Stay With Me (She's With Me #2) - Jessica Cunsolo Page 0,104

me and cross their arms over their chests in what seems like practiced synchrony, barely even noticing Annalisa and Noah at my side.

Kaitlyn has the same icy, blue eyes and permanent scowl etched on her face as always, but she looks different somehow. Tired, maybe.

“I’m glad you tried to fix your face over the break, it needed a lot of work done.” Kaitlyn sneers. “But I thought people get plastic surgery to make themselves look better, not worse. You should consider suing your doctor.”

Back at it again. Is it bad that I’m almost excited to trade insults with her? This feels somewhat normal, innocent even, at least in comparison to what we’ve just been through. “You must’ve sued the shit out of your doctor, then, Kaitlyn. I mean, I’d be pissed if my face came out like that.”

“Kaitlyn’s face came out great!” Makayla jumps to her defense, earning her a glare from her friend and an amused eyebrow raise from Annalisa, Noah, and me.

“I didn’t get plastic surgery, dumbass,” Kaitlyn hisses at her second-in-command before turning back to me. “Well, either way, that monstrosity you call a face is distracting everyone here. I could get you a paper bag to wear if you’d like?”

I narrow my eyes at her. “My face was good enough to steal your man.”

Ohhhh shit.

Boom.

Mic drop.

I didn’t actually steal Aiden from her, he’s made that abundantly clear. But damn, that felt good. I swear I see her eye twitch and a vein in her forehead pop, but she does a good job trying to remain calm and unfazed. Wow, maybe her New Year’s resolution is to try not reacting explosively.

Annalisa’s laughing beside me, and Noah is practically glowing with pride.

“Ryan is twice the man Aiden is.”

Doubt it. “Not that I don’t thoroughly enjoy our time together, Kaitlyn, but is there a reason I’m spending my morning talking to you?”

Her blue eyes laser focus on me. “I hate you. I more than hate you, I despise you. You’ve had a good first semester, running around thinking you’re the queen of the school. But that ends now. This is my school. I’m running the show.”

She takes a step closer to me, and I force myself to square my shoulders and stay where I am, not backing down. The shadows under her eyes that she’s concealed with makeup are more prominent this close, and she seems different. Older, maybe. But still the same, entitled attitude.

“Ryan thinks there’s something off about you, more than in the sense of you being a stupid little bitch, and I agree. Andrew Kessler is going to ruin Aiden’s life, and we’re going to ruin yours.” She gets even closer to me, if possible, and this time I do step back. “Secrets don’t stay secrets forever. Stay out of my way.”

I open my mouth to lob back a snarky comeback, which is what I’m known for, but my mind draws a blank. I’m honestly a bit rattled. All the time she’s spent hanging out with Ryan has clearly changed her. She seems more focused and calculating, less likely to explode and go off with just the right comeback. She’s always been kind of scary, but now she seems more threatening, if possible.

Something on my face must give away how much her words just affected me, because Noah steps in and gently pushes her away from me. “Lay off, Kaitlyn.”

She gives him a calculated smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “Don’t act like I killed someone. I’m not the one who has a murderer for a brother, am I, Annalisa?”

Oh. No. She. Didn’t.

Annalisa’s head snaps over to Kaitlyn so fast I get whiplash. “What?” she says lowly, almost as a warning.

“Ryan told me that the Luke Montley who’s going to rot in jail for killing his dad comes from your white-trash family,” she basically sings, loud enough for the whole hallway to hear.

Annalisa and Luke have different last names, so when his name came out in the news, no one harassed her since they didn’t know he was her brother. Even though Annalisa doesn’t have the greatest relationship with her brother, we all know how much this is affecting her, and how bothered she is with her brother spending his life in jail.

I put a hand on Annalisa’s arm, warning her not to react the way Kaitlyn wants her to react.

“Does your brother get his jollies from killing innocent old men? Is that what you do in your spare time, too, Anna?”

Suddenly, whatever was holding me back before disappears from my mind since it’s no longer me Kaitlyn’s threatening, it’s my friend. Brushing past Noah, I get so close to Kaitlyn that I can count each eyelash.

“Tread very carefully here, Kaitlyn,” I warn in a low voice, making sure she understands every word I’m saying. “I know your mom’s the principal and you think you’re untouchable, but I promise you, push the wrong buttons and nothing’s stopping us from pushing back.”

“I’m just stating facts,” Kaitlyn says confidently, no fear in her eyes at all.

Annalisa moves around Noah, assuring him she won’t do something stupid, and I step back so that she can stand in front of Kaitlyn. It looks like it takes Annalisa a great deal of strength to stand so near Kaitlyn and be somewhat calm. She’s basically fighting every instinct in her body that tells her to destroy Kaitlyn.

“Talk about me or my family again, and I will find you, and I will make sure that no amount of reconstructive surgery is able to fix your face after I’m through with you.”

The tone that Annalisa uses sends shivers down my spine, and she’s not even talking to me. To Kaitlyn’s credit, she looks completely unfazed by Annalisa’s promise. It’s probably something she’s heard before, plenty of times, from Annalisa. Kaitlyn actually smiles, as if she just won some game that Annalisa and I weren’t even aware we were playing.

“Just stay on your shitty side of town and we won’t have a problem.”

The corners of her lips tilt up in a malicious and triumphant smile. Satisfied, she turns around and walks off, shoving a kid out of her way and into a locker without a thought as she continues down the hall, Makayla at her side.

“Whoa, someone took an extra dose of their evil psychopath pill this morning,” Noah says as we watch Kaitlyn disappear around the corner.

I don’t hear what Annalisa replies, my brain focusing on what was just said. Secrets don’t stay secrets forever.

Here I was, excited to trade insults with Kaitlyn like the good old days and feel back to normal in our routine, our simple, safe routine in comparison to murder attempts and political scandals, but obvious Kaitlyn’s stepping up her game. Does she know something? Is she close to exposing me? If she doesn’t already know and digs deep enough, she’s going to stumble onto a secret that’s much bigger than she, or anyone, could’ve ever imagined.

THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

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Published in Great Britain by Penguin Books in association with Wattpad Books, a division of Wattpad Corp., 2020

Text copyright © Jessica Cunsolo, 2020

Cover design by Laura Mensinga

Cover image © Logan Weaver (front cover) via Unsplash

and © Camille Minouflet (back cover) via Unsplash

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ISBN: 978-0-241-46084-9

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