickly sweet eyes at each other. The sight of it made my blood boil with anger. My ex-best friend with one of my personal greatest enemies, together on a date while skipping school. There’s a reason why this friendship ended, and it sure as hell was because of a certain Ryan Smith.

  “I can beat him up again real good.” Wesley offered, taking a step forward with his fists clenched when he noticed that I was glaring at them with all my might.

  “It’s fine.” I placed a hand on his chest. “I believe that all good things come to those who wait. Karma will bite his ass so hard, his future generations will feel the pain.” My statement apparently lightened up Wesley’s tense expression, because next thing I knew, he was hunched over, laughing so hard tears started to fill his eyes.

  “Man, you’re one psychotic bitch.” He wiped a tear away as I laughed sarcastically, pinching his arm, and he winced slightly. “And you wonder why most people would think you are a villain.”

  “You’re right in that respect. I’m completely mad and proud of it.” I winked, flouncing my way out of the coffee shop, the cravings for the aromatic drink reduced to nothing but a mischievous grin. Perhaps it was time to pay my favorite couple a little visit and maybe even buy them a gift or two.

  I have so many enemies, but you guys all know what they say: A brave person is never afraid to make new enemies when they are just trying to prove their worth.

  Chapter 30

  Some of the qualities that keep a perfect relationship or friendship going well are trust and reliability, knowing that you can count on your partner or friend when you ne
ed them the most. Summer and I lacked these simple things. I am not going to shy away from saying that I trusted her with my life, but she didn’t trust me back. Charlotte told her a little lie, saying that I tried to hook up with her boyfriend. Even though evidence definitely pointed to the liar, Summer believed right away.

  They don’t teach you about friendship or about trust in school. It’s not an actual subject, yet we still do learn about these things sometime in our lives. I learned these when Blake left me. Sure, hatred came in, so did the need for revenge, but I learned something from it. I learned that without trust, there is no such thing as friendship. We rely on one another because we know that we will do the same for them should there be a time that they need us.

  That obviously didn’t apply to Summer anymore. She hated me; that much was obvious. And the best part? She hated me for something I didn’t do. The person who did it was right under her nose the entire time.

  I got this planned perfectly. It had been a week since the café incident, as I would like to call it, and I had gathered information on the couple. If you don’t understand which couple I’m talking about, it’s Ryan and Summer. They were obviously back together, and they were obviously happy.

  Well, I was not.

  And no, before you go on thinking about what a selfish, jealous bitch I was, their happiness was not the reason for my despair. I was unhappy because of what I found out. Let’s just say a leopard never changes its spots. Ryan Smith was not, is not, and never will be loyal to his girlfriends. He was a complete manwhore, and when I found out about the newest tidbit on him, it was like striking the lottery in some sort of way.

  I knew I was supposed to hate Summer, or at least, not like her, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. I felt angry because that prick was Summer’s world, yet he didn’t treasure her like he should. He betrayed her not just once, but twice. I am sure you guys already guessed it; Ryan was not the least bit of a gentleman. Within just a few days, I had seen him flirt with countless girls when Summer wasn’t around, and I even saw him bringing a girl home from a bar on a Saturday night.