Chapter 9
Briggs
Wednesday morning, I’m at my locker when Ella appears. “You said you’d wait!”
I close my locker and casually look through my phone.
“Briggs!” She reaches for my phone, but I hold it above her head and send a text to Parker, telling him to meet me outside the cafeteria before lunch. I have another assignment for him, one that involves the tiny, hot-headed brunette who’s trying desperately to get my attention.
“I’m not even going to consider this if you’re going to go back on your promise.”
“I don’t make promises.” I turn away from her and walk off.
She chases after me, stopping right in front of me. “You said you’d leave me alone this week and every day you’ve—”
“What? What have I done?”
She lowers her voice. “Stealing my assignment. Making your friends block me from leaving school?”
I laugh. “I heard about that. You and Calvin. How’d it go? Was he any good?”
She glares at me. “I gave him a ride home. That’s it.”
“The guy’s a psychopath. You might want to find someone else to take your virginity.” I continue down the hall. She doesn’t follow me this time, which is disappointing. She usually doesn’t give up that fast. Maybe this will be easier than I thought.
I’ve been testing her this week, seeing what she’d put up with, seeing how far I could push her.
But I kept our agreement. I left her alone.
Everything that’s happened to her this week was done by someone else.
I was behind it, but I didn’t actually do it.
And I had nothing to do with what Finn and Parker did in the parking lot.
That was all them. I wasn’t even there. I’d already left to meet up with my father for another one of his show-off-my-son events that make me want to kill myself.
This one was at the office. I’m supposed to start working there this weekend.
I have no fucking clue what I’ll be doing, and I don’t want to find out.
I keep hoping I can find a way out of this, but he won’t accept any of the excuses I’ve given him.
He’s determined to ruin my life, and making me work there is step one.
At least it’s only on weekends. This summer, he expects me to work there every damn day. I’d rather shoot myself.
When it’s time for AP Chem, I walk into class and see Ella talking to Ms. Higgins. They both turn and look at me.
“Briggs, could I speak with you?” Ms. Higgins asks.
“Sure.” I walk over to her, noticing the smirk on Ella’s face. She’s obviously up to something.
“Ella has brought up a concern,” Ms. Higgins says.
“Is that so?” I glance at Ella. “I’m assuming it involves me?”
“Yes.” Ms. Higgins stands up straighter, like she’s working up the nerve to tell me what I did wrong.
She knows my power at this school, and she’s the only teacher here who thinks she can change that.
I’m guessing she was an Ella back in the day.
The girl who had no friends and only cared about school and was picked on by the popular jock.
“Ella has informed me that you took her assignment for French class so that she would be unable to turn it in.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Because you thought it’d be funny,” Ella says, scowling at me, which I find hilarious.
Part of the reason I like making her mad is to see the looks she gives me.
Even when she’s furious with me, it’s more of a look of frustration than anger.
If she wants to really show anger, she should take lessons from Aubrey.
The girl looks fucking evil when she gets mad, but I can give it right back.
I’ve mastered that threatening look that makes people cower and do what I say.
I learned it from my father, the king of evil bastards.
I give Ms. Higgins my most charming smile. “I can assure you I would never do such a thing. Ella is clearly mistaken, but if she really believes I did this, I’m happy to look over her evidence.”
Ms. Higgins looks at Ella. “I assume you saw him take your assignment?”
“I didn’t see it happen, but I know he did it.”
“Ella, you can’t be making accusations you don’t know are true.”
“I’m not even in that class,” I say to Ella. “Why would I take your paper? And why are you telling Ms. Higgins this instead of your French teacher?”
“I’m on the student disciplinary committee this semester,” Ms. Higgins explains. Her eyes bounce between Ella and me. “I was hoping you two could get along, but perhaps I’ll need to find you different lab partners.”
“You don’t need to,” I say. “We’re good.”
The bell goes off.
“Go ahead and take your seats.” Ms. Higgins hurries back to her desk.
When we get to our lab station, Ella slams her backpack on the table. “I know you did it. You said you’d wait and you lied. Why am I even surprised?”
“Wait for what?” I ask as if I really don’t know. That scornful look appears again on her pretty little face, which makes me want to laugh, but I don’t.
She turns to me. “You said you’d wait to do whatever shit you think you’re going to do in your sick, twisted attempt to get me to agree to what you want.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I look down at her body. She’s wearing ripped jeans and a white t-shirt that has yellow stains on it. “Seriously, do you ever look in a mirror?”
She ignores me, probably thinking I’m just saying it to insult her, which is partially true, but she really should check a mirror now and then. She obviously spilled something on her shirt and doesn’t even know.
“You are one of the worst people I’ve ever met.” She yanks a notebook from her backpack and slams it on the table. “Let’s just do the assignment so we can get out of here.”
“Everyone should’ve read the lab for today,” Ms. Higgins says as class starts. “Come get your supplies and let me know if you have questions.”
Ella races up to get the supplies, but halfway there, she turns and runs back to get her backpack, assuming I’ll do something to it if she leaves it.
She’s paranoid, which is understandable given her fear of me and what I might do.
I admit, I feel slightly guilty for that.
My intention wasn’t to ruin her life. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.
But I have to look out for myself, and there’s no fucking way I’m living under my father’s rules for the rest of my life.
“I didn’t take your assignment,” I say when Ella returns.
“ You didn’t, but you paid someone to.” She lines up the chemicals for today’s lab in a neat little row, checking the assignment to make sure they’re in the right order.
I pick up the first chemical and put it in the flask. “I said I wouldn’t do anything and I didn’t. I never said other people wouldn’t be involved.”
She turns to me, her hands on her hips. “So you admit you did it. You just used other people to do your dirty work.”
“As any good leader would,” I say, adding another chemical to the flask.
“You weren’t supposed to add that yet,” she snaps, taking the flask from me. She sets it on the burner. “Whatever. We’ll just do it wrong and both get a bad grade.”
I check the assignment. It doesn’t say anything will happen if you mix the chemicals before heating them, so I’m guessing we’re good.
Ella reads over the homework for tomorrow as we wait for the chemicals to heat.
My phone dings, and I see a text from Finn. It’s a naked pic of the girl he was with last night. It’s someone he met when he was out having sushi with his brother. The girl’s hot and looks a few years older than us. I don’t know why she’d be interested in Finn. She could do a lot better.
Another text pops up. I smile when I see who it’s from. “Looks like Charlotte’s going to the party Friday.”
Ella’s eyes dart up from her homework. “No, she’s not.”
“Then someone else sent this text.” I turn my phone so Ella can see it.
She looks stunned and a little hurt. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“You don’t seem to get the power I have over people. If I tell them to do something, they do it. You’re the only one who doesn’t listen.”
“Then apparently I’m the only one with a brain. I can’t believe she agreed to go.” Ella gets her phone out and starts texting.
“She’s not going to listen to you.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.”
“Just go to the party. You can keep an eye on her. Make sure she doesn’t have any fun.”
Ella looks up at me. “You think having you and your friends torture her is fun?”
“Why would we torture her? She didn’t do anything.”
“Neither did I and yet you won’t leave me alone.”
“Shit,” I say, noticing the stuff in the flask is boiling over. I grab it, forgetting about the hot glass and almost dropping it as I set it down. “Fuck!”
Ella laughs. “You deserve that.”
“Really?” I hold up my hand, showing her my fingers, which are already swelling up.
She stops laughing, concern covering her face. “Let me see.” She takes my hand, then lets it go and races to the front of the class, forgetting to take her backpack with her. She hurries back with the first aid kit.
“Set your hand down,” she orders, taking a small tube out of the first aid kit.
“What are you doing?” I ask, watching as she dabs gel from the tube onto each of my burned fingertips.
“It’ll take away some of the pain and reduce the swelling. You have to rub it in a little.”
“I’m good. Just leave it.”
“It won’t work sitting on top of the skin. You have to rub it in.”
“I’m not touching it. It hurts like hell.”
“Don’t be such a baby.” She grabs my hand and lightly rubs her finger over mine, which actually doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, and the sting from the burn is starting to go away.
Why is she doing this? She hates me. Even my own mother wouldn’t do this. Growing up, she couldn’t deal with me getting sick or hurt. She said it made her queasy. She’d make the nanny deal with it.
I watch as Ella continues to care for each of my fingers, then gently sets my hand back on the table.
“You should put more on when you get home. It’s not blistering yet so it’s probably okay.”