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“What don’t I know?”
“Casey isn’t who you think she is. She comes off as nice and passive, and she is passive, but she’s also a little obsessive. We dated for a while last year, but she broke up with me out of nowhere. I’m not going to lie, it fucked with my ego, so when she asked me out again at Rico’s party, I thought it was her coming to her senses.”
I rolled my eyes. This guy, what a dickhead. “But it wasn’t?”
“No. When we dated last year, she was almost more than I could deal with. Constant calling and texting, wanting to be together all the time, just crazy needy. Casey’s hot, so at first, I thought it was sexy that she needed me, but then it got annoying. We only dated for like a month, but I was ready to break up with her. She was too much. But she wasn’t like that this time.”
“Then why did you go out with her again in the first place?” Nikolai asked.
“She broke up with me. Before I could break up with her, she broke up with me, saying she was in love with someone else. I couldn’t believe it. She was all over me, then poof, I’m getting dumped. I went back out with her because I wanted to get the chance to end the relationship the way I wanted to.”
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. So, you were using her to patch up your fragile as fuck ego?” I asked derisively.
Crenshaw shrugged. “So? She was using me too, so it didn’t matter.”
“What are you talking about? Using you for what?”
He shot me a dark look. “To make someone jealous.”
“Who?” I asked.
“You.”
****
Chapter 43
Ava
I twirled around, my heart racing and my heart jumping into my throat. Casey was standing in the doorway, looking like her usual sweet, placid self. But when I saw her eyes in the soft candlelight, they didn’t look the least bit peaceful. They looked intense, manic.
“You’re not supposed to be in here, Ava,” Casey chastised lightly.
“I didn’t know this was your room. I was looking for a bathroom,” I explained hastily, hoping she would think this was a simple error and let me leave.
Casey just smiled at me, crossing to the dresser nearest the door. “I knew tonight was the night. I mean, why else would you be in here, right?” she asked me nonsensically.
“Um, I don’t know what you’re talking about, how about we go downstairs–”
“Oh, no, Ava. We’re meant to be here.” Casey reached in her drawer, I thought to pull out more pictures of Jack, maybe a photo album or something. My stomach dropped to the floor when I realized what she was actually holding was a gun.
“Um, Casey, why do you have that?”
She frowned and looked down at her hand, as if just noticing what she was holding. “Oh, I have this for protection. My family is never here, and this is a big house. It gets scary at night, I’m always hearing things. I thought a gun would make me feel safer.”
“Yeah, okay, but I meant why are you holding it now?” I asked, trying to slowly maneuver myself towards the door but she was standing directly in my path.
Casey looked unsure how to answer my question, as if she didn’t want to even acknowledge she was holding the gun, let alone admit she wanted to use it. On me.
So, she ignored me.
“Why did you have to move here, Ava?” she asked I assumed rhetorically. “Jack had just gotten to a point where he saw what a bitch Shelby was. He didn’t want to see her anymore. He was ready for us to be together, then you came along and stole him away from me!” Casey wailed, her voice filled with half anger and half betrayal, as if I had been aware of her feelings, and pursued Jack in spite of them.
“I-I didn’t know.” Then I remembered that Jack had told Casey and Addison that we’d broken up. “We broke up! Remember?”
Casey shook her head and smiled at me as if I were a small child who told her a knock-knock joke. “I know you didn’t break up. I thought you did, when Jack first told me and Addison. Oh my god, Ava, I was so excited. My plan had worked!” she said in this conspiratorial ‘it’s just us girls’ tone of voice, her eyes lighting with excitement.
Casey was cray-cray. I mean, as if the gun hadn’t been a strong indicator already, but the way she was talking about Jack like they had a relationship, the pictures, the gun—it deserved to be repeated, the chattiness about how she’d been messing with me to get him. It was just surreal.
