Cody is still none the wiser, and I’ve been keeping him too busy to pay attention to campus gossip. But, as expected, my guests were quick to shoot down any mention of me purposely throwing a kickass party to make her look bad. As they said, I didn’t even know about her party because I wasn’t invited, and we don’t move in the same circles. And my party was just a thank you to the sisters for inviting me in.
I’m just a little guilt-ridden over how well I’ve conned everyone, but it was for a good cause. Susie is filth, and she needs to know that. Had she stopped at obsessing over Cody, none of this would be necessary, but she’d crossed a line that should never have been crossed, and since Cody won’t do anything, it’s up to yours truly.
Though she may never know why I’m doing this, it’s enough that I make her feel half of what she made him feel in my own way. Helpless and hounded is a good start, and I haven’t even started on that yet. If she’s this nuts over a party and a license plate, I can’t imagine how she’s going to react to what else I have in store for her.
Speaking of the license plate, did I mention how Cody lit up at the sight of it or how we christened the car later that night because he was oh so pleased with his baby? Me, not the car! Anyway, we’re still in the honeymoon stage, like we were still at the airport, ready to embark on our flight; that’s how new and giddy I felt. Meanwhile, Susie was fuming over every little thing to the point that the girls were afraid to even mention my name in her presence. Except for one.
I’ve been working on Tracy since she was the one who invited us to the sorority social the first time. Back then, I didn’t know what her deal was, but I’ve later come to find out that she’s not too happy with her place in Susie’s circle and had been making noises about abandoning ship long before I came on the scene. I can use that in so many ways.
I learned it from them, or their kind anyway. Things I doubt they even paid attention to while they were being asshats. What they do, ostracizing others and, in Susie’s case, going after someone who had no interest in her ad nauseum, drugging him, was just another form of bullying wrapped up in a pretty little package.
Now I’m well on my way to making her feel like an outcast in what was once her own circle. Pretty soon, it would be time to turn the spotlight on her and expose her for her criminal acts. But I have to play it safe so that none of this comes back on Cody in any way. He’s worked too hard, sacrificed too much.
Me, I’m well protected, and I know it. I just have to figure out how to get Cody under that same protective umbrella. I’m working on it, working on ways to get mom to accept my guy without losing a pound of flesh because mom is fast becoming one of my favorite people. She’s not the virago I’d misjudged her for but a warm, somewhat overprotective mom who’d known loss at a young age, and it shaped her into what she’d become. Something Jess had seen long before I did.
I was so caught up in my plotting that I didn’t notice Cody giving me the beady eye. “What?”
“What’s going on in your head? I’ve called your name three times, and it’s like you’re not even here.”
“Oh, sorry, I was thinking about something I want to do tomorrow.”
“What’s that?”
“You know how some of your team members have been complaining that they weren’t invited to the soiree? Well, some of the sisters have been nagging at me because they weren’t invited either. I’m thinking of doing something more casual, and Melissa said I could use the house if I wanted since they don’t have anything going on this weekend.”
Melissa is slick as spit. There’s no way she doesn’t know that Susie’s party is this weekend, but if she’s in my camp, who am I to complain?
“Really? You want to go through that again so soon?”
“It’s not a big deal. I just don’t know what to serve them.”
“It’s football players and sorority girls looking to get laid. Some beer and hotdogs would do it.”
I just rolled my eyes and went back to my plotting; I mean planning.
LISA
“See, I told you it would be a breeze.” My butt, but he didn’t need to know the stress I was under once I got the idea to throw a party in my head. Thankfully, Jess and Alexis had been of great help, especially when it came to planning the menu. I was going small, say twenty or so people maybe, but by the time word got around, I was starting to panic.