CHAPTER TWELVE
Blair
I’d planned to hit the sack the moment I arrived home, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Zach and Aurora. I’d sent her two more texts, telling her to call me, but she didn’t message me back.
I tossed and turned in my bed for almost an hour, then gave up on sleeping altogether. I looked at the time on my phone. It was almost one in the morning.
Kicking the sheets aside, I got up to get a glass of water from the kitchen, my bare feet tapping against the wood floor. I just climbed down the stairs when a movement outside the window caught my attention, and I saw Zach’s bike pass through the front gates.
My heart beating fast, I rushed back upstairs to check if I had any messages from Aurora.
Nothing. There were no texts or calls from her.
I dropped my phone on the bed. I had to call her tomorrow and—
My phone lit up with a new message, and I snatched it from my bed, releasing a strangled sound when I saw it was the same phone number Zach had texted me from earlier.
I licked my suddenly dry lips and opened the message. I regretted it instantly.
She was pretty easy. That was his text above a video attached to the message.
With my breath held, I played the video. In it were Zach and Aurora, only he was filming her, so his face couldn’t be seen. She was on her knees in front of him, her mouth open and head tilted back, her eyes glazed with desire.
“That’s it. Open wide,” Zach said in a changed voice. He shoved his dick into her mouth, and she let out a moan.
Something pricked my chest, and I told myself to stop looking, to turn off the video, but I couldn’t. I had to see every nauseating second of it.
What followed were minutes of her pleasuring him while she fingered herself, clearly in raptures over blowing him. She came first, and then he pulled out of her mouth and finished all over her face.
I pressed my hand against my mouth, my pulse racing. For a fleeting moment, I thought how I wanted to be in her place, and then I cut that off because what the fuck?
“Shit.”
How could she have let him film her? She was always careful about these things, but here she was, like his dick magically erased all her common sense.
I was about to send him a message to ask what the point of sending me that video was when I got a text from Lana.
Go to Aurora’s TikTok. You’ve got to see this.
My heart jolted. I rushed to open my TikTok app and went to Aurora’s profile, dreading what I might find.
My blood froze. Her last post. It was the video Zach had sent me just now, posted ten minutes ago. Oh my God. The comments kept pouring in, ranging from shock to pure amusement. This was going to be all over TikTok by tomorrow.
So that was why he’d hooked up with her. To get back at her. He must’ve taken her phone at some point and uploaded the video. Had that been his plan all along? Coming to the party and waiting for an opportunity to strike?
I wasn’t aware of moving, already out of my room. Rage coursed through me but also fear because, so far, I was able to handle his cruelty. But this? This was a whole other level.
I reached his room and pounded on his door with my fist, too pissed off to care if anyone would hear me.
Zach opened the door, and before I could start shouting at him, he yanked me inside and closed the door, pressing me flush against it as his hands caught my arms so I couldn’t move. His scent wrapped around me, and I fought against its mesmerizing effect.
He lowered his head, the strands of his hair brushing over my forehead. “Did you come to blow me too?”
“You’re such an asshole. How could you do that? That’s so fucked up.”
He raised his brows. The lights were off in his room, and the only source of light was the moonlight behind his back, which left his features in the dark, making them appear more intimidating.
“Really? Preaching to me about what’s fucked up?
Do I have to remind you about this?” He pointed at his scar.
“I didn’t forget about your accomplices.
‘The past should stay in the past?’ I don’t fucking think so. Lana Devereux is next.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, struggling to get free of him, but his grip only got stronger on my arms, keeping me firmly in place.
“I’m going to report you.”
He raised his brow. “Are you really? Then do you want me to reveal your compromising video to the world too?”
I released a strangled sound. Damn him, it was always coming back to that video.
“I’ve had it, Zach! You’re going too far!”
He sneered. “You’ve had it?”
“Yes! When are you going to be satisfied? When we’re dead?”
Something flashed in his eyes, and he grabbed my neck, squeezing hard.
“Don’t say it like you’re a victim here.
At one point, I wanted to be dead. I tried it, you know?
I tried to take my life, feeling fucking hopeless and worthless, but for some reason, I survived.
And then I realized why. I survived so I could get back at you.
So you’d never think of doing that to anyone ever again. ”
I started shaking, tears spilling onto my cheeks in horror. “I’m sorry. I really am sor—”
He squeezed my neck harder, and I struggled to inhale, my heart beginning to race in my chest as panic rose in me.
“Don’t even say it,” he gritted out, his expression murderous. “Don’t say you’re fucking sorry only so you can get away. You won’t. You don’t feel sorry, and you never will. Skanks like you don’t have a heart. You only care about yourself.”
“That’s not true. I—” He squeezed me so hard, I couldn’t breathe, and I clawed at his hands, inhaling on a strangled sound. I couldn’t breathe!
“I can’t—”
He pushed me away from him, and I crashed down on all fours, coughing as I gulped for air.
“That’s it. That’s where you belong. On your knees sucking a cock.” He grabbed my chin, making me look up at him. “Did you want it? Did you watch that video and imagine yourself in her place? I bet you did. You shallow girls would fuck anyone who offered.”
More tears overflowed onto my cheeks, and I didn’t do anything to stop them as I watched him.
I didn’t do anything to stop my real emotions from showing on my face either, remembering that sweet, innocent, shy boy who used to spend days in the school library and was so passionate about learning.
The boy who I’d heard once answer his teacher as I passed his classroom that his dream was to learn as much as possible so he could go to college and help the world with his knowledge.
The whole class laughed at him and called him a sissy, which happened an hour after I’d called him a sissy publicly for having a Jane Austen “The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it” quote sewn into his backpack.
He’d been the light. I’d been the dirtiest darkness.
I knew he wouldn’t accept my apologies or even acknowledge them as true, but I had to say the next words.
“I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you. But do you know what I’m the most sorry for?
For destroying your purity. Your sweetness.
For dragging you down in the mud with me.
Because you’re right. I am a piece of shit.
And I miss the boy who, unlike me, always preferred justice over what other people might think.
I miss the boy who always managed to make me smile even though he never knew that. ”
His eyes widened, and he staggered back a few steps, staring at me like he was seeing a stranger. His chest rose and fell on uneven, harsh breaths, deep pain filling his eyes but also confusion and surprise, and it had my heart skip a beat in my chest.
He remained silent, and it was my cue to leave.
I stood, blinking back my tears.
Glancing one last time at him, I stepped out of his room and quietly shut the door.