Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Jade
It felt like the universe had course-corrected and brought Wolf and me back to each other. Where good old-fashioned communication had failed, it seemed theft and blackmail had worked. Now, it was as though the last eighteen months had just been a bad dream.
Of course, that sense of levity couldn’t last.
After my biology class, I ducked into the girls’ bathroom. When I came out of the stall, a blonde with boobs bursting out of her cropped shirt stood there, arms folded over her ample chest. Cheerleader, if I had to guess. She had the vibe.
Her angry gaze followed me to the sink, a nasty scowl twisting her over-glossed lips. “So, you’re Wolf’s latest whore.” She laughed, and my temper ignited in an instant. “I guess he’s trying something different.”
I pressed the tap, then held my hands beneath the frigid water, as if it could cool my temper. In the mirror, I saw her turn toward me. I got the impression she wasn’t used to being ignored.
“You know, Wolf doesn’t date girls like you. He might play with you, but he’ll get bored.”
The irony was that he had dated me. For two and a half years… What pissed me off, though, was her acting like she had a claim on him. She was clearly a scorned ex or fuck buddy…
“And what?” I twisted to face her, flicking the cold water off my hands in her direction. “Come back to you?” My chest tightened with jealousy at the thought of him having been with this girl.
She gave me a judgmental once-over. “Look at you. Then look at me.”
There was a time when that comment would have had me curling in on myself, mentally agreeing with her.
I still had to fight the instinct, but I managed to nip the negative thought in the bud.
Sure, she was blond and skinny. She looked nothing like me, but for once—possibly the first time—I took confidence in that.
It was me Wolf hadn’t stopped thinking about.
Me he found beautiful. Me he still loved.
“Oh, I’m looking.” I gave her a once-over. “Ironic that you called me a whore.” It was petty, but I was so over these venomous sluts. I’d given too many of them too much headspace over the years.
Her jaw tensed, those glossed lips pressing together as her cheeks turned red. “Stay the fuck away from Wolf, or I’ll slit more than just your tires,” she said, then stormed out of the bathroom.
I stared at the door as it swung closed, shocked. She had slashed my tires? A girl I didn’t even know. My stomach sank at the realization that Wolf must have dated her. And recently. No one would do something that crazy otherwise.
Those thoughts circled my mind the entire walk over to the concourse to meet Cassie. Tables were spread along the pathway, the way they always were on a Monday morning. Students raising money for charities or petitioning for their frat or society.
Cassie was waiting by the water fountain, a clipboard clutched to her chest.
“Hey.” One look at my face, and her brow furrowed. “You okay? You look pissed.”
I just wasn’t really sure who I was more annoyed with. That girl for slashing my damn tires, or Wolf for dating her and not telling me. I mean, why would he tell me, I guess? My fault for not paying attention to who Wolf Brookes was dating.
“Some blonde just threatened me off Wolf.” I started toward the social nightmare, and she fell in step beside me.
“Big rack, demented smile?”
“Yep.”
“Crazy Megan. I think her and Wolf fucked or something. I guess she heard the rumor that Wolf kissed you in the middle of the parking lot this morning. On the forehead, I might add.”
That had happened.
“Why are you saying it like that?”
“The forehead is like love or something.” She threw her hands—clipboard included—into the air. “Rogue would never, ever kiss my forehead.” She sounded kind of bitter about that, but then she smirked. “He’d sooner kiss my pussy.”
“Gross.” We shouldered through a cluster of students.
“Anyway, we’re supposed to be fucking Omega Dicksolon over. Not getting fucked…or forehead kissed.”
No way she hadn’t fucked Rogue since we’d been in that house.
I was still too mad over the blonde to argue Cassie’s hypocrisy with her.
No way Crazy Megan was getting away with damaging my car like some absolute psychopath.
I couldn’t prove anything, which meant I’d have to take matters into my own hands.
“The auction is next weekend and?—”
“Megan was the one who slashed my tires.”
Cassie stopped in the middle of the busy walkway to look at me. Well, at least I’d distracted her from talking about Wolf and me. Her expression shifted from annoyance to stone-cold rage in an instant. “That cunt!”
“Do you know what car she drives?” I asked.
“Can’t miss it. She has awful fluffy pink seat covers.” She fake gagged. “Why?”
“I might need your help later.”
“Sounds ominous, yet fun.” A sadistic smirk turned the corner of her lips. “Count me in. But first, we’re ruining Rogue’s stupid auction.”
“How exactly are we doing that?”
“We have to get girls to sign up for their meat market, remember?”
Another one of Rogue’s punishments. At this stage, I couldn’t figure out if he was stupid or if he really thought he had that much power over Cassie that she’d behave. I mean, technically, he did. If only she cared.
She pointed to a nearby table, a banner across the front reading Women’s First. “Look at the two girls on that table, Jade. What do you see?”
“Two girls?” It felt like a trick question.
“Feminists, Jade.” She yanked a piece of paper from the clipboard and handed it to me.
“The kind who will burn that fucking auction to the ground. With Rogue in it.” She presented me with a pen like it was a knight’s sword.
“Go forth and wreak havoc. Aim for the ones who look like they have hairy armpits.”
“What does that?—”
“They’re the ringleaders.” She nudged me toward the table.
After class, Cassie and I sat in her Honda and watched students pour into the parking lot.
I’d sent Wolf a text saying I was riding back with her, and I hoped I hadn’t hurt his feelings.
Everything with us was fresh, raw, uncharted.
Maybe I should have been prioritizing our relationship right now, but I needed to do this.
I jerked my chin toward the white sedan parked a couple of rows over, its hideous pink seat covers visible from here. Megan walked up to it, unlocked the door, and climbed behind the wheel.
“You know, I always think you’re the good one, Jade, and then you come up with something like this,” Cassie said, starting her car.
She slashed my tires. That was below the belt. Megan pulled out, and we followed.
“Tell me she doesn’t deserve it.”
We took a left at a set of lights. “I mean, I’d just fuck her boyfriend, but…”
“Apparently, she thinks Wolf is her boyfriend.”
“Huh, so you’re already doing it. Go you.”
Except that Wolf was not her boyfriend. He was mine.
Psycho Barbie pulled into a crappy apartment complex, and Cassie slowed, stopping next to the overflowing dumpsters.
I thought our apartment was bad, but this place was rough.
I didn’t think Megan would even suspect me of vandalism.
She’d surely think it was just one of her crackhead neighbors. That was almost disappointing.
After Megan got out of her car and disappeared into a stairwell, Cassie glanced at me. “What now?”
“Now, we give her car a little wash.” I could have outright torched the car, but I was going for subtle. That was a lie; I was going for petty.
I grabbed a hoodie from the backseat and slipped it on. It was hot, and I doubted a place like this had cameras, but after the whole “car outside the house I burgled,” I wasn’t taking any chances. I grabbed the spray bottle from the floorboard.
“What’s in there?” Cassie asked.
“Paint thinner from the art supply room.”
“Well, you’re the expert,” she mumbled.
I opened the door. “Wait here,” I said before getting out and pulling the hood over my head.
I approached Megan’s car and spritzed the roof.
The strong scent of paint thinner filled the air, and I smiled.
When I got to the hood, I adjusted the spray nozzle to a stream and added my pièce de résistance.
Then I took the box of matches from my pocket, struck one, and tossed it.
The car lit with a whoosh. The word WHORE burning across her hood was so damn satisfying.
I jogged back to Cassie’s car. Slash my fucking tires…
Cassie peeled away before I’d even gotten my seatbelt on.
She looked in her rearview mirror, no doubt at Megan’s flaming car disappearing behind us. “Damn, Jade.”
“Karma. At least she can still drive her car. The paint thinner will burn out, and she’ll have some fucked paint work. Meanwhile, I have to pay for four new tires!”
“And this was purely about Megan slashing your tires, right?” She turned onto the highway that cut back toward the suburbs. “Nothing to do with the fact she fucked your man…”
I couldn’t stand the thought. I wasn’t admitting shit, though. “If I torched the car of every girl Wolf has ever fucked, half of Dayton would be on fire. It’s about the tires.”
He didn’t date half of Dayton, though. Just me. And Nora. And given half a chance, yeah, I’d torch her car.
“You didn’t deny it.”
“Didn’t deny what?” I said.
“That he’s your man.”
I knew how she felt about Wolf and the possibility of my dating him. Cassie would think I was turning to the enemy.
“That’s because…he is.” I took a breath, prepared for a barrage of shit. “We decided to try again.”
“Um, do I need to remind you about that itty-bitty blackmail?”
“Be mad all you like, but you’re the one who got me in a house with him.” And I was grateful for it.
“Yeah, well…” Cassie let out a whistle when we turned onto Omega Dicksolon’s street. “Okay, maybe I see why you’re all about that.”