Page 40 of Devil in Disguise
“I actually feel sorry for her,” Sydney said in the fake-sweet voice Dyma had already noticed she used around guys. “She’s been making this big play for the guy in the room next door, who’s a junior and really hot. You can tell he doesn’t know how to tell her no. I keep wondering—should we tell her she’s making a fool of herself?”
“Hmm. Sure it isn’t you who’s making a play for him?” That was Logan, she thought. “I wouldn’t put it past you. And maybe he doesn’t want to tell her no.Isure wouldn’t tell her no.”
Sydney and Cassandra laughed like he’d just said something hilarious. “Seriously?” Sydney said. “I mean, I’m sure she doesn’t know better, but—have you seen her hair?She practically has a crew cut under that floppy part, and it’s bleachedplatinum!Whodoesthat? And all that black eyeliner she wears?”
“Hello,” Cassandra said. “Trashy much?”
“The hair’s hot,” Logan said. “She’s got that tough ‘n’ trashy thing going on, yeah, and it’s working for me. Plus, sorry, but she’s gorgeous.”
Dyma was just thinking,OK. Not great, but OK,when he went on. “Plus, I’ve got a thing for piercings. Piercingsandtattoosandthe undercut? Oh, yeah. I bet she fucks like a wildcat. Hope you guys want to see a lot of me, because I’m hanging around until I rip off a piece of that.” Which made both Cassandra and Sydney gasp and then laugh, and the other guy just plain laugh.
“Come on,” Logan said. “Tell me. What other piercings does she have? Bet she’s got a lower back tattoo, too. She’s tramp stamp all the way.”
“Nope,” Dyma said, letting the door close behind her. “But good job on the slut shaming. I do have a pierced navel, though, and piercings in my dermal dimples. They’re hot as hell, but you’re never going to come within a block of them, because Idon’t like skanky guys who talk about how Ifuck.You want trashy?That’strashy. That’slow.You’re in myroom,talking about me like that?”
Cassandra looked like she didn’t know where to look, and she definitely didn’t know what to say. She tried, “Oh, sorry. We didn’t, uh …”
Sydney said, “Well, I’m sorry, but we didn’t know you were there, so that’s almost like eavesdropping. And these are our friends from school.”
Logan said, “Hey. No harm, no foul. Just talk, and sorry, but youarehot.” Then tried what Dyma guessed was supposed to be a cocksure, sorry-not-sorry grin.
“Oh, I get it,” Dyma said. “I’m supposed to want to see if I can tame the bad boy, because you’re mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”
“Well, yeah,”he said, doing what was probably supposed to be a smolder. “I am. I guess that makes two of us.”
“Oscar Wilde said that,” she informed him. “He was gay. Sure you’re not compensating for something? And you know—somehow, I doubt you’d be showing me a real good time.” And here she’d thought AP English was a waste of effort. She’d used it twice in three days now. Although her comment could have sounded a little homophobic.
Too bad. Oscar Wilde would have understood.
Wait. That quote was actually about Lord Byron. She wasn’t backing down now, though. Besides, her way was better.
Sydney said, “Excuse me. Rude?”
“Oh, I’m rude? Excuseme.Oh, wait. You know what’s rude? It’s rude to talk trash about yourroommatewhen she’s rightthere!”She tried to think about the “rising above it” thing, but how could she? She wasn’t exactly Martin Luther King, Jr. at the best of times, and this sure wasn’t the best of times. Plus, she was missing kickoff! She grabbed a pair of workout shorts and a sports bra from the drawer, pulled the shorts on without one single bit of care for what she was showing that asshole—she wasn’t sure which one she was even talking about—picked up her running shoes, grabbed her phone and headphones, then turned around again and said, “Oh, by the way? I saw your rules for the room, when you left them on mydesk,and your quiet hours aren’t going to work for me, sorry. I have an eight o’clock class three days a week, and I have to be at work before seven on Thursdays. I’m also getting up early on the weekends, so I’ll be disturbing your beauty sleep yet again. Because trashy girls from trashy places need jobs. We don’t have parents who work at friggin’ Microsoft and Nintendo, and we’re on scholarship, too. You know what, though? You know what?”
Her hands were shaking. Her voice was, too. She stared at Logan, sending a laser-beam message from her whole face that meant,I know how to kick you in the balls so hard, you’ll never reproduce, and I know how to break your nose, too. See if Daddy pays to fix that. Stay away from me, you piece of shit.
He couldn’t hold her gaze. He looked away.
Her heart was beating so hard, she was sure it was visible. She felt like she was breathing fire.
Oh, wait. She was supposed to tell them ‘what.’ What was ‘what’?
“My mom’s pregnant, yeah,” she decided to tell them. “She was single all my life, and now she’s engaged, but you’re absolutely right. She’s thirty-five, she’s got a kid in college, she’s never had any money, and now she’s pregnant again, and I can pretty much guess what you all have said about her. And she’s the hardest worker and the best person I’ve ever known. She wasniceto you guys! She wasnice!And you treated her like shit! You should be ashamed. You should beapologizing.But you know? I’m sure you won’t. And that’s fine with me. I’m going to live in this room, and you’re not going to be assholes to me, because if you are, I will hurt you. The thing about trashy girls like me? We know how to fight. We know how towin.So I’m just going to keep getting up at six in the morning and doing food prep for minimum wage and studying, and when you flunk out because your fancy school and your fancy parents never taught you how to work like I do, I’m not even going to laugh. Because you won’t be worth thinking about. Because I. Won’t.Care.”
It wasn’t Buddhist. It wasn’t even Taoist. And she hadn’t even made it twodaysbefore she’d cursed them out and burned her bridges.
But oh, man, did it feel good.
19
Dyma Clears Things Up
You could saythat things were chilly in her room after that. Or you could say that her roommates made very sure to act like she wasn’t even there. On the plus side, she now fully understood the concept of ostracism. She could practically write a paper on it. She also got full value out of her headphones.
When classes started, she did most of her studying at the library. Concentrating was hard, though, especially in Thermodynamics. She understood the physics part of it just fine, but kept losing her focus on the chemistry.
Or maybe it was just the lack of sleep, she thought on a Wednesday four weeks later. The undergrad library was noisy, since next week was midterms, but she kept nodding off anyway. She’d stayed up until eleven last night playing video games in Fletcher and Avery’s room after getting up at six-fifteen for work, and when she’d gone back into the room, Sydney and Cassandra had kept their lights on and kept talking until well after midnight.
