Page 60 of Chaos at Westbrook High

“I thought the coffee girl was yours,” Madison says, trailing a long, pearly white fingernail over the black swirls of ink on my forearm.

I don’t take my eyes off Hailey, but I don’t pull away from Madison’s touch, either. “She is mine.”

“Why is she sitting by herself instead of with you, then?”

Because she doesn’t want to sit with me. I could force her like before, but I’m over that. I want her to come to me on her own.

“It’s pretty obvious you’re just fucking with her,” Madison continues. “Aren’t you bored yet?”

Ryan and Rachel are sitting opposite us at our usual table, his arm around her shoulders. They both try not to laugh at me while I continue staring at Hailey behind them, willing her to look up.

Come on, baby. Look at me.

She doesn’t.

She either doesn’t care or doesn’t even notice that another girl wants a piece of me.

Madison puts her lips near my ear, her fingers trailing up to my shoulder. “Come on, babe. Don’t you miss me?”

Rachel snorts. Madison sneers at her, her eyes raking over her blood red hair and the strapless top she’s wearing. “Whore.”

“Says the whore,” Rachel mutters, clamping her hand over Ryan’s mouth when he opens it to defend his girl. “Fuck off, cheerleader.”

“Make me.”

“Nah.” She smirks as she leans back into the crook of Ryan’s arm, flicking her eyes to Damon, then tipping her chin at the doors behind us. “I wanna watch Callie beat your bony ass when she sees how close you are to her boy.”

Madison whips hear head around, her eyes flashing with fear briefly before she realizes Callie isn’t there. Still, she scoots away from Damon, bringing her even closer to me.

Rachel grins. “Pussy.”

Madison huffs angrily. “I don’t have a bony ass.”

“That’s not what Kai said.”

I barely contain my laugh. I never said that, but I’ll let her have it.

Madison looks furious. “Bitch, I’ll?—”

“Madison,” I say, removing her hand from my shoulder when Hailey continues reading her book, completely oblivious to me. “Go.”

She has the balls to glare at me, then at Rachel as she slides her ass off the table. Once she’s gone, I stand up and walk toward Hailey, shaking my head with a chuckle when she snatches her stuff up and heads for the doors, throwing her half eaten tray of food in the trash on her way out. She hasn’t looked at me once since I sat down twenty minutes ago, but it seems she’s more aware of me than I thought.

I follow her through the double doors, stopping with a frown when I don’t see her in the hall. The little runner’s already gone.

How does she do that?

Chapter 23

HAILEY

I slip into the girl’s locker room, resisting the urge to look back to see if he’s following me. I think I lost him, but I still wait behind the door, expecting him to walk inside and corner me, to touch me and tease me the way he does every time he gets close enough.

When he doesn’t come, I pretend I’m not disappointed as I move further into the room. I look in the mirror, confused and angry at myself for feeling the way I did back there. I was jealous. Angry. Hurt. It makes no sense. I shouldn’t care what he does or who he talks to. Who he lets touch him and whisper things in his ear right in front of me.

I grit my teeth.

Rumor is Madison’s been his favorite fuck buddy since freshman year. That’s not going to change just because he’s decided it’s fun to chase me. I’m nothing to him. Just a game he likes to play in his spare time, a toy to play with when he’s got nothing better to do.

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