Page 3 of Make Believe

“Don’t fucking test me, princess,” he snarls. “I know you better than you think. You’re so desperate for someone to tell you that you matter, but you don’t. You say you don’t do feelings, but that’s only because deep down, you know you’re unlovable. Your fancy family didn’t want you, and neither did your ex-boyfriend. We had something good, and if you think breaking it off is going to make me respect you, then you are tragically misinformed. You’renothing,and you’ll always benothing.”

I step back, my heart racing.

Suddenly, I’m not at the party anymore. I’m back in Daddy Stanley’s bedroom as he packs my things and tells me he’s bored of me.

“If I wanted someone else’s opinion, I’d date a real man. You’re supposed to be my doll, and you can’t even do that right.”

I’d never been so degraded in my life. I’d felt utterly worthless. At least I knew my parents never really loved me, and it was a relief to escape them. With Stanley, it was supposed to be different. But in the end, he made me feel even worse than they ever did. Like it was mortifying that I ever thought I had opinions that mattered or that my voice should be heard. I’ve never cried so hard before or since that night.

It takes me a horrifying second to realize that tears are sliding down my face in the here and now.

“Oh my god!” Tara cries gleefully at Logan. “He’s so obsessed with you that you made him blub!” She glares at me again. “So pathetic. Get it through your empty head, freak! He’s never going to fuck you, ever!”

This can’t be happening. No, no,no!I worked so hard to make sure I was never vulnerable in front of anyone in my new life so they wouldn’t have the ammunition to hurt me like Stanley did or like my parents tried to do. I’ve spent the last year in control, and Logan McKenna is undoing all of that in a matter of minutes. People are still looking at us, but they aren’t laughing anymore.

Their expressions are ones of pity.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Harper shouts as Jessie wraps his arms around me. But it’s like a dam has broken and every emotion I’ve done my best to lock away over the past several years is tumbling out now.

I’m not sure what’s worse. Tara’s lies or Logan’s truth.

Ihatethat he has the measure of me like that. I do put on a front and pretend like no one can get close enough to touch me because that’s the way I want it. The reality is that I’m so terrified that if someone breaks me down like that again, I won’t recover. My parents treated me like nothing, only for Stanley to confirm it was true.

I swore I’d never feel that way again.

“Fuck you,” I snarl through gritted teeth, jabbing a finger into Logan’s face as tears drip from my chin. “You weren’t worth it. I wish you a miserable, closeted life. I’ll be out here loud and proud, living my truth.You’rethe one who’s pathetic.”

Logan laughs at me. “This is my town, Hughes, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”

I guess people like him really don’t get kink. He doesn’t understand that because I used to let him take charge in the bedroom, it doesn’t mean I’m helpless in the real world. I nevereven dressed up for him or went full doll mode. He’d have lost his mind, and not in a good way. But he thinks because I was a pillow princess for him in bed that he gets to dictate how I live my life now?

Nuh-uh.

“Oh, we’ll see about that,” I say with a savage grin. It’s my turn to speak so quietly we’re the only two who can hear me. “You want to tarnish my reputation? I’ll destroy yours, pretty boy. Just you wait.”

He laughs again, but this time it’s uncertain, and he frowns at me. In that moment, I wish I had some proof as to just how much of a fake he is, but I don’t.

Between his vicious words and the way he made me lose it in front of everyone, I’m afraid to admit I’m pretty devastated. I put up all these walls to keep myself safe. But breaking off our arrangement obviously hurt him more than he’d care to admit. He went for my metaphorical jugular and left me bleeding out on the floor with everyone else standing around, watching. Sure, my friends tried to support me, but I never wanted them to see me like that, either.

Paddle Creek has been my do-over. My clean slate. Even after Stanley, I refused to move. This is my home. Am I going to have to run from here as well?

I look between Jessie and Harper, who are still clinging to me, and Logan and Tara as they laugh at me. The crowd looks awkward, and the music feels uncomfortably loud. Oh,fuck.

Some people have their phones out. They’ve got one of the worst moments of my life on camera for all the world to see.

I wish I’d filmed Logan. I’d smear his name so fast his head would spin. He wants to make me out to be something I’m not? The truth would be far more damning for him. All his very loud homophobia would come back to bite him in the ass.

But I don’t have a single shred of evidence.

Not yet, anyway.

I can be patient. No one gets to make me feel like this. No one has that kind of power over me, at least not for long. I swore I’d never let anyone treat me like my parents or Stanley did ever again, and I mean it.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

A nerdy-looking guy in glasses pushes his way through the crowd. It’s Gabriel Visoth, a sophomore I’m friends with and I think the only non-football player who’s a member of Alpha Zeta Kappa. He’s closer to Jessie than to me, but I do know that his two ex-Panther boyfriends are also his Daddies. Despite being a small geek, he’s got a lot of respect around here.

People look sheepish, and I’m glad for an excuse to snap out of this ordeal. I’ve had quite enough humiliation for one evening. Besides, the way Gabe is glaring at Logan, he’s not thrilled to see him either. I feel like I can walk away with some dignity intact. Time to make a swift exit.

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