“Tammy!” I snapped as I pulled away in disgust. “This is completely inappropriate and if you don’t back off, I’m going to the principal.”
She glared at me like I’d just told her I’d killed her parents, but this time didn’t get in my way as I moved past her and made my way out of the lounge.
“Shit,” I thought on the way to my car. “What happened to no means no?”
Since then, Tammy had been badgering me with phone calls and even love letters she left on my seat, in my desk or under the wipers of my cars. A group of football guys had seen a pink envelope there once and I’d barely caught up with them and stopped them from opening it.
I thought once the year was over that I’d be free of her, but once summer began, things had only gotten worse. Three times she’d shown up at my house, once wearing a trench coat with nothing on underneath it. She called it her Desperate Housewives moment.
It took two months for her to realize that her “charms” weren’t going to work on me. Even if my mind hadn’t been filled with thoughts of Emily, I wouldn’t have been interested. She was a psycho!
Finally, she decided that if she couldn’t win me over, she’d force me to give in to her.
Blackmail.
She called me at 1:15 a.m. I didn’t answer the first two calls, but it was obvious she wasn’t giving up.
“Either you date me, or I go to the principal and tell them you put your hand under my dress in the teachers’ lounge,” she told me.
“They won’t believe you,” I replied, trying to pretend like her threats didn’t concern me. “Paul knows me.”
“Maybe,” she mused. “Maybe not. But what will happen when I post my story on social media? What will happen then?”
“Why can’t you just admit that you have feelings for me?” Tammy asked, her voice a strange combination of evil and innocence. “This would make things so much easier.”
“You can’t make someone want you, Tammy.”
“I know that, Dylan,” she replied. “I just need you to admit it.”
“Listen to me, Tammy, and listen closely,” I said, clenching my fist so hard at my side that it hurt. “I do not, have not, and will never have feelings for you. Even if I gave in to your blackmail attempt, what good would it do? Our…relationship wouldn’t last. It wouldn’t work—not even for five seconds! Please, go about your life and let me go about mine!”
Silence. I waited, and eventually had to check my screen to see if she had hung up, but she was still there. Finally, she spoke.
“Fine. If you can’t be reasoned with, I guess I’ll have to do things my way!”
“Tammy—”
Click!
“Fuck!” I bellowed, almost hurling my phone against the wall. I thought about calling her back, but what good would that do? Tammy was a certified psycho. But what was I going to do if she actually made good on her threats and posted lies about me online?
What would Emily think? She’d cast a spell on me, and I knew that I had to have her.
Chapter Six
Emily
“Mr. Cox and Emily sitting in a tree!” Margie started to sing before I clamped my hand over her mouth.
“Quiet, you!” I hissed, smiling and nodding to a couple with their little kids.
Margie licked my hand to try and gross me out, but she’d done it to me so many times before that it really didn’t bother me, and I held her mouth shut until we passed. Only then did I pull it away, and made sure to wipe her spit all over her face as I did so.
“E
w, witch!”
“What did you call me!?” I snapped, smacking her on the head.