thought… I thought I meant something to you. I thought you loved me.”
He jerked back. “L- loved you?” Asher laughed but it came out all strangled and wrong. “I never said—”
“Sure, you did.” I inched closer to him, lowering my eyes and gazing at him with what I hoped were convincing puppy-dog eyes. “Right after we… did it, you said you loved me.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jason moving toward us, anger burning in his blue eyes. Knowing I had his attention, I continued. “I know you’re worried about what Jason will say, Ash, but it’s okay.” My hands slid up his chest and his expression fell. “We can be together. Jason won’t… Oh, hi, Jason.” I finally looked at him.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he seethed, derision rolling off him.
Stepping back, I moved closer to Jason, cutting us off from prying eyes since we had the attention of the entire cafeteria now. “You think you’re so fucking slick,” I said through gritted teeth, still smiling. “You’ll have to try a damn sight harder than that to embarrass me.”
The second I said the words, I saw his eyes light up. Crap. I usually didn't bite, but he got under my skin so much. Too late now though, I’d openly challenged him. And Jason never backed down from a challenge.
One of the few things we had in common.
“Jase.” The sound of Cameron’s gruff voice startled me. I hadn’t even realized he had approached us. My eyes lifted to where he stood to the side of Asher. “Come on, she isn’t even worth it,” he said coolly, not even flinching as the words left his lips, his eyes refusing to meet mine.
But I did flinch.
Even now, after all these years, it was hard to forget Cameron wasn’t a good guy. He was a jerk, just like my step-brother and Asher and the rest of the football team. But until this week, he’d never been so obvious about his dislike for me. Not that it really mattered because the feeling was entirely mutual.
Flick had it wrong.
So wrong.
Cameron didn’t want me, he wanted to ruin me. And aside from being my step-brother’s little bitch, I had no idea why.
“You should listen to him, Jase,” I mocked. “Wouldn’t want people to think you were—”
“Okay, Hails.” Flick’s arms came around my waist and she started yanking me away. “I think your work here is done.”
The three of them stared after me, a mix of confusion, contempt, and challenge glittering in their eyes. Most girls would have been afraid. Most girls would have run off to the bathrooms and cried over the possibility of the most popular guys in school coming after them.
But I wasn’t most girls.
“What the hell was that?” Flick hissed the second we spilled out of the cafeteria. She shoved my messenger bag at me.
“What? I wasn’t going to stand by and let Asher do that.”
“But calling Jase out like that?”
With a small shrug I took off toward the art studio. I had a free period next and Mr. Jalin was more than happy for me to use one of the rooms, as long as I cleaned up after myself. And I needed to paint away my frustrations.
Flick caught up to me. “Hey, I didn’t mean—”
I ground to a halt and met her apologetic gaze. “I know. I just… ugh! He’s so infuriating. Do you think I want to spend senior year going back and forth with him? Trust me, I don’t. But I can’t do nothing either.”
I’d tried that before and it didn’t work. In ninth grade I’d decided to ignore them. If I didn’t react, they’d get bored, right?
Wrong.
The final straw had been when Jason paid Macaulay Denver to ask me out to the spring dance. He was so sweet and insistent, and we shared a common aversion to the football team. It had been impossible to say no to him, but I should have known it was all a ruse. I should have known my twisted step-brother had something to do with it. But I was fourteen and I wanted one night of teenage normalcy.
Macauley’s mom had driven us to school and like a true gentleman, he’d opened the door for me and held my hand as we walked into the gymnasium. After finding us a table, Macauley had made sure I was comfortable before going to get us a drink. I’d watched the other kids dancing, laughing, and smiling, and for those few precious minutes,