Page 16 of Defiant
Brittany.
Today her long blonde hair was curled, tumbling over her shoulder. Her nails were still long and well-kept, the same bejeweled acrylics she’d worn at the party. Jeans that I knew were name brand hugged her long legs tightly, booted heels underneath them. She was everything a guy could ever want, minus the bitch part, so I really had no idea why Archer felt the need to go behind her back and sleep with me.
She was a bitch, yeah, but I couldn’t exactly blame her for hating me. In this case, I was the other girl, the homewrecker.
And yet, somehow, she’d put all the blame on me and not an ounce of it onto Archer’s shoulders. It was ridiculous. It took two to tango, you know?
She sat in my desk, her legs in the aisle, as she leaned over and whispered something to Archer. I didn’t want to do so much as glance in Archer’s general direction, but I found my eyes slowly drifting to him, anyway.
God, I wished he would’ve looked like an ogre, or something, but my luck wasn’t that great. Instead of an ogre, he looked just as handsome as I remembered him being.
I needed therapy, clearly.
I resumed my pace, heading directly to my seat. I did not so much as spare another glance at Archer, but I did address Brittany with the snidest tone I could muster, “You’re in my seat.”
She turned those amber eyes to me, a color a few shades lighter than mine, and I felt my stomach twist. I truly had no idea what this girl was capable of; if she’d drugged me, she was clearly willing to go to any length to get back at me. I needed to be careful around her.
“That’s funny,” Brittany mused, not moving an inch as she smiled up at me, radiating a false innocence. “I could’ve sworn you had no idea what was yours and what wasn’t.” She stood in a flourish, grinning, standing a bit too close to me for comfort. Her voice dropped to a bare whisper, and she said, “The whole school will be watching you now. If you so much as lay another finger on what’s mine, you’ll regret it.”
The threat was taken, and I knew enough not to respond. Not here, not with an entire class around us.
Her eyes dropped to my shirt—an old, simple V-neck T-shirt—and she muttered, “I mean, look at you. The only way you’d ever land a guy around here is by throwing yourself at him.” A dig at my appearance, definitely. Brittany said nothing else as she walked away, leaving the classroom with a sashay of her hips no one else could imitate.
My teeth ground as I sat in my seat, setting my books on my desk. The seat under me was warm from Brittany’s ass, which made me want to gag. If there was anyone’s ass-warmth I wanted to avoid at all costs, it was that bitch’s.
I did not glance at Archer, though with my peripherals, I could tell he was trying to focus on the board, even though class hadn’t yet started. Even though nothing was up on that board and we were surrounded by talkative, loud students. He didn’t want to look at me, either.
Fine.
“You know,” I muttered under my breath, refusing to meet those blue eyes, “normally when someone fucks up, they own up to it. It says a lot about you that you won’t.” I said nothing else, and soon enough the announcements came on.
As the rest of the class simmered down, as the teacher made a shushing noise in the front of the room to get everyone to quiet, I heard Archer say, “I think it says more about you that you fell for it.”
If the pencil in my hand hadn’t been mechanical, I would’ve snapped it in half.
Was it better to be the gullible fool or the ass doing the fooling? Probably the latter.
I said nothing else all period, and it continued that way for most of the day as I drifted between classes. I’d thought it would be impossible to feel more alone here than I did before, but life came to prove me wrong yet again. I really was alone in Midpark High. Truly.
It sucked.
When choir class arrived, I was knee-deep into a morose, gloomy feeling I just couldn’t shake. I sat in my chair, keeping my head down, as I got out the sheet music I hadn’t thought of at all.
I should’ve dropped choir. I didn’t like singing. Singing was…something happy people did, people who had good voices. Me? I sounded like a dying cat on my best day and a shrieking monster on my worst.
Bobbi plopped down beside me, lightly touching her elbow with mine. “Hey,” she spoke, sounding far too kind. Or maybe I was just used to the sneering and the laughter from everyone else. “How are you doing? I…I heard about what happened at the party.”
I was slow in meeting her hazel stare. Her auburn hair was pulled back into a low, messy ponytail. A thin scarf hung around her neck, sitting on top of a red sweater and dark blue jeans. Even though she wasn’t considered a part of the cool crowd here, I knew her outfit still cost more than a monthly car payment for a normal household.
When I said nothing right away, she whispered, “Everyone was talking about it. They still are. I didn’t know you went with Archer.” She quieted as a few other students wandered into the room, setting their books down in the corner before taking their seats. “You didn’t ever mention his name, otherwise I would’ve warned you.”
I appreciated the sentiment, for what good it did me now. “Thanks,” I said. Running a hand through my hair, I muttered, “It isn’t like I knew he had a girlfriend. He never mentioned her. I didn’t…I didn’t think to ask and make sure. I figured he was a good guy.” At the time, Archer had really seemed like a good guy, but he fooled me, and now I was both enraged and aching in my heart.
As stupid as it was, I felt like I’d lost him, even though I’d never really had him.
It was just a dumb hookup. Just because he was gorgeous and fine didn’t mean I had to go crushing on the guy. Now that I knew he was an ass of epic proportions, I really should know better.
“Brittany has had her eyes set on him for years,” Bobbi spoke, about the only one in this school who wasn’t acting like I was a social pariah.
