The Enemy Series

by M. E. Clayton

  Once Brandon was down for the count, I threw a glass of water on a passed-out Tiffany, and when she came to, I leaned down in her face to make my point clear. “You ever think of messing with Roselyn again, I will fucking kill you, Tiffany,” I told her, meaning every word that was coming out of my mouth. “I might have reservations about hitting a female, but I have none about killing one if you ever think to mess with Roselyn again.”

  She started sobbing uncontrollably, but she nodded in understanding.

  I stood up and looked around in disgust. “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” I sneered.

  “Amen,” Deke muttered.

  And now for the hard part; facing Roselyn again.

  Chapter 29

  Roselyn~

  I skipped school again, but I figured one week of skipping and transitioning to independent study shouldn’t affect my grades too much. I planned on spending today looking for an apartment in town. Emerson was supposed to help me, but I hadn’t heard from her all night, so who knew if either she or Ramsey were still alive. I cringed. There wasn’t enough money in the world to have made me want to be at their house last night.

  After showering and getting dressing, I pulled out my laptop and started searching realty sites and checking out listings in town. Everything was super expensive, but I had a healthy bank account that Joseph deposited an allowance in every month. And since I was going to be on independent study, and living in town, I’m sure I could find a job somewhere.

  I was deep into research for over an hour, my phone off, no distractions, when I heard some commotion coming from down the hallway. I was instantly on alert because I should have been home alone. Vowing not to be that stupid girl in the horror movies who gets killed because she’s a moron. I grabbed my phone and, because this is Sands Cove and it didn’t have home invasions, I ran to my bathroom, grabbed my can of hairspray, sure that would do the trick if I sprayed the shit out of the intruder’s eyes.

  I punched 911 in my phone, my finger over the call icon, ready to press in case we really were being robbed, and I made my way out of my room and down the hallway. I could still hear the muffled noises of movement and they were coming from Brandon’s room, but my mind was already in serial killer mode, so I had to make sure it was him.

  The door was opened, so I just walked right on in and the sight on his bed was enough to make me drop my phone and the hairspray.

  “Jesus Christ,” I breathed.

  Brandon looked over at me and I couldn’t even say that. His eyes were so swollen, it was a miracle he could see at all if he even could. His entire face was black, blue, and purple. He was only wearing a pair of loose sweatpants, so I could see that most of his entire upper body was sporting the same color combination.

  My feet stepped inside his room of their own accord. I shouldn’t have cared that he was sitting there beaten all to hell, but I did. For some ugly, unfathomable reason, I did. “What happened to you?”

  He huffed and immediately winced as he grabbed his ribs. His face was battered but I could still make out the snarl on his lips. “Like you don’t know,” he rasped out.

  I sat down on the corner of his bed without his permission, mostly in shock, honestly. I shook my head. “I don’t, Brandon,” I replied. “I honestly don’t.”

  “The video?” he sneered. “Tiffany? Liam found out, and this was the result.”

  I stared at him numb. I had no idea what he was talking about. “What are you talking about? What video?”

  He stared at me for a few seconds before he let out a painful sigh. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

  I nodded. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Brandon,” I repeated. “And Liam dumped me,” I painfully admitted. “He wouldn’t…”

  Brandon cocked his head at me and then he started shaking his head. “Jesus fucking Christ,” he swore. “You really don’t fucking know.”

  “Brandon…” He took another breath and I could see each one was killing him. “Do you…need…do you need some pain pills or something?” I shouldn’t be caring about his pain. I knew this. I should be doing internal high-fives that he got his after what he had planned for me last year, but I just couldn’t be so callous. I couldn’t sit next to another human being who was suffering and turn off all emotion.

  “I’m fine,” he lied. “I don’t need anything.”

  I nodded and let him be. “So, what happened?”

  “Last week, Liam stopped by here…”

  My face turned red because I knew what day he was referring to. “Yeah, he did.”

  “Well, while you guys were…busy talking, Tiffany recorded your…uh, conversation,” he said, casual and matter of fact, as if this wasn’t completely embarrassing for me. “The recording was very…vivid and the audio very clear, Roselyn.”

  I stood on unsteady feet and shook my head in horror and mortification. “No,” I whispered. I knew exactly what would be on that video, but more importantly, I knew exactly what could be heard on the audio. It was full of Liam explaining how Deke hadn’t mattered in the bedroom.

  And now everyone knew.

  I retreated in shame and ran back to my room. In a frantic bid for survival, I pulled my suitcase out of my closet, threw it on the bed and I flew around the room, opening drawers and throwing out clothes, in a warped, unrealistic belief that I could escape this.

  “Goddamn it, Roselyn,” Brandon barked, and I turned to see him leaning his body up against the doorframe to my room. “I can barely fucking move and you’re making me fucking chase you!”

  “What?” What was he talking about? Why would he chase me? This was everything he ever wanted on a silver fucking platter.

  He glanced at my bed and then back up at me. “Can I sit?” He didn’t wait for me to answer, he just hobbled painfully towards my bed and made himself comfortable, but to be fair, I had done the same earlier in his room.

  “Brandon, I-”

  He put his hand up to stop me. “Just…listen, Roselyn,” he instructed. “Can you do that?” I stopped with my frantic packing and nodded. “Tiffany took that video of you two and she sent it to Liam telling him to break up with you or else she’d send it to the entire school.”

  My knees weakened, and I had to grab onto the nightstand to keep myself from falling.

  “Oh, hey,” he said urgently, “it’s okay-”

  My eyes rounded. “How in the hell is it okay? Everyone…”

  “Roselyn, stop, okay? Just listen,” he said again. He waited until I took a seat in the recliner that sat in the corner of my room. “I know you probably won’t believe me, but I didn’t know anything about it. I had no idea what she was about until Liam, Ramsey, and Deke ambushed me and a few of my friends with the accusation that I sent him that video. When I told him I didn’t, he didn’t believe me until Jack confessed that he knew about it. Tiffany had told him about it when she got drunk this past weekend. She didn’t show anyone the video, well, not that I know of, but she told him she had a secret about you.” He let out a defeated breath. “It was her…weird way of looking out for me. She knew how much I hated you, and so, this was her revenge or whatever.”

  I let his words sink in and they still weren’t enough to make me not feel the sinking panic in my heart. “So…who all knows about the video?”

  I saw him grimace, but it could be from all the pain he’s in. “Jack Carl, Jeremy Rollins, Landon Miles, and Bret Simons,” he answered. “But Jack was the only one who knew about it. The others didn’t know about it until Liam, Ramsey, and Deke confronted me about it.”

  “But…Tiffany knows, right? She knows everything?”

  “After…Ramsey, Liam, and Deke…uh, left the others, Liam dragged me to Tiffany’s, where he finished me off in front of her, but…not before Deke had her phone and played the video for…me to hear.”

  “Oh, God,” I cried. I wrapped my arms around my waist and couldn’t stop the sobs. “Oh, God…”

  “Roselyn,” he said sternly,
trying to snap me out of my meltdown. “I’m not going to say anything. Even if I wanted to ruin you, Liam McCellan would kill me. I know that.”

  I looked up at Brandon through my tears and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. This boy hated me, and he knew my deepest, darkest, dirtiest secret. I will forever have to look at him and know that he knows something so…deeply personal about me.

  I couldn’t do this.

  I stood up and went back to packing. “What are you doing?”

  “For what it’s worth, Brandon,” I said, not looking at him, “I appreciate the fact that you won’t say anything, but I can’t…be here.”

  “Roselyn,” I looked over at the desperation in his voice, “if you leave Sands Cove because of this, Liam will kill me. Tiffany, too.”

  “And if I don’t leave, I will always be the whore you’ve been accusing me of being all this time. A slut born from a slut mother,” I said, reminding him of his taunts.

  We stared at each other, an impasse, because we were both right.

  He finally stood up, and I watched him struggle to do something so simple. He looked at me and said, “At least you were in a relationship with two guys who actually care about you, Roselyn. All the other girls in this town had group sex with guys who just wanted some dirty fucking.” The tears came rapidly now, but he continued. “You’re not the only girl who’s had threesomes, Roselyn. Fuck, some girls have been used by four or five guys all together. I’ve seen it; participated in it before. Don’t judge yourself too harshly.”

  I watched him hobble out of my room and didn’t know what to do with his words.

  Chapter 30

  Liam~

  Roselyn wasn’t in school the next day, and now that the situation had been taken care of, I was losing my mind with being shut out from her.

  I had called her all night last night, sent texts that I needed to talk to her, but she never replied. Hell, I had even gone to her house, but she hadn’t answered. It wasn’t until I broke into their house and saw that she and her car were gone that I knew she wasn’t home, and I was seriously fucked. I tortured myself all night long with the thoughts of where she could possibly be.

  So, when I saw Emerson walking next to Ramsey, a mutinous look on her face, I couldn’t take it anymore. As soon as they reached our lockers, I grabbed her by her arm and dragged her to the nearest boys’ restroom. Ramsey and Deke followed. They checked the stalls, made sure the room was empty, and then locked the door.

  “What the fuck, Liam?!” she screeched. Her eyes darted behind me at Ramsey wondering why he was letting me manhandle her.

  “I need you to hear me out-”

  Her blazing, hateful gaze shot back towards mine. “And I need you to go eat a dick,” she snapped. “I told you to stay the fuck away from me Liam McCellan.”

  “Emerson-”

  “Fuck you, Liam,” she snarled in my face. “Stay the hell away from me!”

  “Emerson, knock it the fuck off,” Ramsey barked from behind us. “Let him speak.”

  She shook her head at him and the expression on her face was dangerous. “Remember this moment, and how much more Liam means to you than I do, the next time you want your dick sucked, Reed. I’m sure Liam will do a fantastic job,” she sneered.

  I turned when I heard a bang and saw Deke holding Ramsey back up against the door. “Fucking tell her already!” Deke yelled.

  Deke was right. Ramsey was about to kill Emerson and I couldn’t let that happen.

  I turned back to face Emerson. “Tiffany Sultan recorded me and Roselyn having sex and she threatened to send it to the entire school if I didn’t break up with her,” I finally confessed.

  Emerson’s face paled, and she blinked up at me in shock. “Wh..what?”

  “The day you saved her in the classroom, I showed up at her house and…well, anyway, while we were sorting shit out, I was explaining to her how Deke was a nonfactor in our relationship no matter what he brought to the bedroom. The video…showed all that.”

  I watched as Emerson lost all her steam. She knew, just as well as we did, how Roselyn felt about her relationship with me and Deke becoming public. “So, what…what happened?”

  “Tiffany sent me the video and a text telling me I better break up with Roselyn, and do it in epic fashion, or else she’d send it out to the entire school. At first, I thought the video came from Brandon because he was the only person I could think of that hated her so much, but yesterday, we…uh, talked to Brandon and well, that wasn’t the case.”

  Her eyes shot back towards Ramsey. “That’s why your hands are all scabbed and bruised, huh?”

  Ramsey didn’t answer and, instead, I went on to tell her everything, right down to leaving Brandon unconscious on Tiffany’s floor. I even told her about how I went looking for Roselyn to explain afterwards.

  The restroom was silent as we all allowed Emerson to absorb everything I just told her. Now, while I wasn’t expecting a pat on the back and a ‘good job, Liam’, I hadn’t expected the next words that came out of her mouth. “You’re so fucked,” she huffed out, still disappointed.

  “Wha…what do you mean?” I asked. “It’s not like I had much choice, Em.”

  Her eyes flicked back and forth between us three. “But you did have a choice,” she argued. “You all had a choice, and you chose wrong.”

  “Emerson-”

  “No, Ramsey,” she said, cutting off whatever he was about to say. “You guys were put in a position where you had to choose to trust me and Roselyn or not, and you guys chose not to.” Her eyes flew back to mine. “You chose not to.”

  “It wasn’t that simple,” I defended. “It had to be believable. It would have destroyed Roselyn if that video had gotten out.”

  Emerson shook her head. “True,” she agreed. “But it wouldn’t have destroyed her nearly as much as you lying to her did. As much as deceiving her and breaking her heart did.”

  “Emerson-”

  She looked back at Deke. “What, Deke?” she bit out. “You guys think that just because you have a good excuse you can move forward without any regard to how your decisions affect people. Well, guess what? Roselyn and I shouldn’t be lumped in with those random people you guys couldn’t care less about.” She pointed her finger at me. “He broke her fucking heart, Deke. He hurt and humiliated her in front of everyone.” She looked at me again. “Yeah, you may have saved her, but what you guys had is ruined, Liam. Your reasons won’t matter.”

  “Don’t say that,” I snapped, pissed at her, myself, and this entire situation. “Don’t fucking say that, Em. Once she hears-”

  Emerson slapped her hands on her hips. “Once she hears your reasoning, is that going to undo the fact that you didn’t trust her? That you left her out of the loop that affected her life and her future? Is your snazzy explanation going to undo that?”

  “Goddamn it, Emerson, what the fuck did you expect us to do?!” Ramsey raged, still pissed at their discord.

  Emerson walked past me and towards the door, forcing Ramsey and Deke to have to move out of the way for her. She stopped and looked up at Ramsey. “I expected what every other girl on the planet expects from her friends,” she said. “I expected you guys to trust us like we used to trust you.”

  Ramsey had her up against the wall, his hands a tight grip on her arms. “This changes nothing,” he snarled at her. “This changes fucking nothing.”

  Emerson’s hands came up and Ramsey let her push him off her. “Keep telling yourself that, Reed,” she hissed in his face before unlocking the restroom door and leaving us standing there feeling like fools.

  By now, first period was in full swing, so we weren’t expecting the shouts of people to echo through the hallways, loud enough for us to hear in the restroom. Ramsey, Deke, and I ran out of the restroom and the sight before me was one I will never forget.

  Emerson Andrews’ hand was fisted in Tiffany’s Sulton’s hair and she was beating the ever lovin’ fuck out of her. And Emerso
n wasn’t scratching and pulling hair like most girls.

  Nope.

  Emerson was throwing goddamn punches and landing them everywhere. Tiffany was doing her best to defend herself, but Emerson was fighting like a dude. I knew her history, and that her father beat her and her mother for years, but while some people withered under physical abuse by the hands of their parent, Emerson had come out the opposite.

  She was a motherfucking fighter.

  “You fucking bitch!” I could hear Emerson screaming. “You motherfucking bitch!”

  We all three ran towards the girls as students started coming out of the classrooms, teachers, as well. Emerson was beating the shit out of Tiffany in the middle of the hallway, not giving a fuck who saw.

  Ramsey muscled his way between the girls, taking on Emerson’s punches, and finally managed to wrap his arms around her waist and haul her away from Tiffany.

  “What’s going on here?!” Mrs. Caldron, one of the biology teachers, screeched.

  My eyes were on a destroyed, sobbing Tiffany when I heard Deke say, “Not a thing, Mrs. Caldron. Maybe you need to get your students back into the classroom.”

  It wasn’t a suggestion.

  I ignored everything and everyone around us as I dropped on my haunches, reached my hand out, took Tiffany’s face in my hand, and forced her to look at me. Her face was red and bleeding, but I didn’t give a fuck. I took in her wild eyes as I said, “Tell your parents whatever it is you need to tell them, Tiffany. Tell them whatever it is you need to tell them and then pack your shit and get out of Sands Cove.” Her eyes widened in fear. “Get out of this town and don’t ever go near Roselyn or Emerson again. Don’t even breathe their names or making you leave Sands Cove will seem likes child’s play once I get a hold of you.”