4 #3
“Well, it turns out someone interviewed Aegan for the Tagus magazine’s entertainment section, and he was asked to name ten girls he’d like to go out with.” She handed me her cell phone.
With my heart pounding, I saw the bit of the interview, unmistakably in the style of the youth magazine You. I skimmed it before getting to the part about Aegan.
Ten numbers.
Ten names.
Ten options to choose from.
And there I was:
Jude Derry.
In the running to date a Cash.
I couldn’t believe it.
Well, I couldn’t put it past Aegan to do something like that, but I was still shocked.
The logical reaction would’ve been to ignore me completely after reading what I’d written about him, but no.
That was just another mistake to add to Jude’s long list of blunders with the Cash brothers, and he was also sending me a message: I won’t forget what you did.
I knew what that list meant. I knew what everything meant.
It was a clever counterattack because it showed people that he wasn’t intimidated by my insult—and, at the same time, he could make everyone believe that I’d privately apologized, or that things were good between us.
That had been his goal: to make it clear that that new girl who’d dared to insult him posed no threat to him, and his reputation was still intact.
This was how these elite guys operated, and now I was caught up in one of their games.
“Jude . . .” Artie said.
“What?” I replied right back.
“Say something,” she asked me anxiously. “You scare me when you’re quiet and serious.”
When I looked at her, I realized she was concerned.
What could I say to her? Sharing an apartment with her made me realize that she wasn’t like other girls here, even if she did her best to hide it.
In fact, she was a genuinely good student, had an unusual fondness for waistcoats, and didn’t judge a book by its cover.
Maybe the downside was that she feared the power of others, especially the Cash brothers, so she kept herself out of their firing line.
But as a roommate, she was even better than I’d expected.
The problem was that I had a hard time trusting people.
I wasn’t the type to tell little secrets just to become close friends with someone.
I went through life not really trusting anyone, even those who seemed trustworthy, so I kept certain things to myself, such as how I really felt about being in Aegan’s firing line.
It was a mixture of shock and apprehension.
Of course, nobody was supposed to see that side of me.
I remembered my article and figured that was why Aegan had given that interview. I went to the newspaper’s Instagram account to read the comments about my article. But it wasn’t there.
The asshole had taken it down!
“Jude, this is what I meant when I told you things could get worse,” said Artie. “Why don’t you just stay away from them?”
Stay away, to me, meant run away, and for Aegan would mean I’d been defeated. Sure, it made sense, but there was no way I wanted the Cash brothers to think they could intimidate me! It would only make Aegan look stronger than ever at Tagus.
“Do you think this scares me, Artie?” I blurted out absurdly, unable to help myself.
“You should at least be concerned,” she argued.
“Child poverty is concerning,” I said, “not that Aegan Cash thinks I’m trying to tarnish his reputation. That’s just the stuff of a spoiled child with too much time on his hands.”
Artie blinked.
“So, what now?” She raised her eyebrows as it dawned on her that I wouldn’t back down. “Don’t tell me you’re going to answer him? Jude . . .”
I threw her a small smile, one of those that gave nothing away.
Artie knew something. I hadn’t forgotten. Maybe I could find out.
“No, I won’t,” I replied.
She looked relieved.
“It’s the most sensible thing to do,” she said, a little optimistically. I pretended to remember something.
“But as the saying goes: he who seeks, finds,” I added. If you mess with me, I won’t keep quiet.
Artie’s face went from relieved to worried.
She wanted to say something, maybe try to get me to change my mind.
But, in an attempt to get her to spill what she knew, I added, “Because, in the end, he can’t really do anything serious to me, right?
” I casually shrugged. “He might destroy my social life, but as long as you, Dash, and Kiana speak to me, I’ll be fine.
I don’t plan on becoming the Head Girl or anything like that. So that doesn’t affect me.”
Once again, I noticed that rare restlessness in Artie as she bit her lower lip.
“I guess,” she muttered as she looked away.
I smiled broadly. “Then I’m safe,” I added.
She also forced a smile and headed to her room, to get back to whatever she was doing. For a minute, she paused in the doorway and looked back at me, a hint of concern in her eyes.
“Just try to keep your distance, and he’ll soon forget about you so you can just lead a normal life,” she advised me. “You’ll try, won’t you?”
How else could I respond to something so uncertain?
“Of course.”