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Vera was my girl, and I would do anything to protect her.
“It’s not Vera’s,” I declared, capturing everyone’s attention, not sure if this would really fucking work, but I had to at least try. “It’s mine. She’s writing an amazing romance story in her free time, and she asked me to write a sex scene for her because she couldn’t write it herself.”
The murmurs slowly faded to complete quietness. I didn’t know if they believed even a word of what I’d said, so I had to take it up another notch. I gritted my teeth and cursed myself for playing into Vera’s good-girl persona for what I was about to say next.
“Come on. You guys think Vera could write something that fucking filthy?”
“Youwrote that?” someone—who obviously wanted me to kick his ass—said through the silence. “I’d believe the good girl wrote that beforeyou.You can barely pass English class without your parents’ money.”
I gritted my teeth and glared at this fucker.
“Blaise,” Vera whispered, tugging on my shirt, “it’s okay. Don’t do this.”
But I wasn’t going to let these shitheads bully her. I didn’t care what they thought of me.
“So fucking what if I can pass English or not? I wanted something to jerk off to,” I said, rolling my eyes and picking up my skateboard, hoping that Vera would say something to convince everyone here. “The fuck do you guys care? Half of you think that I murdered one of our own classmates already anyway.”
“Blaise,” Vera whispered again, her voice even quieter.
“Isn’t that right, Sunshine?” I asked. “You needed some help.”
Vera softened her eyes, her entire persona suddenly shifting. Instead of standing tensely next to me, she parted her lips and stared up at me, eyes almostsmilingat me. I watched her, waiting for her to confirm everything I had said to protect her.
“Isn’t that right, Vera?” I asked again.
What is she doing? Why isn’t she saying anything?
“Vera.” Maddie nudged her.
“No.” Vera grabbed my wrist and stepped forward. “Blaise didn’t write that scene.”
Quickly, I pulled my wrist out of her grasp and took her wrist in mine, yanking her back toward me. I clenched my jaw and lowered my voice. “What the fuck are you doing? Let me take the fall for you. It doesn’t matter to me.”
She pressed her lips together softly and shook her head, softening her voice so only we could hear her. “It’s okay. I realize that … it’s not that big of a deal,” she said, though I could tell by the tremble in her voice that it was.
“Vera …”
“I’m being serious. It’s … it’s fine.”
“But—”
“I know how I reacted,” she said, gulping and glancing around at the now-whispering students. “But you’ve … helped me grow more than I could’ve ever imagined. A couple months ago, I would’ve died if anyone had found out about me writing romance. Now, I … don’t feel as bad as I thought I would. I’m still nervous about it, but …” She softened her lips even more and looked down at mine.
For a moment, I thought she’d stand on her toes and kiss me in front of the entire school. But her cheeks flushed red, and she quickly looked away from me and tugged her wrist out of my hold.
“It’s my book,” Vera declared to the student body. “I wrote it.”
ChapterSixty-Eight
VERA
“I’m nervous,” I whispered to Blaise, holding his hand as we walked into school on Monday. “I know that I admitted to the story being mine, and I’m not as insecure about my writing anymore. But … I don’t want anyone to bully me for it.”
I honestly didn’t know what had come over me the other day. I’d thought it was so … heroic that Blaise wanted to take the fall for me that it kinda, sorta inspired me to tell everyone the truth. It would have come out sooner or later anyway once I started publishing.
“Nobody will bully you. I promise.”
“You don’t know that.” My stomach twisted as we stepped out of the student parking lot and toward the school. I glanced around at the other students laughing with each other, probably about me. “People are ruthless.”
