“I’m not afraid of you,” I went on, squeezing her wrist hard enough to feel the bones inside. “And I’m not going to sit back and let you weasel your way back into Archer’s life. He’s happy with me. He wants me, and that’s something you will never have, so you can go back into your hole and stay there. The world was better off without you in it.”
Brittany shut her eyes, grimacing out, “I hate you. I hate you so much.”
“I know,” I said, letting her wrist go. I figured by now my point was made. This wasn’t going to get her back on top of Archer; this wasn’t going to get her anything except a missing finger. “And I don’t give a shit. Archer’s my boyfriend now, and no matter what you do, I’m not giving him up.” Spinning on my heel, I headed to the door. When my hand rested on the handle, seconds before I was about to yank it open, Brittany whispered something that made me stop dead in my tracks.
“When I get out of here, I’m going to kill you.”
I’d like to say her threat surprised me, but it didn’t. If she was willing to go so far as to fake her own death and kidnapping, it wasn’t too much of a stretch that she’d do the real deal when it came to me. She loathed me with her entire being, but you know what? The feeling was mutual. If that bitch came at me to try to kill me, I’d fight back.
Once again, the old me would’ve reacted differently, but the me of today simply shrugged and said “Okay” before walking out.
Bring it on, bitch.
Mom looked at me like I was crazy. Me, and not Archer, whose mother’s funeral was just yesterday and interrupted by his crazy psycho ex. You’d think she’d treat us both the same, but she let Archer eat his breakfast in silence while she took to being the typical mom she always was.
“I don’t think you should go to school today,” she said. “In fact, I think you should maybe take a week off.”
She didn’t say this because Brittany had told me she was going to kill me. No, I’d told Archer what she’d said, along with Jacob, and I’d texted it to Vaughn and Dante—that way there was a record of it in writing, just in case it happened and the bitch caught me by surprise.
Nope. My mom told me this because she was once again afraid that someone was out there, kidnapping students. Probably the same one she thought was running around killing everybody.
And, okay, obviously the killer was still out there. Was it Brittany? Archer certainly didn’t seem to think so, but her threat to me made me believe otherwise. You never knew what someone was capable of.
“Mom, I’m going to school,” I said, experiencing the worst case of deja vu ever. Mom and I had this conversation way too much here. Then again, a lot of terrible things seemed to happen in Midpark, so maybe these conversations were warranted, a little.
“I can call the school, pick up your work,” Mom said. She glanced back at Archer, who was trying to act like nothing was going on. “I can even call off for Archer. Both of you can stay here, do your work, and be safe.”
“Can’t, Ms. Smith,” Archer said, finishing his bowl of cereal. He left it where he was, grabbing his backpack from the base of the stairs. “We’ve got a quiz in first period. Mr. Tran doesn’t let us make up quizzes.”
A lie, but one I could appreciate.
My mom sighed, and it was at that moment that Jacob entered through the front door. He realized he was stepping in on something, holding back his scowl as he tried to appear family-friendly. “I could go wait in the car,” he offered, glancing between us all.
“No,” I quickly said, adjusting my bag over my shoulders. “We’re ready. Let’s go.”
Mom sighed, but she let us go, watching Archer and me as we funneled out of the house behind Jacob. Jacob would be driving us both for a while. Surprise, surprise, no one thought Archer should be going anywhere alone, not with Brittany’s psycho self out there now.
I sat in the front with Jacob, while Archer sat in the back. My nerves were alight, all jittery.
As Jacob pulled out onto the road, he glanced at me and Archer. “You two will be fine, as long as you