and sometimes, you need lyrics, I think to myself as I dump the black coffee down the drain and make them the good stuff.
Returning to the dorms, in stealth mode, through the back door like always, I stop before walking through the common room when I hear them all, now back from break, crooning over the Steel boys who will be starting school here tomorrow.
I hear Heather’s big mouth telling everyone that Chloe already won the “pot.” It honestly makes me almost nauseous. Then I hear them all gasping, whining, freaking the fuck out, and acting as if they just found out there was something like abused women, starving children, and cancer in the world.
Unable to take it anymore, I storm out into the center off the room, stand on the coffee table, and yell at them, “You’re all pathetic!”
The room falls silent. Well, all except me.
“You all haven’t a clue who the hell you are or what you stand for. You get pissed when a not-so-hot guy checks you out, throw a fit if one dares to ask you out, cry objectification and wear the victim card like a badge, and here you are, doing the same fucking thing. Pick a stance and stick to it!”
Heather pushes through the crowd, coming at me. “Get down or—”
I point two inches from Heather’s face. “Step back, bitch! Some fucking resident adviser you are.”
“I. Said. Get. Down. Now.”
“Eat a dick, Heather!” I hop down on the opposite side of the table, because bitch has crazy eyes, and I don’t trust people with crazy eyes. “Choke on it, and then go fuck yourself!” I throw my middle finger over my shoulder as I head toward the stairs.
“I don’t have to go fuck myself, Unstoppable; people actually want to fuck me.”
Please, like that’s the worst thing these bitches have ever said, I think as I start to climb the stairs.
Then I hear Chloe say, “Heather, shut up!”
When I walk out of the bathroom, Chloe’s pacing. “She’s such a cunt!”
I say not a thing. I, at the very least, agreed to two days of no communication, and I’m due that.
I open the closet door to find something cozy to wear, because it dropped like twenty—
“I freaking love you, Savvy! I love that you know who you are, that you don’t put up with shit, and that you know who you are!”
I throw a hoodie over my body, drop my towel, grab a pair of undies out of my drawer, and step into them as she sputters and paces behind me.
“I know you don’t believe me, but I’ll prove it. I’m gonna quit. I don’t even care if I have to go back to public school where everyone knows my business. I’ll just walk in there with a Savvy Sutton attitude and tell them all to eat a dick!”
She starts laughing as I walk over and push the comforter over my bed that wasn’t made when I left and hop up on it.
“God, it’s freeing, you know.” She walks over and plops on my bed. “I love you.” She stares at me, smiling, her eyes a bit crazy, but not like Heather crazy, which is all the damn time; but crazy like she’s momentarily thought her epiphany should somehow wash away all the bullshit. Like I’m supposed to forgive her for the year and a half of lies and start making fucking friendship bracelets or something.
Fuck her.
And then she grabs my face and says, “I love you, Savvy.”
And she kisses me.
Chapter 9
"I always wanted to be a femme fatale. Even when I was a young girl, I never really wanted to be a girl. I wanted to be a woman."
~ Diane von Furstenburg
Savvy
Exhausted, because I slept with one fucking eye open after Chloe lost her fucking mind, I sit in homeroom, trying to pretend not to hear the whispers about the newest video Patrick Steel posted on IG. I also try not to watch over one of the groups of girls in front of me, watching on repeat, yet fail. And then it starts all over again.
Patrick, smiling, winks at the camera before saying, “Tonight, the Steel men are going to do a live lasagna cook-off, and you are all going to judge which father/son duo gets bragging rights. Wait until the very end then cast your vote based on presentation, creativity, commentary, and style.” He all but pops the collar of his shirt before introducing all the men in the Steel family; all big, all