Filthy Pride: Dark Bully Romance

by Savannah Rose

  “You bitch!” I could tell by the tremor in Angelique’s voice that she was really hurt. I put my hand on the doorknob to stop the fight but hesitated as Eva continued to speak.

  “If you hadn’t slipped me those pills that night, none of this would’ve happened. I wouldn’t have crashed the car, and everybody could have lived happily ever after. You stole my boyfriend and then had me so high I could barely see straight. Now you want to back out? Should I tell the cops that I remember a few things about that night? How would your mother take that?”

  “I’ve done everything a woman can do. Your brother doesn’t love me. He might not love Anna the way he used to, but he certainly doesn’t love me.” Angelique’s voice was flat and even.

  I stood still, forcing myself to stay put until I was calm. My heart pounded in my chest and the burning behind my eyes intensified. The sound of a silent scuffle pulled me out of my room and into the hall. I didn’t know what I expected to see, but the sight of Eva’s face, grotesque with rage as she scratched and clawed at Angelique will never leave me.

  I grasped her wrists and yank her off of her feet. She looked up at me with seething hatred before she recognized me and I watched as the madness that was so clearly etched on her face drained away, leaving the mask of the sister that I knew in place.

  I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn’t tell which face was truly hers anymore. I wanted to believe that the adorable, loving girl that I’d always known was still alive and well inside, but I was becoming more and more doubtful. How long had she been like this?

  “I’ve got this under control,” I said to Angelique, not pulling my eyes away from my sister. I couldn’t look at Angelique. I was both ashamed and embarrassed for us both.

  “Adam, I—”

  “Don’t worry about it. I think I figured it out.”

  “I’m sorry, Adam,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

  “Just one question. Did you really drug her?”

  “I didn’t mean to…I was just trying to help,” she whimpered.

  I nodded. It sounded dumb, but it was exactly the kind of thing she would do. Angelique wasn’t the kind to think things through. Her intentions were mostly good, but she didn’t read the fine print. I didn’t even need to know the details to know that whatever she did that night, she never intended to hurt anyone by it.

  Eva watched as Angelique walked back down the stairs like a cat stalking prey. Her stare was intense, and her body seemed coiled, as if she might attack if I let go for even a moment.

  “You. Talk.” I pulled her into my room and shut the door.

  “I have nothing to say.”

  “Okay, then why don’t you tell me what happened that night.”

  “I told you. I don’t—” She clung so feebly to her lie that it was almost laughable. We both knew I didn’t believe her anymore, but she still had the power. Other than Anna, no one else knew the truth, and we both knew I was too fucking ashamed to ask Anna.

  “Tell me what really happened, Eva. Level with me.”

  She said nothing.

  “How did Angelique drug you?” I asked.

  Eva thought on that for a moment. “She spiked my drink.”

  “When?”

  “Most likely when I was talking to Anna. They’re probably in on it together.”

  “Stop! Stop it, Eva. She spiked your drink and then what?”

  “You know the rest. I got in the car and we had an accident.”

  “So, you are saying Angelique spiked your drink, then Anna crashed into a tree, hoping to kill you.”

  “You saw the wreck. Most of the damage was on my side.”

  I nodded slowly, but a light went on in my brain. She was right, most of the damage was on the passenger side, but most of the blood was on the driver’s side. I tried, for the first time in my life, to hide my new awareness from Eva. I’m not sure I succeeded, so I switched subjects.

  “And so you blackmailed Angelique into being my girlfriend?”

  “You were sad and lonely after breaking up with Anna. I wanted you to be happy again. Boys like girls like Angelique, it’s an almost universal truth,” she said. Her face was so sweet that you could almost believe that she really had my best interest at heart. Only, I’d heard too much.

  It was never about me. None of this was about me.

  “Eva, you can’t do that. You can’t decide who I will date. And you can’t attack people!”

  “But she—”

  “You just can’t, Eva!”

  “Fine!”

  I felt like I had been twisted into a knot. I was so tired of trying to reason with her. I was tired of trying to convince myself and others that everything would get better if I could just reason with her. Her body may have been healing but she was just as angry and spiteful as ever. And as messed up as it sounded, I couldn’t help feeling like it was all my fault. I didn’t notice. If I’d paid more attention to her maybe she wouldn’t have gotten this bad.

  “We can talk about this later. Mom is downstairs with Mya and Taylor and they need help with dinner.”

  I opened my door and watched her slowly make her way out of the room. I couldn’t help but notice how much better she was moving, but I didn’t feel any joy. I wondered how many people’s lives she had upset in order to get my attention. I wondered if she would ever walk again if I hadn’t noticed. I wondered how much deeper this rabbit hole went.

  As soon as she was out of earshot, I closed the door and picked up my cell phone. I didn’t hesitate this time. The phone rang three times before the line connected.

  “Hello, friend. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you,” said Anna’s cheerful voice.

  I closed my eyes and let the familiarity of her tone wash over me.

  “Anna, I need to tell you something and I think I need your help.”

  “Okay.”

  “But first…I’m sorry and I believe you.”

  Chapter 31

  NOW

  “She’s not alright, Anna,” he said.

  I felt like screaming or doing one of those end-zone dances you see in football movies. He finally saw it. He finally understood. It was a massive victory, but it felt a little hollow. I’d never considered Eva an enemy or even a rival until now. Until now, I’d always been content to let her go her own way. It had nothing to do with me. But now it was clear that there was no way to make peace with somebody who was focused on your destruction.

  It sounded dramatic, even to me. How the hell did teenaged rivalry get so fucking deep? If this were a movie from the eighties this is where the big dance would happen, and the humble girl would prove to the snobby girl that nice girls don’t finish last. I’d be crowned homecoming queen and Eva would be carried away in a punch-stained dress and fitted with a sequined straitjacket. But this wasn’t a movie, and Adam was hurting. He was in a lot of pain and no plastic crown or satin sash would make that feel like anything but a loss to me.

  “I don’t know how I didn’t see it before. She hates you. Did you know she hates you?”

  “Yeah, I figured that part out.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you loved me, and in her mind, there wasn’t enough love in you for the two of us.”

  “I think it’s more than that, though. She hates everybody, Anna. She hates everybody.” His voice trailed off and my heart broke just that much more. “It’s like she doesn’t understand how normal people can just be happy and she hates everybody for just being.”

  “She’s worked hard her whole life to be somebody everybody envies. Maybe, after the breakup and everything, she felt like she wasted her time. Maybe that’s why she’s lashing out.”

  “I didn’t know, Anna. I promise you I didn’t know. I didn’t see it. I was so caught up in my own life. I was so busy—”

  “Loving me.” I said the words I knew he never wanted to say. He was busy loving me, and he didn’t even see that his twin sister was drowning in a bitter mix of her own brewing.

&n
bsp; “I don’t know what to do. I tried talking to mom about it and she’s so deep in denial. She just…she just really needs her to be getting better, you know. She really needs to believe that Eva is going to be just fine. And her body is healing, but she’s not okay. She’s not fine. Today I heard her threatening Angelique and then she tried to attack her. She can barely stand upright and she was actually fighting Angelique!”

  Hearing him say her name wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. It wasn’t the shot through the heart that I’d imagined. Maybe I was just getting used to the new reality. I’d seen them around school and their official status was common knowledge. Although Angelique and I weren’t friends, it seemed like she had the stamp of approval of the only two people in this town who were still on good terms with me. That had to count for something.

  “Is she okay?”

  “Yeah, she’s a little shaken up, but she’s fine.”

  “Great.”

  “Listen, I have to go now, but can we meet tomorrow when I’m done with practice? I promise I won’t kidnap you and drive out into the woods again. I just need to talk and you’re the only person I know who can help me with this. I have to make mom listen to me. She always liked you—”

  “Until I nearly crippled her little girl.”

  “Yeah, until then. But we both know you didn’t do that, did you?”

  A lump formed in my throat and tears stung me eyes.

  “No,” I exhaled the word. “No, I didn’t.”

  “Great, so tomorrow. I’ll text you,” he said.

  “Yeah. See you then.”

  I hung up the phone and looked at Damon.

  “You heard that, right?’

  He nodded grimly.

  “What do you think?”

  “We need to move our timetable up. Eva must really be unravelling if Adam has finally caught on,” he said, shaking his head.

  “He said she’s okay.”

  He smirked and nodded. He wouldn’t say it, but we both knew that he was really worried about Angelique. Honestly, so was I. We were never close, but I didn’t want anybody caught in Eva’s game to get hurt, even though I knew that everybody would end up hurt in the end.

  “How are the guys doing?”

  He gave me a thumbs up.

  “Hey, not for nothing, but Aaron Lee is a bastard of the most epic proportions. I mean, I thought he was just an annoying little scavenger at first, but now that I have to work with him, I think you had it right in the beginning. He’s an ass,” he said.

  “Are you saying that I was right, and you were wrong?”

  “Yeah, you can say you told me so. I deserve it.”

  “Wow. Today seems to be my lucky day. Two boys admit that they’re wrong in the same hour. How did this ever happen?” I flopped down into the loveseat next to him. We were meeting at my house under the guise of working on essays for college admissions.

  Somehow Damon managed to convince my mother that he was not a bad influence, and that allowing me to have my one and only friend come over for studying and dinner was the best way to put my pesky anti-social behavior behind me.

  Little did she know that we were actually planning to ruin the life of a teenaged psychopath. I had to admit, Damon wasn’t what I was expecting, but he was proving to be just the kind of friend that I needed. He could move easily between groups of people, not really belonging to any of them, but accepted by them all. Maybe that was part of his magic.

  “So, you two are going to meet tomorrow?”

  I bit my bottom lip and nodded.

  “Are you ready for that?”

  “No, but I can’t avoid it. I already agreed. Plus, he really needs a friend right now.”

  “Yeah, right!” He punched me in the shoulder. “We both know what’s on your mind and it isn’t friendly feelings and warm relations.”

  He guffawed at his own joke and before I knew it, I was laughing with him. I must have looked crazy to my mom, who kept popping her head into the living room to check on us. One minute I was somber as a graveyard and the next moment I was howling with laughter.

  By the time Damon left that night we’d put the final elements of our plan into motion. It was going to take a little more effort than we’d originally planned, but everything was coming together perfectly.

  Chapter 32

  NOW

  The next morning, I woke up to a text message from Adam. He suggested that we meet at Conyers Park. Neutral territory, and almost always sparsely populated. It was one of the few places in this town where we didn’t have a touching memory. I’m not sure we’d ever been there together.

  There was a playground at the southern entrance that was popular with younger kids and their nannies, but the rest of the park was pretty much abandoned most of the time. I’d heard that there was a nature center and a hiking trail that all the kids went to as a field trip during elementary school, but most people lost interest in the park by high school.

  Adam and I met at the East entrance. He got there before I did and was pacing around when I found him. He looked like he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks. Even then, he was still Rockstar sexy. Something like a Rockstar at the end of his career, when all the late nights and drugs were catching up to him. Beautiful and tragic.

  “Hey?” He lifted a hand.

  “Hey!” I lifted one back and stepped closer to him, not exactly within hugging range, but not far from it. Adam raised the corners of his mouth for a moment before giving me a quick nod.

  “So, let’s talk.” I walked into the park and he followed, his head bowed, and his steps subdued. His shadow wrapped itself around me like an embrace.

  “I miss you,” he said.

  “Don’t do this.”

  I picked up my pace and marched forward. He lengthened his strides to catch up to me. It was one of the moments that I wished I’d been graced with long legs and maybe a few more inches of height. Maybe then, running away from him wouldn’t be such a fruitless effort.

  “I’m sorry. I just had to tell you that. I’ve been thinking it all night.”

  I stopped suddenly and spun around. He was so close on my heels that he nearly ran me over.

  “You can’t just say things like that to me! It’s not fair. You’ve moved on. You have somebody new. Stop trying to string me along,” I growled.

  “I don’t mean to. I really don’t.”

  I rubbed my hands together and stomped my foot.

  “You still do that,” he smiled.

  “Fuck you.”

  “Seriously, Anna. No matter what happens, you can’t expect that I am just going to be able to turn it off and feel nothing for you. I’m not like that. I know you and Damon are…I just… I know you’re moving on as well. But, don’t you feel a little something for me? Or have all of those feelings dried up?”

  How stupid could he be? I wanted to scream in his face and beat him bloody for being such a fool this whole time.

  “You broke up with me, remember?”

  “I know, but still.” He twisted his mouth to the side, waiting with anxious eyes for me to answer him.

  “Of course, I still have feelings for you. I miss you all the time, but we are over. And Damon, he’s great. He really is a great guy. But it’s not like that between us; not like it was with you.”

  “Same. I mean with Angelique. We aren’t that way. We’re just together. I guess mostly for the sake of being together.”

  My heart fluttered in my chest in a way it shouldn’t have. When Adam’s gaze found mine, hints of lust floating in his irises, inappropriate thoughts swam through my mind. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that this wasn’t why we were here.

  “Can we just focus? You wanted to talk about Eva, so talk.”

  He nodded and swallowed hard.

  “She wasn’t taking her pills in the beginning. That’s how I figured it out. She wasn’t getting better the way she was supposed to, despite the fact that she was going to therapy.”

>   “Wait!” I stopped walking. I felt like he’d just hit me in the chest with a brick. “So, she was just going to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life? Why?”

  His face sunk. He was blaming himself and it made me sick to see it. It was like watching one of those films about the signs of domestic abuse, only this time it was my beloved Adam starring as the battered partner. Seeing him so upset only made me hate Eva a little more. I’d seen people like her before. They were the kind who would threaten to kill themselves to manipulate their partner into doing what they wanted.

  “It was my fault. She just wanted my attention.”

  “No, it wasn’t. It’s her fault for not being strong enough to tell you what she needed from you. She decided to hurt herself and that’s fucking nuts.” I took a deep breath. Adam didn’t come here to hear me rant about his sister. “How did you figure it out?”

  “She wasn’t taking her pills. I found them stored away in a jewelry box,” he said without looking me in the eyes.

  “Did you show them to your mom?”

  He shook his head. “Not immediately. I wanted to give Eva a chance, you know, to talk to mom about it in her own way. I wanted her to come clean on her own and maybe they could figure out what to do.” A tear slipped down his cheek and it broke my heart. “I even took a picture of the pills all piled up, you know. I told her I would expose her if she didn’t come clean. I didn’t know what the hell else to do.”

  I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my face into his chest. We stood like that for a while. I let his tears fall, pretending like they didn’t matter because I knew he wouldn’t want me to make a big deal over it. Finally, when his breathing steadied, I pulled myself away from him and gave him a second to compose himself before we started walking again.

  “Did she do it? Did she come clean?”

  He shook his head. “She just managed to convince mom that she missed a few doses because she was having a hard time dealing with the reality after the accident.”

  “Did you show your mom all of the missing pills?”