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She continues staring at me, examining each feature. Her eyes turn hard. “You never looked at me that way.” She doesn’t sound hurt or upset, just angry. “What do you see in her?”
“Everything.”
She snickers again. “She’s a nerd. Why go for her when you can have this?” She gestures to herself.
I groan because I have better things to do. “Why did you come here, Vanessa? Actually, I should thank you for breaking up with me. You did me a favor. Because if not for that, I wouldn’t have gotten to know Willow.”
She gapes at me. “You’re saying that geek is better than me?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. And if you don’t mind, I have a lot of work to do.” I motion toward the front door.
She stares at me. “I can’t believe this. I’m giving you a chance to get back together with me and you’re not taking it?”
I move to the front door and hold it open for her. “No. I’m not taking it.Goodbye, Vanessa.”
She stares at me for a good while, maybe waiting for me to beg her back. But when she realizes I won’t, she lets out a grunt, grabs her jacket, and stalks to the door. “You’ll regret this.”
I give her a wide smile. “No. I won’t.” And I shut the door after her.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Willow
“I’m glad we’re done with pirate books for now,” Chloe says as she pulls her English book out of her locker on Monday morning. “As much as I love them, I think we need a break.”
“Agreed,” Ava says. “So after we finish discussing it at book club, let’s choose something completely different. Who’s with a rom-com?”
“Regency…?” Lily asks with hopeful eyes.
I laugh. “Why am I not surprised?”
Liam chuckles, too. “She has a long list of Regencies on her phone. How about sci-fi? We don’t usually read those books.”
“I like that,” I tell Liam. “We should broaden our horizons—”
“You witch,” someone snarls from behind me.
When I spin around, I come face to face with Vanessa. She’s scowling at me like I’m the most despicable human to have ever walked this planet. Actually, it looks like she wants to erase me from existence. “Excuse me?”
She glares at me as she folds her arms across her chest. “You brainwashed him. Sank your claws into him. He’s not the same guy. You…changedhim.” She shivers as she says the last part with disgust.
I raise my brow. “Are you talking about Colton?”
“No, I’m talking about the Tooth Fairy. Of course I’m talking about Colton! What the heck have you done to him? Youpoisonedhis mind. He’s not the guy he used to be.”
“You’re right.” I raise my chin. “He’s amuch betterguy than he used to be.”
Her jaw falls open. She quickly shuts it and flicks her hair. “You think you’re better than everyone here, don’t you? Just because you think you’re smarter. What’s so great about you? You have no social life, you sit hunched over a computer all day. You carry around a backpack full of useless junk that no one even cares about, which gets in everyone’s way. You don’t give a crap about that. You suck up to teachers and spend every second of your time obsessing over school. You would jump off a building if you got lower than an A on a test or an assignment. Who would find you evenremotelyattractive?” She scoffs as she takes me in, from the top of my head down to my sneakers. “Your glasses are outdated, your clothes look like they were taken from the men’s section, your hair looks gross…”
I tap my shoe on the floor. “Anything else?”
She scoffs again. “I can go on all day.”
“Please do. Because I don’t give two hoots what you or anyone else thinks about me. Guess what, Vanessa? The world doesn’t revolve around you. If you were more like me and didn’t spend every second obsessing over what people thought of you, you would be a happier person. So yeah, Iambetter than everyone else here. Because I don’t letanyonedictate my life or my happiness.”
Some kids have crowded around us. I even catch Paisley and her friends smirking.
My Musketeers look like they’re ready to jump in if I need backup.
