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“Oh, uh. You’re Joliet’s sister, aren’t you? Tulsa Harding.”
She closed her eyes and groaned internally. Of course. Ofcoursethat’s how he got her number. Know one sister, know the other—kind of. “What do you want?”
He cleared his throat, and Tully opened her eyes. He sounded uncomfortable. Well, good. Because she had been very obviously avoiding him in the hallways earlier today and he was still trying to approach her. Heshouldbe uncomfortable. “I just wanted to check on you and make sure everything is okay.”
Silence.
Check on her? Why would Nathan Rondeau want to check on her? More importantly, why hadn’t he told anyone yet what happened between them? He must have sensed her confusion through the line and backtracked.
“It’s just you left so quickly the other night—”
“I’m fine,” she snapped, forcing him to stop. “I would really appreciate it if you could forget that anything ever happened.” She bit her lip and waited for his response.
Please say yes.Pleasesay yes.
“You left a bruise on my neck, you know? And you left your clothes in my room.”
She winced. She did know. She saw the bruise at school earlier today and it was just another unpleasant surprise she wanted to ignore. As for the outfit, she had already considered it a lost cause. She did feel bad about the bruise though. Bad enough to soften her tone a bit. “I don’t care. Please pretend nothing happened. Thank you. Bye.”
She slammed the phone down and stared at the receiver under her hand.
She waited for it to ring again, for the sound to strangle her and tear her down. But it didn’t. She let go and backed away.
Footsteps pounded down the hallway again, and Tully spun to see Joliet coming right at her. Her doe eyes were narrowed and her normally bitchy expression was downright demonic. Lost was the sweet sarcastic smirk.
“What,the hell, did I just listen to?” she snapped and stepped up so her face was in Tully’s.
Tully’s eyes widened as the realization settled on her like an uncomfortable wool blanket. “You were listening?” she crossed her arms to cover the frantic panicking of her heart. “You shouldn’t have made me answer the phone if you were just going to eavesdrop on the other line.”
“I wasn’t going to until I heard you whispering.”
“It’s none of your business.”
Joliet didn’t like that and her eyes burned through her. “Why was Nathan calling some gross little freak like you?”
Always with the insults. Always kicking her down. Always with the same jabs and hits and punches about the things Tully couldn’t beat her at. And she was sick of it.
This all started because of those things, and she had decided after the party to forget about this revenge scheme because it was clear Tully didn’t have what it took to beat Joliet at her own game.
But staring at her little sister, hearing those things come from her mouth for the thousandth time, she was starting to change her mind once again.
She had a potentially deadly weapon in her grasp that could silence Joliet forever, and in her anger and frustration, Tully chose to use it. Screw the consequences.
She crossed her arms over her chest and smirked, feigning confidence. Joliet’s brow raised. “I guessNathandoesn’t think I’m a ‘gross little freak’ because he slept with me at the party on Friday.”
The air between them went still, and the ticks of the clock on the wall kept track of the five seconds it took for Joliet to respond. “What?”
Tully’s chest puffed in victory, and her confidence grew exponentially the more devastated her sister’s face grew. “And he must havelovedit since he’s so desperate to talk to me.”
“You’re a liar.” Joliet’s eyes narrowed even more than they were and she crossed her arms.
“Oh, am I? Well, believe what you want. Nathan and I know the truth.”
Joliet scoffed, but her face was growing red and her lip unsteady. Tully, high on the reaction, stood unfazed.
Was this the high that Joliet thrived on? The chest-puffing, shoulder straightening confidence at seeing her sister stumbling and caught off guard. Well if it was, it was only worth it for about three seconds.
“I guess I’ll ask Nathan then. And when he tells me you’re lying I’ll make sure that everyone knows how pathetic and disgusting you are.” She leaned forward and spat the words into Tully’s face, then spun on her heel and stormed from the room.
