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“There you are,” Vivian coos, her voice immediately turning sickeningly soft and sweet as she races over to drape her arms around his neck. My stomach churns at the sight of it. “I knew it wouldn’t take you long to come back around.”
“Back off, Vivian,” he growls, but he doesn’t move an inch.
“I don’t think either of us really want that,” she says suggestively, trailing a finger across his jawline. I am just about to walk over and snap her finger until it breaks when Lily intervenes.
“Come on, Vivian.” She tugs at her arm, keeping an angry stare glued on me. “Let’s let the two lovebirds give each other all of their STDs.”
“Clever,” I snap sarcastically as they shoulder bump me on their way past. I am left fuming and glaring straight at Emmett. “Thanks a lot,” I hiss at him with clenched fists.
“What are you talking about? I came as soon as I saw,” he whines defensively.
“You didn’t lift a finger to get her off of me,” I grumble. “Much less to get her off of you.”
“Because that’s what she wants,” he says with a subtle roll of his eyes, completely unmoved by all of it.
“What are you talking about?” I am still stiff against him as he puts his arm around me.
“She just wants my hands on her again. She doesn’t care if it’s good or bad,” he explains casually.
“That’s so fucked up,” I reply, shaking my head. But I regret the words the minute they fall from my mouth, and of course he doesn’t miss a beat.
“You used to be the same way,” he reminds me as a hard lump forms in my throat.
Is this really all so normal to him? To have girls falling all over him to the point that they’d endure his anger and violent temper just to get his attention? I’ve known it was a fucked up state for me for a while now, but I never expected that Vivian could stumble so low just as easily.
“Don’t remind me,” I mumble. “So, wait…you’re saying you get off on that? Is that how you like your girls to be?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he scoffs. “What you and I have is nothing like what was going on between Vivian and me.”
“In what way?” I push him further, needing to understand exactly what I am signing up for. Or apparently, what I have already signed up for.
“You know what way,” he insists as we continue walking. We’ve gone too slow and the halls are quiet now, with full classrooms behind the passing doors. These are the kinds of things Emmett can get away with, and I can only hope I am now granted the same privileges.
“Come on, stop torturing yourself like this,” he continues in the face of my silence. “The only reason you don’t have some crazed ex-boyfriend for me to be jealous of is because this is your first year here.”
“So, we’ll save that for next year?” I joke, desperately needing everything to stop feeling so heavy. But he’s not amused.
“Don’t joke like that,” he snaps sternly. “I’m not letting you go any time soon. As long as we’re under this roof together, you’re mine.”
“You didn’t feel that way when I first came,” I remind him, recoiling from the memories and my need to not only remember, but not to let him forget it either.
“Yes, I did,” he blurts, turning and pushing me against a wall. “I just couldn’t express it the way I wanted to. And now that I have you…you’re not going anywhere.”
He towers over me possessively as he slides a strand of hair from my face and leans into kiss me. I want to be turned off by his hypocrisy and the way he insists I belong to him. I want to tell him what I have said before, which is that I don’t belong to anyone but myself. But my arms fall limp as I melt against his tongue. And suddenly it seems ridiculous to even try and convince myself that I don’t belong to Emmett. It seems that I do, whether I like it or not.
Emmett sits with me at lunch that day and acts like everything is totally normal. But Vivian and Lily are sitting a few tables across from us, cackling like hyenas. They’re staring so much I feel uncomfortable, and it’s obvious they’re making fun of us. Or rather, making fun of me. No matter how angry they are with Emmett, it seems he will always be the golden child who can’t be subjected to the full force of anyone’s wrath.
The WJ Prep cafeteria has buffets and grills that can serve up just about anything you want, ranging from steak to sushi. They even have an in-house pastry chef for desserts, and of course, keep vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free, and sugar-free options for certain girls’ diets. Ahem, Vivian. And now Lily.
The Elites used to always sit at the table in the very center of the room, commanding everyone’s attention as their cackles echoed out through the cafeteria that’s more like a lavish dining hall in a fancy hotel. Always in the spotlight. Always the center of attention. The kinds of things that were beginning to fall by the wayside in the short period they were gone. But now here I sit with Emmett, and I have no fucking clue what to think about it.
“Why don’t they hate you?” I ask bitterly, pushing food around on my tray as I glare back at them resentfully. “It was your dad that led everyone into this mess, wasn’t it?”
“What makes you think they don’t hate me?” he suggests, completely unbothered and chowing down on his sandwich.
I watch them more closely, noting how their expressions differ from him to me. They look at him with glinting eyes, hoping he’ll glance in their direction. They jeer and taunt at me, and I know they’re thinking I shouldn’t be the one sitting here with him.
“They have stars in their eyes for you,” I reply. “They look at me like a bug that needs to be squashed.”
