“What type of trade?” she asks slowly.
“Tell me what I want to know and I’ll allow you back in.”
She holds her books close to her chest, unable to hide the spark of excitement in her eyes. While a bitch, Bree’s a good asset to the squad, and she must’ve realized now that she’s nothing without the cheerleading team backing her up.
“What do you want to know?” she asks.
“Back in high school, when Arianna was alive, what was our actual relationship like? And I’m not talking about what the others think. I need facts.”
Whenever I’ve asked Bree about this, she’d usually back off. I think Asher has told her not to breathe a word about the past to me, or maybe she did it because she’s always had eyes for him.
Now, she has no choice but to answer. It’s the only way she can leave college life with honor, and someone like Bree would never miss that chance.
When negotiating, always have the upper hand.
Dad’s words echo in my head as if he said them yesterday.
“She…” Bree clears her throat. “She was really clingy. There are best friends and there are parasites, and Ari was definitely the latter. She practically sucked the life out of you.”
“How so?”
“She was always there, you know. Always. Like your fucking shadow. You never had alone time with Asher, and you liked the bitch a bit too much to tell her off.”
“Can you talk nice about the dead?”
She lifts a shoulder. “I
never liked her, okay? She gave off vibes. I swear I saw her put the bra in Asher’s bag that day.”
My brows furrow. “What bra?”
“Right, you don’t remember. Well, you had a huge fight with Asher senior year after you found a bra in his sports bag.”
“And you saw her put it in?”
“I did and I told you but you didn’t believe me. So whatever. It’s not like I have any reason to lie now.” She readjusts her purse over her shoulder. “Besides, it’s not a coincidence Asher caught you sucking off the history teacher soon after.”
My eyes almost bulge out. “What?”
“It was the talk of everyone at school. Asher and I walked in on you sucking off the history teacher. You were hidden under the table, but the teacher was saying things like, ‘Yes, more, Reina. You’re such a good girl, Reina.’ It was like so gross.”
No, no. I wouldn’t have done that, right?
Even Old Reina wouldn’t stoop to that level.
“What did Asher do?”
“What do you think? He walked out. I’ve never seen him as angry as he was then. I’m sure he’s the one who attacked the teacher that weekend and forced him to quit.”
My mind reels from the amount of information being thrown my way. How could I do that to him?
Am I really the monster he said I was when I woke up in the hospital?
“As I was saying, that incident and the bra incident were so close. It was really bad between you and Asher.”
“Bad how?”
“Super bad, like you could feel the tension in the air whenever you were in the same place. No one knew if you were going to fuck or shoot each other in the head.” She lifts a shoulder. “But you always had shitty communication with each other, so whatever.”