Bully King - J.A. Huss Page 0,39
three years ago and told her I never wanted to see her face again.
I wake up the next morning before dawn breaks. Flush with a new punishment for Cadee Hunter. Excited.
I can’t wait to make her pay for disrespecting me.
For showing back up in my life after I threw her away.
For forcing me to look at her every day for the rest of the summer.
I am the bully king.
I will make her pay for that.
And that price will be high.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - CADEE
I set my phone alarm for five AM and I do not dawdle in the shower. It does take me several minutes to find an appropriate outfit in the stepmother closet, but I get clever and decide to cut off a pair of jeans to make my own shorts.
The stepmother had lots of cut-offs too. But they were so short, not even Daisy Duke would wear them.
Mine are the appropriate length. I cut a little slit up the side of the thigh so they don’t ride up. And even though I don’t want to wear another woman’s underwear, she left behind a whole drawer of brand-new lacy bras and matching panties that still had the tags on them.
The price too. Never in a million years would I pay what amounts to a car payment for a pair of panties.
I tug on a loose-fitting gauzy shirt in pink, with three-quarter bell sleeves, and leave my hair down, but tuck it back with a pink headband.
In the bathroom I find a whole drawer of brand-new makeup samples that come with a free-gift zipper bag when you buy a bunch of expensive products at a department store. I’m not into makeup much, but I dab some pink gloss on my lips and when I look in the mirror I actually smile. I look pretty. Pink was always my color.
Then—because I learned my lesson yesterday—I pack another outfit in a small backpack. Just in case those bitches get any more ideas about sending me into the lake. Then I decide… maybe I’ll take a couple other outfits. I don’t have any clothes. The movers packed them all up. So I choose three more simple outfits and stuff those in the bag too.
Then I look down at Cooper’s boxer shorts on my floor. I cannot believe I was wearing those last night. In fact, last night felt a little bit like a dream. And if I didn’t wake up in this bedroom, I wouldn’t have believed it happened.
Plus his father ordered him to drive me back and forth across the lake to my cottage.
Ha. I do not feel sorry for him. He deserves it. I don’t even understand how I ended up in this life right now, but I do know one thing.
It’s all his fault.
Everything is all his fault.
I look in the mirror again. Adjust my shirt a little. Smile. “OK, Cadee. Forget about yesterday. You got this. Because when you leave tonight, you have a home to go to. You have a few changes of clothes, you have a check to cash from the Chairman, and you are going to be just fine.”
Better than fine. Because I don’t care what Victor says. I’m going to make it the whole summer and come out the other end with a freaking scholarship to one of the most elite private colleges in the world.
Take that, Cooper.
Suck on this, Lars.
Kiss my ass, Ax.
I look for the path that Cooper took last night when we came home and find it easily now that I know what to look for.
“Wait up!”
I look to my right and find Mona Monroe jogging to catch up to me. I walk faster.
“Don’t be a bitch!” she calls. “You know I can outrun you any day.”
I sneer at her, kinda pissed that she’s cramping my good mood and positive attitude this morning. “Maybe. Before you started choking on cigarettes.”
“Well.” She laughs. “Someone has some pep this morning. So what are your revenge plans?”
“What?”
“Your revenge plans. The mean girls get you. Then you cry all night and come up with a plan. So what’s your plan?”
“First of all”—I hold up a finger— “I didn’t cry at all.” This is true too. Which even surprises me. I should’ve cried last night. Hmm. Interesting. “Second, I am not going to waste one moment of my precious life thinking about bitches.”
Mona laughs and lights up a smoke. She drags on it, then exhales in my face.
“Don’t be a child, Mona.”
“Well, that’s all very mature of you,