“Can I see?” I swallow when they all turn their attention to me. It’s like they forgot I was there. I clear my throat and fiddle with my fork. “I want to see it.”
I set my jaw as Lucas lays his hand over the back of my neck, pinching to keep me complacent.
“You know what happened this weekend, sweetheart.” His tone is light, but the warning is clear.
Oh, Lucas doesn’t want me to see? I shoot him a mutinous glance. Too fucking bad.
If I’m going to be degraded, I’ll damn well witness just how badly Lucas betrayed my trust. The ice capsule around me cracks with fissures. They see my brave face, but inside I’m screaming at the top of my lungs.
“Do I? I think I need photographic evidence as a reminder. I don’t think it was that memorable without a little souvenir. You apparently thought so, too.”
Lucas’ eyes bounce between mine, shadowed with the danger my instincts predicted. His jaw clenches and he holds up his hands.
“Do what you want.”
A glacial river floods my veins, crystalizing the blood flow as Devlin slides Carter’s phone across to me with a frown.
Carter: Bro, where u at, I got tix for DJ Smokescrn tonight. U in?
Lucas: Bit busy here. [Fist emoji]
Carter: Right on, brother!!! [100 emoji] Finally plugged that whiny bitch up good with a sausage. Did she cry?
The conversation ends there. The words waver as my eyes blur with unshed tears. The sting slices me deep as I see what Lucas has done.
Lucas sent Carter a photo of us. We’re in my bed. It’s clear he’s still naked as I sleep on his bare chest. I’m what keeps him modest in the photo, but the curve of my ass is visible at the bottom edge of the frame.
There’s no question about how we got that way.
Carter slaps a wad of cash on the table. Several other people do the same. Devlin holds my wild gaze, frowning as he slips money from his wallet and adds it in.
Lucas lets out a forced bark of laughter that grates in my ears. I want to slap my hands over them to push everything out. Then slap him. Hard.
At first I don’t understand, like I’ve watched a wreck happen from the sidelines. My mind is still lagging at the text message, unable to process what’s going on here. When it clicks, my vision swims with dizziness and it takes a minute for me to realize that brittle wheezing noise is me struggling for air.
The doubt from earlier turns my insides to sludge as money exchanges hands.
“Pose with your winnings, dude,” Carter instructs, holding up his phone. “I’m putting this in my Insta story. Hashtag playa gonna play.”
Fissures spread across my heart like a frozen lake cracking, each new break audible only to me. People see me as this tough girl persona. They don’t think they can hurt me because I don’t let them.
But it hurts. It hurts so much.
Lucas made me believe he wanted me.
That was a lie.
None of his actions were sincere. I meant nothing to him. Just a bet to win for bragging rights.
All Lucas wanted with me was to use me.
Each new truth stabs a different point of my body, that cold dissection tray flaying me open for the world to see how gullible I was and how easy it was to shatter me.
I’m so angry at myself for falling for his tempting empty words after all the shit he put me through. Lucas is the worst kind of snake in the grass, his venom activating only when it will have the most lethal effect.
I’m a trophy to Lucas after all. A conquest and nothing more.
The hunter caught his prey and the game is over.