25. Juliet
JULIET
I t’s funny what lessons stick in your mind. The ones school seems to deem important always seem to slip away the second test results are handed out. It’s never mathematics, rarely science, not geography, or geology that leave the longest impression. At least, not for me.
The lessons that cling to my mind are almost always historical or philosophical. Machiavelli once said, “If an injury has to be done to a man, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared,” and I’ve never heard a truer statement, never read one that reached the same level.
So, when my punishment is finalized and I’m sentenced to two weeks of out-of-school suspension, plus an online course in anger management, I accept it willingly and without complaint.
I spend them dutifully filling out each and every form and online quiz for the anger management requirements.
I turn in projects. I write papers. I work on my grades.
I study—but not just for school. No. I realize my first mistake was not handling Megan’s disrespect early on. Letting it go never got me anywhere. So, instead of moving on and trying to forget the attack, I study my target and I plan.
After all, some people only learn when they realize that the people they think are their friends will abandon them to save their own skin.
The chance doesn’t come until a week after my return to school.
“Practice is canceled,” Nolan announces, his eyes on his phone screen as he stops by my locker.
Gio whoops and swings an arm around my shoulders, snatching me away from the row of textbooks I’ve carefully lined up inside the locker. The door slams shut a second later as Gio laughs and nuzzles against my throat. “You know what that means, don’t you, Prep Girl?”
Megan’s familiar scowling face hovers in my peripheral vision where she stands against her own locker with her friends. A grin rises to my lips as I reach back, cupping his neck and holding him to me when normally I would push him off.
He pauses at the affectionate touch, but then just as quickly leans into the petting. “No,” I say. “What does that mean?”
“Party time!” he announces.
My brow furrows. “Just because practice is canceled?” I look at Nolan. “It’s only Thursday.”
Stuffing his cell back into his pocket, Nolan shrugs.
“Coach never cancels,” he explains. “In the last four years, it’s only ever happened two other times—once because of a death in his family and the second time because he’d been in a car accident that morning.
Rain or shine, we always attend practice.
Because of that, we made a pact with the team that whenever he does cancel, we throw a party behind Lex’s house. ”
“Lex’s?” Surprise spins through me. “He’s okay with that?”
Nolan chuckles. “Where do you think he is right now?” he asks instead of answering. “He left early to get prepped.”
“Besides,” Gio says, squeezing me around the waist once more before releasing me and turning to drop his back against the row of lockers.
“It’s not like his aunt really gives a shit.
She’s a hermit—doesn’t ever leave her own house.
Lex is the one who takes care of the property.
It’d be overrun with weeds and shit if he didn’t mow and maintain it. ”
“He does?” Months knowing them and still, I continue to find things that surprise me.
“Yup.” Nolan’s gaze moves over my shoulder as he stares at something down the hall. I turn and realize he’s glaring at Megan. “Don’t worry,” he says, directing the words to me. “She won’t be coming.”
I consider those words. The original plan had been for this weekend, but it almost seems as if the universe is giving me the green light for my revenge. A smile spreads across my face before I can help it.
“No,” I say, my own lips quirking up and sticking into a smile. “Let her come.”
“What?” Gio gapes at me. “After the shit she pulled?” He shakes his head vehemently. “Fuck no.”
“Trust me,” I murmur, turning to face the girl in question. “I know exactly how to deal with her.” I’m already reaching for my phone and typing out a quick text to Lex. He knows what I want. Our timeline has moved up a bit.
“People know the two of you have issues,” Nolan warns me. “Don’t kill her.”
I roll my eyes, shoving my cell back into my pocket as I face him. “Please,” I say. “I’m not that stupid. I won’t kill her.”
He subjects me to a narrow-eyed suspicious look that lasts approximately fifteen seconds before he sighs and moves away. “Fine, but if you need us, you tell us, deal?”
“Deal,” I agree. “But I think so long as you lend me Lex for a few hours before the party this evening, I’ll be good.”
Nolan’s suspicion doesn’t diminish, but at my words, he huffs out a breath as he, too, straightens away from the lockers. “As if he can say no to you for anything.”
Together, the three of us head out and crowd into Gio’s Firebird for the ride to Lex’s house. Gio tosses me his phone and directs me to send out a mass text to several of his friends while Nolan informs the football team of their plans for the party.
By the time night rolls around, there are several cars pulling down the long drive, their headlights flashing over the tree line and the massive bonfire that the guys have built.
Their football friends are the first ones to arrive, jumping out of rusted-out sedans and off the back of pickup trucks that look halfway ready to be sentenced to the junkyard.
“Remember,” Nolan says as he hands me a beer in a red Solo cup. “No murder.”
I throw my head back and laugh. A moment later his hand lands on my ass.
“I’m serious,” he bites out. “I want to have fun tonight—no jail.”
“What?” I ask. “You don’t think I could get away with it?”
He shakes his head and moves away. If he responds, however, I don’t hear it. Mads watches me with wide eyes.
“Whoa, why is he so worried about you killing someone tonight?” she asks.
“Because Megan’s probably coming,” I say, lifting one shoulder and letting it fall back down.
Mads chokes on her own drink, holding it carefully away from her as she coughs through her surprise. Only when she’s gotten ahold of herself does she look at me. “Megan? You’re fine with her coming here after what she did?”
“I never said I was fine with her,” I reply. “But I have my own revenge plan, and it won’t happen if she doesn’t come.”
“Oh no.” Mads flips around. “I’m not a part of this. I’m not listening.”
“Chickenshit!” I call out as she marches away.
“Bawk, bawk!” she shouts back, making several heads turn towards us in confusion as more and more people park in the lineup of vehicles and arrive on the scene.
It isn’t until a gruff masculine voice speaks from behind me that I realize I’m no longer on my own now that she’s gone. “Hey, baby, miss me?” Lex wraps his warm arms around my middle, settling his hands over the curve of my stomach as his front presses into my spine.
Sinking onto the back of my feet, I let myself fall against him, relishing the heat of him. “I did,” I confess. “Though, I’m starting to think you and your friends are crazy for hosting a party this close to winter. The weather was calling for snow this weekend.”
He chuckles. “Ah, but that’ll make your plans all the more devious, won’t it?”
While Nolan and Gio know I’m planning something—only Lex knows the details. If I worried it would drive a wedge between them or incite jealousy or annoyance, I’m pleasantly surprised because neither Nolan nor Gio seem to care. Instead, they’ve happily offered help if I need it.
“Is she here yet?” I ask in lieu of an actual answer.
Lex’s lips touch my throat and then move up until his teeth nip at my earlobe.
A shiver of lust steals over me and I wonder if tonight will be the night that I have more than one of them in bed with me.
That time in the woods with Nolan and Gio was one instance, and though I’d been angry with Nolan’s underhanded tactics—the idea of trying to take them together has been percolating in the back of my head for the last several weeks.
“She is,” he says, releasing my ear, “and everything is prepped and ready.”
Good. I pull away, turning in his arms and reaching up to loop my fingers around his neck. “Run interference for me?” I already know the answer to my request, but I ask it anyway.
Lex arches a brow and hooks a finger into one of the belt loops on my jeans, pulling me into the full length of his body. With how tall he is, I’m forced to tilt my head back to keep eye contact.
“What do I get in return?” he asks, grinning.
Going up on my toes, I smile as he bends the last little bit, allowing me to lick across the seam of his mouth as I offer him a kiss. Shamelessly, he devours my lips in a harsh demand—settling himself over me and gripping me tight as if I’d ever pull away from the heady drug of his kiss.
Breathing becomes harder. My head goes fuzzy, my mind blank. Each second that passes is consumed by nothing but him. The cold air swirling around, the heat of the fire, the sound of people laughing around us—all of it fades away.
Minutes later—or what feels like a lifetime—Lex lifts his head, breaking off the kiss, and I gasp for air, sucking down lungfuls so raw they burn against the inside of my throat. “Go get her, baby,” he says. “I’ll take my payment later.”
Lex walks away, heading back in the direction of his teammates as more people get out of their cars and head for the bonfire and beer table setup.
A Scorpion King party is far different from the ones thrown by others in school.
The bonfire isn’t the only heat source—several barrels have been set up and filled with dry sticks and underbrush from the woods around the property.
Several familiar faces surround them—some of them classmates that I’ve only ever seen or spoken to in passing, but a few I recognize from the day of the attack.
When they catch sight of me, they stare.
I’m sure they’re wondering how the hell they’ve been given the chance to step onto Scorpion King land after what they did.
It’s clear in their shared looks before they watch me pass them by with a wariness that practically seeps from their tense bodies that they don’t know what to make of me.
Perhaps a weaker woman would have felt insulted by each and every one of them. She might feel the need to attack each of them in kind, but not me.
Those girls are nothing but sheep. They follow who they think is the strongest—the alpha bitch. After tonight, I doubt they’ll ever even think to come after me again. What I’m about to do to Megan White will make their poor attempt at beating the shit out of me look like child’s play.
I find Gio tossing a football to a few of his teammates and wave him over. “What’s up?” he asks, jogging closer as I stand out of the way of his friends.
“Megan’s here,” I tell him as I push the red cup in his hand. “I need you to take this to her and keep an eye on her for the next thirty minutes.”
He arches a brow and looks down at the drink. “You think she’d take it from me?” he asks.
“I think you can be very charming when you want to be,” I remind him. “I also think she’s still a little bitter that you left her after I came into the picture.”
His eyes roll. “Ugh, we were never together ,” he huffs out. “She was a fuck buddy. Nothing more.”
I lift one shoulder. “I know how girls like her think,” I tell him. “Fucking you was her laying her claim.”
Gio frowns. “You don’t think she tried to fight you because of me, do you?”
“Oh, pretty boy.” I laugh and pat his cheek. “Of course she did, but I need her to drink this tonight—so you’re gonna make it up to me by distracting her while she does.”
He lowers the cup, hand curving over the top to keep it dangling from his fingers as his other hand cups my waist and draws me closer. His eyes find mine, boring deep. “What are you planning, Prep Girl?”
I smirk. “That’s for me to know and you to find out,” I tell him. Pushing against his chest, I wave as I back away. “Go on,” I say. “Text me when the game’s ready.”