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Amelia barked out a laugh. “Shut up? Is that the best you’ve got? God, Rose, you are as lame as your mom. No wonder she sent you off to school as soon as your stupid dad died.”
By now it was hard for me to see straight. My head was starting to ache and I felt a terrible twisting deep in my stomach that I knew meant I was going to be sick, but there was no way that I wanted to throw up here. Not with everyone watching.
“Take it back.” My fingernails were digging crescents into my palms. She was my complete focus. I had my eyes locked on her, pinning her in place, but she merely laughed and tossed her head, making her long hair flow around her shoulders.
“I don’t have to, Rose. You already know that you’re nothing compared to me. Not only would your dad rather die than continue to be your father, but your mom spends time with strange men instead of you. But with that janky haircut and shitty attitude, it’s really no wonder why nobody loves you.” Grinning at me, she cocked her head to the side like she was really studying me, then gave me a smirk that made anger wash over me like a wave.
I couldn’t control myself any longer. I could hear my rogues calling my name and one of them reached out, putting his hand on my shoulder, but I wrenched myself away from him and launched myself at Amelia, reaching for her neck.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if I actually got my hands on her. Strangle her, maybe.
She threw up her hands to stop me but was too slow and I hit her hard, both of us falling to the ground in a heap. Unlike our last fight, however, she didn’t have an automatic advantage. I pinned her down, my legs squeezed tightly around her middle as she squirmed.
“Get off of me, you whore!” Amelia lashed out at me, trying to push me off of her, but she couldn’t grab me to throw me off. I took her by the shoulders and slammed her down into the ground before grabbing her neck.
“I hate you, you bitch.” The words felt foreign coming out of my mouth, and her eyes widened. “All you’ve done since I got here was make my life a living hell!” My fingers sunk into the skin on her neck and I squeezed tighter, not even caring that I could really hurt her.
Maybe I wanted to hurt her. Maybe I wanted to stop her from ever being able to say something terrible to me again.
Before I could do anything else to her, however, someone pulled me back. “Let me go!” I screamed, kicking out to try to stop whoever had their hands on me. I didn’t want to let her go. I wanted to make her hurt for all the pain that she had caused me and the people I loved.
It was terrible, but I didn’t think that I could stop.
“Jesus, Rosita, are you trying to get killed? Chill the hell out!” Jackie had his arms around my waist and hauled me back, practically tossing me to Kaleb and Brett, who wrapped their arms around me and held me in place.
I was panting and lunging against their arms, trying to get them to let me go, but they just squeezed me tighter. Jackie was facing Amelia, and while they didn’t say anything at first, I suddenly realized that I wanted to hear what they were saying. Their faces were both white, and Amelia was rubbing her neck where I’d hand my hands clamped around it just a few moments before. It was going to bruise, I was sure of that, but I didn’t care about that right now.
I had to know what my Jackie was saying to her.
Kaleb and Brett noticed that I was no longer fighting them and loosened their hold on me while still keeping me with them. I leaned against Kaleb and he slipped his arm around my waist, supporting me while we all listened.
“You’ve got to cut it out, Amelia.” Jackie’s voice was low and a warning, but his cousin just shook her head.
“Why? So you can continue to hang out with your little slut? You do know that your friend Brett is the one who called the council on her, right? He’s the one who started this, and now it can’t be stopped.”
Jackie clenched his fists and I could see him suck in a breath, but he didn’t turn around to look at us. Instead, he just shook his head, his eyes still locked on Amelia. “It doesn’t matter how it started. What matters is that it needs to end. Now.”
She laughed and reached out to flick a bit of eggshell off of his jacket. “You and I both know that that’s not how it works,cousin. If she’s going to stay, which I think is a mistake, then someone else will have to pay the price. Are you willing to do that?”
Jackie didn’t answer and she chuckled to herself, wiping her fingers on her skirt. “I didn’t think that you were. Always so noble, right up until it’s time for action. That’s just who you are, isn’t it?”
“You’re an evil bitch.”
“Yeah, I know. Whatever. Now you guys better take your little slut and go get changed before you’re late for homeroom.” Before she finished her sentence, the bell rang, echoing across the quad. She shrugged her shoulders and grinned. “Nevermind, you’re too late. Good luck, and when you’re ready to be on the winning side for once, you just let me know. I still have a bit of a soft spot for you, cousin, even though you’ve been acting like a royal fuck-up recently.”
Before he could respond, Amelia turned and joined her friends. They walked away from us, arms linked together, Sara and Kelly swinging their baskets. Jackie turned back to look at us, disappointment splashed across his face.
“I’m so sorry, guys. I thought…well, I thought that my cousin was in there somewhere, but she’s just turned into a heartless bitch.” He swallowed hard, looking like he was going to cry, and I ran over to him, throwing myself into his arms.
“It’s okay, Jackie, you tried. Thank you for trying.” He slipped his arm around me and pulled me closer, but I wiggled away so I could look at him. What I saw almost tore me apart. His light blue eyes were full and glistening with tears. When I caught his gaze, he looked away from me, staring off into the distance.
“No, look at me. Jackie, you have to listen. She’s your cousin, right? But she’s a bitch. I’m sorry that she won’t listen to you, but that has nothing to do with how I feel about you.” He glanced down at me, and when he looked away again, I took his chin, turning him to face me. “Now we all need to shower, right? Get cleaned up? It will be okay.”
It will be okay.
I had to just keep telling myself that.
At the same time, I had to think about what Amelia meant by someone else paying the price if I were to stay at Taylor Prep. In my mind, I was already paying the price. Honestly, what else could they have tried to do to me?
