15. Juliet
JULIET
G od, does this girl ever stop talking? Megan White is another face that I hadn’t expected at this party—though, I suppose I should’ve at least anticipated Lindsey Crawford since she still goes to Silverwood Prep.
Her usual band of cronies is gone and I suspect the only reason she’s here tonight is because she’s banging someone on the rich side of town.
I’d say good for her and leave it at that if I thought her fucking her way through guys who have no intention of turning her into the trophy wife she’s probably hoping for would mean she leaves me alone. Obviously not.
“—listening to me?” I blink and realize she’s ended her tirade with that question.
Several eyes are on us, people watching the drama showdown unfold.
Their attention creeps along my arms and the back of my neck like little insects searching for an opening to burrow under my skin.
I twitch with the urge to scratch. I hate this.
“Not really,” I deadpan.
It’s been a long time since Lex left me alone. I shift and glance over Meg’s shoulder to see if he’s on his way back yet. I could use a drink.
Meg huffs out a breath and shoots back the drink in her hand before dropping it onto a nearby side table that’s shoved against a wall to make room for all of the people in the house.
This has to be against fire code or something.
I’m glad I left my jacket in Lex’s SUV because the interior of the house is hot and sticky with all of the bodies.
“I can’t believe you’d even bother to show up here like you belong,” Meg snaps. “What? Now because you have no money, you’re willing to fuck with your old classmates for it?” She laughs, the sound grating on my ears. “As if. No one at Public wants you, what makes you think anyone here does either?”
Sticking one finger in my ear and wiggling it around a bit, I pull it out and nope, no earwax. Clean as a whistle. Somehow, I thought maybe it was something in my ears that was making her voice more annoying than usual. In front of me, Meg’s face goes red as she waits for a reply.
In the months I’ve been forced to deal with her, I’ve learned a thing or two.
One: she has a higher sense of her importance in other people’s lives.
Two: she can’t stand being ignored or treated like she’s inconsequential.
Three: she lives and breathes drama and attention.
The first and second go pretty much hand in hand, and the third is so obvious it’s sad. I sniff and cross my arms over my chest.
“Okay?” I tilt my head to the side. “And?”
She blusters, her chest pumping up and down. I can smell the vodka on her breath. My nose wrinkles as she stumbles forward and shoves a finger against my collarbone.
“You. Are. Useless. A waste of fucking breath. You’re a whore and?—”
I roll my eyes and reach up, grabbing ahold of her finger and twisting it.
A scream echoes out of her throat as I use the momentum to bend her arm behind her back the way Cory taught me in our self-defense lessons.
I shove upward and push her right up against the wall.
To the right there’s an opening into the next room and everyone that was not-so-subtly listening in on the verbal battle has turned to witness the outcome.
All sense of discretion goes out the window when things get physical.
“Let go of me!” Meg shrieks, bucking back against my hold as she screams. It’s not hard to take her wrist in one hand and lift upwards, past the middle of her back, until her screams of anger and embarrassment turn into those of pain.
There’s no alcohol in my veins, nothing but pure, unadulterated anger—the unfairness of how I’ve been treated by these people, by this whole fucking town—as I lean in.
Megan fights and struggles, trapped between the wall and my body.
She goes still when my breasts touch her back and my breath drifts across her ear.
“The more you yell and try to humiliate me,” I tell her. “The more everyone here sees how pathetic you truly are.”
Her gasp of outrage is a perfect symphony in my ears, but I’m not done.
“You can keep spouting your bullshit. Keep telling people how disgusting I am. How I can’t be trusted. I don’t care if they believe you or not. Do you want to know why?”
She shakes her head, her chin turning enough that I can see she’s cut off her screams by clenching her teeth together. I grip the back of her neck. “ Ask me why. ”
Meg denies my command by fighting back against me, shoving me back a step before I catch her and press her face first into the wall once more. My grip goes from constricting to painful. I’m going to leave bruises and I don’t give a fuck.
“ Ask. Me. Why. Megan. ”
“Why?” She barks out the word as if the faster she follows my order, the faster I’ll let her go. Does she think I’m going to release her and let her come after me? Fat chance of that happening. No. I’m going to make her understand that I’m done with her pathetic attempts to get to me.
“Because,” I tell her, letting my voice drop down low so only the two of us can hear it. “I don’t give a shit about the opinion of an inconsequential little bitch like you.”
“ Juliet .” Lex’s low growl has me pushing off the girl in my grip. I release her and take a step back and just as I expected, Megan launches herself at me.
She’s all fire and drunken brazenness as she throws the first punch—one that I dodge easily enough.
Lex curses and stomps towards us. People part, shying away from the clear anger on his face, but I smile as Megan whips around and dives towards me again.
This time, I let her get close before I duck my head and grab her arm.
Using my hold on her, I bend her slightly and bring my knee up. All of the air in her lungs rushes out and she chokes, coughing as I slam it into her abdomen. I release her and she crumples to the floor.
“Juliet!” Lex is at my side a moment later, grabbing my arm. He swings me around and checks me over. “Are you okay?”
I laugh. “Are you kidding?” I shake my head. “I’m fine. Where’s my drink?”
He blinks.
“Did you forget?”
“I…” He jerks his head up as someone comes barreling into the room. I half expect it to be Gio or Nolan, but it’s not. Of all people, it’s Brandon Pillard.
He looks a little thinner than he used to, the sharpness of his jawline even more pronounced.
Interestingly enough, white bandages peek out from beneath his long-sleeved button-up.
What had Lindsey said? That Bran got hurt at the charity game?
Bran’s forehead pinches tight as he takes in the scene before him.
A circle of people surrounding me and a girl who’s gagging out gasping breaths on her hands and knees on the ground.
Then, he lifts his head and scowls at me.
“Are you seriously attacking people now?” Bran demands. “After all you’ve done?”
“All I’ve done?” My brows shoot up. Lex is stiff at my side. He doesn’t say or do anything until I shake off his hands and take a step towards my ex.
“Baby. Don’t .”
Bran deliberately ignores Lex and returns my attention with a glare of his own. “Avery’s gone,” he snaps.
I shrug. “And that’s my problem, how?”
“You were her best friend,” he says. “You knew everything she did—you were the only one who could’ve released those videos.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Bran squeezes his hands into fists and I catch the action. I step towards him.
“What are you going to do, Bran? Call me a liar? Hit me? Cheat on me? Oh wait… you did that already. Why do you care about what happens to Avery now anyway? Do you feel inadequate because your dick wasn’t enough for her? Well, now you know how it felt for me.”
“Yeah? You could’ve fooled me,” Bran snaps back. “You cut us both off. You blocked our numbers and wouldn’t answer when we called.”
“You both tried to play it off like I didn’t see you fucking. Excuse me for having a sense of dignity, but I don’t give a fuck why you did it. It never mattered to me. I don’t give a fuck what you have to say now.”
Bran’s nostrils flare and he doesn’t back down, he steps closer until our chests bump. It’s one thing after another tonight. Coming to this damn party was a mistake, but I can’t say that I’m not enjoying putting this asshole in his place.
“Say it,” he commands. “Tell me you did it. You released those pictures. That video.”
“I didn’t do shit.” I don’t even know what the video contains, but I can guess.
“But you’re right about one thing—I knew about all of the guys she fucked.
I should’ve expected she’d go after you.
You two deserve each other. I hope you’re all caught up on your shots, Bran.
A bitch like her is as loyal as a prick like you. ” Which is to say not at all.
“We’re leaving.” Lex’s hand lands on my shoulder and tugs me back.
“No!” Bran reaches out, snagging my wrist. “Tell them!” He practically screams the words into my face, spittle flying onto my cheeks as he gestures wildly to the onlookers. “Tell them that you made it all up! That it was fake!”
Lex’s growl rumbles against my back, but I reach back and pat his arm with my free hand, keeping him from losing his cool. If anyone is going to fuck Bran up tonight, it’ll be me.
“Okay, Bran.” I leave the comfort of Lex’s hold and push myself back towards my ex. Bran looks down at me as I near him. His hold loosens and what looks like relief enters his expression.
“You’ll tell them?” He blinks. “It really was fake?”
I tug my hand free of his hold and mistaking the action as one of acquiescence, he lets me go. “No,” I tell him. “It was all real. Avery is a whore and a cheater.”
He stumbles backwards. “No. You’re lying!”
Why is it so hard for him to believe? How the hell can he not see the irony in his situation?
People lie for three reasons: to avoid, to protect, and to gain. “I have no reason to lie to you,” I say honestly. “But I do have something that I’ve been meaning to give you.”
As if he senses my intentions, Lex speaks up once again in that warning tone of his. “ Juliet. ”
Bran stares at me, brow puckered and anger and confusion still warring for real estate on his expression. I know they say you should never kick a man when he’s down, but that’s all they ever did to me and now is the perfect time for my revenge.
Without giving Bran a chance to shield himself or Lex a chance to stop me, I rear my foot back and launch my sneakered foot right between Bran’s legs.
“Oh fuck!” A guy nearby chokes out the curse in shock as Bran goes down hard, his face bleach white.
“Damn,” someone else mutters.
Bran wheezes and I bend down, grabbing him by the hair as he cups himself. His eyes meet mine and they’re glazed over with agony and tears. The sight is morbidly appealing. I smile.
“What goes around comes around, Bran,” I tell him. “But for old times’ sake, I’ll warn you of this too—Avery had a harem of guys in the city that she let pass her around at the club circuit too. You might want to get yourself checked.”
I drop his head and Lex is there, both hands on my shoulders as he tugs me back. “We’re out of here.” I don’t resist as he turns me and a stunned Gio is standing there, having obviously just come upon us. Lex nudges me towards him. “Get her outside,” he commands. “I’ll grab Nolan.”
Gio bobs his head, and I don’t argue as I’m led out of the house—my old classmates and their dates carefully ducking out of our way as we go. “Jesus, Prep Girl,” Gio mutters as we descend the front steps onto the lawn. “He’ll be lucky if he ever has kids.”
A giggle so unlike me bubbles up at that. “I’m sure his family line will be fine.” I snicker. “I have it on good authority that his dad is a manwhore too.”
Gio’s head tilts in my direction as we stride across the grass towards where we’d parked before. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.” I nod, recalling how Dr. Pillard had even tried to hit on me as he drove me to Roquel’s house all those weeks ago—when I’d first left the Scorpion Kings.
As if the memory is a sharp needle of reality, my amusement bubble pops and evaporates.
No doubt the proposition Dr. Pillard gave me is something he wants to keep under wraps.
After all, no one wants their dirty little secrets spilled out for all to see.
Avery’s are out now and despite Bran’s insistence that I was behind it, I have to wonder…
When the others join us at the car, we clamber in. Nolan takes the driver’s side, allowing me a clear side profile of Lex’s face as he drives. If he senses my intense scrutiny, though, he never acknowledges it. My lips twitch again at the memory of Bran’s face as I’d unmanned him.
I don’t know if I’ve ever had anyone take revenge on my behalf. I thought I’d hate it. To my surprise, there are plenty of things I thought I’d hate that it turns out I might actually… love.