by Rebel Hart
Emmett gives me a long, slow kiss goodbye before we go downstairs. I have to stop myself from kissing him again just as he’s about to walk out the door. I’m not ready for my mom to know for certain that something is going on between us again.
I watch him walk away down the sidewalk, in disbelief that all of this has happened. Emmett Jameson is back in my life. For better or for worse. I swallow a hard lump in my throat and force myself to go sit down with my mom and stepdad for dinner, trying to act as normal as possible.
Chapter Three
BOOK 2
The next day, I return to school happier than I should be. Bernadette is still missing after all. But I can’t deny how hopeful I am that something real is happening between Emmett and me. That maybe he really will prove himself to be a good person, who can treat me well now that he’s out from under the influence of the other Elites.
Before WJ Prep, I had never worn a uniform before. Now, every day, it has become second nature to throw on a pleated skirt and monogrammed shirt and cardigan with the WJ logo. In the beginning it felt itchy and uncomfortable, but now I barely notice. I’ve even gotten used to carrying around a change of running clothes and can zip in between outfits like a superhero.
WJ Prep is like a cult where everyone is beautiful, frightening, and dangerous. Each at the mercy of their parents and committing the same acts of violence on the rest of the world that are committed on them at home. All the Elites care about is money and power.
This school is a different universe where the students are all perfect and gorgeous. You don’t show up here on a bad hair day. It’s nothing like my old school in Oklahoma, where everyone was frumpy and laid back. Most people there were poor like us, but here…I think our family is the only one without money.
I’ve learned to walk these halls with caution, but I’m still getting used to the feeling of that fear being gone. I can still remember being warned about them on my first day: “If they don’t like you, then nobody does.” The words have echoed through my mind endlessly since that first day. At first I thought I didn’t care, but I quickly found out that not being liked around here is a lot more brutal than you’d think.
The Weis, Blackwater, Whitworth, and Nickelson families all teamed up with the town’s founders, the Jamesons, and started the Jameson Automobile Company back in the 1800s. They make luxury cars for rich people. All of those families except one remain in the town and they are like gods around here. The only family that is left? The Nickelsons—part of which is now known as the Lopez family. As in Ophelia Lopez, my mother’s maiden name, which she took back after leaving my dad…Theodore Nickelson, or Theo for short. Not that the connection has ever done me any favors. In fact, it has made my life much worse around here.
Shortly after Emmett and I met, I got a call from the Headmaster of Weis-Jameson Preparatory Academy offering me a full-ride scholarship for my senior year. My research found that their track and field program was nationally ranked and was responsible for numerous Olympic athletes. David Granger was the legendary coach of the team and a former bronze Olympian himself.
As I walk to class, trying to hide the persistent smile on my face, a pair of arms suddenly grabs me from behind. Given my past experiences at WJ Prep, I immediately shriek and try to break free from their grip, but I stop in shock when I see it’s Emmett.
“You’re back?” I gape, my heart still pounding from what I thought was an attack.
“Sorry, babe. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he answers casually, sliding his hands back around my waist and pulling me in for a kiss right there in the middle of the hallway.
“What are you doing?” I ask against his lips, looking around at the staring students passing by. It’s too much to take in at once. Calling me ‘babe,’ the PDA.
“What do you mean?” he scoffs.
“People are looking at us,” I inform him, cutting my eyes to the glaring girls in the corner.
“So? Are you embarrassed of me?” he laughs, pulling me to his side as we continue walking down the hall.
I remember Emmett and Vivian walking down these halls like this, side by side, their arms around each other and her hand in his back pocket. I refuse to mirror their image. I pull away from him and squeeze his hand in mine. Any small gesture to make me feel like we are different.
“I’m just…surprised is all,” I explain, feeling like I’m experiencing some kind of emotional whiplash. “Guess I’m used to you keeping whatever this is between us under wraps.”
“Things are different now. I’m not stuck with Vivian,” he states plainly. “Besides…with all the rumors flying around about our family scandals…people need the distraction.”
Any giddiness I felt rising inside me is quickly squashed. “Figures this would be a strategic social move for you.” I roll my eyes.
“That…” he confesses reluctantly, “and I want everyone to know you’re mine.” He stops and whips me back around for another long, slow, unapologetic kiss.
“I never said I was yours,” I tease him, biting at his lip. But the statement is true.
“Are you not?” he asks, with a deep voice and questioning eyes, but I can’t bring myself to answer him.
Sure, he’s broken up with Vivian, but I don’t remember ever agreeing to take her place. And with that thought, Lily’s words echo through my brain. The last time I talked to her, right before Emmett found me, she warned that I’d be the next Vivian—something I swore would never happen. No, agreeing to ‘belong’ to Emmett in some way does not automatically make me the same awful, shallow monster Vivian was. But I worry about what comes along with being his girlfriend. Does it open up a whole can of worms that leads to me being just as hardened and bitchy as she was?
As I stand there, trying to stammer through the start of a reply, my heart drops at the two figures leaning against the lockers down the hall.
“Oh, shit. Speak of the devil,” I murmur. Emmett looks to me cluelessly. “Look.” I nod toward Lily and Vivian’s glaring faces. “I guess you’re not the only one who decided to come back to school today. Why is Lily with Vivian?”
“Don’t worry about them,” he says, unconvincingly, but his head stays turned in their direction. He stares right back at them, and I can’t tell if it’s from interest or disgust.
“Oh, sorry…but the idea of you and Vivian in the same building together is still pretty triggering for me…for a number of reasons,” I reply bitterly, pulling his arm to regain his attention.
“Let’s just focus on the present,” he insists, turning too slowly to put his arm back around me. “Right now. The present, and moving forward.”
“Easy for you to say,” I mutter under my breath, but regrettably loud enough for him to hear.
“Hardly,” he bites back. “You forget my sister is still missing.”
“Of course, I haven’t forgotten,” I answer more softly, my head craning towards the two of them as we pass. “But what are they doing together? They don’t look like they’re fighting.”
“I haven’t seen them get along since freshman year.” He keeps his eyes straight ahead now as we walk by, leaving them behind us.
“And even that was just a trick…so you could fuck with Lily,” I remind him, feeling their eyes still burning into our backs.
“Well, she doesn’t appear to have any hard feelings about it now,” he states dismissively.
“She did with me yesterday,” I snap, stopping to pull him around the corner. I put my arms on his shoulders to make him understand I’m serious. “Really, Emmett…if you could have heard the way Lily was talking about you and Vivian. Something’s not right about this...they’re acting like best friends.”
“You’re paranoid.” He rubs my shoulders and kisses my forehead. “You have nothing to worry about with those two. They’re basically outcasts now after the news of Vivian’s parents’ involvement in those sex trafficking rings. And Lily’s been blacklisted for a while now. They don’t have any more power her
e.”
His words don’t settle right with me. Outcasts. Blacklisted. Power. This is the kind of hierarchy Emmett is used to. I could be comforted knowing that by mere association, no one is going to fuck with me now that he’s the only one left standing at the top. But these are exactly the kinds of things I want to avoid.
I let him walk me to class with my arms clenched tight around my chest as I try to wrap my head around everything. When I was the one being tortured by the old gang of Elites, it felt like time moved by in slow motion, but now, all at once it seems to have sped up and completely turned everything around.
We pass the can in the hall where I caught Emmett dumping trash on Lily just for talking to me. That was when I first realized he was the same boy who I’d met at the track meet earlier that summer. Only in the halls of WJ Prep, he didn’t seem like the same boy at all. Nothing like the mysterious, funny, charming guy who lured me into a kiss even though I didn’t know who he was. Here he was an animal with Vivian hanging by his side and their little pack.
I hate that nothing with him can ever just be what I want it to be. It’s still hard to look at him without some bad memory popping up in my head. His sister’s disappearance is looming, and now Vivian’s back to make things even worse. But when he squeezes my hand and kisses my cheek before I walk into class, the thrill of it is almost enough to chase the rest away. At least temporarily.
My mind is like butter throughout the next period. Constantly sliding right over everything I’m supposed to be paying attention to and dripping back to thoughts of Emmett and the night before. It’s a sort of daze I should be used to by now. For better or for worse, I’ve been in some form of it since the moment we first met.
After class, I can’t help but frantically search the sea of scrambling students for Emmett’s face. Caught in this distraction, I round the corner and accidently walk straight into another girl. I don’t even have to look all the way up to realize it’s Vivian, and of course she looks pissed. Just my luck.
“Well, if it isn’t the little boyfriend-stealing skank herself,” she jeers with cold eyes before I can even begin to attempt a half-hearted apology for running into her. It’s no use saying sorry to her, anyway. She’s going to hate me now more than ever.
Vivian is freakishly thin, yet still somehow curvy with perfectly manicured nails and a relentlessly pissed look always plastered on her face. She keeps her blonde, curly hair up in perfectly tight buns that frame her pouty, red lips. She is intimidating and beautiful. And Emmett’s ex-girlfriend. A fact that seemed irrelevant until she was standing in front of me.
“Fuck off, Vivian. I’m not in the mood,” I bark, turning to move past her.
“What’s wrong? Troubles with Emmett?” Lily taunts, popping out from beside Vivian to block my path.
Lily is several inches shorter than me with long, brown hair that goes smooth and straight down her entire back. She has hazel-green eyes that used to be the only kind and friendly sight I would encounter in these halls, but now they’ve turned fiery and malicious. She wears a snarling grin that matches Vivian’s.
Her dad works in real estate, buying properties and renting them out, and probably manages the very property my mom and Brendan rent. He also dabbles in stocks, like all the dads around here do. But her dad is especially skilled with it. Her family was blacklisted by the Elites when her dad refused to day trade a ridiculous amount of money from the Jameson Automobile Company. That’s how Lily and I became friends, but apparently the standards have changed now that all the Elites are under investigation.
“What’s gotten into you?” I scoff. “Why the hell are you with her!?”
“Well, since you turned out to be a backstabbing, lying cunt…I had to find an ally somewhere,” she replies callously.
“This isn’t a game of survivor, Lily,” I insist, knowing this is a pointless argument to make. But this isn’t the Lily I know. “It’s just life. You don’t have to be so calculating. I thought you were better than those kinds of games.”
“I could say the same about you,” she snaps back through pursed lips.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t done anything to you,” I defend myself, shaking my head in exasperation. I still don’t have a clue as to why Lily hates me so much. Much less why she has joined forces with Vivian.
“My dad is going to prison, you dumb bitch,” Vivian burns into me. “We’re losing almost everything. And it’s all your fault!”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that!” I gawk back at her. “If your dad didn’t want to go to prison, then maybe he shouldn’t have been selling underage girls on the black market.”
“Shut your fucking mouth!” She wags her finger in my face. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I don’t have to, but the police sure do,” I reply bitterly, cowering slightly at her stance. I’ve slapped Vivian once before, and I’d gladly do it again. But I did not walk into school today prepared for a fight. I’ve grown too used to the peace and quiet of the past couple of weeks.
“What the hell is going on here?!” Emmett’s voice booms out from a few feet away.
“There you are,” Vivian coos, her voice immediately turning sickeningly soft and sweet as she races over to drape her arms around his neck. My stomach churns at the sight of it. “I knew it wouldn’t take you long to come back around.”
“Back off, Vivian,” he growls, but he doesn’t move an inch.
“I don’t think either of us really want that,” she says suggestively, trailing a finger across his jawline. I am just about to walk over and snap her finger until it breaks when Lily intervenes.
“Come on, Vivian.” She tugs at her arm, keeping an angry stare glued on me. “Let’s let the two lovebirds give each other all of their STDs.”
“Clever,” I snap sarcastically as they shoulder bump me on their way past. I am left fuming and glaring straight at Emmett. “Thanks a lot,” I hiss at him with clenched fists.
“What are you talking about? I came as soon as I saw,” he whines defensively.
“You didn’t lift a finger to get her off of me,” I grumble. “Much less to get her off of you.”
“Because that’s what she wants,” he says with a subtle roll of his eyes, completely unmoved by all of it.
“What are you talking about?” I am still stiff against him as he puts his arm around me.
“She just wants my hands on her again. She doesn’t care if it’s good or bad,” he explains casually.
“That’s so fucked up,” I reply, shaking my head. But I regret the words the minute they fall from my mouth, and of course he doesn’t miss a beat.
“You used to be the same way,” he reminds me as a hard lump forms in my throat.
Is this really all so normal to him? To have girls falling all over him to the point that they’d endure his anger and violent temper just to get his attention? I’ve known it was a fucked up state for me for a while now, but I never expected that Vivian could stumble so low just as easily.
“Don’t remind me,” I mumble. “So, wait…you’re saying you get off on that? Is that how you like your girls to be?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he scoffs. “What you and I have is nothing like what was going on between Vivian and me.”
“In what way?” I push him further, needing to understand exactly what I am signing up for. Or apparently, what I have already signed up for.
“You know what way,” he insists as we continue walking. We’ve gone too slow and the halls are quiet now, with full classrooms behind the passing doors. These are the kinds of things Emmett can get away with, and I can only hope I am now granted the same privileges.
“Come on, stop torturing yourself like this,” he continues in the face of my silence. “The only reason you don’t have some crazed ex-boyfriend for me to be jealous of is because this is your first year here.”
“So, we’ll save that for next year?” I joke, desperately ne
eding everything to stop feeling so heavy. But he’s not amused.
“Don’t joke like that,” he snaps sternly. “I’m not letting you go any time soon. As long as we’re under this roof together, you’re mine.”
“You didn’t feel that way when I first came,” I remind him, recoiling from the memories and my need to not only remember, but not to let him forget it either.
“Yes, I did,” he blurts, turning and pushing me against a wall. “I just couldn’t express it the way I wanted to. And now that I have you…you’re not going anywhere.”
He towers over me possessively as he slides a strand of hair from my face and leans into kiss me. I want to be turned off by his hypocrisy and the way he insists I belong to him. I want to tell him what I have said before, which is that I don’t belong to anyone but myself. But my arms fall limp as I melt against his tongue. And suddenly it seems ridiculous to even try and convince myself that I don’t belong to Emmett. It seems that I do, whether I like it or not.
Emmett sits with me at lunch that day and acts like everything is totally normal. But Vivian and Lily are sitting a few tables across from us, cackling like hyenas. They’re staring so much I feel uncomfortable, and it’s obvious they’re making fun of us. Or rather, making fun of me. No matter how angry they are with Emmett, it seems he will always be the golden child who can’t be subjected to the full force of anyone’s wrath.
The WJ Prep cafeteria has buffets and grills that can serve up just about anything you want, ranging from steak to sushi. They even have an in-house pastry chef for desserts, and of course, keep vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free, and sugar-free options for certain girls’ diets. Ahem, Vivian. And now Lily.
The Elites used to always sit at the table in the very center of the room, commanding everyone’s attention as their cackles echoed out through the cafeteria that’s more like a lavish dining hall in a fancy hotel. Always in the spotlight. Always the center of attention. The kinds of things that were beginning to fall by the wayside in the short period they were gone. But now here I sit with Emmett, and I have no fucking clue what to think about it.
