by Bella King
I laughed. “I wouldn’t give a fuck,” I replied, knowing full well that I would still feel jealous if he started dating someone else. It would be a hard pill to swallow, but it would be for the best.
“I think you would, but we’ll see,” Apollo said, waving a hand in the air as he unlocked the door. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Leave.”
Apollo looked back at me, a bitter smile on his face. “I’ll be moving stuff downstairs. Let me know if you change your mind.”
I huffed, bringing my arms together in front of me in a tight cross. I glared at him as he left and closed the door gently behind him.
Fuck, I managed to get out of that with some dignity. I had tasted his lips, and I liked what I tasted, but I knew it was poison. I needed to remember that. He should be branded on the forehead with a warning to any woman he approaches.
Chapter 17
Thoughts define us because they transform into actions with time.
“Blue and green clothes look good on redheads, but I would stick to black to bring out your eyes,” a slender man in a tight suit said to me, leaning over as I examined the intimidating selection of makeup palettes lining the shelf.
“Oh,” I said, looking up in surprise. “You scared me.” For a moment, I thought it had been Apollo, back to terrorize me again.
The man smiled, adjusting the silver nameplate that was pinned on his breast pocket. “I’m terribly sorry,” he said, speaking in a high voice with a hard emphasis on his S’s.
“No, that’s fine. I just thought you were someone else,” I said, not wanting to make him feel bad. I paused. “So, I shouldn’t bother with colored makeup?”
“If you want to keep it simple, I would go with some mascara to make those eyes pop. Leave the color for the clothing. If you put it on your face, you’re only going to distract from that gorgeous hair,” he cautioned.
I nodded. I liked that. Simple.
“What’s the occasion?” He inquired, leaning back down again.
“I just want to look nicer,” I said.
“So, something for everyday wear?”
“Yeah.”
“Got it. I have the perfect palette for you,” he responded, flashing two rows of perfect white teeth.
I walked out of the store with an expensive brand of makeup in sleek black bag. I felt good, upping my game. Not only would this show Apollo what he was missing by being an asshole to me, but it would help to regain composure and respect at school when I returned.
I took the man’s advice in the store and shopped for jewel tones in blue and green, creating several stunning outfits that made me look both classy and sexy at the same time. I would blow everyone away at Winterlake, or so I hoped. I would still need to execute the second part of my plan to run a smear campaign against Apollo.
This new look was just as much for Apollo as it was for me. I wanted to blow him away to show him what he had lost. Secretly, I hoped he took all of this back and professed his love for me. Then, I would be the one with the power. I would be the one doing the bullying, and oh, how I would relish the fact.
I chose outfits that accentuated my curves, riding my hips all the way up to my breasts, pushing them up and causing them to nearly spill over into the public eye. My mother wouldn’t be caught dead in something this revealing, but for me, it was perfect. I would draw in every eye in Winterlake without looking cheap. That’s really what they thought of me now that I was cheap. The expensive sluts didn’t catch any flack at Winterlake.
I took extra care with everything that I picked, making sure that it fit my body so well that you would think it was designed just for me. You could find just about anything at these expensive stores, and if you couldn’t, they would have something put together just for you. Money wasn’t an issue. I was worth it.
Sure, my father would be the one footing this bill, but if he had any sense, he would realize how important it was for me to look perfect when I was at school. He was always talking about how I could try now, do better, and get more recognition for the family name, but it wasn’t until now that I decided to live up to his advice. Winterlake, here I come.
Apollo couldn’t battle a woman as fine as me. He had no idea what he was getting himself into. I was an evil queen in his little chess match, and I was about to hand him a poisoned apple to seal his fate.
I still hadn’t worked out the kinks in my plan, but Apollo had given me more fuel after he invaded my house with the furniture crew. He was clever, but I had anger on my side. To him, this was a game. For me, it was my life, and that made me much colder and more calculated about what I was going to do to him.
I hadn’t been in touch with Cora since fall break began, but I knew she was out with her family in the mountains. She might have a phone signal, but I didn’t want to bother her on her trip. I could tell her all about the crazy shit that went down between Apollo and me when she got back.
I hauled my bags back home, hoping that Apollo was out of my house so that I could relax and start writing own my plans for when I returned to school. My bedroom door only locked from the inside, so to prevent him from getting in while I was gone, I locked it and crawled out my window. I would have to take the window back in again.
I laughed to myself at the thought of my neighbors witnessing me crawling through my window in the middle of the afternoon. I must look fucking ridiculous, but that was what Apollo pushed me to do. He was making my life a crazy rollercoaster, and this would only end if he was gone again. I wanted to make that happen as soon as possible.
When I arrived home, there were no cars left in the driveway, no moving vans, and even my parents weren’t home. Thank god. I would be able to relax alone.
I left my bags at the front door and circled around the house, climbing up the low side of the roof to get to my window. I stuck my hand through the large hole in the glass and unlatched the old metal lock on the inside, sliding the window open so that I could slip through.
From the outside, the hole in the window was very noticeable, but my parents still hadn’t spotted it. They must pay little attention to the way the house looked from the outside, considered much more with how the interior was decorated.
I jumped onto the floor from my bed and walked to the bedroom door, unlocking it and swinging it open confidently. I skipped down the stairs and retrieved my goods from the front door, flinging them onto the couch and going to the kitchen to raid the fridge for something to eat.
The house looked different, but by this time, I was used to it changing so constantly. My mother liked winter to have a lot of white around the place, which always got dirty so easily. There were already a few smudges on the white couch. I’m sure the cleaning lady would be thrilled at her new task of getting stains out of the white fabric.
I shook my head, opening the tall silver fridge to search for something sweet. I scanned the shelves, looking closely, but it seemed that my mother made dead certain that nothing with more than a pinch of sugar ever touched the clear plastic shelves inside.
That reminded me, I was starving myself to lose a few pounds, so I couldn’t eat anything sweet. I had to opt for crunching on celery all day to stave off the hunger pains. I sighed, pulling open the bottom drawer of the fridge and retrieving a plastic bag full of celery. Nobody but my mom at this stuff, but I would be joining her in the pursuit of the perfect waistline just to make a point at Winterlake.
Either I was sinking further into the stupidity that was prep school, or I was gaming the system for power. Even I wasn’t sure which direction I was heading with this, but I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to be lazy about this. I had one chance at redemption, and I was taking it with full force.
I pulled a stick of celery from the bundle and crunched it between my teeth, pulling off a string of fiber as I chewed. Celery wasn’t actually that bad, but my father hated it. He refused to eat it, living mostly off steak and broccoli. I didn’t blame him. When you make that much money, why
would you be eating celery every day?
I finished the stick of celery, breaking off another from the bunch and tossing the rest haphazardly back into the fridge drawer. I closed the door, sliding the drawer shut with it at the same time.
I took another large bite of my bland food and walked back upstairs to grab a notebook. Today, I would be sketching out a battleplan to get Apollo kicked from the football team. It was going to be glorious.
Chapter 18
They never grow old.
The plan was simple, but I would have to get close to Apollo again in order to pull it off. Football was his life, and he guarded everything related to it closely. The way he prepared, what he consumed before a game, how much sleep he got – They all related to how well he played. I would have to hit him on a few of these points to bring him down.
It wouldn’t be immediate. He didn’t play big games regularly, usually once a month, but there was one coming up that I could hit hard if I threw the right punches.
The first step was sleep. I knew where he lived now, so that meant I knew where he slept. If he could come creeping up to my window at night, then I could do the same to him. Except this time, I was going to make sure he didn’t get a wink of sleep the entire night without knowing I was the one behind it.
There were many ways to make that happen, from loud noises to distractions to pull him out of bed and out into the night. I chose to go with the most effective distraction I could think of. Me. Two could play at the seduction game, and if he really wanted me that badly, I would make him chase me, stealing his sleep and depleting his energy the night before a game. I would have to sacrifice my own, but I didn’t need it as badly as he did.
The second phase of the plan was to fuck with his gear before the game. He wouldn’t have time to replace it, and it wasn’t like he could borrow anyone else’s right before the game. He was too tall and large to fit into anyone else’s. He would be defenseless on the field without it.
There were other things I could do, but those two would be enough to weaken him to the point where his game would be significantly affected. His teammates would doubt him after a few games like that.
The first time doing it would be easy because he would never see it coming, but the subsequent times would take a lot more care to prevent him from countering them. I would have to think of a different approach each time.
I felt proud of myself and the plan that I had made. I was a bit worried still about appearing back at school, even looking as good as I did now with what I had bought. Apollo made it sound like he could really turn up the heat on me anytime he wanted, and I didn’t doubt him.
I had to remember what Cora had said. I needed to be strong and ignore him, not playing into his game like he wanted me to. I would become a stoic, unable to be moved by the storm around me. I was a rock, and he was a gust of wind that would pass.
It all sounded great in theory, but I knew it would be more challenging when it finally came to the point where I had to execute. I had to look for strength inside of me to keep from being shaken. I had to be strong.
I put my notebook down beside me on the couch and stared at the television of a few minutes, soaking in the mindless commercials that danced across the screen. It helped me relax in an odd sort of way.
After a moment, I went to the kitchen to fetch the whiskey my father kept tucked away in the cabinet above the fridge. He thought he was slick keeping it up there, but I wasn’t that short. I could reach it just fine.
I stood on my toes and swung open the cabinet by its shining gold knob. The door knocked against the cabinet beside it in the same place it always did, pushing the indent in the wood ever so slightly deeper each time. My father was often drunk by the time he put the bottle back, so the indent had gotten much deeper over the years from his clumsy handling.
I grabbed the bottle of old whiskey by the neck, pulling it down toward me. It was half empty, but there was still enough in there so that my father wouldn’t notice if I took a few shots for myself. I needed to take the edge off things. I was an adult. That’s what they did.
I pulled the cock off the top with a satisfying pop, the distinct odor of oak barrels wafting up to my nostrils. I inhaled the smell. Hey, at least I didn’t have to resort to drinking cheap vodka like other women my age did. I was a bit too wealthy for that.
I got a crystal glass from the cupboard and placed it on the glittering black granite countertop. I filled up half the glass with whiskey, the sound of the pour into my cup soothing my tired brain. It splashed in, some flying off onto the soft flesh between my thumb and pointer finger. I liked it off before returning the cork to the bottle.
I didn’t take whiskey straight like my father did. My tastebuds weren’t nearly dead enough to endure the taste of alcohol on its own. I grabbed a diet cola from the fridge and mixed it in, aware of how whiskey connoisseurs would cringe at my actions. To ruin fine whiskey with cheap diet cola was a grave sin, but I was a sinner at heart.
Fuck the rules.
I placed the bottle of whiskey back in its place, careful not to disturb the fine layer of dust that outlined the spot where my father returned it after a long night. He always bought the same one, and always put it back in the exact same spot. I was clever. I knew how to stay in the shadows at my house, mirroring others’ actions so that they would never know you were there.
I returned to my beverage, holding the glass of poison up to the evening lights that were installed in our kitchen. It was always evening in the kitchen, yellow light cast at an angle through the room. I found it relaxing, but my mother didn’t especially like it anymore. It was probably her eyesight that was starting to go bad that made her dislike the dimness now. When the lights had first been put in, she was all for them.
I swirled around the strong drink in my glass, then took the first sip. It was far too strong, but I didn’t want to pour myself two glasses just to have the same effect. I was efficient with my drinking here.
I took a gulp of it, breathing out rapidly to clear my lungs of the harsh fumes after I swallowed. Whoever came up with this whole alcohol thing was either a genius or a lunatic, probably both. I took another sip, smaller this time, and swallowed it.
I managed to get half the drink down before I lost the will to drink, dumping the rest down the sink. I turned on the tap, washing away the caramel-colored liquid. I think the diet soda made It harder to stomach. It took the edge off the alcohol flavor less than something with real sugar would.
I went back to the living room to be consumed by the television set once again, staring blankly at it as I began to feel the buzz of liquor in my blood. It wasn’t enough to make me sleepy, but it was enough to reduce the tension and let my brain relax into the colorful images on the screen.
I sunk into the couch, content with tuning out until my parents got home for dinner.
After about an hour, I heard the familiar clinking of keys as my dad struggled with the front door. My parents must be home. I got up as he opened the door and who should walk inside, but Apollo’s millionaire father followed closely by the douchebag himself. This just went from bad to worse.
Chapter 19
Meals are best when shared with friends. An enemy will do in a pinch.
“Georgia,” my father exclaimed as I sprung from the couch, excitement dripping from his voice. “Mr. Winterlake will be joining us for dinner tonight with his son, Apollo.”
I froze as the smirk on Apollo’s face widened. Winterlake? He was a Winterlake? I was confused. Apollo never used the last name in school, opting for Smith instead. Maybe he wanted to keep a low profile, or maybe this was his stepfather. I didn’t know, but I wanted to find out.
Winterlake Prep school was founded by the Winterlake family nearly 300 years ago, rebuilt many times as the family’s fortune grew. It was the gathering point for every rich family within a thousand miles of here. I was downright shocked to find out that Apollo’s father was part of that family. I always thought he made
his fortune in oil, but that was probably where only a small portion of his wealth came from. Everyone knew that Winterlakes were born into riches, and they had managed to expand on them with every generation.
“Could you get their coats please, Georgia,” my father urged, his eyes wide with expectation.
I jumped to attention, snapping out of my surprise. I rushed over to help Mr. Winterlake with his, ignoring Apollo, who waited for me, a smile never leaving his face.
I hung Mr. Winterlake’s wool coat on a wooden hanger in the hallway closet. The fabric was fine wool, unlike any other that I had felt. It had the softness of cotton with the rigidity of densely packed wool. I marveled at it before remembering who it belonged to.
I snapped back around to find Apollo waiting for me, a slick black coat still draped over his broad shoulders. I squinted at him before he turned around and waited for me to remove it from his back. I sighed, giving in so as not to cause a stir. My father would kill me if I ruined dinner with one of the richest men in the world. I was actually quite surprised that he had managed to have him over.
Apollo’s coat was equally as fine as his father’s but left the smell of his cologne on my fingertips as I hung it. I could have washed my hands a thousand times, and the scent wouldn’t have left me. It wasn’t especially strong or overwhelming to the senses, but it seemed to last forever. I could smell it in my dreams.
Mr. Winterlake and my father were already in the kitchen by the time I turned around. Apollo was behind me, looking just as triumphant as ever at his reappearance into my life. He knew how to slip into my personal space with ease, showing little struggle in having done so.
“Is your dad the Winterlake?” I asked, unable to contain my surprise.
Apollo shrugged. “The Winterlake family is spread out, watered down by generations of men that felt sorry for poor women and married them. My father is among the pure ones. He hasn’t squandered the family wealth, and neither will I.”
