Aly flew out of her chair. “The two of you are relentless. Can’t you hear yourselves? Cut it the heck out.”
Roy’s eyebrows rose. “Wow. Strong language coming from you, Miss Priss.”
I held my hand up, signaling for Aly to stop. “The two of you can talk to me. There’s no need to involve her.”
Marina scoffed. “Fucking around with her, too? Rae not enough for you anymore?”
I pointed my finger at her. “You keep my girl’s name out of your mouth. It’s not my fault you two have debased yourselves to absolutely nothing.”
Roy smiled devilishly. “You mean, like you used to be?”
Marina frowned. “What, you think you’re better than us now?”
“You think you’ve outgrown us?”
“Somehow leveled up in life?”
“You think this’ll make Daddy love you more?”
“Or stop beating up on you? I’ve heard the stories. Roy tells me everything. Are you that open with Rae?”
“Does she know everything?”
“Or does she only know your cock size?”
“If you can still get it up, of course.”
“Hey, asswipes!”
Aly’s voice pierced through their banter and caught the attention of the entire class. My eyes widened as the curse fell from her lips, and I turned to face her. She had her fists clenched. She ground her teeth together. Her eyes bounced between Roy and Marina, her body vibrating in fear.
I leaned forward. “Aly, it’s all right.”
She leveled me with a quick look before turning her attention back to them.
“The only shame in this room is you two. The only people in this room who should throw themselves off anything are the pair of you. This entire school’s sick of your shit. You hear me? Absolutely sick of it. Sick of you, Roy, for the bullshit you pull in the cafeteria. Trying to act like you’re big stuff when all you want is for good ol’ Mommy to pay you some attention. And you, Marina. Everyone’s sick and tired of coming around corners and catching you flirting with other guys when we all know you’re still sucking Roy’s—”
“Aly,” I said curtly.
Her eyes flickered to me before she sighed. “All of us know that the only reason you two are still together is because nobody else can stand to hang out with either of you or listen to your asinine stories about getting prematurely drunk at parties before going off and doing God-knows-what to one another. So, shut the fuck up. Face forward. And leave Clint the hell alone with your shit.”
The entire class fell silent. I sure as hell didn’t know what to say. I’d never heard Aly curse. Much less that much in one fell swoop. I slowly panned my gaze over to Roy and Marina. Their eyes bounced between us as I gave them a punctuated head nod. Letting them know I agreed with everything that had just flown out of Aly’s mouth.
With a few grumbles, they scooted back into their place. Faced the front of the classroom as everyone began whispering.
About them.
Not about me.
Aly sighed a soft sigh before sitting back down in her seat. I slowly turned my attention back to her, feeling a shocked smile cross my lips. She flipped her books open as our teacher finally made her presence known ten minutes after class was supposed to start. Aly leaned over, flipping open my own book to the page we needed to be on.
Then she looked up at me.
“What?”
I shook my head. “Thank you, Aly.”
She shrugged. “We’re all tired of their stuff.”