CHAPTER FIVE
Blair
“I hear you’ve been talking about me on social media,” I said to the sophomore girl I had pressed against the wall behind the stairwell.
Her eyes widened, filling with fear. The bitch had the nerve to talk shit about me on her socials just because the boy she liked happened to kiss me at his birthday party last night.
I doubted he even knew she existed, but instead of trying to do something to get her crush to notice her, she attacked me.
She started trembling. “I-I—”
“What? Cat got your tongue? You’re not so brave now, huh?”
“I didn’t mean it.”
Lana and Aurora snorted behind me.
I raised my brows. “You didn’t mean it? How many comments did she leave on social media, Aurora?”
“I think about forty.”
“Forty. Mm-hmm. You didn’t mean it.”
The girl blinked fast, gulping in long breaths. “I—”
“What did you call me again? A whore? A cum bucket?” I pressed my fingers deeper into the hollow between her shoulder and neck, watching with pleasure as she broke out in a sweat.
“I’m sorry,” she cried out. “I really am. Please, let me go.”
“You even said I fucked a ton of guys already. That’s a lie. Do you know what happens to people who talk crap behind my back or spread lies?”
“I really didn’t mean it! I was just, just, just jealous!”
“And that excuses it? Nope. You’re going to learn I don’t let shit like that slide.” I couldn’t. If I wanted to stay at the top of the food chain, I had to be ruthless and unforgiving. That was how you built respect and reverence, something my father insisted I worked on.
“Leave her alone.”
I froze at that voice.
I looked over my shoulder to see Zach Curtis standing behind me, and my heart missed a beat. I glanced down his body and then up, my eyes doing the checking out thing without conscious thought.
Zach was a sophomore, so we didn’t share classes, but I knew about him—I’d made it a point to know all I could about him ever since I saw him on the first day of school.
He was a nerd with a capital N, poor, and so shy and introverted he didn’t have any friends or girlfriends, for that matter.
I never saw him at parties. We were as opposite as we could be, but it didn’t matter because he was so sweet and smart.
I didn’t care that he was skinny, had a face full of acne, or whatever other flaw girls around the school had pointed out—he looked so cute to me.
Especially when he looked deep in thought, hunched over his books in the library or smiling at something.
He wasn’t smiling now. No, he was deeply frowning, and it was directed solely at me. I had to give it to him—I knew he hated arguments, and I was sure he was counting down the seconds until he could be done with this because he was flushed and fidgeting, but he’d come to defend this girl anyway.
Why did he come to defend her, though? Did he like her or what?
“This isn’t any of your concern,” I told him, my stomach twisting with something that felt a lot like jealousy as I looked back at the girl in front of me.
“Are you th-th-that insecure that you have to resort to this?”
My spine went rigid. I slowly turned around, releasing my pressure from the girl’s neck.
Aurora burst out chuckling. “Look at him. He’s so pathetic. Do you need help t-t-talking?”
“What did you just say?” I said through my teeth. I noticed a crowd had started gathering behind us, and every part of me went on high alert as their murmurs grew louder.
I could see how it looked—some unimportant guy dared to go against me and undermine my power here. And to make matters worse, a few people were already filming this. I was pretty sure one girl was doing a TikTok LIVE.
“I said, are you that insecure? You shouldn’t bully others to get your point across. It only makes you seem weak.”
Weak.
“Oooh! That was low!” one of the guys nearest to us said, looking at me like I was on the losing end here, and my stomach twisted in knots.
My gaze went over our audience, and I caught several people staring with anticipation between Zach and me, as though they couldn’t wait to see me without my crown. The girl doing the TikTok LIVE looked a second away from pushing her camera right in my face to get a close-up reaction.
To top it all off, I was challenged by none other than a guy who apparently hated arguments so much he couldn’t even confront me without stammering, which spoke volumes.
If I let this slide, I really would seem weak. There would be more people who would think they could come after me. I needed to make an example of him. No one could mess with me.
“I’m not through with you,” I said to the girl without looking at her as I made my way to Zach with slow steps, suppressing the irrational feeling of betrayal because he was the one opposing me in front of everyone.
I stopped a few inches short of him and had to tilt my head back to meet his gaze because he towered over me. But despite the height difference, he didn’t intimidate me. He was still fidgeting, and a bead of sweat had appeared at his temple.
I formed a feral smile. “I’ll show you who’s weak, Zach Curtis. You’re going to regret interfering in my business.” My words reverberated around the hallway, loud enough for everyone to hear.
He gaped at me, readjusting the strap of his backpack on his shoulder. “You know my name?”
“I know everything about you, and soon, you’re going to find out just who I am too. You messed with the wrong person, nerd.” I yanked at the strap of his backpack, sending it crashing to the floor.
A crack of something breaking came from the backpack, and Zach’s face fell.
“No!” He dropped to his knees and snapped open his backpack, pulling out what was now a ruined mini cardboard house.
My eyes widened at its level of detail, which was now overshadowed by the damage.
The roof had collapsed, and half of the beams that held the upper floor of the house were bent out of shape.
Zach glared up at me through watery eyes. “You ruined it! I spent weeks making this for my project. And it was due today.”
I felt a pang of guilt in my chest, a voice deep inside telling me this was so wrong, but what I’d done worked because the tide had turned—the people’s cameras and laughter were aimed only at Zach now.
Lana chuckled. “Boo-hoo. The poor baby can’t deliver his project now. So sad.”
“I guess you’d better start looking for a good excuse to give your teacher,” I said, a smirk already on my face.
Zach shifted his gaze from Lana to me, and I almost averted my eyes, the disbelief and disappointment (disappointment?) on his face exacerbating my guilt.
I tipped my chin up. “No one can mess with me, Curtis. I’m not weak, and I’m going to show it to you.”
My phone alarm filled my ears, and I snapped my eyes open. I reached blindly for my phone and turned the alarm off, pressing my other arm against my eyes to shield them from the light coming through my window.
My heart was pounding too fast, the remnants of the dream lingering.
I felt like I was back there again, humiliating Zach for the first time, and the feeling of guilt and self-disgust produced a heavy sensation inside me.
This dream was like a cherry on top after another sleepless night, which I’d spent replaying my encounters with Zach and how vicious he’d been.
How did he become so different? He used to be a pushover, but now he was this guy who was capable of anything, and I couldn’t understand it.
I knew my way around ruthless, power-hungry assholes.
I’d dealt with my fair share of them. Yet I felt helpless when faced with Zach’s brand of cruelty.
Was it because it felt like he had nothing to lose when he was looking me in the eyes and saying all those awful words?
Or was it because I could feel he was desperate and traumatized enough to do anything to hurt me?
He’d covered me with mulch, for fuck’s sake, and he didn’t even blink.
What made matters worse was that my body didn’t get the memo.
It felt weak in his presence, humming with awareness just at his nearness, and when he touched me in my room, when his fingers moved down my neck, even though it was fleeting .
. . I liked it. I’d wanted him for so long that it was hard to stay immune.
But I had to stay immune. I couldn’t give him another advantage over me. The alternative would be falling into his trap, and I couldn’t take one wrong step. Not when he was a few steps ahead of me already.
And speaking of being a few steps ahead, how come he’d arrived so prepared? There was no way a guy with his background could’ve pulled what he had without access to various resources. What had he been up to for the past three years? Where was he? Did he graduate? Start college?
I’d googled him countless times before, trying to find out where he ended up after he disappeared, but I hadn’t been able to find anything.
It didn’t help that he hadn’t had any social media back then.
If he had, maybe I would’ve been able to dig up something.
But perhaps I hadn’t been looking hard enough.
I sat down at my desk and powered up my laptop.
I had to find something, not only to satisfy my curiosity about him but also to have something I could use to get him out of here.
Zach had the upper hand and was obviously capable of anything, but that didn’t mean I had to just lie down and do nothing as he exacted his revenge on me.
Reasoning with him wouldn’t help, so this was how it had to be.
I spent the next hour making every possible inquiry about Zach I could come up with, even using his fake name, Tom Ryde, but it led me nowhere. As far as the internet was concerned, Zach didn’t exist.
Why all that secrecy surrounding him? It was like he’d disappeared off the face of the earth, but here he was, like a ghost from my past, set on tormenting me.