Page 152 of Twisted Ties
“Kiss his feet!” she yells, and lights blind my eyes. I squint. People are filming us on their cell phones.
“No!” I yell back.
We tussle some more, both falling to the ground and she manages to shove down hard on the back of my skull, forcing my face down into the soft ground beneath me. Instantly, my mouth and nose fill with earth and I struggle back up, unable to breathe. It only makes Summer push down harder.
“You need to learn, Pig Girl,” Summer hisses in my ear. “That I’m in charge here, not you. What I say goes. So get in fucking line or I will break you.”
I gasp for air, my lungs starting to burn, my head screaming with pain.
“Look,” Summer says, “down in the dirt where the little pig belongs.”
I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. Dark spots dance across my vision. I writhe on the ground. My lungs desperate for oxygen.
I grab Summer’s wrist. I’m going to blast the bitch to the next continent.
“That’s enough!” Spencer says firmly. “You’ve had your fun, Summer. We don’t need anymore unconscious girls at this party. They’re a fucking trip hazard.”
Summer’s grip loosens, and I manage to lift my head enough to suck in air, coughing and spluttering as dirt flies down my windpipe.
“But–” Summer says with an obvious pout.
“I said, that’s enough,” Spencer says, anger in his tone. “I don’t want her lips on my skin. Not when she’s probably been making out with her pig with those same lips.”
Laughter breaks out around us.
But I don’t care what Spencer has to say. I don’t care if half the school is filming us. I’ve had about as much of this girl as I can take.
“Fine,” Summer says, rolling me over to face her and staring down into my eyes with a cold look, “I think she learned her lesson anyway–”
She doesn’t finish her words because I slam the front of my skull hard against her face. She screams, falling backwards and I climb on top of her, pinning her arms by her sides. Her nose is all busted, blood streaming down her face.
My fingertips buzz with magic. My stomach spins with excitement. I want to make her hurt so badly.
“You’re not in charge, Summer Clutton-Brock. You’re a bully and a bitch. And if you ever touch me again, I will mess up that pretty face of yours so badly you’ll weep every time you look in the mirror.”
There is stunned silence all around us. No one dares move.
“Rhianna,” Spencer finally says, softly.
I jolt. Then I climb to my feet, my legs shaking, my heart hammering. I take a step away and then another.
Summer whimpers on the floor and in the next minute, she’s surrounded by a group of cheerleaders, helping her to her feet and leading her away towards the Venus common room.
The people gathered around us move away too, the sound of their voices fading away and the music rising again.
I wipe my hand over my mouth and spit dirt onto the ground.
Spencer doesn’t move. He simply watches me and I can feel that familiar pull towards him.
“So blasting holes in stomachs is a treat you reserve purely for me,” he says.
“Would you have preferred a broken nose?”
“It was a good move. And it seems you do actually listen to me.”
I rub at my scalp. There’s a small bald patch and I’m pretty sure Summer took a handful of my hair with her.
“You could have stopped it though. Instead, you all just watched,” I snarl.
