Though I have a sneaky feeling that being with a guy like Jesse, she would have to get used to sharing the spotlight. But that’s alright, growing up with me, we were always having to share it. She can handle it.
As the massive group surrounds Monica into the back corner of the property, she becomes a timid little rabbit, nothing like the proud cow we’ve all come to know. Though, no doubt having at least three hundred people staring at you, waiting for you to fall wouldn’t exactly be the best feeling in the world. Yet, I can’t find it within me to give a shit how she feels.
Her eyes remain locked on mine despite the three hundred locked on hers. She knows I’m running this show and she would be foolish to assume otherwise.
Monica straightens her shoulders and steps forward as though she has some sort of chance in hell. I smile, there’s the Monica we all know. Feigning confidence when her whole world is literally standing against her.
I take another few steps, putting myself well and truly in front of the massive group, though Tully, Rivers, and Noah step forward with me, but also hang back just a little, letting me have complete control of how I take her down. Though don’t get me wrong, I still feel the daggers coming off Noah. He is one, unhappy, tatted up man, but he won’t dare let anyone else in on that secret. That’s mine and mine alone.
I raise my chin, letting Monica know it’s go time and a hush falls over the crowd, bringing along a suspense that has her shaking in her cheap ass boots.
Standing before her, staring her down with the world at my back is already enough to satisfy my needs, but I’m not stopping until I’ve gone for the kill.
People in the crowd lean in, anxiously waiting for the show to get on the road, and who am I to make them wait any longer?
“The day you decided to fuck with me, the day you forced your way into my home and touched me, was the day you sealed your fate. You fucked with the wrong person, Monica. You’re done,” I tell her, waving my hand around at all these people. “Each and every one of these people are here to watch you fall because at some point you’ve hurt them, you’ve made them feel small, or to be honest, they probably just think you’re a bitch and like seeing bitches get their asses handed to them.”
Monica’s eyes flick around the group, taking in the individual faces with a calculated grace as though this isn’t her first showdown, but I can promise that it’s the first one she’ll lose.
“No,” she simply says as her eyes sail over the cheerleaders gathered around Candice. She focuses her eyes back on me with a renewed confidence that I’m excited to knock back down. “I’m good.”
“Oh,” I laugh, reaching into my back pocket and pulling out the pages I’d ripped out of her notebook from the bottom of her closet. “Why do you say that? Is it because of this?” I ask, holding the paper up so she can clearly recognize the silver pen she’d used on the black paper.
Her eyes widen a moment. “How did…” she trails off, realizing she’s showing weakness.
“You see,” I tell her, cutting off whatever she was going to ramble on about. “All this time I couldn’t work out how the hell you had all these people constantly falling at your feet when you’re such a bitch, but they had no fucking choice. You blackmailed them. You dug up any kind of dirt you could and used it against them for a fucking social status.”
Monica crosses her arms over her chest, not in the least ashamed of herself. “So, what? You think because you stole a few pages from my notebook, that it’s all over. That their secrets are yours now and you hold the power. That you win?”
I bark out a sharp laugh. “Not at all,” I tell her. “I know how people like you work. I’ve spent the last few years on the other end of your bullshit. Don’t you think I know how you work?” Monica’s eyes narrow, her cocky confidence starting to slip away. She looks across to the cheerleaders once again before coming back to me. “You know,” I continue. “Your little brother is a dirty, dirty boy. Impressive, but dirty. He owed a friend a favor and let’s say he enjoys coming through, especially if it means his own little secrets get to remain hidden.”
Monica’s chest begins to rise and fall a little quicker, one of the only signs that she’s starting to panic as she finally sees where I’m going with this. I take a step closer, enjoying the way my pack steps with me followed by Nate’s crew and then the rest of the crowd. “The beauty of someone in your position is that everyone knows everything about you. Where you go every day, your locker combination, all your little hiding spots. I wasn’t so stupid as to think you wouldn’t have evidence on every little claim on these papers,” I say, waving around the papers that have every one of the cheerleaders’ dirty little secrets scrawled out in her cursive handwriting.