Empire High Betrayal (Empire High #3) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,78

someone said.

“I knew she was a prostitute.”

“One of the cheap ones too.” More laughter spread through the hall.

“She’s even on her knees right now.”

My tears burned my eyes as I crawled around on the Empire High floor.

“Baby?” Matt’s voice in the hall made my tears run even faster down my cheeks.

I tried to pull more of the pictures into a pile on the floor. Not that it mattered. He’d seen them. He’d seen me in my underwear holding James’ hand. And even though I’d told him about what happened that night, seeing it was a million times worse. “I’m sorry,” I choked.

“Come with me,” Matt said. He grabbed my hand to pull me to my feet.

“I’m so sorry…”

He pulled me toward the closest bathroom. I tried to ignore the rude words being thrown our way. Matt seemed to be handling it better than I was. I thought he’d be pissed, but he was so calm.

“Look, she’s holding someone else’s hand now,” some guy said.

Matt ignored him, sidestepping to pull us closer to the bathroom.

But then the guy added, “I wonder how much her escorting services go for?”

And it was like Matt snapped. He let go of my hand so fast that I didn’t know how he had time to wrap it around the guy’s neck. “Say another word about my girl and you won’t be able to recognize yourself in the mirror.” Matt shoved the guy backward, slamming him against a locker.

I swallowed hard. I guess he wasn’t as calm as I thought.

“Show’s over!” Mason said from somewhere behind us.

I turned to see him hit his fist against a locker a few times to get everyone’s attention.

“I said show’s over!” he yelled. “Everyone get to class.”

Matt pulled me into the closest bathroom and locked the door behind us.

I could still hear the laughter in the hall. I thought Matt would be pissed. I thought he would have screamed at Isabella and started to pull the pictures down too. But he had been eerily composed until that guy had basically called me a prostitute. He seemed calm again now as he pulled me into his arms.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Can you breathe?”

His words just made me cry harder. He was angry. But he was more concerned about whether or not I was having a panic attack.

“Baby, look at me.” He grabbed both sides of my face. “Are you okay?”

“Of course I’m not okay. Isabella is trying to freaking ruin my life. She wants you to leave me. She said she was going to turn everyone against me. I can’t handle being on edge all the time. I feel like I’m about to lose my mind.”

“Isabella can do whatever the fuck she wants. But she’ll never tear us apart. And she’ll never break you down. Do you hear me?”

I nodded. I wanted to believe him. But Isabella was hellbent on ruining us. On ruining me. And it wasn’t a fair game. Instead of fighting fire with fire, I’d stopped fighting altogether. I swallowed hard.

“Are you sure you can breathe alright?” he asked.

“I’m okay.” I shook my head. I wasn’t okay. Not really. “Isabella’s framing me. But I didn’t put those pictures up, Matt. I didn’t…”

Matt winced. “I know you didn’t. Come here.” He pulled me back into his arms.

“She’s never going to stop,” I said.

He didn’t respond. He just held me for a few minutes in silence. Until the laughter in the hallway died away.

“Give me your phone,” he said. “Enough is enough. You’re supposed to call your security detail if Isabella ever does something. You can’t let this one slide.”

I didn’t want to stop Isabella with my dad’s help. That always made everything worse. I wanted to freaking fight back myself. But Matt and I had already had this conversation. He’d said I was better than Isabella. And I wanted to show him that I was. I didn’t want to stoop to her level. I didn’t want to become her. So I pulled my cell phone out of my blazer pocket and handed it to him.

He lifted the phone to his ear. “Hey, it’s Matt. There’s been an incident with Isabella.” He tried to give me a reassuring smile. “Some inappropriate pictures. She’s upset, but no, I’ve got it covered.” He looked over at me and pulled the phone away from his ear. “Do you want to go home for the day?”

I shook my head. I refused to let Isabella drive me away from school. Her games weren’t going to