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The wordself-respectflashed across the screen. Followed by#justsaying.
I bit my lower lip as Rachel cackled. I’d been there while Archie made the video, splicing all the different pieces together, but I hadn’t really watched it so much as him.
The next bit was splices from her earlier videos about me before it hit some shaky cam footage of me stalking toward Sharon in the hallway. She had her phone pointed at me and I got right in her face. Oh crap. That was the day I’d decided I’d had enough of her doing that shit to Ian.
“I’m ready for my close-up,” I told her, and then lifted my middle finger. “Just in case you wanted a real message for your next little puff piece.”
A scattering of giggles went up around us, and Sharon lowered her phone the rest of the way. “You really think you’re funny.”
“Oh, honey, I’m not the one obsessed by me and every step I take.”
A little woo went up around us, and red flushed Sharon’s cheeks. “You know, sooner or later, they’re going to figure out you aren’t worth it.”
“Maybe,” I agreed. “If that day comes, I guess I’ll look to you for all your experience with it and what I really shouldn’t do after.”
The camera froze on Sharon’s face as I walked away. Her mouth open, her eyes hot, and her face scarlet.#BURNEDflashed over her face.
A narrator’s voice that I swore had to be Jeremy asked crisply, “Do you know what she’s doing wrong? Because clearly, she hasn’t figured it out.”
Then the videos from that day outside the school filtered in. Every single word she spat at Ian and those Ian gave her back.
Girl, he is just not that into you. Let. It. Go.
I put my good hand over my mouth as Rachel snorted. “This is gold.”
Finally, the last clip was a close-up of Sharon as Ian and Jake walked away.
#PATHETIC
The next voice over was definitely not Jeremy, and I flicked a look to Coop.
“So what did we learn? Only time will tell. But let’s be honest here. Sometimes you need to call people on their behavior. No one is perfect. Let’s count all the ways…”
Images flashed by rapid-fire and in nearly every single one, Sharon was doing something—laughing at people, throwing things, scowling, and her voice echoed over that last clip of her vicious expression.“I don’t care what I have to do. But I’m going to make her miserable. It’s all I have left.”
Had shereallysaid that? I cut a look to Rachel, who shrugged. “I did my part,” she murmured. “Girl needs to remember that when she is sticking knives in people, they are going to pull them out and might stab her back.”
Across the cafeteria, Sharon stood up from a table, shell-shocked eyes and red-faced. She glared at us, and I did my best to look innocent. But I didn’t start this war. I would happily, however, participate in ending it. The rise in conversation hushed abruptly as she took one step in our direction. Ian never turned around, and Jake wore a faint smirk, like he was just waiting for her to do it. I glanced away from Sharon to meet Ian’s gaze.
He gave me a small smile and bumped my foot again. A flash of movement had me looking across the room again in time to see Sharon marching out of the cafeteria—alone. None of her ‘friends’ went with her.
“Too bad, so sad, mean girl,” Rachel said as she mimed and explosion with her hands and added a sound effect. “You play with fire, you’re going to get burned.”
I snorted. “I almost feel guilty.”
Five voices in unison said, “Don’t,” with such vehemence that I raised my good and wounded arms at the same time.
“I saidalmost.”
“Good,” Jake told me firmly, but it was Ian who leaned forward and stretched his hand out to me. When I laid my hand in his, he locked his gaze on me.
“It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t fun. It was necessary,” he told me. “She only understands social power. So, we had to take that away from her. She also knows we’re not going to pull our punches a second time. If she leaves you alone from this point forward? Worth it.”
I squeezed his fingers and sighed. “Agreed. I want her to leave you alone, too.”
“Not a problem.” His eyes warmed. “She’s not even a blip on my radar.”
“Did you sink her battleship?” The question prompted a round of groans, and Rachel stood up with a laugh.
