Page 62 of Rush
Stalking across the restaurant, I held my head high. Fuck, that felt good.
Reaching for the door handle, I gasped as a hand with perfectly manicured nails weighed down with a huge-ass diamond, slapped on the door, barring my way.
“I wouldn’t be congratulating yourself just yet,” Margaret said.
Glancing up, the sight of my one-time best friend made me sick. “Look who’s come to threaten me out of earshot of her precious followers. I’ve quit your cult for good, so anything you’ve got to say is empty. I’m done.” Grasping the door handle, I wrenched it toward me, but Margaret pushed it closed again.
“You’re right about a lot of things, Jade, but dead wrong about the most important. You think you’re untouchable just because you’ve had a single moment that you decided is a victory against the big bad world. Well, I’m here to tell you it’s my life’s mission to ruin you.” She smiled sweetly and held up her phone.
The adrenaline in my veins began to drop and a sickly sheen of sweat beaded on my forehead. I was going to pass out.
On the screen was a photograph of me, sleeping in Hunter’s car. Hunter’s car that I’d stolen. I’d returned it the next morning, but I’d stolen it all the same. Humiliation flooded my cheeks. How the mighty had fallen.
“But it was only one night…” I muttered. “Hunter left me high and dry… I… I had nowhere to stay.”
“Like that matters,” Margaret said with a sickly sweet smile. “All people will care about is this photo. Nothing you’ve ever said or done before or after will matter. Everyone will see this, and they will never want to hire you again. Seriously, who wants someone representing their brand when their home is their ex-fiancé’s stolen car? Like literally their home.” She laughed, completely confident she’d trumped me.
She’d won. I couldn’t explain this. Everything was gone now. I’d lost it all.
“Why?” I whispered. “What did I ever do to you?”
Margaret laughed and flicked her hair. “Why? Because I’ve decided you’re no good to me anymore. You’re living at a budget hotel, was fired from your job, your fiancé was using you, and you were too stupid to notice he’d been fucking half of Melbourne behind your back for… How long was it? Well overa year. And in your bed, no less.” She made a face. “Imagine… You were sleeping in their come stains all that time.Disgusting.”
“Some friend you are,” I said angrily, fighting back the torrent of tears that would claim me the moment I fled. “You could’ve helped me, but like the snake you are, you spread false gossip behind my back and blackmail me. What’s wrong with you? Are you jealous? Of what? You’re the one who has everything she ever wanted.”
“You’re such a hater, Jade,” she said, looking down her nose at me. “You’re the one who’s crying foul just because you can’t have what you want. All of this is your own fault, you know. The truth always outs in the end.”
“Whatever helps you become the martyr, right?Fakealways outs in the end.” I rolled my eyes, my throat burning. “You want to destroy me because I didn’t fall at your feet and treat you like the center of the universe. Get a fucking grip, Margaret. The world doesn’t revolve around you. Shit, it doesn’t revolve around anyone. Grow the fuck up.”
She snorted and glanced back at the restaurant. “Good luck on the streets, Jade. I hear you can get quality cardboard out of a dumpster at the back of a supermarket. You’re going to need it for winter.” Plastering a sickly smile on her face, she stared at me as she called out to Belinda and Heather. “Don’t you just love it when the trash takes itself out?”
I was frozen, unable to run. I just stood there and let her stomp on my heart.
“By the way,” she added, gearing up to deliver the kill shot. “I fucked Hunter at your engagement party.”
Completely mortified, I fled, pushing through the door and scurrying outside.
Ripped apart, humiliated, heartbroken, and alone, I stared up at the Melbourne skyline and barely made it a step before the first tears began to fall.
24
Ryan
The moment Margaretleft my place was the moment I forgot about her and got on with life.
She was nothing, and her games…they were less than zero. When I was eighteen, I couldn’t wait to get out of high school, but it seemed high school never ended. Humans were a fucked-up lot when it came to jealousy. Jade obviously had qualities Margaret wanted but couldn’t have. Instead of making the most out of her rich bitch life, she lashed out.
Went to show that money didn’t always equal happiness. If it ever did beyond the stability of a roof over your head.
I was lying on my back on a bench press at Pulse, waiting for Cole to finish fixing the weights on the bar. It was his turn to spot as I pressed. Today, as my best mate called it, was man titty Tuesday.
“Go up five kilos,” Ash said, overseeing our progress. “Get a bit more definition happening in your chest.”
“Pump up those man titties!” Cole chortled, much to our amusement. “We’ll have to tape them down before long.”
“Shut it,” I said grumbling.
“Ash!” The sound of Ren, Ash’s wife’s, voice bellowing across the gym caused all our heads to turn. “Phone!”
