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“Um, Raine?” Lena interrupted whatever else Cassius was about to say. She waved her phone under my face. “Did you check the gossip account again?”
“No. I try to avoid looking on there. Especially after today.”
Her phone was thrust into my hand, and I stared down at the screen.
There was an image of a masked Carter, holding my hand and leading me towards the Ferris wheel. The accompanying caption said:
WHO’S THE MYSTERY GIRL WHO MANAGED TO CATCH CARTER BLACKTHORNE’S EYE?
Oh no.
I examined the picture closely, but there was no way to tell it was me. My face was completely obscured by my own mask, and no one would believe I was at Fright Night anyway.
A sigh escaped me as I handed the phone back to Lena. “What am I going to do?”
“Here’s how I see it, yeah?” Cassius’ eyes met mine, his expression thoughtful. “From everything you’ve told me, it sounds like he’s into you, but for whatever reasons, he doesn’t like the fact, and he’s pissed off that you tricked him.”
“I didn’t mean to.” Balling my fists at my sides, I prodded the sand with the toe of my shoe, feeling the crunch of tiny stones and crushed shells under my foot. “I just…I know it was wrong.”
“I know.” He gave me a reassuring smile. “People like Carter, though, they like to have the upper hand. Not only that, they’re stubborn as fuck, so it can take a while for them to realise what the rest of us already knew.” He turned to Lena and rolled his eyes. “Remind you of anyone?”
She snorted, nodding her head.
“Anyway.” He leaned forwards, swiping three small pebbles from those scattered in the sand below us. Placing them on the rock next to me, he pointed towards them. “Three things you need, right?” He picked up one of the pebbles, handing it to me. “You need to stop his dickhead behaviour towards you.” Another pebble was handed to me. “You need to find out for sure why he doesn’t want to like you.” His eyes gleamed as he passed me the final pebble. “And you have to get him to admit that he wants you. Gotta fight fire with fire.”
“What does that mean?” I ran my thumb across the cool, smooth surface of one of the pebbles, eyeing him curiously.
A huge, blinding smile spread across his face. “We’re gonna make him jealous.”
I stared at him.
“How are we going to do that?”
“Leave it with me.”
11
Tuesday brought more of the same. Another photo appeared on the AHS gossip account, this time of the same girl with a different guy from the football team. The first I’d heard of it was when I opened my locker and found a printout of the photo that had been slipped inside, along with a phone number written in biro. As soon as I’d found it, I navigated straight to the gossip account, knowing that the image would be there as well.
Why was Carter doing this to me? My behaviour didn’t warrant this kind of reaction.
All day I was propositioned by guys, hearing whispered insults wherever I went, “slut” being one of the nicest. Not to mention the increasing number of texts from unknown numbers, and yet again, the hateful comments on the AHS gossip account photos. Every single time I opened my phone I had another alert.
Do u swallow?
Touch anyone else from the football team & there will be consequences
How much for a BJ?
Meet me round the back of the library at lunchtime
UR A SLUT
I hope u choke on a dick and die, whore
Did she pay them to let her suck their dicks?
The library and the costume storage room became my two places of refuge. Despite Lena urging me to stay strong, the weight of all the attention was almost too much to bear.
