By the time I’m done, my lungs burn and my legs ache. As I head into the women’s locker room, a trio of girls fall into step behind me.
I recognize them.
The school is small enough that I’m starting to learn faces and names—especially those of the people who seem most determined to come after me.
And these three definitely are.
Caitlin, from what I’ve gathered, is here with a purpose—to find a husband. Namely, a husband in Gray, which makes me the prime target for her ire, since Gray so graciously announced to the school that he’s already had the pleasure of fucking me.
She’s cute in the way a Chihuahua is cute: deceptively petite with a mouth that barks and teeth sharper than you’d expect. I think her thing for Gray has as much to do with his looks as with his money and status. She’s eerily similar in appearance to him, with thick chestnut hair and blue-green eyes.
Something about her fixation on him makes me think she has some weird eugenics-level preoccupation with making her children into clones of herself and her future husband.
She’s flanked today by her two groupies, Gemma and Reagan. Gemma is basically a parrot, echoing and agreeing with whatever Caitlin says. Reagan is an obvious case of nepotism. All her family are alums of Hawthorne University, and from what I can tell, she’s dumber than a box of rocks tossed out of the window of a moving vehicle—and that’s a generous estimation of her intelligence. My only guess as to why Caitlin keeps her around is that she’s pretty enough to be socially acceptable and dumb enough that she doesn’t question or challenge Caitlin on anything.
Ignoring them, I head to the showers to rinse off. But when I wrap a towel around myself and head back into the locker room, Caitlin and her posse are there, waiting for me. As I move toward my locker, they step in front of me.
“You know, I’ve been wondering,” Caitlin drawls, her head tilted. “How’d you get all those tattoos? You can’t have possibly afforded them. I know how much a good tattoo artist costs. So did you get your druggie friends to do them for you? Or did you just whore yourself out as payment for them? Ugh. I hope you were tested before you came here. I don’t even want to think about what kinds of skanky diseases you brought with you.”
“I’d have to fuck you to give you an STD,” I say, stepping around her to input the key code for the locker before grabbing my shit out so I can dry off and get dressed. “And unfortunately for you, I’m not into skinny bitches.”
Caitlin scoffs. “You’re disgusting.”
“And you’re annoying. Take a shower or fuck off.”
I go to move around her and the other two, but Caitlin keeps herself in front of me. Gemma and Reagan move dutifully to block my path on either side of her. I grit my teeth.
“The fuck do you want, Stepford? I have shit to do,” I snap.
Caitlin smirks. “You’re so touchy. Is that because of all the times your coke-head mommy dropped you on your head?”
My jaw tightens a little, but I ke
ep my expression carefully blank. “No, it’s because this school obviously needs an exterminator. The locker room has a vermin problem.”
I finally get my shit, snatching it out of my locker. Caitlin and her followers step out of my way as I get dressed. But they still don’t leave me alone, talking loudly amongst themselves—mostly a running commentary about me and all my flaws.
My body is oddly shaped.
I’m too skinny.
You can see the ridges of my spine.
My tattoos are ugly and manly.
My scars are disgusting.
There’s nothing feminine about me at all.
They’re not particularly creative in their taunts, but rage is still simmering under my skin by the time I tug my shirt over my head and shove open the locker room door.
I assume, like a dumbass, that they’ll leave me alone once I leave the gym. But they follow me out of the building, abandoning whatever plans they had to actually work out.
As I step outside into the afternoon sunlight, my annoyance finally spills over. I round on the three of them, my nostrils flared. “Don’t you have something better to fucking do? Get the hell away from me.”
Caitlin smirks. “Don’t worry. We were just putting your cautionary tale out there for the world to see.”
Cautionary tale? What the fuck is she talking about?