“Well, I wasn’t really expecting you to be here, but I came to apologize to Violet.” She looked from Lena, to me as she said, “I really am sorry about kissing Blake. At the time, I didn’t know that he had a girlfriend. I’m also sorry about being such a bitch to you. You did nothing to me, and I had no reason to treat you as badly as I did. I was jealous, and jealousy makes me do some mean things.”
I was kind of caught off guard. I didn’t know that Ella was here to apologize to me. If anything I assumed that Brianna had sent her over here, or she was here to say that her and Blake were dating; something along those lines. Anything but an apology.
Since I wasn’t prepared for this, the only thing that I could think to say was, “Um, thanks?”
Obviously Lena had more to say than I did. Placing her elbow on her thigh, she leaned forward and asked, “Why were you jealous?”
Ella shrugged and looked down. “That should be obvious. I liked Blake, but he’s in love with her,” she looked up, her green eyes meeting mine before she dropped then back to the ground. “After the kiss, he told me about you, and how you couldn’t ever find out about what happened because he loved you, and he was afraid that you would break up with him if you knew. At the time, we didn’t know that Brianna had even seen the kiss. We thought that we would be able to just keep it between us. That way you and Blake could stay together, and I would just join Brianna’s group of friends and forget that the kiss ever happened.”
“Wait,” I cut in, “Blake didn’t want me to find out about the kiss because he didn’t want me to break up with him?” I figured that he had lied to me because he wanted to keep his feelings for Ella a secret.
“Yeah, that was what he thought would happen, and it did. You found out, and you dumped him.”
I shook my head, feeling the need to defend myself. “I dumped him because he lied to me and kept something so big hidden.” There was no way that I was going to tell Ella that Blake had said that he had a crush on her for a short while during the summer. I understand that even if you’re dating someone, you can still find someone else attractive, and it’s not cheating unless you act on your feelings, which he did.
Ella nodded. “That’s understandable.”
“So how did y’all find out that Brianna knew?”
Ella sat back in the couch, rolling her eyes.” She told us. Well, she showed us. Then she gave us an ultimatum. I had to continue being her friend while doing whatever she asked me to, and actually make it believable, and Blake had to give her a chance as his friend, or she’d send the picture to everyone at school.”
Lena feigned a laugh. “That has to be the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard. Is that how she makes all of her friends?”
Ella shrugged. “No, but it’s how she keeps her friends. Apparently she has blackmail on everyone and she threatens to use it if they ever “betray” her.” She did air quotes around the word “betray” and groaned. “Anya said that she holds the blackmail over your head, but doesn’t use it unless you actually do something that’s worthy of being punished for. I figured if I just kept doing what she asked me to, then I’d be off the hook, but I never thought that you’d see the picture on my phone.”
Shrugging, Lena said, “Shouldn’t have left it where I could get it.”
Voicing my thoughts out loud I asked, “Why is she such a conniving bitch?” speaking to know one in particular.
Ignoring my rhetorical question, Lena said to her sister, “What did she ask you to do?”
Ella scoffed. “What didn’t she ask me to do?” She shook her head. “At first it was all pretty straight forward. I had to be a bitch to Violet any chance I got. I felt awful treating you like that. I knew that I had to treat you badly from the moment I first saw you. Brianna’s blackmail, mixed with my jealousy didn’t paint a pretty picture. Even though I was jealous, I also didn’t want to be the one who ruined your relationship. Then you and Lena became friends, and I didn’t want Lena to find out either, because I didn’t want her to label me as some slut.”
“You are a slut,” Lena cut in, “but you’re not some slut, you’re my slut.”
Ella rolled her eyes at her sister’s words. “I’m sorry that I changed again, when I promised that I wouldn’t repeat last year.”
“I accept your apology, Ella.” Lena opened her arms, and Ella slowly stood up from the couch and walked over to sit on her older sister’s lap, and embrace her in a tight hug. “Don’t let it happen again you little redheaded minx.”
“You smell like vanilla and almonds,” Ella mused.
“Aw thanks, sis. You smell like Britney Spears.”
Ella laughed as I stared at them awkwardly. “So…” I started, trying to gain their attention again. Both of their heads turned to look at me. “Do you think she could be our double agent?”
“What?” Lena’s face scrunched in confusion.
I raised one eyebrow and turned my head slightly. “You know; our inside man.”
“Oh!” she replied, her face lighting up at the thought. “I think she’d be willing to do it.”
“Do what?” Ella questioned, looking back and forth between the two of us.
“Help us get revenge on the skank bitch formally known as Brianna Richardson.”
Ella nodded vigorously from her spot on Lena’s lap. “Hell yeah, I’m in.”
“Watch your mouth,” Lena scolded playfully.
Smirking, Ella nodded, “Sure thing mom. Brianna probably won’t even be expecting it from me. We’ve gotten really “close” since we fought. Or at least she thinks we have. It was hard for me to really be friends with her when I had the blackmail in the back of my mind.”
“Why did you guys really fight, anyway?”
Ella shrugged nonchalantly. “Brianna called you a twat for hanging out with Violet, and I don’t care what someone has over me, no one messes with my family. Afterwards she talked to me about it, apologizing and crap, and saying that that was my first warning. What is she, a kindergarten teacher?”
I laughed at the thought of Brianna teaching a class full of young, impressionable minds. “Good morning students, I’m your teacher, Ms. Bitchardson,” I spoke aloud, in a mock impression of her voice.
“First thing I’ll teach you is the proper way to execute the art of blackmail,” Lena added in.
“Lastly, I’ll dye each of your hair blonde, and make you my minions. Then we can take over the world one person at a time.”
Chapter 27
After a few days of planning out our revenge, Lena and I were excited to include Ella in on the scheme. After all, she had plenty of reason to want to get Brianna back for blackmailing her, and we needed her. Ella was our shining angel in this situation. She’s the only one who was close enough to Brianna to get all of the inside jobs completed. Ella is our double agent.
Our first plan of action was to show everyone who the real Brianna Richardson was. Ella had come up with the bright idea of getting Brianna to host a sleepover at her house. Being the attention whore that she is, Brianna was unable to resist the idea of inviting all of her friends over to spend the night. All night long, Ella was set up with different tasks to complete in order to make her day tomorrow terrible.
Considering the fact that Brianna had decided to throw her sleepover party on a school night, not many of the girls could make it, therefore making our task a bit harder. If more girls had been able to come, then Ella would have an easier time sneaking away without being noticed, but now everything was more complicated. On the bright side at least, with less people in the house there’s a smaller chance of Lena and I getting caught as well.
Lena slouched further down in the driver’s seat, pressing one of the walkie-talkies that we had found in Lilly’s room to her mouth. Jabbing her thumb onto one of the buttons, she whispered, “Baby Red, do you hear me? I repeat, do you hear me?”
I watched from my position in the passenger’s seat as Lena stared at the walkie-talkie in anticipation. Her eyes wer
e wide and round as she waited for a moment before turning to me. “She’s not replying. What if she’s already been busted?”
Raising an eyebrow, I reached over and took the walkie-talkie from her hands. “You forgot to take your finger off of the button.”
“Oh,” she sighed. Suddenly, Lena pushed herself upwards, and reached into the back seat. Her arm swept around until she obviously found what it was that she had been searching for.
Static sounded on the walkie-talkie and Ella’s voice came through just as Lena slid back down in her seat, now clutching a pair of binoculars. “Hey guys, I just excused myself to the bathroom. What do I do now?”
Squeezing the button with my thumb, I spoke. “Did anyone think something was suspicious about you taking your purse to the bathroom with you?”
It was silent for a moment before she replied. “Not really. I told them that I needed to reapply my makeup. They seemed to buy it. Now what?”
Lena snatched the walkie-talkie from my hands and held it to her mouth again. “First, find her conditioner. Forget about the shampoo. Everyone knows that the conditioner is used the most. Just uncap the bottle, and pour every last drop of the henna into it.”
Everything was silent for a moment. I could just imagine Ella shuffling through the cabinets in Brianna’s bathroom in search of her conditioner. Suddenly her voice crackled over the speaker. “I found her conditioner, but I think I found something better.”
“What?”
“A few boxes of blonde hair dye.”
Lena held the walkie-talkie near her face as she opened her mouth to respond, before she did so, she turned her head toward me and asked, “Isn’t she a natural blonde?”
I nodded, “Yeah, she was always a blonde. Her hair was really pale when we were younger, but it got a bit darker as she got older. I never really thought about it, but she must bleach her hair to get it lighter.”
A slow smirk spread over Lena’s face as she pushed the talk button and said, “Is there any way that you can open one of the packages and switch the two bottles without it being noticeable?”
Ella’s response was quick, “Yeah, one of them is open already anyway. The bottles look the same; the henna bottle is just a tiny bit bigger. It’s hardly noticeable. I’ll even open the henna and squeeze a layer of hair dye on the top just in case she looks at the inside. This way the henna will be hidden a little.”
“All right, hurry up and do that, so you can go back to the party. You don’t want to look too suspicious either.”
Lena handed me back the walkie-talkie. Just from the look on her face, I could tell that she was mentally visualizing what we were going to do as soon as the girls fell asleep. Who know how long it would take for that to happen. Man was it going to be a long night.
***
A crackling sound fuzzed through the walkie-talkie, jolting me awake from my uncomfortable slumber. My head was resting on the dashboard, and when I jumped up, my head hit the glass, causing me to screech in pain. A glance outside of the car showed the pitch black sky, making me wonder what time it was.
“You guys there?” came Ella’s whisper.
Glancing around, I spotted the walkie-talkie clutched tightly in Lena’s hands. After pulling it free, I replied to Ella with a simple, “Yep.”
As I waited for her eminent response, I poked Lena’s cheek and flicked her nose, trying to wake her up. She groggily opened her eyes just as Ella responded.
“Everyone’s asleep. We’re all in Brianna’s guest room, but earlier when I went to get a water bottle from the kitchen I opened a window in the living room for you guys. It’s on the side of the house nearest to your house Violet. Brianna leaves her car keys hanging on a hook in the kitchen. Her keys have a studded key chain labeled B tied to them. I left the fish in the freezer, that way they will take a while to defrost in her car, and she won’t be able to smell them immediately. Remember, once you’re inside the house, I’m not going to communicate with you all, so just make sure you get in and out quickly.”
A deep yawn came from Lena’s mouth. “Got it,” she mumbled.
“Okay, but remember, if anyone wakes up or anything happens, text me. It’ll vibrate and that will warn us to get out. Then stall them for a bit,” I replied.
Ella’s whisper came through the speaker again, “Got it. Oh and guys?”
“Yeah?” Lena and I questioned simultaneously.
“Try and be quiet, and don’t get caught. These girls are paranoid since Brianna’s parents are out. Every little creak makes them jump. Oh, and I won’t be able to vouch for you if anything happens. You guys know I’ll have to take Brianna’s side.”
“We know, we’ll be like ninjas.”
“Great,” was all Ella said before the line to her walkie-talkie cut off, leaving us with no way to contact her.
Lena shifted positions in her seat and reached up to pull the mirror down. After staring at her eyes for a moment, she rubbed them with her fists and let out a sleepy yawn. “Let’s go Forrester.”
We simultaneously opened the car doors, trying to be quiet despite the fact that we were parked two houses away in a spot where we had a perfect view of Brianna’s house, but weren’t too close to my house. After all, we weren’t only trying to avoid being caught by Brianna and her minions, but we were also trying to avoid being seen by my parents considering the fact that I had told them I would be spending the night at Lena’s house. It had taken a while, and my face had felt as if it would be permanently stuck in the puppy dog face, but somehow I had managed to convince them to let me spend the night on a school night. They most likely were thinking about how little sleepovers I’ve been to in the past few years, and decided to let me go out of pity.
As I slid out of the car I made sure to grab my small shoulder bag that I stuffed with a few things I had bought in the prank aisle at the dollar store earlier that week.
After tiptoeing our way across the damp lawn, Lena and I slipped past each window, using the shadows as our only disguises. We sneakily ran around the house to the side where our two lawns joined, and where Ella had told us that she left the window open. The grass near the window stood a few inches taller than the grass on the rest of the lawn, and it annoyingly scratched at my bare legs. The night breeze was chilly against my arms, and I instantly found myself wishing that I had worn something other than my cotton pajama shorts and a tank top.
Gripping onto the window, Lena pushed it up a few more inches, creating a slight screeching noise as the window scraped against the frame. I widened my eyes, scared the noise was going to attract some type of attention, and that we would be caught before we even had a chance to get inside the house. After a minute passed and nothing happened, Lena turned to smile at me.
“Once we get inside, I’ll go get the fish and the car keys, and take care of that. I’m sneakier and faster than you are, so it would make more sense for me to go. Besides, I have a little surprise that I want to leave for Brianna.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to do anything bad.” She rolled her eyes playfully. “It’s something she deserves.” Flipping her hair back, she turned and stuck her head into the window. She looked as if she was going to climb in, but suddenly she removed her head, backed up, and gestured for me to go first. “You’re shorter, so I’ll give you a little boost to get in. I can easily pull myself through though since it’s not that far of a jump.”
Before starting to climb, I made sure that my bag was secure on my back. Then, pulling myself up into the window, I felt Lena shove my butt forward in order to give me a boost. I slipped through easily and landed silently on the plush carpeted floor. Sitting down, I slipped my shoes off of my feet so that I could be quieter, and left them behind an armchair that was positioned near the window. Lena scrambled in behind me and did the same with her shoes, being extremely careful to be quiet.
Once we were both inside, we each ran off to complete our separate forms of revenge
. Lena headed into the kitchen to grab the fish and car keys that Ella had stashed in there earlier, while I started to roam the house in search of places to use my bag of tricks.
After walking in circles around the living room, I realized that I would have to sneak upstairs to actually be able to use anything that would directly affect Brianna, rather than her parents. My heart beat quickly as I made my way over to the grand staircase. Taking a few slow deep breaths, I finally mustered up enough courage to take the first step. When nothing but silence met my ears, I became more confident. I started taking steps two at a time, trying hard to be quiet and quick. Finally when I made it to the top of the stairs, I sighed in relief. Not once had the stairs creaked. Now all I had to do was hope that the hallway floor would be as cooperative as the staircase had been.
I slid toward the wall, pressing my back against it and slipping silently down the hallway in the direction of Brianna’s bedroom. It had been years since I had been upstairs inside Brianna’s house, and yet, thanks to our similar house interiors, I could easily remember which room was hers. She had the room at the end of the hallway to the left with the window that faced my bedroom. I knew that I had to be extremely quiet, not only because I was upstairs, but also because the room next to Brianna’s bedroom was the guest room; the room where all of the girls were asleep. I tip toed silently past the guest bedroom door, wincing and freezing when the floor creaked beneath my weight. I waited silently, listening for any sound of movement for a moment before I quickly slipped into Brianna’s bedroom, pushing the door closed behind me.
Once I had made it inside, I sighed, placing my hand over my rapidly beating heart. I made my way over to Brianna’s closet and silently thanked the heavens that the door was already open and I could avoid possible squeaky hinges. I slid my bag off of my shoulder and unzipped it. Reaching my hand inside, I pulled out the itching powder that I had bought, and began sprinkling it into every single pair of shoes Brianna owned. Lucky for her, I was forced to avoid the flip flops and open shoes because the powder would be obvious, but to compensate for that, I poured a healthy amount into all of her cheerleading shoes and heels. Just enough to make her itch insanely but not be noticeable on the shoe. Afterwards, I sprinkled a little of the powder on as many of her clothes as I could, making sure to sprinkle the powder on the inside.
Crush: A YA Romance Collection Page 44