Page 75 of Reckless At Raleigh High
“Take it easy, girl. One thing at a time. Remember to breathe...”
“Huh. Would you look at this,” a chillingly familiar voice says. The sound of it reminds me of knives being sharpened, their edges honed to vicious points. “How small-town trailer park of you, Silver. Hitched before graduation. Suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. You always were just so…basic.”
Kacey Winters is standing right behind me.
If I turn around now, I’ll come face to face with her, and I’ll be forced to look her in the eye. No doubt I’ll be forced to endure more of her cutting remarks, too. The excited smile that was plastered all over Halliday’s face a moment ago has frozen into some sort of horrified rictus of panic. She looks like Kacey’s turned her to fucking stone.
“Well? Aren’t you going to say hello, Silly? It’s been a while. Haven’t you missed me?”
Slowly, I pivot on the point of my heels, dragging out the movement, wishing with every part of me that the Ice Queen of Raleigh High will somehow have disappeared by the time I’ve rotated a hundred and eighty degrees. Unfortunately, my wishing does no good. She’s there all right, standing in front of me in all her manicured, blown out, plucked, buffed, and polished glory. Her jet-black hair is longer than it was before she got shipped off to Seattle. And she looks skinnier. So skinny that her cheekbones protrude too far out of her face, creating hollows in her cheeks. It wouldn’t be a good look on most people, but Kacey, with her porcelain skin and her cool eyes and her rosebud mouth it makes her look annoyingly chic. Old habits die hard; she must have been sticking her fingers down her throat again.
I look her in the eye and take a weary, tired breath. “No. I haven’t missed you, Kace. No one here’s missed you. Take a look around. Does it look like Raleigh High fell apart without you?”
I’m just being honest, but I see the stab of hurt in Kacey’s eyes. I’ve touched a raw nerve. Such a fucking narcissist. She can see that life went on without her after she was banished from Raleigh…and she fucking hates it. From the disgusted scowl she sends Halliday’s way, she also despises the fact that her minion made friends with me again, the moment her back was turned.
“So this is why you stopped replying to my texts?” she spits. “Because you were busy sucking up to the school whore? Pathetic, Halliday. Really fucking pathetic. I thought you kept better company. But then again, I guess you’re used to hanging out with whores now that you are one too, right? Dancing at the Rock? I mean, aren’t all of those strippers essentially prostitutes?”
Attacking Halliday and calling her a whore, for trying to keep a roof over her family’s heads? That isnotokay. “Shut your nasty mouth and fuck off, Kacey. You’re tiring. You’resofucking tiring, and we’ve had enough. Being your friend was a literal prison sentence, okay? And we’ve more than served our time. You’re irrelevant now. Your bitching and your catty jabs are just boring. So…go away.”
Pure, cold, distilled hate shines brightly out of Kacey’s cool blue eyes. “You think now because you’ve got yourself a hot bad boy fiancé, you’re untouchable, Silver?” she says. “You think your loser trailer park boyfriend somehow makes you better than us? Thanme?”
“Alex has nothing to do with this.” It takes all of my strength and then some to stop myself from rising to her comments. She’s baiting me, trying to anger me, but I have more control over myself than that. I know what Alex is worth, and so does he. That’s all that matters. “I’m not better than you because of who I’m dating. I’m better than you because I’m not a venomous, cold-hearted, disloyal bitch who turns on her friends and hurts everyone around her, because she’s afraid that they might somehow outshine her.”
Kacey runs her tongue over her teeth, like she’s trying to get a bad taste out of her mouth. With a dawning sense of realization, it occurs to me that our little spat is being observed now. The music’s still blaring out of the PA speakers, but the dancing has stopped. My classmates, once subjects who suffered under the bootheel of Kacey Winters, have all gathered around and are listening intently to what’s being said.
I don’t give a fuck what they hear. I don’t give a fuck about their opinions, or who’s side they’re on anymore. None of that matters. Only the truth matters. I won’t keep it to myself. It’s time it all came out, every ugly, uncomfortable detail, and then maybe there would be an end to this bullshit.
“Tell me, Kacey. What was it that Sam Hawthorne said to you that night?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” she scoffs.
“You know what I’m talking about. The night of Leon Wickman’s spring fling party. I was standing outside in the dark and the cold,bleeding…I was waiting for my friend to come and help me, but…” I shake my head. “You didn’t come to help me, did you? I saw you through the window. Sam Hawthorne said something to you that made you so angry. And when you came outside, you weren’t my friend anymore. You’d decided I was your enemy, and I didn’t deserve your compassion.”
“YOUWEREMY ENEMY!” Kacey roars. “You wanna know what Sam said to me? Fine. All I ever heard come out of my father’s mouth was, Silver’s such a nice girl, Kacey. Why can’t you be more like Silver, Kacey?Silver isn’t failing math, is she, Kacey? Silver’s so goddamn smart, Kacey. Why don’t you get Silver to help you, Kacey?Silver, Silver, Silver all the fucking time! I could never understand why he insisted on banging on and on about you all day long. And then there it was. Sam told me that my father had actually been banging yourmother. She was the reason why my parents split up, though my poor mom never found out who the other woman was. She sure as hell wouldn’t have let me hang out with you if she’d known.”
“What?” What the actual fuck is she talking about? My mom never had an affair with Mr. Winters. She had an affair with her boss at work. Kacey doesn’t know anything about that, though. Aside from Alex, no one knows about that.
“You heard me. Your mom seduced my dad when we were thirteen. I saw her coming out of the guest house once, but he told me she’d come looking for you. I didn’t think anything of it, but that’s where they used to meet up. They’d fuck in there while my mom was at work.”
“No. No way. Sam made it up. How the hell would he know anything about my mom and your dad?” I’m telling myself this, pleading with myself to believe it. Samhadto have made it up. But a worried part of me is scared that it might be true. “He just said that to turn you against me, Kacey. And look?” I hold my hands up. “It worked. You let a boy rape me and get away with it because you believed a lie. And then you decided todatethat boy!”
“God, you’re the liar. You fucked Jake because youwantedto fuck him, and then you cried about it afterwards ’cause you didn’t want anyone to think you were a slut. But you are a slut, Silver.Just like your mom.”
So this is what it’s like to see red; my entire vision turns crimson, darkening around the edges. I’ve never been so angry that my blood feels cold in my veins. It feels like I’m frozen and carved out of ice, from the roots of my hair all the way down to the soles of my feet. Alex takes my hand, muttering reassuring words under his breath, but my ears aren’t willing to listen. I’m too livid to be soothed, even by him.
“You’re fucking insane,” I snarl. “You’re so desperate to be the best, to be looked up to, and have everybody falling at your feet, that the moment someone pays someone else a compliment, you paint a fucking target on their backs. Maybe your dad was just sick of your shit. Maybe he just thought it would be fine to ask your friend to help you with some math tutoring. Maybe he simply didn’t like the way you were behaving and thought you’d benefit from an attitude adjustment. What does it matter? I was yourfriend, and you threw me away like I was garbage, Kacey. You’re vapid, and cold. And you’re never going to find anyone to love you. How can you, when you don’t even like yourself.?”
She glowers, stung, her cheeks flooding with color. So unlike Kacey Winters, the Ice Queen, to ever show emotion. It was always beneath her to let anyone visibly ruffle her feathers, and yet here she is, very ruffled indeed. She’s so fucking predictable.
Love me.
Worship me.
Praise me.
Look up to me.
Treat me like your fucking god.
