Hours later, I still wasn’t convinced, though.
Hours later, I was cursing my pride and stubborn nature.
Chapter 13
Ramsey~
If I weren’t so pissed, I’d actually admire her little show of bravery.
But I was pissed.
So, I didn’t admire her little show of bravery.
This morning when I’d been posted up in the parking lot with Maddox, waiting on Chance and Neo, I had grabbed my phone and checked my social media just to fuck around. When I’d gotten around to adding Lake to my shit and tagging her, I had been not pleasantly surprised to find out that she had blocked me from all of her shit.
Pissed as fuck, I had sent her a text only to discover she had blocked my number from her phone, too.
Fuming like a motherfucker, I had borrowed Mad’s phone and fired off a text to her, letting her know that it was game on. I had chosen my words carefully, but I was sure she’d get the message.
And let me tell you, it had taken everything in me not to ditch school, drive into town, haul her out of class, and spank her ass for daring to go that route. But when Mad had reminded me that he could undo all that shit this afternoon, after school, I had calmed down a little.
I was still pissed, but not enough to go after her just yet.
“Dude, what’d that pizza ever do to you?” Neo asked as he took a seat across from me, and I realized I must have been glowering at my food as thoughts of Lake were scrambling my mind.
We always sat together at lunch, and it was always at the same table. Sometimes other students joined us, but most of the time, it was just us four, me, Neo, Mad, and Chance. However, there were tables all around us that were close enough to converse with if that’s what we chose.
“Lake blocked him from all her shit,” Mad offered helpfully.
Neo started laughing. “Dude,” he chuckled. “I bet that’s never happened to you before.”
“That girl is earning my respect more and more,” Chance chimed in.
“That girl is digging her own grave,” Mad snorted. “She doesn’t know who she’s fucking with.”
“Are we still going to that party tomorrow night?” Chance asked.
“What party?”
I looked over at Neo. “There’s a party in town. SC High,” I told him.
His brow scrunched up. “You guys are making it to Port Lucia Saturday, right?”
I nodded. “Of course,” I replied. “Dash is driving up Friday, and we’re all going to the party. We’ll be heading to Port Lucia around one, or so, on Saturday.”
“Did you want to come to the party?” Mad asked him.
“No,” Neo replied. “There’s a party in Port Lucia that Crew and DJ are going to, so me and Gideon are ditching school tomorrow and heading to Port Lucia with Mom and Dad tomorrow morning.”
“What is everyone else doing?” I asked.
“When I talked to Zane yesterday, he told me him, Gideon, Maggie, and Lennon were going to do a horror movie marathon night.”
“Lennon’s too young to be doing scary movies,” Chance scowled. “She’s only twelve.”
Maddox scoffed. “When you were twelve you were engaging in an afterschool fighting ring.”
“That’s different,” Chance said, his chauvinistic side showing. “Lennon’s a twelve-year-old girl.”
“Whose older brothers are Dash, Crew, and Zane Marlow,” Mad pointed out. “That girl is probably going to grow up and start her own drug cartel.”
I laughed because I could definitely see it. Lennon might only be twelve, but the kid was showing some real dark potential.
“He’s got a point,” Neo agreed.
“At any rate,” I jumped in, “we’ll all be there Saturday. Dash is staying the night with us, and we’ll all caravan our asses to Port Lucia in time for the barbecue.”
“Unless there’s more trouble in paradise, I’m guessing,” Chance joked. “I gotta tell you, R.J., I never thought I’d see the day when someone had the balls to stand up to you.”
“No shit,” Neo immediately agreed. “The girl must be nuts.”
I shook my head. “She just doesn’t know better,” I told them. “She leads a nice, normal, boring life, and so, she doesn’t realize I can make what I say happen.” I shrugged a shoulder. “She thinks she’s safe because she goes to SC High and believes I can’t get to her.”
“That’s going to be a tough lesson learned,” Neo muttered.
I thought about that, and I knew that it’d have to be. I couldn’t let Lake think she had the upper hand in any of this. I couldn’t let her believe she had choices because I knew she wouldn’t choose me. I wasn’t sure just what my plan was, but I knew it’d have to be a brutal one to make her see how serious I was.
And I was serious as fuck.
I kept thinking back to what Dad had said, about how the first time he saw Mom he felt her. Well, I felt like I was beginning to identify with that because, even when Lake wasn’t around, it was like I could still feel her. It was fucked-up and I didn’t particularly like the sensation, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.
“But she’s gotta learn it,” I replied. “I only got a few months to convince her to rearrange her entire life after graduation, so…”
Chance was sitting next to Neo, so he was looking right at me when he said, “I never thought I’d see the day when you fell in love, but it’s everything I was expecting, and nothing we’re ready for, R.J.”
“Yeah, well, if it’s any consolation, I wasn’t ready for it either,” I remarked.
“That poor girl is fucked,” Mad predicted.
“No shit,” Neo agreed.
“Hey, Reed. Guys.” We all looked over to see Marcy Campbell and Delia Rivers approaching our table. Marcy smiled while Delia let her lead the conversation. Marcy Campbell had a lot of followers.
I gave them both a head nod. “Hey.”
“So, Heather Branch is having a party tomorrow night,” Marcy said. “Are you guys going to go?”
Now, while me and Maddox have had our fair share of Windsor pussy, these two girls weren’t here for us. There were here for Chance. If Neo was finally fucking around, he was doing it with girls his own age or else we would have heard about it by now.
But I knew for a fact that Chance has already slept with these two and, apparently, it hadn’t put a damper on their friendship. Where I didn’t double dip where my brother or friends have been or go back for seconds after I’ve already done the deed, Chance had no such qualms about pussy. And while Mad was more selective where females were concerned, I knew he also didn’t double dip, though he did go back for seconds if the pussy was good enough.
But because they didn’t want to look too eager or desperate, they were addressing me instead of Chance. However, they weren’t going to like the answer, no matter who gave it to them.
I shook my head. “No,” I told them. “We have other plans.”
Their expressions piqued with interest. “Oh, really?”
“Yeah,” Maddox spoke up. “We’re hanging out in town with Ramsey’s girlfriend.”
Marcy let out a choked gasped. “Wh…what?”
And even Delia was too shocked to keep quiet. “Your girlfriend?”
These two girls were part of the upper food chain at Windsor. They were hot pieces of ass by anyone’s standards, and they were probably more shocked that my girlfriend was from town, more so than the fact that I was calling someone my girlfriend.
“Yeah, my girlfriend,” I replied.
And then Marcy overstepped. “Are you seriously trying to tell us that you have a girlfriend, and she’s from town?” Snootiness was etched all over her pretty face. “Seriously?”
I stood up from the table, Chance, Maddox, and Neo standing with me. She must have realized her mistake, but it was too late. She wasn’t the only one who was going to react this way once the news got out, and I had to make an example of Marcy and show people what could happen i
f anyone dared comment on Lake.
“You stay after on Mondays and Thursdays for tutoring, don’t you, Marcy?” He blue eyes widened, and her face paled. “Only, it’s not really tutoring, is it?”
“Re…Reed-”
“You’re flunking Probability and Statistics, and you’re letting Mr. London fuck you up the ass in exchange for changing your test grades, now, isn’t he?” Delia gasped beside her, and that was enough to prove my point. “And he fucks you up the ass because his wife is too much of a prude to give that up.” I cocked my head. “That about right?”
And Chance’s voice was the nail in the coffin. “Don’t ever approach us again, Marcy.” Her eyes quickly started leaking, but she hurried off before it got worse.
Message delivered, though.
Chapter 14
Lake~
What in the hell?
“Excuse me?”
Principal Hughes bristled down at me. “All I’m saying is that it would have been nice to know, Ms. Warren.”
When I’d arrived at school this morning, I’d still been a little…off. After blocking Ramsey from every part of my existence, I had received a text from an unknown number, and it had not been to wish me a great day.
Unknown: King’s Pawn Opening
I had immediately looked it up, and come to find out, it’s what they call the first move in a game of chess, which I had translated to mean game on. And since I’ve never played a game of chess in all my life, it was safe to say I was probably outmatched here. And, anyways, who the hell knows that kind of crap besides Windsor students?
But that wasn’t the most exciting part of my morning. No. The most exciting part of my morning was when I’d just sat down in homeroom, and was about to get ready for some learning, when Mr. Gaviers told me I was needed in the principal’s office.
Gathering my stuff, I had wracked my brain trying to think what would warrant a trip to the principal’s office, but I’d come up empty. Eden and I had left our mischievous days behind during our sophomore year. We were applying ourselves to be responsible young adults this year.
When I had finally made it to Mr. Hughes’ office, he had sat me down, peer at me from across his desk as if I’d personally offended him, somehow, and jacked my whole morning up.
There were so many ways to play this out, but I didn’t know which direction to choose. But I felt I had to address the obvious first.
“Mr. Hughes,” I started, “pardon, but…last I checked, students are not required to inform faculty of who they’re dating.” I tilted my head a bit. “That kind of reeks of invasion of privacy.”
“Ms. Warren, not all my students are dating Ramsey Reed Jr.,” he shot back. “That is something that would benefit us to know.”
“But we’re not dating,” I said, but it might as well have fallen on deaf ears.
“Even if you two are in the middle of a little spat, we still should have been informed,” he said, completely ignoring me.
“Why?” If he wasn’t going to acknowledge that I said I wasn’t dating Ramsey, then I needed to know what the hell he wanted from me.
“Well, so we can make accommodations, if need be, Ms. Warren,” he replied like I was an idiot, but I wasn’t an idiot. He was referring to special treatment, and I wasn’t having it.
I grabbed my backpack off the floor. “Let me assure you, Mr. Hughes, that there will be no need to make accommodations or whatever,” I told him. “Now, may I get back to class?” I was beyond irritated.
“Well, certainly,” he replied, still bristling at me like I was being difficult or something.
I hooked my backpack over my left shoulder and left his office. I was irritated enough to want to unblock Ramsey’s number and ask him what the fuck, but then that would be giving him the reaction he wanted, and I wasn’t going to do that.
However, I was rethinking cussing him out when I rounded the corner and almost ran over Curt. We shared first, fifth, and seventh period together, so he obviously knew I’d been called to the principal’s office, and I couldn’t imagine what he’d told Mr. Gaviers to get a hall pass.
But here he was.
And I wasn’t in the mood.
“Lake-”
I shook my head. “Not now, Curt,” I bit out.
“Are you in trouble?” he asked, ignoring me, and I was really getting tired of men ignoring me.
“I need to get to class,” I replied, not answering, intent on walking right past him. However, I wasn’t prepared for him to reach out and grab my arm.
He turned me to face him. “C’mon, Lake,” he said. “Give me a break here.”
“Let go of my arm, Curt,” I snapped. “You don’t get to do that anymore.”
Curt immediately let go and threw his hands up in surrender. “Sorry.”
I let out a deep breath, realizing I was taking out my frustrations with Ramsey on Curt. While we had nothing to talk about, there was no need to be mean. It was over, and I couldn’t garner enough emotion to hate him over it anymore.
“What do you want, Curt?”
He actually looked torn up, but it did nothing to soften me. “How many times do I have to tell you that I barely remember a thing, Lake?”
I closed my eyes, exhausted already for only being the first class of the day. When I opened them, Curt was looking at me earnestly. It’s the same story he told when Erica had posted all about their night together. She had even posted pictures of them in bed. Though they’d both been under the covers, it was obvious what they’d done.
The next day, Curt had pounded on my front door, begging me to hear him out, but my view on it hadn’t changed. Curt remembering doing the deed or not didn’t change the fact that he’d done it. He cheated whether he had enjoyed it or not.
And even if I could have found it in my heart to forgive him, Erica posting it all over the place was a humiliation I just couldn’t get past.
“And how many times do I have to tell you that I don’t care,” I replied. “Your lack of memory doesn’t change anything, Curt.”
“Lake, I never would have done it if I hadn’t been so fucked-up,” he swore again.
I hoisted my backpack up higher on my shoulder. “And I would believe that if you hadn’t kept your interaction with her a secret.”
That was another thing. According to him, Erica had been coming onto him the entire time we’d been dating, and he swore he had refused all her advances and that he’d had no interest in her. He swore he was in love with me, but why not tell me she was hitting on him? His excuse was that he hadn’t wanted to upset me because he knew Erica didn’t care for me.
“I already explained that,” he argued. “I didn’t want to upset you over something that was never going to happen or matter.”
“Except that it did happen, Curt,” I reminded him quietly.
“Lake, I’m so fucking sorry,” he said again for the millionth time. He ran his hands through his hair. “I still fucking love you.”
I shook my head. “Don’t do this,” I snapped. “You don’t get to do this.”
Then those cocoa-colored eyes of his scrutinized me. “Because of Reed?”
Ah, so he did get jealous.
I shook my head. “Because you cheated on me, Curt,” I clarified. “Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Why him?” he asked, getting to the real reason for his ambush. “Out of all the guys in Sands Cove, why him?”
If he only knew the truth, he’d realize how ridiculous this conversation was. I didn’t pick Ramsey. I wanted nothing to do with him, apart from what my traitorous body craved.
“If you think Ramsey is some…bid to make you jealous, you couldn’t be more wrong, Curt,” I told him.
“Why him?” he repeated, but this time, there was frustration and anger lining his words.
“What does it matter?” I asked, finally fed the fuck up with no one hearing me. I was getting fed up with everyone making this shit about them.
“Because I still would
have had a chance had it been anyone but him,” he snapped, his cool demeanor gone.
Fuck men.
No.
Seriously.
Fuck. Them.
I got in his face to make my point clear. “I’m only going to say this one more time, Curt,” I gritted out between my clenched teeth. “It is over between us. You never stood a second chance, no matter who I moved on with.” I stepped back just mad as hell at everyone. “Go back to Erica, and just leave me the hell alone, Curt.”
“Lake-”
I turned and stormed down the hallway, absolutely done with the male species for the day.
Chapter 15
Ramsey~
“I’ve never been to a town party,” Chance commented. “This should be fun.”
It was Friday night, and we were getting ready to head into town to Keri McDonald’s house for the party we hadn’t been invited to.
Dash had shown up about two hours ago while everyone else had made their way to Port Lucia. Mom and Dad had come home last night, and the plan was for us to all drive over to Port Lucia tomorrow. We’d all be in separate cars, but still.
Right now, we were pre-partying it at Chance’s because, even though my parents were a different breed, we weren’t going to raid the liquor cabinet while they were home. My parents would flip if we disrespected their presence like we were grown folks. And no one wanted an ass-kicking from my dad.
No one.
And since Uncle Liam and Aunt Roslyn were staying in Port Lucia through tomorrow, this was where we all agreed to meet tonight before heading into town.
“I can’t fucking wait to meet this girl,” Dash chimed in. “She’s gotta be something else to have balls big enough to block the notorious Ramsey Reed Jr.”
I flipped him off.
As soon as Dash had arrived, I’d given him a condensed version of what’s been happening with Lake. However, it was mostly reassurance that she was still keeping mum about what she’d seen. No matter how I felt about the girl, she was a witness to what I’d done to Ashton Childress and could identify who all had been there.
Resurrecting the Enemy: (Standalone) Page 7
