Clique Bait - Ann Valett Page 0,76

was supposed to take in just over seven hours?

“If you could go back,” William began after a few moments. “Would you do it all again?”

“What?” I asked. “Take down Level One?”

“Yeah.”

I thought about that. Sure, everything had become a lot more complex than I’d imagined, but where would I be if I didn’t? I’d be nobody, blending into the background with Jack while they ruled the school, letting Monica go without justice. I wouldn’t have started this whole thing with William. I wouldn’t have come to know him.

“I would,” I said. “What about you? If you could replay the night I came to you with blackmail, would you still go through with it?”

“Well, I know you better now. I know that you wouldn’t use it,” he said with a wry smile. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’d let you into our circle. I’d protect you from their bullshit. I’d get whatever you needed myself instead.”

“I’d still use it,” I mumbled half-heartedly. His answer irritated me, as if I was incapable. But I knew from his tone that’s not what he meant.

“No, you wouldn’t,” he scoffed. “Not now. Not after all we’ve been through.”

I sighed. He was right.

We were quiet again when William’s laughter broke the silence that had developed as we slowly became engrossed in our own thoughts.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

He gestured to the space between us. “This. It’s, what, five thirty in the morning? And we’re sitting here staking out some guy’s house.”

Now that he said it, my tired mind also found it funny. Hilarious, in fact. I laughed with him. “If you’d told me six months ago that I would be sitting in a car alone with you at five thirty in the morning, I would have thought you were crazy.”

“Really? I’m curious,” he said, leaning in a little. “What did you think of me before all of this mess?”

I narrowed my eyes. “I thought you were just another Level One guy who had slept with at least half the school.”

He laughed again. “Really? My reputation is impressive.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing,” I pointed out.

“And what do you think of me now?”

What did I think of William Bishop? Right now, in some ways he was all that was holding me together. I was sure that if I was alone the silence would eat me alive. It would amplify that little voice in my head that loved to remind me my failures.

“I think you’re a good guy,” I said honestly, averting my gaze away from his. “I think you’re too good to be on Level One.”

When he didn’t reply I assumed he’d dismissed my words, but when I looked toward him he seemed lost in thought.

“That means a lot that you said that. When you found out about me and Lola, I thought for sure you’d hate me,” he said.

Bringing up the image of William and Lola made me go from feeling sentimental to slightly repulsed, but I shook it off.

“You weren’t in a good place last night,” he pointed out. “I know you’re stressed, but it’s like you’re losing it, Chlo.”

“I felt like I was,” I admitted. “After everything that happened with Maddy—I’m sure you got that picture too—and then Jack . . . I was overwhelmed . . . desperate . . .”

My voice trailed off and I screwed my eyes shut before continuing.

“Just being in this position, trying to put on this costume to be someone else; this intimidating, skinny, and rich Chloe who fits in with them—it just stresses me out all the time. It’s taken away every piece of me. Everything I do is for the revenge, and the more I think it over, the more it drives me crazy.”

“I think you have more of yourself than you think,” he murmured. “I still see a girl who is everything those girls aren’t. You underestimate yourself, Chloe.”

Maybe if it wasn’t for the tightness weighing in my chest, I wouldn’t have spoken to him about my insecurities, and he wouldn’t say things so nice they made my boundaries dissolve. Maybe his eyes wouldn’t burn into mine in a way that made me yearn for him.

But they did.

My breathing had become shallow when his fingertips grazed my cheek, gently trapping the wisps of hair that had fallen from my ponytail and brushing them behind my ear. All I could think of were his lips, and the way he’d pressed them so urgently to mine. How exhilarating it had felt. For a moment, it