“Bro, I’m sorry. I know she's your sister and you're close, but consider that she tried to blackmail me. It's nothing personal against you, man. I’m not trying to make trouble between you and Aubrey either, I fucking swear. I'm only saying what I think, because—”
Knox interrupts him again.
“I told you that she didn't do it! You have no fucking proof!”
Devon shrugs and produces a piece of paper from his pocket.
“Or maybe I do ...”
I gasp when I realise what he's showing us: he's got the piece of paper that Mr McArthur showed us earlier on.
The anonymous tip that instructed the faculty to look in my locker.
“How the fuck did you get this?”
I ask in total shock and Devon actually blushes: I think this is the first time I’ve seen him blush and I’d totally love to tease him on how cute he looks when he's embarrassed but he answers my question.
“When your mom’s a piece of white trash that sends you to shoplift at Walmart when she doesn't have money for groceries because you're a minor and the consequences for you won't be as bad if you get caught, and the difference between eating and going hungry is your ability to steal, you learn. You learn to be quick and not to get caught.”
Earlier in the principal's office, we didn't have a chance to examine that note properly but when Knox takes it from Devon, his gaze darkens when he recognises his sister’s monogram ‘MM’ on the top right corner of the sheet.
Margaux is totally obsessed with monogrammed items: she has her initials printed or engraved on literally everything she owns.
Knox still won't believe that Margaux could be the one to blame.
“Ok, this is from her fucking notebook but someone else must've torn it off. This isn't Margaux’s handwriting for starters.”
Devon speaks calmly, a touch of pity colouring his tone.
“Dude, I’m sorry. I know how you feel. I’ve been in denial for years about what a nasty piece of work my mom is. I know it sucks. I swear, this isn't a personal attack to you. I’m not trying to drive a wedge between you and Aubrey. I know how much she cares about you.”
Knox snatches the note from Devon’s hand and examines it more closely.
He sighs, closing his eyes as if that piece of paper could disappear once he opens them again.
“Fuck! I know that you don't mean to fuck with me, dude! But I can't believe that my sister could do something this disgusting. And to Aubrey! Of course she might be pissed because you chose Aubrey over her, but she also knows how much I love Aubrey and she promised me that she'd be nice to her and leave you alone when I had a talk with her a few weeks ago. After we decided to give this relationship a chance, when we spoke in the locker room, remember?”
Devon nods and Knox takes my hand, with an intense look in his grey eyes.
“Pretty girl, I really don't think that my sister did this. But I’d do anything for you, so I’ll go and talk to her and see what she has to say.”
The troubled look in his eyes makes me feel bad for him but the way he's going against his gut feeling to help me, makes me love him more than I already did.
“Let me come with you, honey.”
I offer.
Knox is about to protest but then he sees in my eyes that I'm not suspicious of him and I understand how he feels.
I know how it feels to have a member of your family, someone you trust, scheme behind your back to get their way.
God knows how much it hurt to discover that my daddy isn't afraid to use me or my siblings for his personal gain with complete disregard for our happiness.
Knox looks unsure.
“Aubrey, I’m not trying to shut you out but I don't know how Margaux will react to me asking her questions about this. And if she sees you and Devon's right, I doubt that she'll confess in front of you.”
I insist because if Margaux did all this, I know how much it’ll hurt him and I wanna be there for him, I don't want him to even have the chance to shut me out.
I take his hand and squeeze it lightly and even this small contact makes my heart beat faster, his grey eyes locked onto mine for a long, intense moment.
“Ok. Just stay out of her sight and within earshot. But you’ll see that she didn't do it. Let's go.”
He puts on his letterman jacket, that he shed when we arrived and wraps his arm around my shoulders.
Sam’s voice stops us when we’re about to leave the living room.
“Marks? You're Knox Marks?”
He turns to look at Ayla’s boyfriend and nods.
“I sure am.”
Sam’s blue eyes assess Knox before he drawls:
“This fucking changes everything! You're Michelle's little brother!”
I gasp in surprise.
“Michelle? Your ex-girlfriend? The one that made Ayla's life miserable your senior year?”
Alex intervenes.
“Yeah. The one we got expelled for cheating, after she almost succeeded in splitting us and Ayla up. Aubrey, you're dating Michelle’s little brother? What the fuck?”
I react, defending my boyfriend.
“Knox is fucking awesome and I love him. He's never treated me with anything but respect, so don't get all weird. I’m not dating his sister. And by the way how didn't you guys recognise him straight away? If Sam was dating his sister?”
Sam’s gaze isn't leaving Knox and he explains that he met Michelle's siblings only a couple of times.
“The last time I saw you, you were in junior high. You grew about a foot and put on a hundred pounds since then.”
Knox reacts with a smirk.
“Yeah, that's called growing up, dude! I was thirteen back then.”
Sam continues:
“Fuck, I didn't realise that the Margaux you guys kept talking about was Michelle's sister. You called her Go-Go or something.”
“Yeah, Gaux-Gaux is our pet name for her. So what? How does this change anything?”
“I don't know, dude! Your older sister would be right at the top of my suspect list, so maybe Margaux isn't that different from Michelle?”
Knox scoffs and I don't miss the annoyance in his voice.
“Whatever, dude! Michelle goes to college in Arizona. I haven't seen her since Labor Day.”
Sam doesn't relent.
“I’m just saying that if Margaux is anything like my ex—”
I see the look on Knox's face and I interrupt him.
“Ok look, I heard all the tales about Michelle. Margaux isn't that bad, I swear. Come on, let’s go talk to her.”
Sam and Alex are adamant that they're coming with us, and so are my boys.
I know Landon and Teague want to support Knox, and Devon too: and I can see that Devon feels guilty about upsetting his friend by voicing his suspicions.
Chaz, Reece, Pryce, and Max are concerned about me and don't wanna be left out.
So in the end we all decide to go to Knox's house and have dinner there since his parents won't be home until very late.
“Just wait until I talk to her. It's actually a good way to approach her if I tell her that I’ve invited friends over because Aubrey is upset about what happened today. If I don't look like I’m accusing her, she’ll tell me what she knows, and then we’ll all hang out and you'll see that she isn't the big, bad bitch you all make her out to be.”
23.
Retribution
Knox
I HOLD ONTO AUBREY's hand during the short ride to my house: Landon is driving and Teague is sharing the back seat with us, while Devon’s riding shotgun.
The others are following us in two different cars.
I'm grateful for Aubrey’s support, for her giving me the benefit of the doubt about my sister.
I know that Margaux is a very acquired taste and she doesn't make it easy for people to like her.
She's a spoiled brat and wants to be the centre of attention all the time, this is why she's always fought with Michelle and gotten along wit
h me, because I'm happy to get on with my life and just fly under the radar.
But I know my little sister and she isn't as rotten to the core as Devon suspects.
Although I don't blame Devon for his opinion of her, trying to blackmail him into dating her was a real dick move.
I text Margaux as we pull up into our huge driveway: I see her car out front, so I know that she's home but our house is such a monstrosity that it’d take me ages to find her otherwise.
“Ok, she’s swimming in the indoor pool. There's a changing room before entering the actual pool area. Let me go in by myself and you can wait there, if you wanna listen. Everyone else can wait upstairs in the living room.”
Everyone stays behind except Devon, Aubrey's brother and Sam: they're fucking sure that Margaux is responsible for everything and want the satisfaction to prove me wrong.
I inhale deeply and brush my lips with Aubrey's, before stepping into the pool room.
I see my sister swimming furious laps into the Olympic size pool and sit down on one of the loungers that dot the bottom of the room, where there’s a fully stocked bar and a kitchenette with a fridge stocked with all sorts of snacks.
I wait until she lifts herself out of the water and walks towards me, dripping wet and wringing the water out of her long blonde hair.
She's wearing a one piece dark purple suit with cut outs on her hips that's functional for working out but also pretty.
Now I’m not a creep or a weirdo but I know that my sister's really pretty, this is why I understand that my teammates want to hook up with her but I fucking hate when they treat her like a piece of meat.
“Hey Gaux-Gaux, have you got any plans for tonight? I have some friends coming over, we're gonna order pizza and watch movies. Why don't you join us?”
She starts towelling herself off and her pale blue eyes are fixed on me when she asks me who's coming.
“Aubrey, Devon, Landon and Teague and some others.”
She rolls her eyes and makes a snide comment about our choice of menu.
“Pizza? I'm sure coach would kick your asses if he knew that you're eating pizza before the State Championship final.”
I shrug.
“We need our energy, we wanna carb up.”
“With pizza? If you’d told me earlier, I would've made you some nice baked sweet potatoes or brown rice or some other healthy carbs. You know I don't do carbs anyway, so I guess I'll order a salad.”
I shrug: she’s very strict with her diet.
“Yeah well, pizza’s one of Aubrey's favourites and tonight she needs cheering up.”
She scoffs.
“Why, what the fuck happened to her? Did one of you losers see sense and decided to dump her ass?”
I feel a bout of instant relief when she looks none the wiser about today's events at school but sigh at her mean remark.
I guess though that if I have to choose, I’d rather her be mean than guilty.
“No, no one dumped her.”
“Then what? By the way Knoxie, it's so unfair that you all cut classes today. You're eighteen and Mom doesn't get an instant alert if you don't report. I got my ass chewed off this morning because she had to drive me to school and pay a fine at the front office because I couldn't find my ID. I can't wait to turn eighteen next week, so she won't have to know everything. She was so pissed that she had to move a meeting to sign for a new ID for me!”
My relief increases when I realise that Margaux wasn't even at school today when the whole thing went down, but it's a short lasting feeling, because my sister takes two boxes from a handbag near her lounger and swallows two pills.
The boxes look identical to the ones that were found in Aubrey's locker.
My chest starts aching as if my heart was held in a vice-like grip, with rusty spikes eating at my flesh: I can't believe that Devon was right and my sister, my best friend, is behind all the trouble that Aubrey has been through.
My gaze hardens and I grab her bag, going straight for the cardboard boxes with the pills.
This shit is illegal in the US: it must come from elsewhere.
“Care to explain where these come from?”
Margaux doesn't seem concerned.
“Cool your jets! I’ve been taking that stuff for years! Do you think that protein shakes and gruelling work-outs would be enough to keep me in a size zero? I need extra help.”
Normally, I’d give her a lecture about the dangers of popping illegal diet pills and then tell her that she's gorgeous, no matter what size she wears but right now I'm too furious and sick to my stomach at the thought that Margaux could be capable of what she did.
And I fucking defended her in front of everyone.
“Did you put this shit in Devon's, Teague's, and Landon’s drinks?”
I see her fidget with the gold bracelet I got her for her sweet sixteen: she never takes it off and when she's lying, she fucking plays with it.
And sure enough, she plays daft.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
If she expected me to yell at her or cuss, she’s obviously disappointed because she knows that when I'm really mad, when I really mean business, I become calm at least on the outside.
“Margaux, stop lying to me! Did you put those pills in the guys’ sports drinks and then asked Aubrey to hand them out, so that they’d think that she did it? I suggest that you tell the truth, Sis. I'm one second from walking away and never speaking to you again. I can take you being a scheming, conniving bitch, but if you lie to me about it, we're done.”
She has the decency to avert her gaze and direct it to the tiled floor of the indoor pool room.
“I ... yeah.”
My heart clenches in my chest and I shake my head, as if the movement could make those words dissipate and make me un-hear them.
“Margaux ...”
I whisper her name: I’m sad, horrified, and angry. So fucking angry.
“How could you? Can you even begin to understand how fucking stupid that is? Aside from taking that shit yourself, have you thought of the possible consequences?”
She doesn't look me in the eye when she tells me that she was jealous.
“I wanted Devon so much and he had eyes just for Aubrey. And she wasn't just fucking him! She was taking you away from me too! And she wasn't happy with being your girlfriend and fucking Devon on the side, she had to go and fuck Landon and Teague too! You know I’ve always had a thing for Teague and he never even looked at me! But Aubrey barely set foot inside the school building and Teague is wrapped around her little finger! You and Teague were never into relationships but that night, at our first party of the season, after Landon kissed her during ‘suck and blow’, you almost had a fight over her! I was so fucking mad at all of you and at her! And I wanted to punish them—”
I stop her with a question.
“Have you thought of the consequences if one of them had a bad reaction to those pills? Margaux, you could've fucking killed someone! And for what? Because two guys you liked didn't like you back?”
A tear slides out from one of her eyes, silently running down her face.
“I didn't think it was a big deal. I’ve been taking that shit for four years. I wanted to punish the guys and make her feel the way I feel. Alone.”
I shake my head.
“I can't believe you, Margaux! You're at the top of the A-Class, you're one of the smartest people I know. How could you not think about how dangerous this was? I’m not even beginning to discuss how morally horrible and illegal. But you could have really hurt someone!”
She doesn't say anything, she cries quietly, her head bowed in humiliation.
“So why didn't you fuck with my drink too, huh? I'm in love with Aubrey, just like the others.”
She sobs loudly before wailing that she loves me.
“You're my brother, my best and only friend. I knew you liked Aubrey and I thought that with the others out of the picture and you taking Devon’s spot as QB1, she
’d choose you. I didn't want her to have you but I thought that if I could date Devon, I wouldn't lose you. That maybe we could double date. I thought I was killing two birds with one stone. That by getting Devon kicked out of the team, I was helping you get your girl.”
“Margaux, that's so fucked up! First of all, I'm your brother how could you ever lose me? And seriously, when you saw that your plan failed, what the fuck were you thinking by drugging the whole team and then planting your shitty drugs in Aubrey's locker? Getting her expelled? If I could've forgiven the first incident but this last stunt you pulled—”
She stops crying, she's looking at me as if I was crazy.
“What are you talking about? Expelled? Drugging the whole team? I just put the pills in those drinks once. I just wanted to punish the guys and split Devon and Aubrey up. I don't know what you're talking about.”
I level a hard gaze on her.
“Don't fucking lie to me!”
But she doesn't back down.
“Knox, I swear on my favourite pair of Louboutins! I don't know what you're talking about.”
I tell her what happened this morning and she swears that she had nothing to do with it.
“I wasn't even at school first period. You can double check with Mom. As I already told you, my school ID was missing and Mom had to take me and sign for a new one to be issued. And by the time that was done, it was second period, time for Ms Webber’s class.”
I take a deep breath and look at my sister: I believe her.
I know that at this point she wouldn't lie to me.
But if Margaux didn't put those pills in Aubrey's locker, that means that there's two people who hate her and the guys enough to do this.
And it could only be someone who knows about what Margaux did to begin with: so one of the cheerleaders she trusts, a football player if she hooked up with him and spilled the beans when she was drunk or ... Tyler maybe?
My mind is going a million miles per second and I don't notice that Aubrey has stepped out of the changing room and is standing between our loungers, looking between me and my sister.
If I feared that what she just heard could make her dump me, the look in her eyes makes me love her even more.
The Retribution: A High School Light Bully Romance (Beverly Hills Prep Academy Book 3) Page 28