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“Yeah, about that,” Leah started, pointing a finger at me. “You said your schoolclosed.But you went to that fancy private school, Worthington. I bet your parents aren’t out of the country, either. Do you even have an Aunt Lynette?”
“That part was true!” I hurried to clarify. “The, uh, the aunt part. My parents are still stateside, they just… don’t care what’s going on with me as long as my grades are good. I don’t know why I made that other stuff up, but I just… after what happened at my last school, I needed a fresh start, okay?”
“Have you been truthful aboutanything? Being my friend?”
“Of course, Leah,” I implored her, softening my expression and my voice so she’d know I really cared about her. “You’ve been so awesome since the second I got here. I just… I came to this school for a specific reason, and it’s kind of complicated and weird, and I don’t know if you even want to know all the drama that goes into it.”
Leah laughed, taking me by surprise. “Girl, Ilovedrama. Of course I want to know. If you give me all the tea, IguessI can forget about all the lies so far and we can start fresh. You’re brand new to the Leah life, anyway. It’s not like we’ve been besties for years under false pretenses.” She nudged my knee under the table, a friendly tease that instantly erased all of my anxiety.
“You really wanna know?” I asked her to be sure.
“Girl, if you don’t spillright now, I’m gonna kick your ass straight back to prep school.”
I cracked a weak grin. “Okay, but don’t judge me, alright?”
“Why? Is this about some dumb guy?”
I cringed. Leah let out a frustrated groan.
“I cannotbelievethis whole thing is for some stupid-ass man. And you give such strong boss bitch energy. But fine, fine! I’m not judging. Tell me everything.”
So I did. I told Leah how Owen had been my first serious boyfriend, how I’d given him my virginity and so much of my life, only for him to use my every vulnerability as ammo against me. Even before he cheated on me with my so-called friends, flaunting how easily he got away with it in front of all the jerkshe hung out with, he was constantly putting me down.“Hannah, you’re no fun.” “Hannah, why don’t you loosen up? My friends are just playing around.”“Hannah, babe, that outfit doesn’t work. You know I think you’re gorgeous, but there are gonna be lots of my friends at this party. Do you want to embarrass me?”
Eventually, he stopped inviting me to stuff altogether—school events, parties, casual hangs with his friends. Anything in public, really. We saw each other on so-called date nights, which were always just the two of us, some dumb show on Netflixthat Owen always picked,and mediocre sex. At the time, he’d worn down my self-esteem to the point where I thought it was my fault. That I was too boring, too basic for him, and it was inevitable that he’d get bored of me. Even when it turned out to all be an attempt to hide his rampant, shameless cheating, it was hard to build myself back up to the point of realizing it wasn’t my fault.
Now, of course, I knew who was to blame.
“Owen’s from this area,” I went on to tell Leah, who was listening less like a drama queen hungry for gossip and more like a kind and empathetic friend. The softness in her big brown eyes broke my heart a little, but it was used to being bandaged by now, and she deserved to know it all. I went on.
“He grew up with Bryce, Xander, and Dane. They’ve all been friends since childhood. So, coming to Coldwater… it was about getting away from my ex, obviously, not to mention all of my shitty former friends who slept with my boyfriend and trash talked me behind my back. Like, no way I could go back to Worthington after all of that blew up.” I let out a dry laugh that wanted to be a sob, and Leah squeezed my hand on the table to give me strength. I continued, “but I picked Coldwater for a reason.”
Leah thought for a second, then her eyes grew wide, and her mouth fell open. “Noway,Jade. You’re messing with the guys? What’s the plan?”
“Revenge,” I said simply. With a shrug, I explained, “My plan was just to get close to Owen’s friends, flirt a little, and share it all over social media. I know he’d be pissed—even though he didn’t really want me when we were together, he was always so jealous and possessive, always accusing me of flirting with other guys. So, fooling around with his friends would make him go ballistic. He’d hate the way it would look for his reputation, too—his ex getting with his public school friends. How embarrassing.” I rolled my eyes.
The class divisions and snobbery at Worthington were next-level terrible. Even though Xander’s family was even richer than Owen’s, all of those private school kids I’d grown up around saw the public school kids as pedestrian, beneath them.
“Beyond that, I don’t know. I had such high hopes coming here. Like maybe I could even turn Owen’s friends against him the same way he did to me.” The way he’d poisoned the female friendships in my life, even before the cheating, was Owen’s biggest crime. None of the girls ever wanted to hang out with the version of me Owen had turned me into.
“Hey, maybe you still could. Guys go a little crazy when a girl shows them attention sometimes. It’s pussy power,” Leah said in a wink-nudge tone that made me snort. “Seriously! I think It was smart to go full-on seductress. Like, those boys are hot as hell, so you might as well get something for yourself while you’re on your revenge quest.”
“But I didn’t mean toactuallybe attracted to them,” I grumbled. Leah raised an eyebrow at me again. This time, I did compliment her on it, but she was too absorbed in the drama to appreciate it fully.
“What, like it’s hard? Did you hear the part where they’re allhot as hell? I see nothing wrong with your getting properly laid. Think of it as your prize for winning the war against douchebag Owen.”
By the end of lunch, Leah was more focused on my little revenge plot than I was. She swore to keep my secret, even though I worried that ship had already sailed thanks to Dane, and she vowed to be my partner in crime as I continued to seek vengeance against my ex. That was wonderful, and I loved to feel that feminine solidarity again. But I was more focused on the other stuff she’d said.
Leah made a lot of sense. I could absolutely have my vengeance cake and lots of orgasms, too. After all my misery with Owen, mediocre sex and broken confidence and absolutely no fun, I deserved to have as much fun with Dane, Xander, and Bryce as I could. There was no reason I couldn’t doll out the pain I needed to inflict on Owen to heal myself of the injuries he’d given me,andnearly drown in pleasure at the same time. That’s whatJadedeserved, and damn it, Hannah did too.
I deserve this,I told myself all afternoon as my body practically sang in anticipation. I repeated the mantra as the clock ticked closer and closer to the end of the day, closer and closer to when I’d be back at Xander Townsend’s house, having my wicked way with him.I deserve this.
17
JADE
“And this is the basement,” Xander announced as we descended the stairs of his beautiful family home together.
“Of courseeven the basement is gorgeous,” I mumbled, and Xander let out a mild, sexy laugh.
