Chapter 24
Ari
I hadn’t slept a wink in over twenty-four hours, but I was still doing cartwheels down the hall. I skipped to and from the bathroom. I obsessively checked my pupils in the mirror. I didn’t want Brian to notice anything. I adjusted my hair and lipstick and then went back outside.
I waved at Poppy and Amelia from far away as they rushed to class to review. The homework was due third hour.
“Honey, don’t we have a test today?” asked Brian, surprised to see me there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed before the bell rang.
“Yeah, but your candidacy is important,” I whispered, caressing his cheek.
I hoped with all my heart that Brian had forgotten about last night’s outburst.
“Well, my dad forced me, now that it doesn’t matter to you as much,” he whined.
“Come on, you know I care.”
I pouted, and Brian kissed me immediately.
I closed my eyes to savor cuddling him, but I couldn’t fully enjoy it because of a little voice in my head.
This is what he usually did; he acted like nothing ever happened.
I opened my eyes again because the kiss vanished into nothing, and noticed James and Jackson passing behind him. Jackson joined a group of guys, while James headed to his locker.
Brian squeezed me harder as soon as he saw him.
“Sorry about yesterday,” I murmured.
But he was too preoccupied with staring at James.
“I’m going, sweetie. Don’t stay here too long,” he ordered, without taking his eyes off James.
“I just hang up the last flyers, and I’ll—”
“You’re the best girlfriend in the world,” he whispered in my ear.
Oh, no, Brian. Not at all.
James flung his locker door open and paper flew onto the floor.
“Damn that tramp! Taylor!” he cursed.
Speak of the devil, and she shall appear.
“Hey, asshole. So you’re finally gonna run?” she asked, trampling on a flyer with her heel.
“What the fuck do you want?” he spat, leaning against the lockers.
As usual, James was wearing the fire engine–red vest that belonged to Jackson instead of his uniform. It certainly looked better on James. His broad, powerful shoulders jutted prominently out of the sleeves. Jackson had a pale complexion like milk while James was a tan muscular statue.
“Now that I won’t be taking care of your campaign, we’ll see what you do alone. Since you don’t know how to do things alone.”
Taylor pointed her finger at his chest, but James seemed unperturbed.
“No, you’re right. I prefer when your friends help me,” he answered, amused, pushing a vape pen behind his ear.
“You son of a bitch. Don’t talk to me ever again.”
“And quit sending me those pics first thing in the morning. It has the opposite effect on me than what you’re looking for.”
Taylor stormed off in a rage, swaying her hips like she felt like the most beautiful girl in the world, impervious to insults like that. I wanted her self-esteem.
James scoffed indifferently and closed his locker. Then he saw me.
“Ariana.” He pronounced my name, and his hoarse voice hit me like a lightning bolt.
“James, look . . .”
“Enjoying the show?” He placed the vape between his lips and stared at me.
“I didn’t want stay and watch you. But I have to talk to you.”
“Let’s hear it,” he said, annoyed.
“James, I’m really sorry.”
“I don’t want your pity.”
“It’s not pity,” I retorted.
“It is as long as I see you holding his hand.” He turned around and joined his friends.
I was seeing red, and my body was on fire. I had to stay calm. I ran into the bathroom for the millionth time to cool off. Managing the situation between James and Brian wasn’t easy. I felt like I was torn in two directions, balancing on a tightrope.
I jumped at the loud thud of the door. Taylor had followed me into the bathroom, and her timing was so perfect that I wondered if she’d done it on purpose.
“First White talks back to me, then she steals my role as Juliet,” she announced, invading my space and causing me to back away.
“June didn’t do anything wrong, you’re the one who—”
“I feel like,” she continued threateningly, “someone here is going to have a really, really bad ending.”
I told myself her threats didn’t scare me, before thinking back to Brian. Okay, maybe they scared me a little bit.
“And someone tells me that someone is you, Ari.”
“Taylor, I know you’re with James now, but I—”
“Oh, Ari, we’re not talking about who’s in bed with James—I got out of that mess. We’re talking about my reputation as student council president.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, fixing my ponytail.
“It’s not a competition between you and me, Ariana. I’m on your side this time.” Taylor moved in front of me, blocking me from looking in the mirror.
“Under no circumstances should James be elected to student council or become the football team captain,” she declared.
“Since when are you on Brian’s side? Not to mention you supported James up until yesterday.” I eyed her with a confused look, hoping she’d explain.
“Because I was unaware of what James arranged last week. But now that I know, I’m not gonna let him have any power in this school,” she explained mysteriously.
“What did he arrange?”
“Haven’t you heard about the principal?”
I frowned at that. “I heard they beat him up, but what does James have to do with it?”
“James is a loose cannon. I know him and what goes on in his sick head. I don’t want to be associated with him. I don’t want ruin my academic future for someone who’ll will end up dead in a few months.”
A chill went down my spine.
Taylor noticed and came closer to me, scowling severely.
“I don’t get it. How could he ruin your future? Until yesterday you two were—” I didn’t have the courage to continue.
“Intimate?” she concluded, laughing. “Get off your high horse, Ari. Girlfriend of the year!” she exclaimed.
She took another step forward, forcing me to back up. “Do you think I don’t know about what you’re doing with James? Oh, hold on, your halo’s slipping.”
She made me feel two inches high, and rendered me speechless.
“Amelia had the guts to hang him out to dry, and your idiot friend’s brain is so fried that she can’t even remember who she’s going to bed with. You’re the only one who’s gonna end up getting burned.”
“Taylor, it’s not what you think.”
Her hostile expression burned me. “Brian doesn’t know, does he?”
I felt my chest constrict, followed by a more intense hold in my stomach.
“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about the fact that you’re a tramp with little to no self-esteem.” I heard a deafening buzz in my ears. Then one of the bathroom doors flung open, and Amelia came out of it. I almost fainted out of fear.
“I was peeing. And your snivelly, gossipy voice interrupted my business,” she announced, shooting Taylor an icy glare. “You still don’t get that you’re worthless here.”
Taylor glared at her disdainfully. “We’ll see,” she hissed, before leaving without even acknowledging me.
Amelia’s eyes cut through the air like two daggers.
“What the hell was that bitch talking about?” she asked.
“They were just insinuations. I didn’t do anything.”
“Ari, listen to me, and listen to me good. If I find out that you’ve even remotely thought of cheating on my brother—”
“What . . . what are you . . . ?” I stuttered, confused.
“I’ll show you what it’s like to go from being the most loved girl in school to the most hated in one second flat.”
“You’re always exaggerating,” I told her, despite not having the guts to look her in the eyes.
“Not if you do anything bad to Brian. I will never speak to you again, do you understand? You won’t have any friends at all.”
“I’d never cheat on Brian.”
A lump formed in my throat. I’d just lied to my best friend.
“Oh, you wouldn’t?”
“Look, that time at Tiffany’s party was just—”
“You’re running out of time to put this thing to bed, Ari. My brother wants to be with you. Make sure you’re up for the task. If there’s something you need to make clear to that asshole James, you have until tonight to do it.”
I nodded, petrified, then ran off like a bolt of lightning.
It was officially the most terrifying day I’d had since I’d set foot in this school.
It suddenly seemed like all my lies were catching up to me.
After finishing my assignment, I headed to gym class.
My vision started to get blurry, indicating that I was starting to get sleepy. I needed to sleep.
I was plastering Brian’s posters on the walls when the guys started to leave in groups from the locker room.
Nobody talked. The air seemed tense.
“Brian?”
He passed by me, glowering.
“I just put these up, and—”
He waved at me, nothing else. “I’ll wait for you outside.”
I didn’t know what had happened, but it seemed like his day wasn’t going any better than mine.
The gym emptied out. Not a trace of James.
I approached the locker room and went in cautiously.
James stepped out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his hips
“James, I was thinking—”
He cut me off immediately, pressing his index finger to my lips. “Shh, hold on. Let me guess.”
“James—”
He didn’t let me talk. “I love him. You know, I’m in love with him. I can’t do this anymore! He doesn’t deserve it. We were made for each other.” James imitated my voice.
Despite the mocking, he was saying exactly what I was thinking.
“That’s what you wanted to say?”
I nodded with my head bowed.
“Okay.”
He shrugged and turned down his lower lip as if it didn’t involve him.
He turned his back to me and pulled a clean undershirt from his duffel bag.
“Okay? You don’t have anything else to say?”
“Do you want me to ask you to dump him?”
The silence was so deafening that I couldn’t talk.
“Because you know I won’t do that.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not worth it. We’re just having fun, but what’s the deal with all of you?”
At that point I should’ve turned around and left. Instead, I gathered all my good will and forced myself to say something.
“In fact, I didn’t come to ask you for shit. I love Brian.”
James looked at me over his shoulder and sneered, amused. “I’ve never been in love, Ari. But if love for you means fucking me every time you want while you’re still with him, I don’t think you’re on the right path.”
His words destroyed me. I dropped onto the bench because I was getting incredibly dizzy. I put my throbbing head between my hands, and James seemed to be moved to pity by this.
“I’m saying this for you, Ari.”
“I don’t know what to do, everything’s so hard,” I whined.
James sat next to me, clouding my judgment again.
“You should dump him. What’s the point of being a happy couple if he doesn’t even touch you and you only cheat on him?”
“Brian will kill me if he finds out,” I whispered.
James’s smirk gave way to an irritated expression.
“I’ll kill him if he tries to lay a hand on you.”
I looked him in the eyes and couldn’t help but notice the black and blue marks on his symmetrical face.
“Did they kick your ass?” I asked, caressing his cheekbone.
“I’ve had worse,” he murmured unwillingly.
“They hit you that hard?”
“Well, it isn’t . . .” James lowered his head, ruffling his wet hair, blocking my wrist before I could move my hand down to caress his chest.
“You’re not here for that, Ari.”
I was planning to be more coherent when I walked out of the locker room and went back to Brian, but that’s not how things went.
I kissed him first. And he didn’t pull away.
He never did. His lips parted and he slipped his tongue into my mouth, filling it.
He licked every crevice of my neck, covering it with demanding kisses.
He played with a point behind my earlobe, setting off a wave of warmth in my skin, veins, and stomach.
I remembered that he only had a towel on when he grabbed my hips and straddled me on top of him. He brushed his pelvis against my underwear, and I felt his member between my thighs.
I was about to fuck up for the umpteenth time that day.
“James, no.”
“Fuck,” he cursed, holding on to the towel with his fist.
“Are you sure this time?”
“Yeah,” I admitted, my eyes glued to the floor.
He lifted my chin with two fingers, forcing me to look at him.
“You’re going back to him?”
I promised Amelia. And Taylor. And myself.
“Yeah, James.”