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When I make it back to the dorm, Shelby is already waiting and she is practically bouncing on her toes as I enter. I dump my stuff down at the door and stretch out my limbs as I greet her with a smile.
“Hey, girl.”
Her smile only widens as she continues to stare at me and I frown a little. What the hell has her so excited? I open my mouth to speak again but no words come as a squeal bursts out of me instead as my eyes land on my bed.
Sitting in the center of it is a purple llama stuffed animal wearing a shirt that reads save the drama for your llama.
“Oh my god, what did you do?” I snatch it up from the bed and marvel at how soft and cuddly it is and she laughs.
“It’s a gift from me to you.” She beams with a smile. “It’s my apology llama,” she adds, frowning now and I roll my eyes. No matter how many times I told her that what happened between her and Zaiden isn’t her fault, she still feels guilty.
I stuff the llama under my arm and grab her with my other. “I’ve already told you a million times, you do not have to apologize, especially not for that heathen.” I toss her new found nickname for Z out and she snorts a laugh. “Now what’s our roommate motto?”
Now it’s her who rolls her eyes but her grin remains. “Boys are crass and llama’s kick ass.”
My grin almost hurts; it's so wide and I nod. “Exactly. Now forget about him and tell me what we are doing tonight.”
Moving to drop down onto my bed she dives onto hers as she starts reeling off numerous plans she has in mind and all of them sound great.
I give the llama one more hug as I smile to myself. Nothing can ruin my weekend.
ChapterNine
I tapmy long fingers against the desk as I look over the email one final time. The words jump from the screen and taunt me as I double check that everything is in order for the next part of our plan to go off without a hitch.
We had to get more creative in ruining Brielle’s reputation without pulling ourselves down with her. Not that we don’t have the ammunition, hell we are privy to so many of her secrets we could fill up the grave she dug for us. But her secrets are also ours. Secrets of every game we ever played and every dare we ever completed, all of them tying us together for an eternity. Or so we thought.
It’s all useless though, anything from her past that we could use against her would easily be traced back to us, and make us look just as bad as we intend to make her look. I’ll give it to Carson, he might be a smarmy bastard, but he did a good job at spinning our first efforts of revenge in painting us as pathetic.
It didn’t matter that you couldn’t see the faces of the guys in that picture, rumors of our confrontation spread like wildfire. It didn’t take long for many different versions to pass everyone’s lips. From elite legacy sex rings, deranged stalkers, to jilted high school exes gone wrong. All inventive and ridiculous, but none of it matters when almost half of the campus took Brielle’s side.
I click through the files I have attached once more to kill some time, for what, I’m not sure. I already know it’s all flawless. The fake medical records won’t be easily twisted into anything other than what we say they are. This time the black and white words won’t be easily dismissed and the only focus is on Brielle.
I’ll be using a dummy email account so that this stunt doesn’t lead back to us either. I have no doubts she and her bastard of a boyfriend will know exactly where to point their fingers. I’d be disappointed if they didn’t. But no matter how confident they are in our guilt, I won’t be leaving any evidence behind to help them prove it.
It should be surprising how easy it was to find a student in the newspaper department that was actually willing to participate in our smear campaign, but of course Carson has already created new enemies here. It’s not even been a couple of weeks since we arrived at BSU, and already people are eager to tear him down off his self proclaimed pedestal. Even if they have to take Brielle down to do it.
There’s a tightness in my chest as I read through the notes once more before dragging the mouse over the send icon. It’s the same tightness that has been there since that night in the police station. One I can’t shake no matter how hard I try. One making me pause before hitting send, there’s no reason to hesitate, she started this and we are going to finish it. Years of love and friendship being destroyed by the stupid game that brought us together in the first place.
“Are you sure you aren’t going to regret this?” A warm, familiar voice startles me from my inner thoughts. I thought that I was home alone, but I turn to find Ash’s concerned face leaning against the doorframe as he watches me.
How long has he been there?
“Of course I’m not,” I answer without hesitation. “I’ve examined all the possible ramifications and it all lands in our favor. People will be far too busy talking about Brielle and Carson to ever wonder how her secrets got leaked. As long as we don’t confront her again in public, our names will stay out of people’s mouths while the halls fill with whispers of hers.” I ensure my words are steady and clear, even if they don’t sound as believable as I’d like.
His lips twist into a grimace at my response, as if they did the opposite of comfort him. He stays silent as he walks toward me, his dirty blond hair completely a mess as he runs his hand through it in exasperation. Something about his approach makes my heart beat faster. Like I’m about to be caught doing something that I’m not supposed to be doing. We all agreed to this though. It isn’t like I went and fucked her roommate and got into a screaming match in her dorm hall without telling anyone else.
Fucking Zaiden.I don’t know what he felt like he was going to achieve by going rogue like that, but none of us were impressed.
This is different, this is part of the plan we all agreed to. I have no reason to feel nervous at Ash’s interest in the email. But as he closes the distance between us and leans over my chair, his hand resting on the arm of it, the tightness in my chest does anything but ease, growing tighter with his proximity.
His assessing hazel eyes linger on the screen reading over the words I've read at least a hundred times. I’ve known Ash long enough to know that when his lips tighten into a thin line like that he wants to say something and doesn’t know how it’s going to be received. He takes a deep breath, eyes flashing from the screen to mine as he finally says, “Don’t you think this is all maybe too far?”
There it is.
“No, I don’t,” I respond quickly, refusing to let his words sink in and take root in my mind. I can’t afford to have doubts, not when we’ve already come this far. Not when most of our sanity has been tied to hurting her the way she hurt us. If we pulled out now, I can’t imagine what would happen, and I have no idea what Hudson and Zaiden would do. All I know is that it wouldn’t be pretty. I’m barely managing to keep them in line as it is. Clearly failing considering what happened with Z and Brielle’s roommate.
Ash flinches at the harshness of my tone. He has never been the angriest or hardest of us. Like Brielle, he’s always brought a much needed balance to our group. It makes this whole situation harder on him because I know he doesn’t crave revenge the same way the rest of us do. He only ever agreed to it because he would never abandon us. Unlike Brielle.
