Elite - Chapter 5 #2
“It’s okay,” I said and nudged him with my shoulder like he’d done to me when I first sat down. “Maybe we can just start over? I’m Brooklyn.” I awkwardly held out my hand.
He looked back up at me with a smile on his face. “Deal.” He shook my hand.
“Sissy, you’re not making a good first impression,” Isabella said. “Introduce yourself to everyone, not just James.”
I let my hand fall out of James’. “Oh. Um. Hi, I’m Brooklyn.” But I was pretty sure everyone already knew me. Isabella and her minions had been trying to make my life hell ever since I started going here. Matt obviously knew me. Rob knew me. James knew me. I’d even met Mason once at a party.
“Sup, Sanders?” Rob asked as he shoveled some pasta into his mouth. “Are you really related to Isabella? That’s…wild.”
“Yeah.” I wasn’t sure why it came out as more of a question.
“Sucks to suck,” Mason said with a laugh. “Just kidding. So you’re friends with Felix and Cupcake?” He nodded at the table behind me.
I didn’t turn around. I knew they were probably staring over here. And I was worried if I turned around I’d run back over to them. “Mhm.” I took a bite of salad and prayed that no one else would speak to me.
“So now that we’re friends, does that mean I get a discount?” asked Mason.
I stared at him. First of all, he’d only ever spoken a few sentences to me.
The only things I knew about Mason were that he was the Empire High quarterback and he liked to smoke pot on the weekends.
That didn’t make us friends. And second of all…
what was he even talking about? A discount on drugs?
Because Felix stopped selling. Mason must realize that.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. ” I took another bite of lettuce.
Mason put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. I couldn’t help but think that somewhere out there, someone would have fainted at the sight of such a brash disregard for etiquette. “Of course you do,” he said. “Everyone knows that you and Felix are…close.”
The word “close” was laced in innuendo. It felt like my lettuce went down the wrong pipe and I started coughing. I swallowed a huge gulp of water and tried to ignore Matt’s angry gaze. “We’re not that close,” I said as soon as I could speak again.
“Great, you met Mason,” Isabella said.
For a second I thought she was saving me from the awkward conversation. But then she opened her mouth again.
“And speaking of close, this is Matt,” she said. “We’re super close .” She said the word the same way Mason had. “And I think you two have a class together, right?”
I looked up at Matt. The intensity from his gaze was gone. He nodded. “Yup.” He didn’t offer anything else.
Everyone at the table was quiet.
James was kind to me. Rob was his usual funny self.
Mason was…at least interested in talking to me.
But that one simple yup hurt more than I wanted to admit.
A few hours ago he’d asked me to be his girlfriend.
And now he couldn’t even look at me? I wasn’t sure if I was cut out for a secret relationship.
“The other night when Matt and I were hanging out…he told me that you two and Rob have a group project together,” said Isabella. “It’ll be so fun now that we can all just hang out and work on it at my place. Sorry… our place.” She smiled at me with all her sweet insincerity.
They were hanging out together the other night?
As in one of the nights he’d come over to my uncle’s apartment to hold me while I cried myself to sleep?
Had he held her too? Right before he held me?
I tried to take a deep breath. “Yup,” I said, mimicking my brooding silent boyfriend who was a fantastic actor.
So fantastic that it stung. So fantastic that I wanted to cry.
So fantastic that I hated him in that moment.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said hang out. Because you’re not friends with any of them. It’s just a group project that you were forced to do together. That’s what Matt told me the other night when we were hanging out just the two of us alone in my room. Right, Matt?”
He didn’t respond. He just sat there and stared at her. Her. Not me. I tried to swallow down the hurt.
“What the hell, Matt?” Rob asked. “We both know that’s not…”
“Rob, no one cares what sarcastic thing you have to say,” Isabella said. “So keep it to yourself, yes?”
“Fuck off, troll,” he said.
She ignored him and turned to me. “Speaking of things that don’t belong to you.”
“No one was speaking of that,” Mason said with a laugh.
She glared at him and then back at me. “Speaking of things that don’t belong to you,” she repeated. “I need my blazer back. Right now,” she added when I didn’t respond.
“What?” I didn’t have a spare. Her dad said I could wear this one today. “The only other one I have is back at Kennedy’s house. And I’ll get in trouble if I’m not wearing it.”
“Yeah, but I got a spot on mine.” She pointed to absolutely nothing on one of her lapels. “You can’t expect me to walk around like this all day.”
I shook my head. “I don’t see anything.”
“Oh.” She laughed. “That’s right. I’m sorry. It was actually on yours.” She lifted the milk off her tray and poured it down the front of my blazer before I even realized what she was about to do.
“What the hell?” James yelled as he shifted me out of the way.
But he was too late. The front of my blazer was soaked.
I was too shocked to say a word. But I heard Matt’s silence loud and clear.
And I felt James’ arms around me when it should have been Matt’s.
Matt was the one that was supposed to defend me.
He was supposed to be on my side. I was supposed to be able to rely on him.
I stood up, letting James’ arms fall from my waist. I looked down at my borrowed blazer. The one her father said it was okay to wear. Tears stung the corners of my eyes, but I refused to cry in front of her.
“Oops.” Isabella smiled at me. “Accidents happen. And that’s exactly what I’ll tell Daddy if you’re stupid enough to bring it up.
And he’ll believe me, because he actually wanted me.
Unlike you. And just so I’m perfectly clear.
You’re unwanted here too.” She tapped the seat I’d just jumped out of.
“So don’t ever sit with me again. And stop being so utterly na?ve, it’s embarrassing.
Clearly I was just messing with you by asking you to eat with me.
We’ll never. Ever. Be sisters. Because you’re a garbage person just like your uncle.
And I’m a Pruitt. Later.” She blew me a kiss and turned back to her friends who were all laughing.
I didn’t look at any of the Untouchables. I just turned and ran as fast as I could out of the cafeteria.
“Brooklyn!” I heard Kennedy yell from behind me.
But I kept running.