Page 11 of Spite

“And I’m not saying that I’m going to help you do whatever it is you’re planning on doing, but…” He swallowed. Must’ve been tough to admit all this shit to me. Too bad it was years too late. “I owe you.”

Was he acting nice to me to calm his conscience? Did he view this as some kind of second chance? I stared at him for a moment, slowly tugging my hand out from under his as I got out of the car. I grabbed my backpack and said nothing. I wasn’t about to be his redemption, and I sure as shit didn’t need help taking down Christian.

Besides, Christian wasn’t the only one I was going to bring down. Xander and Alec would fall too, and I doubted he’d volunteer to tear himself down. What kind of boy these days was so self-sacrificing?

As I shut the door, I glared at him. “How do you know where I live?”

“I used to walk around here sometimes,” Alec spoke with a shrug. “I don’t know why, but I thought I’d see you. Took me years to realize you weren’t being homeschooled and moved away.”

I couldn’t picture Alec ever coming around here, and I definitely couldn’t imagine him wanting to see me. Even if, say, he was being genuine, me not living here anymore wasn’t an excuse. If Alec really wanted to apologize to me for what he did, for what he was a part of, he could’ve found me online. I had my profiles set to private, and I was very choosy in who I friended and followed, but still.

Honestly, I had no clue what to say to him, so I settled on saying nothing. I spun on my heel, about to march to the front door, but Alec called out to me again—using that stupid nickname.

“El,” Alec paused, his eyes dropping to my feet and slowly rising up, traveling along my body, taking in every curve, “you look good.” It was a compliment that shouldn’t have made my cheeks flush, but it did.

My whole face heated up and probably turned pink like a fucking cherry, so I answered him by spinning, giving him my ass as I went to the house. Alec could kiss my…not a thought I should finish, given how my body reacted to his compliment.

Oh, come on, Elle. Don’t let his pretty face get to you. If you lose your resolve on day one, you’re hopeless.

Yeah, I didn’t want to be hopeless.

I ignored the sounds of Alec’s car driving away as I stepped into the house, greeted immediately by the one woman I didn’t want to talk to. Diane had been vacuuming the living room, but the moment I came in, she turned it off and met me near the door.

“Your father wouldn’t approve of that,” she said, noting the sucker in my mouth. Diane was a pretty enough woman, I supposed. She was thin in ways most thirty year olds weren’t, with long blonde hair and blue eyes that you just couldn’t trust. Not once in my life had I ever thought she was prettier than my mom, but I was my mom’s daughter. Until the day I died, I would always side with my mom.

How many years had it been? I wondered.

The field trip ended early. I waited near the buses, knowing my mom was at work and my dad had said he would come pick me up. He didn’t often have time off during the week, and if I was truthful, I was kind of excited to spend some time with him and tell him all about the science center we went to.

I didn’t live far from the school though, and I didn’t feel like waiting. Christian and the others had been God-awful today, and the last thing I wanted to do was spend more time in his presence, hear him mutter any more mean things under his breath. So I walked home, eager to both get away and to get home.

The sun was bright overhead, a warm spring day. It made my mood a tad better, but a dark cloud still hovered over me, the same cloud that always seemed to follow me, no matter where I was going.

When I rounded the sidewalk to my house, I spotted a strange car in the driveway behind Dad’s. It was not a car I’d ever seen before, and as I headed to the front door, I couldn’t stop staring at it, as if, deep down, I knew it was a bad sign. An omen of what was to come.

I walked into the house quietly, listening. The field trip’s schedule had said we wouldn’t be home for another hour and a half yet, so in reality, I shouldn’t even be home. I should still be at the science center, surrounded by classmates who hated me. I heard sounds coming from upstairs, and what sounded like a woman’s voice—a voice I’d never heard before. A voice that was definitely not Mom’s.

I slowly dropped my backpack at the foot of the stairs, moving up the steps with confusion. I had no idea what it could be, who could be upstairs—and I didn’t see Dad in the living room or the kitchen when I came into the house, so he had to be up there, too. What I saw…well, I was old enough to know the details, to know that Dad was doing something he definitely shouldn’t be.

A young, pretty blonde woman, to be exact, and in his and my mom’s bed, too.

Dad was on top of her, their bodies moving together, moans escaping them both. Neither had noticed my presence; I supposed I could’ve just walked away and pretended I didn’t see. But I did. I saw, and I knew he was cheating on Mom. This wasn’t right.

I spoke a single word, my voice broken, cracking on the one-syllable question, “Dad?”

Little did I know that this was the end of everything I knew.

That was the first time I’d met Diane. Seven years ago, she was twenty-five years old, nearly a decade younger than my mom. Fewer wrinkles, a bigger chest, a fitter body. For so long, and still, I guess, I thought my dad was some stereotypical clichéd man, having a fucking mid-life crisis, even though I was sure those things only existed in the movies. Whatever it was, whatever game he thought he was playing by fucking Diane behind Mom’s back, had destroyed what little bit of life I had left to enjoy.

To address Diane’s comment about my sucker, I slowly tugged the candy from my mouth and shrugged. “I won’t tell him if you won’t.” When she said nothing, only stared at me, I started moving around her to head up the steps to go to my room.

“Elle,” Diane called after me. “I was thinking we could go get ice cream or something?” Her tone was hopeful, expectant, like she truly thought I’d want to spend an ounce of my time with her of my own freewill.

When she asked me, all I could think was: why the fuck would I want to get ice cream with her? Why would I want to spend any of my time with her? No, I’d rather swallow leeches than go somewhere with her.

But I didn’t say that. I said, “Can’t. Have a lot of homework to catch up on.” Not a lie, but it was an excuse I would use to get out of doing anything Diane wanted. I left her speechless as I went into my room, closing the door behind me. I landed on my bed and dug out my phone. Unlike all the other students at River High, I respected the whole no cell phone during school hours rule.

I knew for a fact, however, Leah did not. My old school was lax on the rules, though. I texted her the highlights of the day, waiting until she called me when she got out to go into the full story. Once the day was explained, when she knew what classes I had with the Dick Squad, I let Leah think.

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