For a moment, Madeline’s head dipped. Her light eyes met mine, her face shadowed with a passing cloud, but I still witnessed the disappointment. It was a short-lived moment, but I took pride in knowing my words got to her.
Madeline quickly jumped off to the side and landed on the grass below, pulling her skirt down her long legs as she straightened her body. I wiggled my jaw back and forth, shaking my head. I placed my hands in the pockets of my khakis and began walking away, eager to put some distance between us.
Her voice sounded from behind, but I kept pushing one foot in front of the other. “I guess you’ll have to find another way to brighten your day, Eric.”
I called over my shoulder as I reached the driveway between our houses. “I’m sure there will be another exciting English Prep episode at some point today, where you’ll be the lead actress who has something terrible happen to her. I call it a feel-good show. It’s my favorite one, actually.”
A dirty smile found itself on my face as I turned around to eye her. I wanted to see the hurt flash across her features. I wanted to have the upper hand in this situation, especially because my dick was still caught up on her bare ass. My head hitched to the side, my hair climbing i
nto my eyes. “What was it last week? Fish in your locker?”
I had no idea who’d done it. The entire fucking hallway smelled like rotten vagina as Madeline opened her locker that morning. I did give her props, though. There wasn’t even a slight muscle twitch on her face. She was a damn good actress. Always had been.
“Was it you?”
“Hmm?” I asked, acting as if I had no idea what she was talking about. Madeline’s eyes flitted away, watching a car pass by behind me.
I gave her my best grin when she asked again, “Was it you, Eric? Did you put the fish in my locker?” Her arms moved across her chest, hiding her perky tits. “Is this all part of that lovely threat you gave me a few months ago?” Her voice lowered as she repeated my words. “It’s on now, Princess.”
My fingers clutched onto my keys in my pocket as memories from that day came swooping back in. It was months ago, but it somehow felt like seconds. Playing it off, I took my keys out of my pocket and began twirling them around and around, staring at her, waiting for the rising anger to simmer. I ran my gaze down her golden hair, past her heart-shaped lips, and all the way down to her knee-high stockings and back. I swallowed, fighting like hell to stay level-headed. Everything spiraled out of control after that day. Was it her fault? No. But could she have helped in some way? At least have given me a slight warning that my family was about to blow up? Yes. Yes, she fucking could have.
My words almost sounded like a bark. “I guess you’ll never know. Maybe it was me. Maybe it wasn’t.” I shrugged, trying to appear unfazed.
Madeline’s mouth opened slightly as she continued to stare at me, but the sound of her front door opening had her quickly rushing away. She moved around me gingerly, putting enough space between us to fit a freight train, and almost dove headfirst into her car. She was out of her driveway and down the street before I even opened my Rover’s door.
I ping-ponged my attention to a man leaving Madeline’s porch and to her fading headlights before I shook my head and turned my key in the ignition.
Nope. I didn’t even want to fucking know.
Things were off with Madeline; that much was made very clear to me in the last several months, but that was her problem.
She didn’t help me when I had problems, and I wasn’t helping her.
It was as simple as that.
A commotion near the lunch line had me pausing with the banana in my mouth. My teeth sunk into the softness as my eyes skimmed over everyone, who was also rubbernecking it over to the loud bang. I bit off the end of the banana, chewing slowly as I watched Madeline sigh dramatically as she bent down to the floor to pick up the contents of her tray. A brown-haired girl, someone I was sure Madeline had bullied in the past, was laughing from behind her. The girl huddled in with her friends as they pointed and laughed even harder at Madeline as she scooped each and every last spaghetti noodle back onto her tray. I took my gaze off Madeline and turned to look at my friends.
“I feel bad for her,” Hayley mumbled, stealing a fry off Christian’s tray.
He pushed it over to her, urging her to take more, when he asked, “Who? Surely you’re not talking about Madeline.”
Ollie, Christian’s brother, scoffed. “How can you feel bad for her? She was such a crazy bitch to you, Hayley.” He paused. “She was a crazy bitch to everyone.”
He wasn’t wrong. Madeline was a bitch to Hayley and everyone else. She would tear others down to the ground, flip her blonde hair over her shoulder, and go about her day.
Hayley shrugged, wiping her hands on her school blouse. “She was definitely mean to me. A big bitch, to be frank. But…”
“There’s a but? From you?” Christian asked, leaning forward onto the lunch table and looking at her like she was fucking delusional. His eyebrows rose to his hairline. “She dumped food onto your uniform your first day at English Prep.”
Hayley raised her eyebrows right back at him, giving him a stern look. “Because you told her to.”
Christian was Madeline’s ex-boyfriend. The two of them were quite the power couple, although their relationship was nothing more than a show. I didn’t know that for certain, not really wanting details about my best friend and the girl I once looked at with stars in my eyes, but Christian had never looked at Madeline the way he looked at Hayley. And Madeline had never looked at Christian the way she looked at me.
But that was then. This was now. Madeline didn’t look at anyone anymore. Not really.
Piper, Hayley’s best friend, snickered under her breath before burrowing her face in Ollie’s neck.
“That’s not fair,” Christian groaned. “I had a reason to bully you. She did not.”