I can’t stop thinking about the kiss as we walk through the halls and ride on the elevator. I shudder to think what I would have let him do to me if we had been alone on that elevator. I wonder what will happen when we leave. Will we run away together?
But just outside the elevator doors, we’re met in the parking garage by his stupid posse.
Vivian races to Emmett’s side, pummeling him as far away from me as she can get him.
“Oh, you poor thing!” she squeals in an alarming display of concern.
I was beginning to think the two of them didn’t know how to feel and express genuine emotions like concern for others. Even each other.
“Are you okay?” she asks softly, her hands gripped tight into his face, shoving her tongue down his throat before he can even answer.
My heart pangs. I want him to shove her away, but instead, he kisses back even harder, flashing his eyes to mine to make sure I was watching. I did it again. I keep forgetting who I’m dealing with.
Vivian’s humanity quickly shatters as she whips around to me like a viper. “What did you do to him, you stupid fucking bitch!?”
“Why don’t you ask him?” I quip back, hoping she tasted me on his lips just then.
She’s unbothered, stomping toward me, venom practically spewing from her clenched teeth.
“Listen here, you little cunt,” she sprays, getting so close to me I catch the spit of her rage on my cheek. “You stay the fuck away from him. I’ve had about enough of your skanky white trash ass always getting in the way.”
Before I can respond or expect Emmett to defend me in any way at all, another car pulls up. My mom and Brendan, thank god.
My mom races toward me, sending Vivian recoiling into the sweetest body language she could muster – her shoulders drawn up, her hands clasped to her side like a precious little doll. It was so over the top. She didn’t even know how to pretend to be decent.
Mom and Brendan fawn over me incessantly, asking a million questions.
Emmett watches me closely, waiting to see if I’ll corroborate with the bullshit he fed to the police. I do for fear of what will happen if I don’t, and because some demented part of me wants to please him. Wants to leave myself in his good graces enough to see what could come after that kiss.
“Emmett was just picking me up from practice,” I lie. “We were goofing off. His car hit a light post.”
“Well, I hope you learned your lesson,” she scolds. “And at least you’re okay.”
I am filled with joy to see Brendan’s eyes dart over to Emmett’s. He’ll let him have it. He’s about to tear him a new one, and then maybe, just maybe, the only thing Emmett will have left for me will be any remnants of sweetness he may have buried within him. Enough to make me feel okay doing all of the things I want to do with him.
But Brendan’s papa bear rage is cut off before it can even erupt past a dirty look.
“Trey!? Vincent!?” my mother’s voice squeaks in surprise, stopping my heart cold.
They both smile and nod to her like schoolboys sucking up to their teacher.
“Oh my gosh! Your mom and I were friends in high school!” she squeals. “How is Cheryl!?”
“Mom, you know these people?” I ask, half terrified, half heartbroken. It feels like a betrayal.
She completely ignores me, making her way over to them to chit chat. Vivian hangs on every word, inserting her own bullshit fake niceties when she can. I am forced to stand there and watch as my worst enemies win over my mother.
My concussed head tries to work harder than it should to process what this all means. If this twisted hierarchy system has been around for ages, and my own mother was best friends with someone at the very core of its roots, does that mean she once played these games too? Was she one of them?
I try to stick close to Brendan, who now feels like the only person left on my side. I am still hoping he’s going to pounce across the parking lot and tackle Emmett.
But, to my horror, Emmett marches confidently over to him and extends his hand.
“Sir, you must be Ophelia’s step-dad. I’m Emmett,” he offers politely.
“You can call me Mr. Lopez,” he replies sternly, tightening my stomach as he graciously shakes his hand.
My eyes dart from my mom playing pals with the twins and Vivian back to Brendan treating Emmett so respectfully. I want to transfer images directly into their brains, showing them flashes of all the things these assholes have done to me.