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“So?”
“So what the fuck were you doing dancing with him, Legs?” Cole pressed, an accusing tone in his voice.
“I was having fun. Is that a crime?” I shoved at his chest, which was a huge mistake, because it only made me think of the last time I’d put my hands on his bare chest.
He grabbed both my wrists with one of his, pinning my hands in place as he narrowed his ice-blue eyes. “Yeah. Maybe it is.”
I tugged hard until he released me, irritation and anger burning in my chest.
“Why? You afraid if I dance with him, I’ll spill all of Oak Park’s secrets? I’ll tell him how to kick Finn’s ass at football? What does it fucking matter? No one at our school wants to dance with me, you made sure of that!” Spinning in a circle again, I glared at all of them. “Or are you just pissed because someone in the world doesn’t hate me? Am I not allowed to dance with anybody, no matter what school they’re from? Is that it?”
“Yeah. That’s it.”
Those three words from Mason’s lips were so simple, so final, that I felt them down to my bones.
My stomach clenched as a wave of nausea washed over me.
He meant it.
Just like he’d meant it when he’d promised things would always be hellish as long as I stayed at Oak Park.
They didn’t just want to ruin high school for me.
They wanted to ruin my life.
To ruin me.
“You—don’t get to—decide that,” I said shakily, my whole body flooding with adrenaline as a useless fight-or-flight instinct kicked in.
His hand rose out of the water, and he gripped my chin lightly between his thumb and forefinger. “Legs, it’s already been decided.”
I slapped his arm away and shoved past him, pushing between him and Elijah to make a break for the edge of the pool. They parted to let me through, and I swam quickly toward the side nearest the house, heaving myself out of the water. As soon as I stood up, I slipped on the wet tiles and went down again hard, skinning my knees. Pain flared as streaks of red mingled with the water dripping down my shins, and a flash of panic nearly blinded me.
Not my legs. Not my legs.
It’d been four years since they’d been broken, but fear that I might lose them again, might lose my ability to dance, had stayed rooted in my brain like a wound that wouldn’t heal.
I crawled to my feet again, grabbing onto a lounge chair to steady myself, as the Princes emerged from the pool behind me. My teal tank top had turned translucent from the water, and it clung to me, showing too much of what was underneath as the night air chilled my skin.
And something inside me just—
Snapped.
I straightened and whirled as Finn pulled himself out of the pool, joining the other three who already stood on the tiles.
“Why do you hate me so much?” I screamed. “What the fuck did I ever do to you? Is it because I’m poor? Because I’m from Idaho? Because I came from nothing? My family has just as much money as yours, you fucking assholes, even if I don’t make it my mission in life to make sure everyone in the world knows it!” My chest heaved, and I took an unsteady step toward them. “You wanna know what I think? I think you call me trash because you’re pissed as shit that someone like me can have what you have. That your little club isn’t as exclusive as you thought. That at the end of the day, we’re the exact fucking same!”
“Talia…”
There was a warning note in Mason’s voice, but my brain couldn’t register it. I knew people were staring. The laughter around us from when I’d fallen had died, replaced with something worse.
But I couldn’t stop.
“Fuck. You. You think I’m scared of you, Mason? I know what real fear is, and believe me, it doesn’t come from a pussy like you. You get off on pushing around a girl. What the fuck is wrong with you? With all of you! Jesus, Finn’s a bigger whore than I’ll ever be, and you keep calling me a slut.”
That did draw a laugh from somewhere in the crowd, and Finn’s face darkened.
But I didn’t care.
