8. Eli
8
ELI
H aley turned away so fast, I couldn’t stifle the urge to laugh. She rushed away from me, fisting that paper in her hand so tightly that it wouldn’t ever be smoothed out again.
She was that pissed about a C ? How comical.
“Aw, don’t be like that,” I called out, keeping my tone joking, mocking her hurrying out of the room in a snit.
She didn’t stop. She didn’t slow down. After frantically grabbing all her things in a rush and cramming her paper into the pocket at the front of her oversized hoodie, she ran out of class.
I’d never seen her play hooky, and she wasn’t prone to cutting class—at all.
No guilt crept into me about forcing her into so much anger that she’d run away like a crybaby. It was a fucking C , not an F . We passed that assignment, and according to me, that was good enough.
As the class cracked up at my calling after her, though, I knew without a doubt that our grade wasn’t good enough for her .
Too damn bad. I’m not going to be a perfectionist like you.
Davina caught my attention, arching one brow as if calling me out on being a dick toward Haley.
I smiled, though, not in any mood to let anyone see that Haley had any effect on me. She’d never win an argument with me. Or the teacher, it seemed.
“The offer stands,” she said wryly, dismissing me to go back to my seat.
As if I’d take her up on that offer. It had been hell to work with Haley in the first place, and I didn’t want a take two of putting up with her nerdy highhandedness and insistence that we do the assignment how she thought it should be done.
I walked back to my seat, well aware that the entire class had witnessed that little show-down. Worst of all, though, was the sight of Preston smiling widely. He’d been in the audience, seeing first-hand how poorly Haley and I got along.
The smug bastard put his hands behind his head and reclined, likely pleased with the display of how bristly Haley was and how impossible this dare was that he’d proposed to me. He sat there happy and amused.
Fuck you, West. I glared at him as I returned to my seat.
His laughter came just as I sat, and no matter how much I tried to not pay attention to him, he was too close to ignore. Then he made it worse, getting up out of his seat to take the vacant one next to me. No books or papers came with him. A laptop wasn’t part of his things, either. I doubted the prick even brought anything to class, too used to having his influential parents excuse any bad grades he incurred from doing jack shit.
Some people just have all the luck in this world.
It wasn’t luck, though. Just privilege. One thing I never had much of.
“I called it,” he said, leaning over to taunt me while the class worked in small groups on the assignment while partners were called up one by one to collect their papers.
“Called what?” I muttered. Rubbing the heels of my palms against my face, I sighed and wished I could go back to bed. Or get some painkillers and water. Something. I had overslept this morning, too hungover and upset about what happened last night to resemble a human.
But my mom texted, then called me, over and over. Acting like I was ten, not twenty-one, she logged onto the tracking for my phone and saw that I was still in my dorm room instead of walking across campus. So, she called to bitch at me for still being in bed.
Some people had strict parents. Mine were something worse. They tracked me. They nagged me. They demanded answers for my whereabouts when I was somewhere they assumed I shouldn’t be, and they expected explanations for every one of my grades since they had online access to hawk on that too. It didn’t matter that I was an adult. Per their excuses, since they bought my used phone years ago and paid for the plan, they could access anything they wanted. I didn’t have a job, expected to just focus on my classes and graduate, so I couldn’t buy my own phone and be independent like that. The loopholes I’d tried before didn’t work. Once, I left my phone at home so she couldn’t see where I was going. Another time, I had Finn carry my phone around so it wasn’t stationary, but she foiled that by calling him and I wasn’t there to answer.
This morning, when she called and nagged and demanded to know why I wasn’t on my way to class yet, I was tempted to throw the fucking phone against the wall. Of course, I knew my education mattered to get a job. And yeah, I was aware I couldn’t blow this because they didn’t have the money for me to go to college otherwise, without keeping that scholarship intact until the end. I had grown up knowing I had to be an excellent athlete since, like my dad put it, I was “too dumb to count on good grades to make it far.” All because I wasn’t as fast or in love with learning like my classmates, they figured I was all brawn and no brain.
“I called it,” Preston said as my head throbbed. “You are a loser.”
I blew out a deep breath, counting to ten. I had to stay in his good graces since he could make or break my scholarship being completed.
“You’re going to lose that dare.”
“No, I’m not.”
He laughed. “You already are losing it. You think you’re going to manage to get her to the dance? She can’t stand you.”
Thanks, asshole. Thanks for stating the obvious.
When Haley acted like she was smarter than me, though, I couldn’t stand her, either.
“There’s not a chance in hell she’ll look at you, much less let you fuck her,” he said.
Which was why he chose that for that dare. He knew how difficult this would be for me to pull off. His hobby of manipulating others had never been more annoying than it was right now. This wealthy, spoiled punk got his kicks out of making everyone else suffer, and I regretted going to that party at all.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t force her.” He drummed his fingers on the desk, as though we were making idle chit chat. “You could?—”
“Just shut up,” I grumbled. I wasn’t in the mood to hear this asshole encourage me to rape her. I never had to work for sex. Girls flocked to me.
But never Haley.
This prick knew exactly what he was doing, daring me to conquer her at that dance. I didn’t plan to go this year, sick of that scene. But now I’d need to revise my approach.
I had to go.
“It’s weird, though, isn’t it?” He inspected his cuticles as he spoke, enjoying every second of making me squirm. “I’ve always disagreed with the rumors about her. You know the ones.”
I glowered at him expectantly. “Which ones?”
“That she’s a whore like her mom was.”
Mrs. Feldstone had no excuses. She’d singlehandedly tried to break up as many marriages and families that she could. I remember the day that Haley’s mother ran out of town. My mom came home in a fit, talking about how Mrs. Feldstone laughed when a woman confronted her at the salon, crying that she’d slept with her husband. Ever since then, I’d been trained that Haley’s mom was no good.
“Like her sister was,” Preston added.
That was old news too. Natasha Feldstone got knocked up when she was sixteen and left Marsten because of the shame.
I wasn’t proud of my parents, and I loved not living with them and having to be oppressed under their strict rules and expectations, but I’d never envied Haley’s family drama.
“Because you just have to look at her and know she’s not getting laid.” Preston cracked his knuckles. “She’s too frigid, like an icy bitch. She’s too ugly, hiding in all those baggy clothes. She’s too?—”
I held my hand up. “Yeah. I get it.”
He snickered, getting up to walk toward the front of the room since his name was called.
The second he left, I let out a long breath.
“Dude, this isn’t a good start,” Finn whispered.
“No. It’s fucking not,” I agreed.
It was the first day I had to work on winning Haley over, and she hated my guts more. I shouldn’t have dismissed her and mocked her about our grade. I had to grovel and get on her good side now, but even that sounded impossible.
Whenever she narrowed her green eyes at me, pinning me on the spot with her loathing, I was drawn in to needle and poke and piss her off even more. Seeing her happy or relaxed was the catalyst for me to make her suffer. It was a balance I’d never understand, and I'd stopped trying to.
She’d looked so furious, I was surprised her glasses didn’t fog up with the heat of her anger. She’d bit her lip so hard, keeping in her retort, that I wanted to revel in the satisfaction that she’d do it so hard to potentially make it bleed.
Having this power over her was a sick and twisted hold, but I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop. Pushing her buttons was a high I’d never tire of.
“There’s still time,” Finn said.
I heard the pity in his voice. “It doesn’t matter how much time. She’ll still act like that.”
“Then maybe you need to not act like that, either.”
I frowned at him.
“Maybe don’t be so combative. Act like a friend for once. It’d be a start to getting your end of the dare done.” He returned his gaze to his laptop and resumed working.
“Haley and I will never be friends,” I told him as my phone buzzed.
“So, you’ll give up?” he asked.
I checked my phone, seeing that it was just another text from the overlord.
Dad: Don’t forget about your mother’s birthday dinner Wednesday night next week.
I groaned lightly.
Eli: I haven’t forgotten. But can’t we do it on the weekend?
Dad: No. Her birthday is Wednesday, so we’ll go on Wednesday.
Dad: Too busy to make time for your mother?
Dad: You can’t be too busy with studying. Not with the grades you’re getting.
I ground my molars, hating him more.
Eli: I have a long day of classes Wednesday. Picking the closest weekend would be easier with my coursework.
That was a reasonable request.
Dad: Stop being selfish.
Dad: The least you can do is go out to eat with her on her birthday.
I set my phone down, wishing I could lose it for good and never have to deal with them again, or at least not for a very, very long time.
A horrible vision of living with them again filled my mind. If the West family made it so I couldn’t graduate or that I’d lose my scholarship before graduation, I’d have no choice but to go back home and live with them again.
They’d never forgive me for not graduating. They’d never understand the risky, stupid shit I’d done. It would be hell .
I couldn’t give up. I had to see this dare through. Preston couldn’t tell his parents I’d ruined that car, and in order for that to stay a secret between us, I had to get Haley to that winter dance.
“No. I won’t give up. I can’t.”
Finn cringed, skeptical and worried.
“I’ll figure something out. There’s got to be a way to get her to warm up to me.”
The second after I said that, though, I seriously doubted it.
Haley did not seem likely to have mercy on me—at all.