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God, I wasnotlooking forward to seeing them all at school again. How was I supposed to show my face in homeroom, the cafeteria, the fluorescent-lit hallways? If I thought I could escape the unholy trinity by skipping first period for the rest of the year, I would, but Xander was in my AP physics class, Bryce had Spanish with me, and our shared English class was just about the only thing Dane actually showed up for on a daily basis. I couldn’t tank my entire GPA just to avoid some drama. Not if I wanted to appease my parents and get into a good college.
Monday came with the same quickness it always did, but I approached it with an added layer of dread. Luckily, when I got to homeroom, none of the guys were there yet. I took a seat—and my first full breath since the day started—in an empty cluster of desks toward the back of the room, but not far enough back that I’d be inevitably sitting by Dane if he decided to actually show up today just to torment me. I pulled out my mostly-finishedcalculus homework, double checking that I showed all of my work, when someone claimed the seat next to me.
I looked up to see Xander’s prim and proper form filling the adjacent chair. He had a routine, always sitting in the same spot toward the front of the room, but that seat was left vacant. Which meant he’d chosen to sitbeside methis time… on purpose.
“Lose your way to your usual seat, Xander?” I asked him pointedly, but the nerve of him—he didn’t even look at me. Like he hadn’t heard what I said even though I spoke at a perfectly audible volume and I wasright next to him.
I bristled. “I hope you’re not under the impression that we’re friends now.”
Silence. I started in on him again, refusing to let him win even this. “One stupid game at a shitty party does not a friendship make, FYI.”
Still nothing. Damn, I’d hoped his stuck-up attitude could be wounded by my insulting his hosting skills. I blinked, staring at his annoyingly perfect profile. As if I didn’t exist, he stared straight ahead. He moved eventually, but just to scratch his nose, and then he started to dig into his name-brand backpack for some homework to occupy himself. Before I could sputter out some outraged response, Bryce made his presence known, entering the room like a cannonball and taking the seat on my other side with just as much drama.
“Hey, Jadie! Mind if I call you Jadie?”
“Yes, I mind,” I deadpanned, but Bryce ignored me.
“Hey, Xan.” He waved to his friend, who looked right past me to give Bryce a cool nod. Bryce grinned, not a care in the world. “Some party, huh?”
At the mention of the party, I instantly felt my cheeks turn red. I looked down at my homework again to try to hide it.
“May have been my best yet,” Xander answered, and I forgot all about hiding my blush to give him an incredulous look.
“Oh, so you can talk tohim, but not me?”
Xander didn’t even acknowledge that I’d spoken to him, which made me want to pull every one of the perfectly-coiffed hairs out of his stupid head, either in handfuls or one by one. I turned to Bryce, who was grinning from the side of his mouth, clearly getting a kick out of this.
“I hear you had quite the night, Jadie,” Bryce said pointedly, bouncing his eyebrows at me. “That pool house has never seen so much excitement.”
Oh, shit. Did this mean Dane had told everyone about our encounter in the pool house? Was he spreading rumors as easily as I’d spread my legs for him? This time, instead of blushing, I felt all the blood freeze in my veins.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I croaked out, and I felt Xander angle his body toward me more than I saw it in my peripheral vision.
“I heard that too, Bryce.” Xander spoke carefully, still ignoring me. He talked as if I wasn’t in the room. “Wild how she goes from fucking me with her eyes to fucking one of my best friends in less than an hour. There’s a word for that, I think.”
There was a layer of satisfaction underneath the disdain in Xander’s voice. I knew he wanted to call me a slut, but I could also feel the way he’d relish saying it. I could almost hear it, his cool voice whispering in my ear,My little slut.It sent a shiver of want down my spine.
“Hey, I think it’s pretty fun,” Bryce responded. I turned to see him tracing my body, every curve, with hungry eyes. The son of a bitch even had the nerve to lick his lips, then wolfishly grin. “Imagine the kind of trouble she could get into with a few hours to spare.”
An image slammed into my head, erotic and raw and utterly preposterous. Suddenly, I could see myself spread out between Xander and Bryce both, naked and waiting, each of them touching me and telling me what a good little slut I was for them. Fantasy me was bookended in bliss, and in real life, I was stuck between two total bullies who were only supposed to be my means for exacting my revenge. And yet here I was, squirming in my seat to try and relieve some of the hot need pooling between my legs. Bryce and Xander watched me like predators hunting especially delicious prey, their gazes aflame like they could tell how turned on I was just at the thought of their hands on me.
I was still learning who I was now that I was Jade, and for the first time, I worried I’d changed too completely in my quest to become a new me. Hannah never would have dreamed of sleeping with two guys at once, much less two guys she didn’t even like. She wasn’t satisfied by Owen, but she didn’t expect anything so erotic as Xander, Bryce, and if I'm honest, Dane could provide.Together.It took a lot of willpower to keep myself from shivering in full view of Bryce and Xander and the rest of our homeroom class.
One thing was for sure. The more I settled into my new role as sexual, powerful, out-for-blood Jade, the less she felt like a lie.
9
JADE
“Ican’tbelieveyou ditched me at Xander’s party,” Leah grumbled into her mushy school lunch. She poked at what looked like dog food on her plate with a plastic fork, then put it down on the table to look at me head-on. “Like, I know we haven’t been friends for long, but where’s the loyalty? What about girl code? You'd better have been getting laid by someoneincrediblyhot. I’m talking Hemsworth-level hot, and not the brother nobody knows.”
I suppressed a giggle when Leah glared at me. “Sorry!” I sputtered. “Sorry, really. I wasn’t sleeping withThor?—”
“Or that guy fromThe Hunger Games,”she added.
“Right, him either. But… I do have a pretty juicy story to tell you, if you’re up for it.” I winced, thinking of my night at Xander’s party and the mess I’d gotten myself into. At least it would make a good story for my new friend.
Instantly, Leah dropped her angry act and was ready for me to spill the tea. I told her about Never Have I Ever, Bryce and Xander’s almost-flirtatious attention, and then about my partial hookup with Dane. I left out the part about watching him have sex with another girl because it was too embarrassing to admit.Plus, I didn’t need my one friend at this new school to know the extent of my craziness just yet. What she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her—or me.
