by Callie Rose
My stomach twisted into a knot that seemed to pull itself tighter and tighter as the blond girl bore down on me.
“Give me that!”
Her claws were already out, and she went straight for the crown, as if she thought it would actually make her queen of any-goddamn-thing.
I ducked out of the way, and she pushed past Mrs. LaVaunne to go for me again. She was glaring at me, her eyes glassy and slightly unfocused.
“Take off that crown this second, you trashy whore!” she hissed at me. “You think you fucking earned that shit? I earned it!”
“Miss Davenport! Please!” Mrs. LaVaunne was still holding the microphone, and her voice echoed through the large space.
Adena lurched toward me again, grabbing my sash. I gripped her wrists, keeping her from yanking it off me, but pain shot up my leg as I tried to keep my balance.
“Yeah?” My hold on her wrists was hard enough that my knuckles turned white. “And how did you earn it, exactly? What makes you so special?”
“It’s not about being special, you simple bitch!” There was a definite slur to her words now, and she stumbled again as she tried to reach for the crown—or maybe she was going for my eyes. “It’s about not ever letting anyone say no to you. I get what the fuck I want.”
I relaxed my grip slightly, meeting her gaze. “Oh, so you didn’t earn it. Just like you didn’t earn Harvard. Or all your school honors either.”
“I did earn Harvard!” she screeched, wrenching against my hold so strongly that we both almost fell over. “You think I would’ve fucked the admissions guy if it wouldn’t get me in? Maybe you would’ve, you slut, but I only do shit like that when I get something out of it! I don’t just spread my legs for anyone like you do!”
“No,” I grunted, pulling her several feet across the stage. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Mrs. LaVaunne was staring at us in open-mouthed shock, but it would only be a matter of time before she pulled herself together and intervened. “You only sleep with guys in exchange for favors, right? Like Mr. Cartwright?”
She scoffed, even as she made a swipe to grab at my sash. “What, you think I slept with him because of his looks? Get real, Idaho.”
And… there it is.
She’d said plenty. She had already buried herself, but she was too far gone to realize it.
But I wasn’t quite done.
“What about my car?” I demanded, catching her wrists as she dove toward me again. “Did you get Preston to fuck with my car?”
“No!” she hissed, pressing against my hold until we were practically nose-to-nose. “I did that my fucking self. And don’t even act like you didn’t deserve it, you whiny bitch.”
Holy fuck.
My breath caught.
My heart felt like it stopped beating and sped up at the same time.
I loosened my grip on her arms, and she wrenched them out of my grasp, yanking the crown off my head and clutching it like a prize. I stepped back, limping out of her reach as I lifted the sash off my shoulder with one hand.
Preston stood behind Adena, staring at her in wide-eyed disgust, and even Mrs. LaVaunne seemed completely unsure of what to do.
I was breathing hard, and my hair had come partially down from its updo in the struggle. But I lifted my chin as I held out the sash that read Prom Queen in curling blue letters to Adena.
She gazed down at it, her eyes regaining clarity for a moment as she blinked twice.
I saw the exact instant when she realized what she’d done, what she’d said, and it was possibly the most satisfying moment of my life. Her focus shifted from the sash to my face, her features contorting with confusion, her gaze going fuzzy again from whatever the Princes had slipped into her drink.
“You know what, Adena?” I shrugged, offering the sash to her again. “You’re right. I think you need this more than I do.”
Chapter 20
“God, that was fucking amazing!”
Finn’s whole body practically vibrated with glee as he turned to look over at Cole, who sat on the couch next to me. We had returned to Cole’s dorm almost immediately after several teachers had escorted Adena off the small stage. She’d been surprisingly docile as they led her away, and I wasn’t sure it if was because she was still reeling from shock at what she’d said and done, or if rapid mood swings were a side effect of whatever drug the Princes had dosed her with.
“You got it up everywhere?” Elijah put in, leaning against my shoulder to glance at Cole’s screen.
“Just about,” the dark-haired boy grunted. “I live-streamed it too, so it’s all over Facebook already. It’s not going away.”
“And we emailed it to Dean Levy and the dean of Harvard.” Mason’s smile was feral. “Just in case they want to know what kind of fucking person she is.”
“Do you think Harvard will rescind their offer?” I asked, glancing at him.
If it was possible, he looked even more pleased as he answered. “Fuck yes. That’s the kind of PR nightmare these schools do anything to avoid. And if the admissions officer slept with her in exchange for pushing her application through, who knows who else he did it with? Every application he’s ever touched will be suspect. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s already been fired.”
I tried to feel a little bad about that but really couldn’t. He’d been collateral damage in our plan to take down Adena, but it wasn’t like he didn’t deserve what was coming to him. Adena was a psychopathic bitch, but there were likely other girls he’d gotten sexual favors from in exchange for a boost during the admissions process, ones who’d just done it because of the tremendous pressure their families put on them to succeed. If he lost his job in disgrace, well, that was the fucking bed he’d made.
Same with Mr. Cartwright. If he gets fired, good riddance.
The fact that Adena had admitted to tampering with my car was something I was still processing. The one question I wished I’d gotten to ask her was, why? Why did she hate me enough to do something like that? Or had she really not considered how fucking dangerous it was?
I wasn’t sure what do to about it yet—whether I should try to press charges or what.
But it was satisfying to know that Adena’s life had just been turned upside down and inside out.
“You did good, Legs.” Finn beamed down at me, his dimples on full display. He’d taken off his bow tie and jacket, and the muscles of his arms and shoulders strained against his crisp white shirt. “You were a fucking rock star.”
“More like a scared shitless rock star,” I joked with a small smile. “Walking up on that stage, I was sure there was a booby trap on it somewhere. Like Adena must’ve figured out you rigged the vote and set something up to get back at me. And I think she’s actually more terrifying when she’s on drugs.”
“I fucking hate that we used you as bait.” The satisfaction faded from Mason’s face as he pressed his lips together, his nostrils flaring.
I glanced across Cole’s body at him, leaning closer to the muscled boy beside me.
“I told you, it was the only way. Nothing else would piss her off enough to make her blow up like that, even with her inhibitions down from the drugs and booze.”
He made a noncommittal gesture with his head, letting me know that even if what I’d said was true, he still didn’t like it.
Elijah had found out about Adena’s little tryst with Mr. Cartwright, a history teacher and student advisor at Oak Park, a week and a half before prom. The guys’ first thought had been to just broadcast that information everywhere like Adena had done with the contents of my notebook, but it’d been Finn’s idea to let the witch hang herself—to give her the perfect opportunity to out herself publicly.
I thought he might’ve suggested it partly as a way of doing penance for the video the guys had compiled of me the previous year. It did seem fitting somehow to have it all end with another video, this one designed to help me eliminate a threat.
And unlike the one they’d used against
me, this one hadn’t been doctored in any way. It was just a documentation of words straight from the horse’s mouth.
“That’s the best fucking part about this,” the blond boy said gleefully, as if he’d been reading my thoughts. “She did this shit to herself. All we did was give her the opportunity. But she did it! We didn’t do shit to her.”
“Except drug her a teeny tiny bit,” I threw in wryly, and he shrugged.
“Eh. So we helped grease the wheels a bit. If she wasn’t such a raging bitch, she could’ve accepted her loss with some dignity and grace, even under the influence. Instead, she went full psycho on your ass. That’s on her.”
“Done.” Cole flipped his laptop closed and set it on the coffee table before leaning back on the couch.
“It’s out? All over?” Elijah asked.
“Yup.”
It was late. Although the live-stream video had gone out immediately, the Princes hadn’t been satisfied with leaving it there. We’d spent the past several hours holed up in Cole’s dorm while he uploaded the video to every platform he could think of, even putting up a dance remix version that I was pretty sure was going to haunt Adena for the rest of her life.
I smoothed down the skirt of my dress, feeling the knot of tension that’d lived in my chest for most of the semester unwind a little.
It was finished.
It was over.
Just like they’d done with me and I’d done with them, the Princes and I had played the long game against Adena. We’d put up with her petty barbs and bullshit, waiting for an opening—and in the end, it’d been worth the wait.
As often as I’d daydreamed about punching her in the face again, this felt so much better.
And Finn was right. She’d done it to herself.
“So, that’s it then?” I asked, looking around at the guys. “We’re done? For tonight, at least?”
“Not quite.” Mason’s green eyes glittered as he met my gaze, and a small smile curved his lips. “There’s something we still need to do.”
My brows pulled together. “What?”
We hadn’t exactly gotten revenge on Preston—although the fact that he’d gotten his ass kicked by first Cole and then Mason came pretty close. And besides, he was in the video too, standing there like an idiot while his girlfriend went nuts and confessed to fucking a teacher, trying to kill a girl, and sleeping her way into an Ivy League school.
“You’ll see.”
Mason stood up from the couch, draping his tux jacket over his shoulder with one hand before extending his other down to me. I accepted it and let him draw me to my feet as the others rose too.
When we left Clarendon Hall, I expected him to turn right to head toward the Wastelands, thinking they’d drop me back off at my dorm—but instead, the four boys led me back across the quad toward the gymnasium.
A few stragglers in prom dresses and tuxes were walking toward the parking lot, but I had a feeling pretty much everyone had left already, heading to after-parties off campus.
“Um, guys?” I laughed softly. “I think prom is over. And I don’t care that we missed most of it—it was still the best prom ever, as far as I’m concerned.”
Mason just shook his head, not answering with words.
I didn’t put up any resistance as we reached the large building, curious as to what on earth we were doing here. A kid pushed the door open and stepped out just as we were arriving, and I saw Cole press what looked like several bills into his hand before the guy slipped away into the night.
We headed through the door he had opened for us and into the large space. The lights were off, so the room was lit only by the glow of the exit signs. The elaborate decorations were still up—a crew would probably come by early tomorrow to take everything down and turn the space back into a regular gymnasium—but it was quiet and empty.
“Yeah, we definitely missed it.” I kept my voice hushed, but it still seemed to fill the large room.
“Aw, c’mon now, where’s your imagination, Legs?”
Finn nudged my shoulder just as Elijah and Cole went to two tables off to the side of the dance floor and turned on the electric lanterns that’d been set on the linen tablecloths. I recognized them as the same ones the guys used to light the clearing in the woods when they’d hosted their illicit fight club bouts off campus.
Except, unlike when they’d been used in the woods, these lanterns had mini disco balls rigged to dangle in front of them. As they caught the harsh light from the lanterns, the silver globes refracted it into pretty white sparks that danced over the floor and tables.
I huffed a surprised, disbelieving laugh, glancing over to see Mason turn on a third lantern.
They didn’t light the whole space, but they provided enough illumination to give our corner of the gymnasium a soft, sparkling glow.
Then Mason propped up his phone against the abandoned centerpiece in the middle of the table, pressing the button on the side to raise the volume before hitting “play”.
Quiet music began to pour out from the speakers of the phone—not nearly as loud as the thumping bass that’d filled the room earlier in the evening, but loud enough for me to recognize the song.
It was the one he’d sent me before my audition for the Pacific Contemporary Ballet.
The one he’d said made him think of me.
He draped his tux jacket over the back of a chair and turned to me, and even in the dim light, the beautiful green of his irises made my breath catch. His lips quirked up on one side as he held his hand out, palm up.
“May I have this dance, Princess?”
I bit my lip, a rush of emotions filling me so suddenly it almost made my legs weak.
They had done this for me.
I’d been only too happy to sacrifice my senior prom if it meant taking Adena down—but the Princes hadn’t been satisfied with that.
So they’d given it back to me.
It was tiny and makeshift, poorly lit, with a bad sound system.
But it was fucking perfect.
“Of course.”
My words were soft, but they were all Mason needed. The other three Princes settled into chairs around the table where the music played, watching us with grins on their faces as I limped closer to the tall boy with the sharp, aristocratic features and he met me halfway, pulling me in close.
One large hand caught mine, holding it between us as his other hand splayed across my lower back. The music drifted over us, haunting and sweet, as our bodies moved together in a gentle rhythm.
It was the first time I had danced since my accident. And although some might not call it dancing at all since our feet barely moved and there were no real steps, it felt like it to me. Like the purest, sweetest form of dance there had ever been
My body was telling a story again.
And maybe this one would finally have a happy ending.
I turned my head, resting my cheek against Mason’s shoulder as we swayed back and forth. I could hear the steady thrum of his heart in his chest, and when he spoke, I felt the vibrations of his words against my skin.
“It was close, you know.”
I lifted my head slightly, meeting his gaze with a confused expression. “What was?”
“The final tally of votes for prom queen.” He smiled, arching a brow. “Don’t get me wrong. We definitely rigged it. But it was closer than you might’ve expected. You had a lot of votes already.”
At the Clarendon Hall party, the Princes had made the rounds, convincing nearly everyone there to vote for me instead of Adena.
“Isn’t that because you told everyone to vote for me?” I asked, smiling.
He shook his head. “That wasn’t everyone. Turns out a lot of Adena’s supposed supporters voted for someone else in spite of her threats—and a big chunk of them chose you.”
“I find that a little hard to believe.” I scrunched up my face. “It’s not like I’m that popular.”
“Maybe not. But you’re infamous. And sometimes
that’s just as good.”
I chuckled, digging my fingers into his back through the smooth fabric of his dress shirt. “Yeah? You’re speaking from experience, I assume.”
“You better believe it, Princess.”
There was a wicked gleam in his eyes, but before I could give him any more shit for just how infamous he was, he let go of my hand and caught my chin between his thumb and forefinger.
“If you’ll be my Bonnie, I’ll be your Clyde.”
“I hope that doesn’t mean you’re planning on a career as a bank robber,” I whispered, but I was having a little bit of a hard time focusing on my comeback with his gaze burning into me so intensely.
The spark of heat that always hovered between us flared like a shooting star, and I wasn’t sure if he moved or I did, but the next thing I knew, our lips were fused together. My arms crept around his neck, and he curved his spine to meet me at my level so I wouldn’t have to go up on my tiptoes.
I had kissed Mason when I wasn’t sure I even liked him. I had kissed him after I’d recklessly told him I loved him.
But I hadn’t kissed him like this yet.
Slow and deep and… easy.
Like it was exactly what we were meant to be doing, and we had all the time in the world.
Like it was one of many more to come.
The song faded out, but our bodies kept swaying, and our lips kept moving. I only pulled away when a gentle hand settled on my waist.
“Mind if I cut in?”
The detailing on Elijah’s all-black tuxedo glinted in the light refracting off the disco balls, and his smile melted my heart. Mason’s grip on me tightened for a second before he pressed one last kiss to my lips and released me.
As Elijah wrapped his arms around me, a new song drifted up from the phone on the table. I hesitated as I listened to the first strains of the solo guitar, and when a voice joined in the melody, my eyes widened.
“Is that… you?”
He grinned, dropping his head, and I swore I saw a blush creep up his cheeks. “Yeah. I recorded it last week.”
“It’s beautiful.”
