by Sophie Stern
“No, you didn’t have a meeting?” I ask.
Again, she ignores me, walking like I’m not touching her. She doesn’t even acknowledge that I’m with her. We walk down the hallway. A few upper-classmen turn to look at me. One guy raises an eyebrow, but is smart enough not to say anything. I’m a senior now. We both are. Even though we’re 18 now, our rivalry is far from over, and everyone knows I’ve despised Emilia since middle school.
She’s pissing me off with her inattention to me, though. I’m speaking to her, dammit. She needs to answer me.
“Hey,” I finally snap. I pull my arm away, grab her wrist, and yank her down an empty side hallway. This hallway holds mostly storage closets and a couple of administrative rooms. We aren’t going to be disturbed here. “I’m speaking to you.”
“Gavin, fuck off,” she says, trying to push me away, but I’m pissed now, and I grab her wrists and pin them over her head and against the wall. I step forward, pressing my body against her. Anyone walking by will think we’re fooling around, but we’re not. When it comes to Emilia Riley, I never mess around.
“Oh, little Emmie,” I lean in, whispering in her ear. My breath is hot against her skin, and I’m pressing against her. She can definitely feel my hard cock against her belly. There’s no way she can miss it. I’m pretty sure that Emilia is a virgin, but even she knows what this means. She knows I’m turned on by this fight. I’m fucking aroused as hell and as much as I hate her, I can’t stop thinking about what it would feel like to slide my cock deep inside of her tight little pussy and just lose myself there.
The childhood nickname proves to be too much for Emilia, though, and she shakes her head.
“What do you want?” She asks. Her voice is thick, choked. She’s going to start crying again. I need to make this fast.
“I want you to give me back everything you’ve stolen,” I hiss.
“I haven’t taken anything,” she says.
“You’ve taken everything,” I spit out. “Everything.”
“Gavin, I didn’t know what they were doing,” she whispers.
“Your father did.”
“Well, your dad did, too!” She says, shoving me, and I’m suddenly surprised by this change of demeanor in her. I’m detecting something that’s not meek or quiet in little Emilia. Now when I look at her eyes, I realize she’s not feeling weak or scared.
She’s feeling pissed.
Shit.
“You aren’t the only one who lost something that day, Gavin.”
“I-”
“No,” she shakes her head and pokes me in the chest with a finger. She pokes me fucking hard. That shit hurts! “You listen to me. I’ve been listening to bitch and whine for the past five years and you know what? I’m tired of it, Gavin. I have nothing else to give you. You’ve taken everything from me. Everything. I know you’ve chased off my dates.”
True, but those guys were dicks, anyway. I hold myself fully responsible for keeping Emilia from having any sort of social life. Anytime someone so much as hints at an interest in her, I make it clear what’s going to happen to them if they pursue something. Emilia doesn’t deserve to find happiness, even if it’s for one night.
“And I know you’ve shared the picture,” she whispers. She shakes her head. “But this rivalry?” She says. “This ends now. I am tired of you, Gavin. I did you a fucking favor today. I didn’t tell Principal Davis what you did because it would be the end of your academic career. The chances of you playing any sport at any college are going to fucking disappear if they find out you bullied me online. They take cyber bullying super seriously here. You’re an idiot if you don’t realize that.”
Cyber bullying?
It was just a picture.
Or maybe it was more than that.
Suddenly, I feel sick. I hadn’t thought about that. I hadn’t thought about the possibility of getting caught, or what the legal ramifications of such a move would be.
But she did.
Emilia thought of them.
She shakes her head at me, like she’s so completely disappointed and devastated she can’t think straight.
“Our fathers ruined their own lives, Gavin, but today, you ruined mine. I won’t do the same to you, but you’ll do well to leave me alone from here on out, or I will go to the Principal, and I will tell him what you did, and I will end this,” she whispers.
She’s not mad when she says this. In fact, her voice never raises at all. She just speaks softly, quietly, as though it’s taking everything in her power to get this out. She reaches into her pocket suddenly and pulls out her inhaler. Popping the cover off, she slips the inhaler between her lips and takes a puff. She sucks in and closes her eyes, and I can see her silently counting to ten before she takes her next puff.
Fuck.
Now she’s had an asthma attack.
I wait with her, silently, embarrassed, until she seems to recover. She slips the inhaler back in her pocket, and then she looks at me.
“I never want to see you again,” she says. “Don’t talk to me again, Gavin. Don’t look at me. Don’t mention me to your friends. Leave me alone. Act like I’ve never existed, like you’ve never known me because you haven’t. I thought we were friends,” she whispers. “But that was a very long time ago.”
Then Emilia pushes past me, gently shoving me the way I shoved her earlier today, and she heads back toward the main hallway. The bell rings for the next class, and she’s instantly absorbed into a mass of students. She vanishes into the crowd, but I just stand there, staring at her.
What the hell just happened?
I’ve been fucking with Emilia for years. Years. She’s never so much as looked twice at me. For all the taunting, teasing, and I dare say, bullying, she’s never asked me to stop. She’s never fought back. She’s never done anything.
But she’s fighting back now.
And I don’t know how I feel about it.
One of the admins opens their door and steps out. They turn and notice me standing there.
“Shouldn’t you be in class?” He asks.
“Uh yeah,” I say. “I was just going.”
Chapter 3
Emilia
“YOU DID whatI?” Adalene almost spits out her water when I tell her about this afternoon.
“I’m not sure I understand,” Karen says. “Why today?”
“What do you mean?” Adalene looks at her sideways, as though it’s the stupidest question she’s ever heard.
“It’s just that he’s been doing this for a long time. Why was today the day you finally broke?” She asks.
She reaches for one of her fries: a forbidden treat she’s not supposed to be indulging in since she’s trying to lose a few pounds before graduation. The little restaurant we’re in is close enough to Crescent Academy to be appealing to students, but far enough away that most of the kids we know don’t come here.
“It’s a long story.” I look around the diner. The walls are covered in old-timey pictures and records and there’s even a damn jukebox in the corner. This place is like something that was dropped here out of the past, but I don’t even care. All I care about is making it through today, and then tomorrow, and then the next day. If I can hold on long enough, I’ll keep making it through right to graduation.
“We’ve got time,” Adalee says. She stares at the vegetables she ordered. I don’t know why she’s doing this to herself. I don’t know why either of them are. They’re both healthy-looking and slim, but there’s a lot of pressure to look perfect on graduation day.
“We used to be friends,” I finally say.
“What?” Karen says. “When?”
“Back in middle school,” I say.
“You and Gavin?” Adalee gives me a look like she doesn’t believe it, and I don’t blame her. I never talk about him like this. I never talk about the before time.
“Yeah. Our dads were best friends, so we kind of were, too.”
“I find this impossible to believe,” K
aren says.
“Well,” I shrug. “It’s the truth.”
The waitress comes by and tops off our cups of water. She asks if we need anything else, but we all shake our heads. As soon as she’s gone, my friends both lean forward, obviously riveted by this little piece of information.
“So what happened?”
“Did you guys date?”
“Yeah, was there some sort of tragic breakup?”
“Sort of, but not in the way you think.”
I’m quiet for a second, trying to decide the best way to tell them what happened. I mean, it was so long ago. It was a lifetime ago, and yet it still feels like it was only yesterday that Gavin was kissing me for the very first time.
“Our dads were friends and business partners,” I tell them.
“Lovers?”
“No,” I laugh, shaking my head. “Just friends. They made some bad choices, though, and they got caught.”
They don’t need to know exactly what happened. They don’t need to know that our fathers embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars and that both of our families are now essentially broke.
No, they don’t need to know that.
I attend Crescent Academy on a full scholarship and I’ve never confirmed it, but I’m pretty sure that Gavin does, too.
“Our fathers went to jail,” I say.
“Woah,” Adalee says.
“Harsh,” Karen agrees.
“Gavin blamed my dad, so we stopped being friends.”
“I thought your dad was dead, though,” Adalee points out, and Karen hits her with a French fry.
“It’s okay,” I chuckle at the way Karen gives her this hideous look, like she’s going to slap her for bringing up something so painful.
They don’t know that it’s always painful.
I never stop thinking about him.
About any of it.
“Uh, yeah. My dad is dead. Gavin’s father died shortly after they were sent to prison and my dad couldn’t deal. He killed himself. Then my mom went nutso.”
They already know she’s in a mental hospital and that I have no one but a bitchy aunt to look after me from time-to-time, so that’s not really new information. They just didn’t know exactly why my mom got locked up. I don’t speak to my aunt unless I need to have a guardian sign a form for school. I live at Crescent year-round, and that’s the way I like it.
“That’s fucked up,” Adalee says.
“So that’s why he hates you so much,” Karen says, finally. “It all sort of makes sense now. He blames your dad, but your pop isn’t around.”
“Yeah, so he’s taking it out on you,” Adalee agrees.
“Something like that.”
It’s messy and complicated in so many fucked up ways.
“That still doesn’t explain why you did what you did today,” Karen says, but before I can answer her, the bell on the door jingles and Gavin walks in looking like I didn’t tell him to stay the fuck away from him.
“What the fuck?” Adalee says, spotting him immediately. He steps into the diner and his eyes scour the place until he sees what he’s looking for.
Me.
And fuck, if the way he’s eyeing me doesn’t make my panties get totally, completely wet.
It’s totally not okay to be attracted to an asshole like Gavin. It’s just not. I don’t need someone like him in my life, and I think I made that pretty clear to him today.
But my body didn’t get the memo somehow, and it’s still reeling. I felt his cock against me when we were in the hall. I know exactly what Gavin thinks about me. He might not be willing to admit it to anyone, least of all himself, but he was affected by what happened between us.
He liked it.
If I had to guess, I’d say he fucking craved it.
He marches toward me, friends in tow, and stops right beside our table. I don’t look up at him at all. Instead, I reach for one of my chicken tenders, and I break it in half. I pop a piece into my mouth and start to chew, focusing completely on my plate.
“What are you doing here?” Karen says. She’s not going to shy away from him.
“I need to talk to Emilia.”
“She doesn’t want to talk to you,” Adalee says.
“Emilia,” Gavin says, ignoring them both. I can feel his eyes burning into the side of my head. What the hell does he want? And why is he here?
I shake my head.
I’m not going to talk to him. I can totally be strong. I can. I do not need him to do this to me today. I don’t need him to come talk to me and try to worm his way back into my life. As far as I’m concerned, Gavin Reynolds is dead to me.
“Emilia Riley,” he says my full name this time, trying again, but I just pop the other half of my chicken tender into my mouth and continue to pretend that I’m not here. Am I being stupid and childish? Yes. It’s only because I don’t trust myself around him. Gavin is a dick, but if I look at him and see that he’s hurt or sad or lonely, I’m going to fucking melt.
I can’t say not to him, and I despite that about myself.
The waitress seems to notice the commotion at our table and starts to walk over. One of Gavin’s friends hits his shoulder, and they all head back out of the diner. Gavin doesn’t leave yet, though. Instead, he keeps looking at me.
“Meet me tonight at seven,” he says. “You know where.”
Chapter 4
Gavin
I HOPE SHE REMEMBERS.
She has to.
“What the hell was that about?” Jared asks when we leave the diner.
“Yeah,” Timothy shakes his head. “Kind of a waste of time. We walked all the way over and we didn’t even get food.”
“Stop thinking with your stomach,” I tell him.
“Better than thinking with my dick,” he mutters.
We walk down the sidewalk and head back toward Crescent Academy. The walk won’t take long, but it’s bitter because of the way the interaction went.
It could have gone better.
Shit.
My entire life could have gone better, but I’m too much of a dick for that. My father wasn’t the best role model, but he did his best. At least, I always thought he did. Now, I’m not so sure. I’ve hurt Emilia in so many ways and sometimes, it’s hard for me to remember that maybe she thinks she’s a victim, too.
She’s not, but that’s beside the point.
Spoiled little rich girls don’t deserve second chances.
Right?
So why can’t I stop thinking about her?
And why do I suddenly get the feeling that there’s more to the story?
I mean, we’re both going to boarding school that’s located 10 minutes from where we grew up. If that’s not a strange twist of irony, then I don’t know what is.
“What’s with you and this bitch, anyway?” Timothy asks, and instantly, I see red. I spin around, grabbing him by the throat, and shove him against the wall of the nearest building.
“What the fuck?” Jared screeches. “Let him fucking go, man!”
But I don’t.
My eyes narrow on Timothy and all I can hear is what he just said. My entire world narrows as my vision hones in on him and that one comment.
“Watch your fucking mouth,” I hiss.
He doesn’t get to talk about her like that.
Nobody gets to talk about her like that.
Or at all.
“What’s your deal?” Timothy manages to say. “You act like you hate her, but you’re totally obsessed, man.”
“He’s right,” Jared says, but he’s still trying to get me to let go of Timothy.
“Never talk about her,” I say.
“Fine, whatever,” Timothy says, and I release him. He drops to his knees and reaches for his throat, rubbing it.
Whatever.
I didn’t grab him that hard.
There’s no need to be dramatic about it.
“You have got to get this under control,” Jared says. “You especial
ly need to get her out of your system before Saturday.”
Shit.
Saturday.
It’s game against Westbrook and I can’t risk losing it. So much is depending on it. Everything is depending on it. I’ve been working my entire high school career to excel at everything I do: both academically and physically, and winning this game would mean everything to me.
I’m not going to let Emilia Riley get into my head long enough to distract me from what really matters, and that’s winning.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“That’s not really any of your concern.”
“Actually, considering who my father is, I’d say it’s entirely my concern.”
“Are you threatening to tell the coach I’m not up to par?”
“No,” Jared shakes his head. “I’m threatening to tell my dad you’re not up to it. He’ll bench you faster than you can possibly imagine, Gav. Get it together. Seriously. Fuck her or fuck off. I don’t get why you’re so obsessed.”
He walks off, heading toward school, but obviously done with me. Timothy doesn’t say a word, but he takes off after Jared, which is more than enough. They’ve taken a stand, and that stand is against me.
Well, fuck them.
Who cares?
I kick at the wall, pissed. A bird flutters by and silently judges me. I wish I could punch the wall or scream, but I’m not going to risk drawing any more attention to myself than I already have. Instead, I take off down the road, careful to stay far away from my “friends,” and I wonder if Emilia is actually going to show up.
Emilia
“WHAT DID HE MEAN BY that?”
“By what?” I don’t look up and meet my friends’ eyes because I know they’re going to be staring me down to see if I’m telling the truth or not.
