Page 100 of Hate Game

“You mean fucking?”

“You’re so crass.”

“I’m calling it like it is, Rue. There is no making love happening tonight. The guys and girls are here for an easy and fast hookup.”

I park under the shade of trees in the back of the school. The music is loud, and large lights, like the ones Mason let me borrow for Malice’s party, light up the main parking lot in front of the school.

“Malice?”

“Yeah, the girls grope him when he walks by. They shove papers with their numbers on them into his hands. These girls are forward, Rue. Come and claim your guy.”

“I’m planning on it. Thanks, Red.”

“For what?”

“For being a great friend.”

“Don’t jump the gun so soon. The family matters aren’t settled yet. Remember, Malice must stake his claim.”

What does that look like? So, I’m property, a possession to Malice, like his expensive sports car and shiny new motorcycle? I won’t believe it.

Malice has only treated me like a princess, his future queen. The woman who will rule over his world. Smiling, I haul ass out of Tessa’s car that she let me borrow and run toward the back of the school with my NVGs on and my backpack slung over my shoulder.

I blend in with the darkness, dressed in black from head to toe. Red said Malice was in the boys’ locker room. I know exactly where that is. I sprint across the back lot.

Isaac didn’t put lights back here. No one is guarding the back exit. Why would they when the most anticipated fight happens soon? Or they can dance and drink the night away in the front parking lot, where there are lights. It’s not scary like back here, where the school backs up to the woods.

I shiver, but not from the cold. We have coyotes, and when it is mating season, they go a little crazy. I do not want to be on the end of that kind of crazy.

At the back of the school, I take off my NVGs, shove them in my backpack, and enter through one of two back exits. One door would take me to a hallway lined with classrooms. At the end of the hallway, I could take a right to the gym or a left to the cafeteria.

But this other door? This one leads to a secret corridor that ends at the theatre. Next to the theatre is the gym. I’m not sure who came up with the design, but the girls used to sneak in this way to watch the basketball players practice before the guys invited them inside the locker room for a game of show-and-tell or never-have-I-ever.

The crowd's chants are a rumble under my feet before I hear them. I pull Mason’s baseball cap lower over my face and flip the hood of my hoodie over the cap.

Anyone who saw me would think I was one of the guys. I walk around the theatre’s stage and speed-walk to the gym. Rather than walk past the bleachers where Isaac kept the spectators from crowding the cage or interfering in the fights, I head for the door in the back of the locker room. Two guys guard the door.

How do I get past them? Just my luck, two girls who look around Riley’s age poke their heads out of the locker room. One crooks her finger and the over waves. Both men head inside the locker room. This is it. I cross my fingers, hoping Malice is in there.

I hurry inside before the door shuts behind me. Each guy follows a woman into a bathroom stall. I wrinkle my nose. To each their own. I walk around the corner to where there should be benches for the guys to sit on as they put on their shoes and run into my nightmare come true.

Malice’s hands are gripping a girl’s shoulders. Her small hands cup the back of his head, like she’s clinging on for dear life, or he’s giving her the best kiss she’s ever experienced. Here I was worrying like crazy that he was hurting, only to catch him swapping spit with another girl? That jerk!

I hurl my backpack at him. It hits him on the back.

“I hope that freaking hurts, you cheating, lying bastard!”

Malice whirls around. There’s guilt on his face. The girl steps from behind him. It’s Cassie.

I ball my fists at my sides. “And here I thought you needed babying and saving, but I was wrong. Ihate you, Malice Sterling.”

I bolt from the locker room.

What is the antonym of hate? Love. I still love him, even with the truth staring at me so blatantly. Red is right. Malice hasn’t declared me as his, and I doubt he ever will when he has someone as beautiful and angelic as Cassie.

She is his angel, and I am nothing but the devil masquerading as an angel in the hopes I could change my troublesome ways. A dangerous thought crosses my mind, but I dash it away.

I used to believe that I could cause destruction with my thieving because I was the one who had to live with the consequences of my actions. But my decisions affect more than just me.

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