“Well, I’m sorry to hear that, but I don’t see what it has to do with me,” I said with a nonchalant shrug.
“You’re so full of shit. I know you did it,” he replied through gritted teeth, moving his face closer to mine. The tension between us was like a tattered rope, pulled taut and about to snap. “You cloned my phone or put some kind of bug on it.”
“I have no idea how to clone phones or put bugs on them. I’m not really a tech-minded person.” But your brother is, I silently added, sorely tempted to smirk.
“I have no idea how you did it either. But I’ll figure it out, and then I’ll fucking destroy you,” Hunter growled, upper lip curling. “You won’t get away with this shit.”
A few students were milling around the hall now, watching us from a distance and whispering behind their hands. I looked at them pointedly, and then I turned my face back to Hunter.
“Hypothetically speaking—if it was me, I think I would get away with it,” I said sweetly. I lowered my voice to a taunting whisper. “See, if you tell anyone what happened, then you also have to tell them that I got into your phone and email. And then you have to explain how that happened, which means you’ll have to admit you were in my room on Friday night. Then you’ll have to explain what you were doing there, along with everything we did together. You could lie, I guess, but for all you know, I could’ve secretly filmed the whole thing just in case. Got myself some nice, dirty footage to prove it all.”
Hunter blanched. “You didn’t.”
“You don’t know that.” I smiled and cocked my head to the side. “Anyway, how do you think the school is going to react when they find out the mastermind of the blacklist has been hooking up with the girl he pitted them against for the last month? Do you think they’ll still respect you after that and keep doing your dirty work, or do you think they’ll finally see you for the pathetic hypocrite you are and take my side instead?”
His hands curled into fists at his side again, and his face turned even paler. I was right, and he knew it.
I’d finally outplayed him at his own game.
“You set me up,” he muttered. “That whole nervous act… all that shit you said… it was all a fucking lie.”
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Don’t act like you’re completely innocent in this.” I closed the few inches between us and jabbed him in the chest. “You didn’t come to see me on Friday with good intentions. You were trying to trick me into falling for you, so you could tell everyone about it and destroy me with my own feelings. We both know that’s true.”
He exhaled deeply. “I knew I was right about you,” he muttered. “From the very start. I knew you were fucking toxic.”
I smiled again. “I’m not toxic. I just don’t like being bullied, so I finally decided to do something about it,” I said, folding my arms. My smile grew wider. “Like I said the other night… I’m braver than you think.”
His lips flattened, and he brought his face right to mine again. “You think you’re so fucking smart, Laney,” he said. “But you’ll regret this. Believe me.”
He straightened up and stalked away.
As I watched him go, my feelings of triumph faded, and a sudden coldness hit at my core. This wasn’t just a battle of wits anymore.
It was an all-out war.