by Ruby Vincent
“I could see you as a psychologist, Val,” Claire said as she rescued the balls. “You’re no-nonsense, but you’re also patient and forgiving.”
“Thanks.” I hung back and let Ciara and Claire get the first round. “I can see you as a lawyer too. What about you, Ciara?”
She sighed. “Don’t tell my parents, but I think after four years of killing myself at the academy, I want some time off. I’m planning to go backpacking around the world.”
“Amazing,” Claire said. “I’m so jealous.”
We talked more about her trip and where she wanted to go while Claire destroyed her in a game of pool.
“Your turn to be humiliated, Val,” she said as she passed me the cue.
I played, lost, and then we moved on to a game of cards. We were yukking it up in the game room for so long that the others found us in there when they finished their papers.
Maverick, Ryder, Jaxson, and Ezra took over our card game while Sofia and I went up against Claire and Ciara in another game of pool. We cheered when we won.
Ciara threw up her hands. “Obviously my suckiness is dragging down Claire’s skills. Eric, you take over.”
“Sure. I’ll play.”
“I could use a break too,” Claire said. “I have to go to the bathroom.”
Kai slid in and took her spot. “I’ll play with you guys, but how about we make things interesting?”
I lifted my brow. “What did you have in mind?”
“Strip pool,” he replied without a lick of shame. He twisted around and glanced over to where Paisley was playing a board game with Zane. “Paisley, come play with us.”
I shook the eight ball at him. “I would throw this at you if I wouldn’t get in trouble for denting that fool head.”
He threw his head back laughing while we set up the table. I loved that guy, but he was incorrigible. Although, according to Paisley, she had never dated anyone sweeter or more sensitive.
“I’m kidding,” Kai said. “How about the losers pay the winner ten bucks?”
Sofia and I shrugged. “Okay. Sounds good.”
We played teams for the first game and won thanks to Sofia. For the next round, I went up against Eric one on one.
“You ready for me, Eden?”
He looked up from his phone to shoot me a grin. “I’ve seen you play. I’m not worried.”
Those were fighting words. Ten minutes later, we were locked in a heated game. You would have thought the stakes were higher than ten bucks from the intensity on our faces as we lined up our shots.
“This is it, Val,” Sofia said. “Sink this ball and you win.”
I nodded. The orange ball became the center of my universe as my eyes narrowed.
Eric is looking nervous. Show him he should be.
I tapped the ball and it went whizzing across the felt, heading straight for the black ball and... missed. The groan was half out of my throat when it bounced off the edge and came roaring back. It glanced off the ball and knocked it into the hole.
“Whooo!” Sofia and I jumped up and down, cheering and whooping it up. Ryder looked over from his card game.
“Be honest, Moon,” he said. “That was an accident.”
I leveled a finger at him. “You mind your business. I sank that shot.”
“Nah. She gets this one,” Eric said. “She won fair and square. She’s a true match for me.”
I beamed. “Thank you, Eric. I’ll take my winnings now.”
“One more game,” Kai replied. “Double or nothing.”
“Nope.”
Eric was already reaching into his pocket. “Here you go, but let’s call it quits, guys. It’s almost dinner and I’m starved.”
I moved over to the window and pulled back the curtain. It was true. The sun had set on the Rayonner Hotel and outside was pitch black. Untouched nature meant no cars or streetlights. I could barely see the outline of the trees.
“I didn’t realize it was so late,” I said. “But I could use a bite too.”
“Good.” Eric came up and hooked an arm through mine. “Let’s sit together. We can talk winter break.”
Sofia gave us a funny look like she was shocked to see Eric in her position, walking me out the door. That was until Zane came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She was giggling at the kisses he peppered on her neck as Eric and I left ahead of everyone. We didn’t talk much these days, but Eric had finally come through for me with the yearbook. He had proven he was on my side.
Rapidly approaching footsteps warned me that someone was coming up behind us. Hands settled on my hips before I could turn around. “I haven’t gotten any time with you,” a deep voice breathed into my ear. “Any chance I could steal you away for dinner? We could take it back to an empty room and have it just be you and me.”
That was incredibly tempting. “Eric got in there first. We’re catching up over dinner.”
Jaxson rested his chin on my shoulder as he peered at him. “Do the honorable thing, Eden. Step aside.”
He chuckled. “What happens if I—”
A roar of laughter cut him off. The main living room loomed in front of us, just before the dining room. We were steps away when a figure streaked out of the door, making me jump.
Clutching my chest, I cried, “Claire? What’s wrong?”
Claire’s face was deathly pale. She looked at me with huge eyes as the noise behind me said the rest of my friends and boyfriends were coming. “Don’t go in there.”
“What? What are you talking about?” I took a step forward and her hand flashed out, blocking me.
“Do not go in there! I’m going to get Professor Markham, she’ll stop them.”
“Claire, what are—” She spun around and raced off. “What is going on?!”
Another roar of laughter followed my shout.
“Stop it!” someone screamed. “You’ve gone too far!”
Dread curdled my blood as I recognized that voice. It was Juliet Cochran.
I surged forward, but Jaxson’s grip held me fast. “Wait, Val. Let me go first.”
He ran around me before I could argue.
“What’s up?” Sofia asked. “Is something going on in—”
I darted after Jaxson and burst into the living room. Skidding to a stop behind him, I took in the scene before me. The senior class—both sides were in the living room. I could see a fight was brewing as people from our side rushed the group standing in front of the entertainment center, but it was the television above their heads that claimed my attention.
Pictures flashed across the screen too fast for my sluggish mind to make sense of them. As they slowed, a voice came through the speakers.
“Valentina Moon has turned this school upside down.”
My hair stood on end at the creepy, high-pitched voice. It was fake. No one could sound like that.
“She wants you to believe the Spades can’t be trusted,” the voice said as a picture of me came on the screen. It was me on the sidewalk outside the gates coming back from my weekend with Ezra.
I shivered. Someone had been watching me.
“Her and her little friends have painted themselves as the good guys and told you all to follow them, but do they look like people you can trust?”
“What is this?” Sofia whispered. I hadn’t heard the rest of them come in. Horror had frozen me to the spot.
The pictures flashed across the screen again, but this time they were slow enough for me to see—for everyone to see.
Paisley’s bare breasts were the first thing my eyes latched on to. There was a seductive smile on her face as she straddled Kai. Both of them were naked and spread out on a blanket. The backdrop told me it was the forest of the academy.
“Turn that off!” Paisley screamed. “Turn it off!”
“Motherfuckers!” I was knocked aside when a hard body ran past me and charged the blockade in front of the DVD player. Darren shoved him back. Kai fell, landing on the coffee table, but he flew back
up swinging. He landed a punch square on Darren’s jaw and the two fell to the floor, grappling viciously.
“Kai!” Zane ran to his brother’s aid as Paisley burst into tears. She ran crying from the room as the awful slideshow continued.
“Pills,” that hideous voice hissed. Claire came onto the screen. She was ducked behind the fountain in the courtyard, putting what looked like a red-and-blue pill into her mouth.
“Drugs.”
Ciara was next. She was in the forest too. The sandy-haired girl was leaning against a tree smoking something that was not a cigarette.
“Come on, Kai,” Zane cried as he struggled to pull him off.
“Cheating,” said the voice.
My mouth fell open as the next picture lit up the television. It squeezed my heart when I heard the gasp behind me.
“Paisley needs you! Go to...” Zane trailed off as he took in what we were all seeing—him standing beneath the arch, kissing Penelope Madlow. “Wha— That’s not—” He whipped around as retreating footsteps told me Sofia bolted from the room. “Sofia, wait! It’s not what you think!”
Zane was forced to abandon his twin as he ran after her. Jaxson sprung to take his place. I was knocked to the side again as Maverick, Ryder, and Ezra went to help, but the video wasn’t over.
Pictures of me returned but I wasn’t alone. Me kissing Ezra on the porch. Me walking hand in hand with Jaxson. Me snuggling in Maverick’s arms. Me sharing a kiss with Ryder outside this very hotel.
The voice spoke as violation churned my stomach. “The Spades have no desire to hurt the innocent. We only want to keep students like this from dragging us all down. Valentina Moon had the choice all marked have which was to pack her bags and go to another school where no one would bother her. Instead, she turned Evergreen into a national joke, seduced our Knights until they lost their position, accused a woman who isn’t here to defend herself of being a pedophile, and then ripped the school apart when she and her boyfriends were questioned.
“Lying and scheming is what this girl does. She’d have you believe Evergreen is better off without the Spades, but we have existed since the school began and brought nothing but order and peace.”
“Except for Walter fucking McMillian!” I screamed; the words yanked from my throat. “Fear is not peace!”
The video carried on unheeding of my outburst. “Since Valentina Moon has set foot on these grounds, there has been nothing but drama, fighting, scandals, and now war. Think about it, everyone. It is not the Spades that need to go. It’s Valentina Moon.”
The screen went dark for a second, but then the picture returned. The video was playing on a loop.
Fury rattled my bones the likes of which I had never felt before. One word roared in my mind.
Ace.
I knew I should go after Sofia and Paisley, but I couldn’t get myself to move. Sharp, stinging pain warned me of the nails digging into my palms.
Ace did this. That cold, fucking bastard stalked and hurt my friends for standing up to them! When I find them—
“That’s enough!” Ryder bellowed. He ripped Darren off Kai as Maverick and Jaxson pulled the twin away. The boys fought in their hold, trying to get at each other. They both looked horrible. A cut over Darren’s eye wept blood and made him look even more frightening. Kai had a split lip, torn clothes, and an eye that was starting to swell.
An arm brushed against me as Eric stepped forward. “Get Kai out of here. Claire ran to get Professor Markham and if she finds out they got into a death match, they’re both in trouble.”
I went rigid. Wait... What did he say?
The warning banged around in my head until it knocked something loose.
Match. Match, I thought. In the game room Eric said...
“She’s a true match for me.”
Slowly, painstakingly, I reached into my pocket and took out my phone. My fingers were stiff as I tapped the screen. It took me a few tries to open my inbox, but as the boys hauled Kai out of the room, Ace’s messages laid out before my eyes. I scrolled up until I found it. Seven black words stark on a white background revealing everything that I did not want to be true.
Ace: You are a true match for me.
“Turn that fucking video off,” Eric cried. “Do you want Markham to flip shit on all of us?”
“It’s you,” I whispered.
“What, Val?” He turned around. His handsome features were the picture of innocence—so reminiscent of the boy I met four years ago. The Eric who became one of my first friends. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s you,” I repeated through numb lips. “You’re Ace.”
Eric gazed at me, trimmed eyebrows together, until his face smoothed out...
...and he smirked.
“You!” I screamed. White-hot anger exploded in me and I lunged at him.
Eric’s eyes popped as the smirk disappeared. He ducked my swipe and ran under my arms. I raced after him.
Our feet thundered on the squeaky floorboards. Eric was quick, pulling ahead of me as he ran past the dining room.
“Eric?” Jaxson stuck his head out and immediately jumped back with a shout when I shot past him. “Val?! What’s going on?”
There was no time to answer him. Eric rounded a corner and disappeared.
“Heavens!” someone cried. “No running in—”
Bang!
I burst into the front room and saw the entrance was wide open. I didn’t hesitate. I followed Eric out into the night.
The chilling air smacked me in the face as I searched for a figure in the darkness.
There.
“Eric, stop!” I took off after him. “Face me!”
Eric didn’t slow. The figure kept running for the trees and I was hot on his heels. Putting on a burst of speed, I closed the distance between us until he was inches from my grasping hand.
“Tell me why!” I cried. I swiped and my fingers brushed his collar just as he broke through the trees.
Branches ripped and tore at me as I gave chase. This wasn’t the clear, smooth path we took every day to our patch of swamp. I did not recognize the gnarled roots that reached for me in the darkness. The creatures that chittered and screamed at me, I couldn’t identify.
Still, I ran. Spurred on by betrayal that burned my throat with the heat of a red-hot poker. How could he do this to me? We weren’t always friends, but I never saw him as this. Ace hated me. Ace was obsessed with the Knights and seeing me broken. Ace tormented me, made me cut my hair, forced me to kiss Kai, announced that my son was the result of statutory rape, and turned the school against me more times than I could count. What could I have done to ignite that kind of loathing in my old friend?
“What did I do?!” I jumped and tackled him.
Eric cried out as we went down hard, landing in the wet, sticky grass. “Val, stop!” He struggled, trying to scramble away from me, but I grabbed his flailing wrist and yanked it up his back.
“You’re Ace,” I shouted as he cried out. “You blackmailed me! You forced me to do those horrible things. Why?!” I viciously tugged his arm higher and he bellowed.
“S-stop! You’ll break my arm!”
“Tell me why!”
“It— It w-wasn’t me,” he cried, voice laced with pain. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it. I swear.”
“Liar!” I released his arm and took hold of his shoulder. Eric didn’t have time to recover. I flipped him onto his back and clutched his collar. I twisted until he let out a choked gasp. “You said I was your perfect match! You—”
“A-Ace t-told me to,” he rasped. “Ace made me say it. I can... prove it. Look at my phone!” Eric beat desperately at my hands. “Please, V-Val. The texts are on my phone.”
Breathing hard, I gazed at the huge, staring whiteness of his eyes.
This is another trick. He’s fooled me for years. I can’t believe anything he says.
His nails dug half-moons into my wrist. “Look at the phone and you’ll see. I’ll tell you ever
ything, Val. I promise.”
My hand shook on his neck as his pleas tore at my resolve. It couldn’t hurt to look. Now that I knew who he was, he wasn’t getting away from me.
“Shit! Fine.” I smacked at his pockets until I found his cell.
“Under AOS,” he said as I stabbed at the screen. “It’s all there.”
I found the name at the top of his inbox. My grip was tight on his neck as I opened the messages, but it loosened as I read.
AOS: Tell her she’s a true match for you.
Eric: Why?
AOS: Just fucking do it. Tonight. Before the video.
Eric: What’s the point of all of this? It’s too much.
AOS: None of this would be necessary if she left in freshman year like she was supposed to. I didn’t start this shit, but you better believe I will end it. Tell her she is your perfect match, and then smile at her after she watches the video.
Eric: And if I don’t?
AOS: There have been rumors your dad isn’t fit enough to run the company after his little heart attack. I’d hate to see the rumors confirmed and him forced out. But that will be nothing compared to what I’ll put you through if you don’t do as I say.
The phone slipped from my hand as I fell off Eric. What did this mean? Was this for real?
I gaped at him as he staggered to his feet. “What the fuck is going on?” I croaked.
“...Val...”
I whipped around as a cry pierced the gloom. It sounded like Maverick. The guys were looking for me, but I wasn’t sure where I was. We had run so deep into the bayou; I heard the squelching of the wet marsh beneath my feet louder than his calls.
“You know what’s going on, Val.” I spun back to Eric as he righted himself. It was so dark, even with my vision adjusted to the night, his face was cloaked in shadows. “You don’t know how close to this you really are.”
“What do you mean?”
He went on like I hadn’t spoken. “You’ve got most of it figured out. That’s why Ace stalled me.”
“Stalled you?” I stepped closer. “What the hell are you talking about? What do I have figured out? I’m trying to find Ace. If that’s not you, then who is it?”